Coronavirus and Football

[jd2010]

That's a fair point, you need 14 with one keeper to play, but what if you had your entire defence out with COVID and had to play, I dunno, Son as a CB? Lol. It's such a subjective situation and such a mess. Messy precedents have now been set..

Blackburn are blowing up because we called our game off with 2 hours to go, but we were apparently prepared to play a bunch from our U23s.. but then they got COVID! 17 cases in our camp.

It just needs to be black and white and stuck to. And maybe it is now. But Leicester tested the murkiness of it and got one through that doesn't add up any way it is looked at.

17 fit seniors at napoli Thursday. Claimed 2 new cases so had 15 plus u23s available on Sunday at worst. But then on Tuesday all bar 1 from Thursday were training again, Evans with a hamstring missing out.

 

[moomba]

It just needs to be black and white and stuck to. And maybe it is now. But Leicester tested the murkiness of it and got one through that doesn't add up any way it is looked at.

17 fit seniors at napoli Thursday. Claimed 2 new cases so had 15 plus u23s available on Sunday at worst. But then on Tuesday all bar 1 from Thursday were training again, Evans with a hamstring missing out.

More positive cases on the day the game was postponed (day of the game) according to the statement from the league.

 

[moomba]

Interesting one from France

 

[jd2010]

More positive cases on the day the game was postponed (day of the game) according to the statement from the league.

Yet they all were okay to train 2 days later bar one who had a hamstring injury. Numbers don't add up. 17 fit excluding 2 GKs plus their u23s 3 days earlier. All attend training 2 days later so not isolating

 

[jd2010]

Game was called off due to false positives or Leicester trying it on

 

[moomba]

Who knows? Our game last year wasn't called off because of numbers, it was because of the uncertainty of positive tests on the day and no time to test other members of the squad again (and get results back).

I'm still a bit dubious over who was at training? Who has worked that out?

 

[jd2010]

Who knows? Our game last year wasn't called off because of numbers, it was because of the uncertainty of positive tests on the day and no time to test other members of the squad again (and get results back).

I'm still a bit dubious over who was at training? Who has worked that out?

You can see for yourself they're not closed sessions and have been pictured at training bar Evans. The club posted the images themselves. Unless they found some doppelgangers there's 16/17 who were in Naples at training 5 days later.

 

[moomba]

You know what B€n Nelson, Luke Thomas, Danny Ward, Jakub Stolarczyk, Oliver Ewing and Casey McAteer look like?

Fair enough then.

 

[jd2010]

Not to mention they haven't closed their training ground or had a complete shut-down of their u23s so they could easily make up the required numbers with players from that group. It's clear the league had no clear setup early on and have sharpened up of late. In terms of available players Leicester had more than Chelsea, Palace and Leeds but got called off. Palace didn't, Leeds have and haven't had games called off and Chelsea didn't.

The fact clubs have to "put in a request" shows just how unclear it is. Clubs should know clearly just what the requirement is and know that their request will be allowed or laughed off. The fact that Palace on Xmas day looked likely to be off and then next day made 1 change to their past line-up.

 

[jd2010]

You know what B€n Nelson, Luke Thomas, Danny Ward, Jakub Stolarczyk, Oliver Ewing and Casey McAteer look like?

Fair enough then.

Their bench was Ward, Daka, Choudhury, Albrighton, Soumare and Thomas who are senior regulars who were at training with 10 of the starting eleven. Plus a few kids

 

[jd2010]

Sorry they had 16 fit but 1 was suspended so 15 selectable players. So the game got called off for a bit of covid, soft tissue injuries and suspension issues.

 

[Zidane98]

Anyway, going to be interesting to see what happens in the EFL, something like 80% of games getting postponed at this stage, there's been so much focus on the PL but the EFL is a mess.

Less strict bubbles in the EFL? Why so many games?

Guess League 1 isn't too much of a concern as they play through international breaks.

 

[Zidane98]

Sorry they had 16 fit but 1 was suspended so 15 selectable players. So the game got called off for a bit of covid, soft tissue injuries and suspension issues.

It is obvious they pulled the pin because of a crippled defence. Now when they play Spurs defence will be mostly fit.

 

[jd2010]

It is obvious they pulled the pin because of a crippled defence. Now when they play Spurs defence will be mostly fit.

Had 2 fit centre backs for the napoli game. One was suspended for the league and then the other does a hammy. Rules allowed them to apply so good on them for trying. If it was the same situation today after the league meeting with the clubs and managers it's unlikely it gets postponed. Hopefully they stay in the FA Cup and we play them on a Tuesday 2 days before a Europa game

 

[SM]

It's the same reason I'm sure Toon will get their game with Everton called off.

 

[Zidane98]

It's the same reason I'm sure Toon will get their game with Everton called off.

That one is dodgier than the Leicester postponement.

 

[SM]

That one is dodgier than the Leicester postponement.

Haha didn't even realise it'd already happened.

 

[jd2010]

It's the same reason I'm sure Toon will get their game with Everton called off.

If that's the rules then so be it. But how on earth did Leeds have to play that game with a bench avg age of about 13?

 

[Zidane98]

If that's the rules then so be it. But how on earth did Leeds have to play that game with a bench avg age of about 13?

Baffling that Leeds were forced to play City but Newcastle cop a few injuries to their star players and are able to postpone the Everton game. It just shows how much of a mess the whole system is.

Also whats the plan if a LC semi needs to be postponed?

 

[moomba]

Did Leeds request a postponement against us?

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

Did Leeds request a postponement against us?

We should’ve bullshitted like Leicester and now Newcastle. Our Arsenal game we were even worse off.

 

[SM]

We should’ve bullshitted like Leicester and now Newcastle. Our Arsenal game we were even worse off.

I don't go into bat for Leeds much but given everything around them in the league, fighting through and playing those games was both honourable and a bit stupid when you look at Toon.

 

[Zidane98]

Did Leeds request a postponement against us?

Hang on a sec. You've been going on about how it is up to the PL to decide. Are you saying a club must request a postponement? What an absolute shambles of a system it really is if a game needs a request from a side to postpone. Clearly open to manipulation as per Leicester & Newcastle and undermining the integrity of the league.

 

[moomba]

Hang on a sec. You've been going on about how it is up to the PL to decide. Are you saying a club must request a postponement? What an absolute shambles of a system it really is if a game needs a request from a side to postpone. Clearly open to manipulation as per Leicester & Newcastle and undermining the integrity of the league.

You've got a spectacular ability to totally misread other people's posts to.make strawman arguments.

Of course clubs have to request postponements. They're the ones that know about the health of their players.

And once a club requests a postponement the league decides if they have met the criteria or not. It's really pretty simple.

 

[Zidane98]

You've got a spectacular ability to totally misread other people's posts to.make strawman arguments.

Of course clubs have to request postponements. They're the ones that know about the health of their players.

And once a club requests a postponement the league decides if they have met the criteria or not. It's really pretty simple.

In other words clubs are free to manipulate the system when it suits.

Newcastle & Leicester bullshitted to their advantage to get the postponements they wanted in games they see as winnable but probably would have lost with weakened teams.

Not sure what happened with Leeds against City but anyone could tell they were struggling to field a competitive team.

Perhaps they just decided it was a match they were losing anyway and made the call that it was better to get the game out the way.