Boss Mick McCarthy says Premier League managers like Aston Villa’s Paul Lambert can’t risk taking the FA Cup too lightly even if their priority is keeping their clubs in the top flight. The Blues travel to Villa Park today to take on the Premier League’s 16th placed side, who conceded a mammoth 17 goals in their four Christmas fixtures.
McCarthy said: "The FA Cup for Barclays Premier League teams, they can treat it lightly. Suddenly they can find that we turn up, and I’ve got a lot of changes, and we look at their side and say ‘We fancy that!’ and we win.
"I don’t think that’s something that they can contemplate. I know the league for them is vital, there’s no question.
"It’s always the case, if they could lose this cup tie and guarantee their survival, I’m sure they’d do it.
"If I was to say I could lose this and we’d finish halfway up the league, would I do it? I probably would because that’s what’s important to us.
"But you can’t do that, you’ve got to put your team out and try and win. It’s a really important game for Paul.”
Despite recent results, Lambert has continued to pick a youthful side, which McCarthy says is a policy might reap rewards in the long-term.
"Need, necessity, principles, what is it?” he said. ”I’m not sure, I don’t know Paul’s circumstances, but it seems to me that the club has been trying to whittle away at some of the bigger earners, some of the older players and get some youth in.
"It’s great if it works, if it does then they’ll have a team next year that can probably progress.
"But I’ve also seen the other side, the January window gives them a chance to bring some experienced players in.
"I like Paul, he’s a really good guy and he did wonders at Norwich. He’s just a good manager, but he’s having it tough. It’s a real test in that league.”
McCarthy says it’s very easy to go from hero to zero in the top flight: "He’s been fabulous. The awful thing about the Barclays Premier League is that you go from being flavour of the month, manager of the year and everyone loves you, they all want to shake your hand, to ‘Oh, he could get the sack, it’s not going well for him’. I’ve been there, done that.
"It’s tough and if you’re trying to change the whole ethos of the club where they had far more experienced players and Paul is playing the youngsters that have come through, everybody’s got to be brave enough to stick with it.
"And they’ve had some good results, and he’ll always get good results out of them because he seems to get the best out of his teams, Paul.”
The Blues boss says Lambert might play some of the senior players who haven’t been involved on Saturday: "It’s an important game for him. Maybe he will [play some of the more experienced players]. It’s an opportunity he can give them to play.
"You need a squad that’s playing and if they don’t get any games they’re not battle-hardened. They can end up not having a game for a month some players.
"Then, when they get thrown into a game that’s a league game at home, they don’t play well and we all go ‘You haven’t played well’. [That’s because] they haven’t played [previously]. They don’t play in the U21 league, all they do is train.
"So, it’s a chance to give them a game and any of the experienced players that he’s got are well capable of playing in the FA Cup.”