The FA Cup returns this weekend (stream games live on ESPN+), which poses a question for the Premier League teams now involved in it: which manager needs to win the competition the most?
All 20 top-flight sides enter the competition at the third-round stage, and it comes at a moment when the Premier League is shaping up to be one of the most competitive in years. Just six points separate the top five clubs, and this proximity adds fresh emphasis to the debate about the importance of the world's oldest domestic cup competition to its participants. Some managers are eyeing bigger prizes, others are eying a breather for key players. But some might need an FA Cup win to save their jobs.
Here, ESPN takes a look at eight of the top bosses and the conundrum facing them this weekend.
Guardiola's principal fear this season is guarding against a drop in hunger or standards following Manchester City's stunning treble success. The first competition they can now fail to defend is the FA Cup, although the draw has been kind in pitching them against Championship strugglers Huddersfield Town. Rotation is inevitable given the opponents and recent exertions at the FIFA Club World Cup, so Guardiola can probably wait until later in the month before having to ponder the importance of the FA Cup. Only an early exit would reinforce that some sort of complacency is creeping in.
In truth, Guardiola would no doubt happily sacrifice the FA Cup if it meant winning the Premier League and UEFA Champions League again. But such is the authority with which they played last season that they are surely favourites to win all three again. And the competition comes at a perfect moment for star midfielder Kevin De Bruyne, who seems certain to make his long-awaited return from injury after four months out with a hamstring injury.
Klopp knows better than most what fighting on four fronts can do to a team. Liverpool played 63 games in the 2021-22 season as they pursued an unprecedented quadruple, ending up with the domestic double of the FA Cup and Carabao Cup while falling short in the Premier League and losing the Champions League final to Real Madrid. Fatigue was an inevitable factor in the following season, as Liverpool finished fifth. It is this experience that may inform Klopp's approach to the competition given they find themselves (somewhat unexpectedly) top of the Premier League after 20 matches.
Liverpool's high-press, high-octane football is back, and it places high physical demands on his players. Rotation is almost inevitable, even in one of the toughest fixtures the third-round draw could have thrown up: away to Arsenal. The difficulty of Sunday's game arguably allows Klopp to exit the competition without too much grief, not that he will be thinking that way of course. But the timing is difficult given this is also Liverpool's first game without Mohamed Salah, who departed to represent Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations, and Klopp's ultimate aim for "Liverpool 2.0" is to win the league or conquer Europe.
The first half of the season suggests they are ahead of schedule and so the FA Cup could equally be viewed as a stepping stone on that journey or an unwanted obstacle.
