Brentford boss Uwe Rösler spoke to his club’s official website ahead of his side’s FA Cup second round match against Carlisle at Brunton Park, probable Wigan-bound Rosler taking the competition very seriously after the Bees took Chelsea to a fourth round replay last season:
“It is very important we address the game against Carlisle as a league game. We had a fantastic experience with the FA Cup last season. It is the best cup competition in the world. It is a beautiful competition. It allows lower league teams with the right draw to make heroes and secure financial stability. We want to be in the hat when the big boys come in. We want to go for it and be in the hat.
“Carlisle has been a difficult place for us. We have never won there in my reign. We got a draw there and we lost. They normally have a nice pitch, a big pitch, that should suit us but for some reason we have a problem there. Hopefully this year we can change that. Stats are there to be broken. We are in good shape. One or two players will not start, due to medical issues, they have not trained. The guys coming in can make an impression.
“Carlisle have gone back to the way they played last year when they had their good run. They play 4-1-4-1 with energetic, technical players in midfield. They have a solid defence. There is a reason they have picked up points. We have to be on guard. It is a difficult game, the chances are not better than 50/50. We have to put ourselves in a decent position to win the game and prepare 100 per cent.
“We have to start better than we did against Notts County. Notts County is a difficult place to go, Peterborough have just come down from The Championship and Wolves are the favourites. You have to go in to your reserves for three games. That is tough when the margins are small. The players put an enormous amount in to the first two games and you could see in the beginning we were mentally not fresh. The longer the game went on the better it was. They died out and we took control.
“It is a warning for us. The league is so competitive; you don’t find that competitiveness anywhere else. To achieve big things we have to be on it. The players realise we have to rotate. Everyone wants stability but at some point the quality will suffer. In the first half our quality was not as we have shown in the past seven or eight weeks.
“That was due to the energy we burned in the previous two games. At Christmas and in to January we have four games in ten days, we can’t play with the same XI. It is impossible to do that and keep the quality. To play with high pressing, sometimes we have to bring in fresh legs without losing the quality. This is why we train every day with 20 players, not 13.”
In team news for the Bees tomorrow they look likely to be missing Alan McCormack after the right-back picked up a rib injury in last weekend’s 1-0 win at Notts County, while on the other side of the defence left-back Scott Barron has been out recently with a hip problem and has only just returned to full training. As Rösler has already mentioned though, Brentford also look probably to have another couple of as yet un-named absentees through minor injuries.
The referee for tomorrow's match is Andy Woolmer from Northampton and he will be assisted down the lines by Geoffrey Liddle from Darlington and Ben Toner from Darwen in Lancashire. Meanwhile the fourth official is another Lancastrian as it is Paul Marsden from Leyland. Meanwhile, if United win or draw the tie then they will be ball number 50 in the third round draw, which takes place at around 4pm on Sunday afternoon on ITV1.