It is not even that. Fa Cup and Europa League are second rate trophies. The League Cup and Conference League are as third-tier as they can be.
Indeed. Basically if you play a strong team in each round, and don't have to face any quality opposition + you are drawn at home in every single round, it doesn't scream 'amazing achievement' to me at all.
We beat weakened Gerrard's Villa at Old Trafford, Championship side Burnley also at Old Trafford and League One team Charlton also at Old Trafford before playing Nottingham in the semis - who also played a weakened team because they were focused on relegation fight. Newcastle in the final was our first real challenge.
I don't really get why winning EFL Cup under these circumstances elevates Ten Hag so far above Ole and vindicates other failures.
For context, our cup runs in full seasons under Ole:
2019-20
EFL Cup: beat Rochdale at home on pens, beat Chelsea 2-1 at Stamford, beat Colchester 3-0 at home before losing to City in semis (lost 3-1 at home, beat them 1-0 away)
FA Cup: beat Wolves, Tranmere, Derby and Norwich before semifinal exit to Chelsea (3-1 loss)
Europa League: knocked out in semifinals by Sevilla, having beaten Brugge, LASK and Copenhagen in previous rounds
2020-21
EFL Cup: beat Luton 3-0 away, Brighton 3-0 away, Everton 2-0 away and losing to City 2-0 at home in the semifinal
FA Cup: beat Watford 1-0 at home, Liverpool 3-2 at home, West Ham 1-0 at home before losing 3-1 to Leicester in the quarters
CL: dropped out of the group stage, beating PSG 2-1 in Paris and Leipzig 5-0 at home before losing to Istanbul and then losing to Paris and Leipzig in our final two games
Europa League: got to Europa League final beating Milan 2-1, Granada 4-0 and Roma 8-5 on aggregate before losing the final to Villarreal on penalties.
In each of these cup runs we were eventually eliminated by a team that was a close match to us quality wise which makes me think if he had only been presented with an equally favorable draw to the one we had last season, instead of bumping into City twice in semifinals of EFL Cup, we would have probably won at least that damn precious EFL Cup.