City are in FA Cup action this weekend, and while we’ve drawn a side from the division below, they’re certainly not going to be a pushover.
Michael Skubala has spoken to the press ahead of the fixture and has made it clear that this is not just a great competition, but one we want to do well in.
However, that has to be balanced with the league push, something that presents a challenge in terms of team selection. He’s eager to put a team out to win the tie, as he did against Burton and Harrogate in the EFL Cup.
“The FA Cup is just a brilliant competition,” said Michael in his Imps+ interview. “Everybody wants to do well in the FA Cup; it’s the biggest traditional cup competition in this country. When you speak to our overseas players, they all know about the FA Cup and the beauty of it.
“I think always the challenge with the FA Cup and even the Carabao, to some extent, is getting the balance of things right, where you can rest or you might have a high-risk player. Do you risk them for that, where you might risk them if it were three points on a Saturday?
“The reality is we want to go good in the cup competitions. You saw how putting a decent team to try and go and win the Carabao out there allowed us to get a good draw against Chelsea, and what a night that was for the club and fans, so you have to respect every competition we play in this season.
“I do that and we want to put a team on the pitch that we think can win the game.”
Salford will be much more of a challenge than last year’s First Round opponents, Chesham. It’s likely they’ll be up for a giant-killing of sorts. Featuring players such as former Liverpool men Fabio Borini and Ben Woodburn, or former Imp Jorge Grant, they’re a well-drilled side managed by an old adversary, Karl Robinson.
He’s got them flying high in League Two, and Michael is well aware of the threat they pose.
“I know Karl well,” he added. “He knows his way around football. They’re going strong. Third in the league, I think two points off the top at the moment. They were close to the playoffs last season. You only have to look at the teams that have come up this season, where they are and how strong they are. So there’s no doubt in my mind that this is a really tough game for us.
“They’ll be a strong side. They’ve got some good players. They’re good in transition. They’re hard to break down. Obviously, it’s at their place. So it should have the makings of being a really exciting cup tie. But we want to go through, and we want to go into the next round. So yeah, it’s going to be a tough game.”
It’s the first competitive meeting between the two sides, but we have met a couple of times in friendlies in recent seasons. They beat us in our first friendly, back in 2020/21, while we returned the favour a season later.
This weekend will be very different, with Salford expected to put out a strong side in search of cup progression.
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