Everton face Saints in next round of Carabao Cup

The ridiculous thing was the H balls were red and the A balls white, so you could easily see what colour ball was being pulled out. The first four balls were all red, and the last two white.

The main draw later on will then have those six teams in their own pot, so I guess they will all be drawn first, eg, Arsenal come out first, then a ball from the other pot will be the away team. This will go on for the first four games, until games five and six, when teams from the main pot will be drawn at home against either of the remaining two teams in Europe.

The draw will then continue as normal.

Absolute disgrace of a draw, bias and preferential treatment given to ensure certain teams have a far better chance of progress than any other teams.

Bias to European teams is now built-in, denying lesser teams home draws thereby destroying the spirit of a cup competition. On top of all that, it's already split into North and South draws, officially rigged.

Also, why are Man Utd and Spurs included in this farce? They're not even in the Champions League.

Apart from the income from a home draw, it's barely worth entering the competition for everyone else.

It's not a sport anymore really. It's just about helping the top teams make more money. Just sod off to your European Super League, please.

I don't enjoy football anywhere near as much as I did when I started watching in the early '80s.

Are teams like Wimbledon and Fleetwood complaining??

Forgive me but the League Cup shouldn't care at all about the teams in the bottom of the Premier League or the Championship.

Better the devil you know!

Could have been worse.

Sorry if it's already been covered.

Whatever the reason, it's total shite. Just put all the fucking balls in a bowl, for fuck's sake.

It's all to with the extra games in the Champions League and Europa League. They didn't want any clubs clashing in the Carabao Cup in the same week as the European games take place, so the next round of the Carabao Cup is over two weeks.

I don't know a lot about Southampton these days but they have started better than us in the Premier League.

Hoping we can be looking forward to the next draw!

Saints have won exactly the same number of games as us and scored exactly the same number of goals as us, they just maybe have a better defence than us!

I can't wait for the penalties!

Never a given, but I'd back us to go through.

If we lose this then we don't deserve to win Cups.

Massive game on Saturday v Bournemouth.

UTFTs!

You can't ask for much more than a home draw against a tram likely to be in the Bottom 5 at the end of the season. If we lose this then we don't deserve to win Cups.

I very much suspect that Saints fans are saying exactly the same about us away Jim.

After last season's point deduction farce and the ongoing ownership debacle, I have promised myself to try to “dull the noise” and stare straight through the “smoke screens” of corruption to get myself back to the way I felt back at the start of my Everton journey in March 1970, every game being the driving force of my journey.

I have no head for business and I must confess that the events of recent years off the pitch have greatly distracted me, but I so much want to be that 13-year-old lad again watching my heroes in blue from within the Boys Pen, taking it all in, every kick, every tackle, every goal…

Not always possible these days for all sorts of different reasons but that is the way that I want to say goodbye to the Grand Old Lady, as a kid full of love and passion for my team.

After all, I have no control of what happens on or off the pitch, so as they always say about FA Cup games, you never know what can happen on the day. COYB

If we're serious about the competition, we should be looking to beat Saints at home.

I saw Saints in the Championship last year and they looked miles off a Premier League outfit — I predict them to finish bottom this season, along with Ipswich.

Yes, I too would love to be the young naive boy I was when I started watching the Blues. I loved Everton and was in love with everything to do with football.

Very different now, nothing really to like about a corrupt business where everything is about winning no matter how it is achieved.

Everton are in a bad state but they are honestly about the only reason I continue to go and watch the game.

Corrupt as anything.

Wonder no more. We can just rig it.

Just another mini-evolution. All heading in the same direction.

Save the rest of us living in hope.

I can't see that on the official website, and besides, I don't think what weeks the games will be played will be decided until after the European draws, which I think are being made today.

Could not fit Chelsea with the 6 but made damn sure they got a home draw against the mighty Barrow, also the 2 drawn away happen to be Villa and Spurs, what were the chances of that.

What amazes me — not only do the 4 get a home draw, but those in the Champions League who do not finish bottom get two cracks, they either progress to next round of the Champions League or enter another comp, the Europa League.

The sooner those 6 go to the European Super League, the better, let the Premier League reform without the six and get our two major cup competitions back; otherwise, football is finished, ruined by the greed of the few, and those sat at the table within the Premier League.

The most farcical thing about that home or away draw, was that it took place using different coloured balls, Red for Home and White for Away.

Ten balls, five of each colour were placed in a goldfish bowl, meaning Michael Dawson and Les Ferdinand could see what colour they were picking out. The first four just happened to be red! The draw was rigged!

But as you say, a bit premature because the RS could possibly have a home European game that same date, although highly unlikely as they always get an away leg first.

If the aim was to give the RS their traditional home tie it worked!

There is an increase of 64 games overall in the Champions League, so they are going to have to fit them in somewhere?

We're just as shite at home, as we are away.

Fans who go home and away are probably pleased at not having to contemplate a mid-week Southampton round trip involving getting home in the middle of the night.

A home draw also means fans like myself have a chance of a ticket, certainly compared to league games and any away match. I was there on Tuesday and hope to attend this next round, even though I live closer to Southampton than Liverpool these days.

And we do win more at home than away. Last season we took 28 points in the league at home with a +4GD as opposed to 20 points away and —15.

Although I was at Goodison for the defeat in the FA Cup to Luton in January so you may just be right!

The Upper Visitors section will likely be available to home fans. Southampton won't take the full allocation for a midweek game. Good views from up there, I believe.

I managed to get 3 seats together on Tuesday in the Lower Gwladys for me and my 2 lads. Thank goodness we were stood all game cos they're tall boys and basically didn't fit in the seats! Tough on the people in the row behind us though.

Football as we knew it is finished. What's the bloody point?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ObHQg5WgQ28

I haven't got a clue how that new format works? Villa for example, play Celtic, Celtic play Borussia Dortmund yet Villa don't play Dortmund. So how on earth is it a league?

It'll never get built.

I've no idea about how the new format works and haven't paid much attention, to be honest.

Be better if they all just piss off to their super dooper League.

We will.

The farce of the Premier League and FA. It's a farce, they are destroying the game by each passing year.

This style of draw does take the game into disrepute, how would such a blatant rigged process be accepted anywhere else in sport?

Some of the people running soccer must have very little to do so they change things when they get bored even if it doesn't improve anything.