Thomas Frank has demanded two-legged Carabao Cup semi-finals be abolished to prevent the 'same boring teams' from dominating the competition. Newcastle secured the trophy last season, breaking an 11-year streak of Big Six clubs claiming successive victories in the tournament.

Crystal Palace won their first major honour in the FA Cup whilst the current Premier League top four features clubs like Bournemouth and Sunderland. Before Wednesday's trip to St James' Park, Frank argued the Carabao Cup format requires modification to provide smaller sides with better opportunities to claim silverware.

He declared: "There should only be one semi-final. I said that before at Brentford and that's why I'm very happy to say it again. For the smaller clubs, if you want to beat a bigger club, it's much, much easier to play only one game.

"So if we really want someone to break out and it's not the same boring same teams that are winning - of course except for Spurs - then we need to skip one semi-final.

"For everyone else that plays so many games, it should only be one. So if it's about money...