Steve McClaren called on the Football Association to consider abolishing replays after Leicester City’s extra-time victory over Derby County followed the two managers making 18 changes between them. Leicester won 3-1 to give Claudio Ranieri a much-needed victory, yet the way both clubs approached the fourth-round replay made it clear their priorities lay elsewhere.
“We’ve got a lot of games in the Championship,” McClaren said. “Our main focus is a play-off place, our main focus is the Championship. We didn’t need this replay. I don’t think Leicester needed this replay and I think maybe the FA have to look at this competition and say, ‘Let’s just have one tie,’ because nobody wanted this replay. You could see that.
“We had a game at Pride Park two weeks ago – what an occasion. It was a great game, imagine that going to extra-time or penalties – it would have been a classic FA Cup tie. Instead 10 days later and it’s two completely different teams. Leicester have got priorities and we’ve got priorities and there was no way we could not make eight changes with the schedule that we’ve got coming up, so I think that’s disappointing and something that should be looked at.”
Leicester will now face Millwall in the last 16 on Saturday week but Ranieri, who made 10 changes to the side that lost against Manchester United, said that he would happily swap victory over Derby for three points against Swansea City on Sunday. “For us [Swansea] is one of the main matches because we have to get a result,” Leicester’s manager said.
