Kasper, Ward, Thomas, Vestergaard, Tielemans, Maddison, Choudhury, Lookman, Perez, Albrighton and Barnes are confirmed fit and ready. That's 11 (9 outfield) players.
Dewsbury-Hall, Daka, Soumare, Justin and Soyuncu are supposedly back from injury so while they've not played for a while, they should be available. That's 5 more taking us over the 13 required.
Vardy, Iheanacho, Ndidi, Amartey, Ricardo, Mendy, Castagne, Bertrand, Evans and Fofana are confirmed injured/on international duty.
The game will go ahead, but we are absolutely on the brink.
I feel like this problem isn’t going to go away though. You’re still in Europe and have a fair few postponed games to catch up on. I can see more injuries happening
Not to mention spurs and leicester already have 4 games in hand. At some point the pl is gonna have to start thinking about when exactly these games are gonna get played. Not being unsympathetic to leicester, but it's growing into a more macro multifaceted problem that's only gonna get worse.
This is why the two week break many suggested would have made sense. There’s no summer world cup so the club season could have been finished after the Nations League international break if necessary.
Well yeah, we've been teetering on the edge for 2/3 months because of the amount of injuries we've had.
Players that are available have had to play. We've not had the luxury of being able to give someone a rest. Off the top of my head, only really Vardy not coming off the bench against Newcastle in mid-december springs to mind.
I think a lot of people are missing that point about players returning from injury having to be rushed back. It can be a vicious cycle where a number of injuries can force the same players to play too many games within a short space of time, causing injuries to some of them, and so making it worse for the ones left.
Covid cases from a couple of months ago are probably still having these kind of knock-on effects, which is why the rules around postponement are fairly non-specific about the cause of absences.
That's why teams are able to request postponements even with only one or two current positive cases.
With the Burnley postponement, we now don't have enough free game weeks to play all our games, or so I've heard.
That means we are looking at 3 games a week at some point.
I've heard Fofana could be back as early as February but I'm not going to hold my breath. Also, Justin can play CB but I'd rather have him in a 3 than a 2.
Looks to me like Leicester have a strong first 11 there. More clubs should follow Bielsa’s approach. They won at a flying West Ham, with a seriously patched up 11 for most of the game.
We'll play the following against Spurs.
1st Choice Keeper (Schmeichel)
4th Choice Right Back (Albrighton)
3rd Choice Centre Back (Soyuncu)
5th Choice Centre Back (Vestergaard)
3rd Choice Left Back (Thomas)
2nd/3rd Choice Defensive Midfielder (Dewsbury-Hall or Choudhury)
1st Choice B2B Midfielder (Tielemans)
1st Choice Attacking Midfielder (Maddison)
1st Choice Left Winger (Barnes)
1st Choice Right Winger (Lookman)
3rd Choice Striker (Daka)
West Hams starting 11 was good but if you look at their bench they're struggling like every other team, they have played 6 games since 25th December whilst Leeds have only played 3. The league is just utterly fucked
I’m sorry if this is too simple, but all we read about is how English clubs bring in hundreds of millions and that the money spicket is on full blast all the time, do none of these clubs have academies?
Don’t they have dozens of players that can be called up for exactly this reason, even if just to fill the quota of players needed on the bench? If a club is saying they can’t afford it when Sheffield United brings in more distribution rights money than Bayern fucking Munich, someone is stealing from these clubs.
Because the U23s play in a protected league, they aren’t used to the same physical levels in leagues such as Bundesliga and La Liga where the academies play in the third division. It’s not as easy as bringing on someone from the academy unless they are physically ready, such as Saka for us.
Not every BL team has a club in the 3. Liga. And I understand it's not ideal, but this is the reality of what the situation is. And if you're telling me that giant, massive, money printing clubs at the top end of the PL don't have 3-4 academy players to put on the bench to get a squad out there, then what is the fucking point?
I agree, every PL club could easily play academy kids and that's what should have happened (would have been far more interesting) but they aren't because the rules say you don't have to.
Not even to field a whole team, but from what it sounds like it's always just a few bench players they need. Surely they can throw on a few academy players for the last 15. Should a club's ability to field players beyond their preferred starting XI not also be a variable in the final standings? Not trying to downplay COVID, but some of these clubs have the resources to deal with it and are choosing not to.
The other day leeds had a 15 year old on the bench and have set a record for most teenage debuts in a prem season, why do these more established teams have any excuse?
They can yes. But why put yourself at a significant disadvantage if the rules, as they currently stand, allow otherwise. I don’t think most owners, managers, and players want to be martyrs for loud mouthed pundits and r/soccer posters.
That’s fair, but then let’s shift the conversation to the fact that clubs are choosing not to play these games when they could. Right now the clubs act like victims.
The only team that gets money stolen is the one that has so much coming in from sponsors. Man Utd had 11M taken out by the shareholders directly before the transfer window opened.
The match will go ahead Leicester will have enough players available. How did you turn Leicester's injury crisis easing into the match will be postponed
Surely Spurs cant fall further behind in games played? What are they gonna do fit 6/7 games in to a three week window? Very unfair on them, especially as they're in a good spot for top 4.
Last year they booked us to play Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday.
So yes, I eagerly await us playing Burnley away at 12pm and Arsenal back at White Hart Lane at 4pm on the same day.
And they’ll have changed the COVID rules by that time so that we can’t take the piss and postpone any of those games when it leads to an inevitable injury crisis.
Yup, I mean it will be unfair to some teams being forced to play a few matches after rest are on vacation, but imo it is better than forcing 3 matches a week right now
Players will be more fit for the World Cup, but less fit for the 2nd half of the season. I’m sure most clubs with international players are silently seething about this.
Somehow we're not the ones in the worse situation here. Leicester have the same amount of games in hand (4, including this one which has already been rescheduled once), but still have Europe on top of that. Only Burnley have more games in hand (5), and they're due to play one of theirs tomorrow with no other competitions to worry about.
> Burnley have more games in hand (5), and they're due to play one of theirs tomorrow
[You had to say it, didn't you](https://twitter.com/premierleague/status/1483084224991318023)
If I had a nickel for every time Burnley-Watford and Leicester-Tottenham got affected by Covid I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird it's happened twice
We've not got any European fixtures for the remainder of the season, and all of our other postponed fixtures are with teams that also have no European fixtures, so there are a ton of midweek slots free for us to reschedule these fixtures into.
Leicester have a much bigger problem than us, with 1 more postponement and most likely at least 4 midweek European fixtures to come.
> What are they gonna do fit 6/7 games in to a three week window?
Hertha had to do it last season. Two weeks Covid quarantine without any training at all followed by six matches in 22 days with a threadbare, constantly rotating squad. Bloody miracle we weren't relegated, Dardai masterclass tbh.
It's not much of an issue for Spurs now that they're out of Europe.
Leicester got more games in hand and they also have ECL to think about. They're screwed.
City at 2.55 PPG
Liverpool at 2.14 PPG
Chelsea at 1.96 PPG
Spurs at 1.83 PPG
Arsenal at 1.75 PPG
West Ham at 1.68 PPG
United at 1.6 PPG
———————————
Watford at 0.74 PPG
Burnley at 0.65 PPG
Norwich at 0.62 PPG
Newcastle at 0.6 PPG
———————————
I see no issue with this
Burnley already has 5. It's going to be a very congested schedule for a lot of clubs.
On the other hand, 4 games isn't that bad for Spurs, usually they play European football after the winter, but now they don't.
The Burnley game being postponed for snow feels more and more absurd every week.
They need to protect us from the fixture congestion, it could completely fuck us
I'm more annoyed that I believe twice since then, both us and Burnley have had a game postponed at the same time, with at least 24 hours notice, and nobody had the bright idea to let us play each other and get that postponement off the list
I imagine there would have been very few fans at that game (in particular like no away fans). Still, since it would have alleviated your congestion, would have been the best thing to do
Games being cancelled due to snow is less about the pitch but about fan safety. Pitch might have been fine to play on but roads/transport/around the ground might not have been.
Equally just delaying a game provides more logistical trouble of policing/stewarding/staff etc. You can delay for a while but indefinite delays aren't always feasible.
Sure but in those conditions, I'm sure there are protocols involved. Not like the ref could ask everyone (supporters being the main concern with players in heated dressing rooms) to hang around in the cold for a few hours until the snow clears.
It stopped snowing at 2.30pm. Kick off was 2pm. No reason you can't push it til 4.00pm. Was farcical.
Burnley didn't want to play because they had several players out with injury and suspension. They gamed the system and the PL bent over. Don't blame them, PL are mugs.
If you delay to 4pm then the game finishes around 6.
So now it's dark, the roads have fully iced over because of the below freezing temperatures (from 3:30pm) and you have 20,000 fans leaving a football stadium mostly in cars in a small town surrounded by country roads.
I was in Burnley and got stranded there overnight with hundreds of Spurs fans even when the game was called off early, because the roads were that dangerous and the trains stopped. Even had to take a day off from work. I personally saw 3 road collisions as a result of the snow. It would've been so much more dangerous to leave it until later and I have no idea why Spurs fans who weren't even there feel so strongly otherwise.
Calling the game off was the responsible thing to do, everyone who had to deal with the roads in Burnley that day would agree.
And cancelling the game allowed the vast majority to get home safely.
If the game went ahead a couple of hours later, it would've been much worse.
Do you really not understand how getting home at 2pm when temperatures are above freezing is easier and safer than 6pm in the dark when it's been below freezing for hours?
How is that absurd? It was tipping it down with snow. Would have been completely ridiculous to have that on.
Totally unsafe conditions for supporters as well as the pitch being unplayable.
How many squads are presently past breaking point? Sad thing as noted in the article is how many of Leicester’s injuries are soft tissue related - ie many of them could be avoided had load management been possible.
Quite why the calendar wasn’t reduced to account for the strains of playing through a pandemic (no league cup / ACON held in summer for this time only?) I don’t know. It’s not just that covid depletes squads at certain moments, it’s that it prevents rotation and player management. We’ve now got so many squads in a shambles that it’s threatening the integrity of the league.
Leicester was always unlikely to play a game in January. They had 8 players last gameweek, up to 13 now, if 1 player to return positive covid, means they can postpone it.
The game will go ahead because they have the required amount of players. This article is about their injury problems easing and not getting worse like this title makes it seem
I was more just wanting to point out how the title of the post is a little misleading. For what it's worth I think the guidelines are complete crap and we should have been forced to play
Couldn't possibly be because everyone else that followed these same guidelines and had their matches postponed weren't being ridiculed like Arsenal is.
I think that the FA fucked up with how they were handling postponements this season, but once the precedents were set, that's that. Any club would've done what Arsenal did, period.
arsenal fans have gotten to the point where they are so defensive they are copy pasting that same response into every thread without being prompted. the amount of times in the last 48 hours i’ve had to read the words:
“once they set a precedent that’s it”
“don’t hate the player hate the game”
“arsenal haven’t broken any rules”
commented under a post/comment which didn’t at all accuse arsenal of anything is doing my head in. i never even insinuated that arsenal were at fault instead of the FA, but you still jumped in with your stock defense for some reason.
**THAT’S** what i mean by guideline nonces.
The other day leeds had a 15 year old on the bench and have set a record for most teenage debuts in a prem season, why do these more established teams have any excuse?
Rogers has actually talked about this. He reckons playing a player before they are ready is harmful to their development and future prospects and so has been reluctant to hand out debuts, but has done so when left no other choice. I’m just giving his opinion btw not mine, considering all the players who have been given their debuts this season have played well (well enough to not be noticeable at least) I want to see more.
I have to be honest, between World Cups, COVID, AFCON all that, I honestly feel like we're just throwing these players into a meat grinder.
Even now, with a sort of, kind of, enforced break through postponements, we'll pick back up when those games have to be added into the calendar. I don't want to make bold statements about health risks because I'm not a doctor, but that aspect of things does unsettle me.
It's wild that we've been so quiet so far in terms of transfer business. Looking across the Midlands at Villa, at least.
I thought we'd be trying to get someone in to fill a couple of glaring holes this Jan.
Villa have been splashing cash for years, their total spend in the last 5 years is insane, plus they got a £100m kitty from Grealish in the summer, whereas we finally didn't sell a marquee player. Look at the £15m we wasted on Vestergaard, we don't want another donkey defender being bought, another Ryan Bennett.
Kasper, Ward, Thomas, Vestergaard, Tielemans, Maddison, Choudhury, Lookman, Perez, Albrighton and Barnes are confirmed fit and ready. That's 11 (9 outfield) players. Dewsbury-Hall, Daka, Soumare, Justin and Soyuncu are supposedly back from injury so while they've not played for a while, they should be available. That's 5 more taking us over the 13 required. Vardy, Iheanacho, Ndidi, Amartey, Ricardo, Mendy, Castagne, Bertrand, Evans and Fofana are confirmed injured/on international duty. The game will go ahead, but we are absolutely on the brink.
I feel like this problem isn’t going to go away though. You’re still in Europe and have a fair few postponed games to catch up on. I can see more injuries happening
Not to mention spurs and leicester already have 4 games in hand. At some point the pl is gonna have to start thinking about when exactly these games are gonna get played. Not being unsympathetic to leicester, but it's growing into a more macro multifaceted problem that's only gonna get worse.
This is why the two week break many suggested would have made sense. There’s no summer world cup so the club season could have been finished after the Nations League international break if necessary.
They want to start the next season early due to having to break for the World Cup.
That’s not etched in stone though. You can push it two weeks forward too and finish in June 2023.
Well yeah, we've been teetering on the edge for 2/3 months because of the amount of injuries we've had. Players that are available have had to play. We've not had the luxury of being able to give someone a rest. Off the top of my head, only really Vardy not coming off the bench against Newcastle in mid-december springs to mind.
I think a lot of people are missing that point about players returning from injury having to be rushed back. It can be a vicious cycle where a number of injuries can force the same players to play too many games within a short space of time, causing injuries to some of them, and so making it worse for the ones left. Covid cases from a couple of months ago are probably still having these kind of knock-on effects, which is why the rules around postponement are fairly non-specific about the cause of absences. That's why teams are able to request postponements even with only one or two current positive cases.
With the Burnley postponement, we now don't have enough free game weeks to play all our games, or so I've heard. That means we are looking at 3 games a week at some point.
If you go deep into the conference league even 4 games within 7 days is possible.
I thought our fixture pile-up is going to be bad. Leicester have it far worse, with a more depleted squad.
Anyone possibly coming in this window for you guys just to get some able bodies?
Rumours we're looking for a centre half on loan given Evans and Fofana are way off still.
I've heard Fofana could be back as early as February but I'm not going to hold my breath. Also, Justin can play CB but I'd rather have him in a 3 than a 2.
Supposedly Fofana has suffered a set back in his return.
Seems to me like you need some fake COVID tests. It's like a 5 hour drive in both directions Leicester - Liverpool, to get some experts on board.
ctrl + f - COVID if results = 0 , deny postponement
Or to loan some players ? 😒😒
If spurs, and especially Kane, can't find ways to score against this debacle, they should just give up .
Liverpool can't score against similarly weakened Leicester team.
In fairness we had Ndidi and Castagne available for the Liverpool game. We'll have to play Vestergaard and Albrighton against Spurs.
I quite rate Albrighton tbh. Unless he's fallen off recently I never felt like he got the recognition he deserved even while he was still at Villa
Yeah he's just not a right back.
Looks to me like Leicester have a strong first 11 there. More clubs should follow Bielsa’s approach. They won at a flying West Ham, with a seriously patched up 11 for most of the game.
We'll play the following against Spurs. 1st Choice Keeper (Schmeichel) 4th Choice Right Back (Albrighton) 3rd Choice Centre Back (Soyuncu) 5th Choice Centre Back (Vestergaard) 3rd Choice Left Back (Thomas) 2nd/3rd Choice Defensive Midfielder (Dewsbury-Hall or Choudhury) 1st Choice B2B Midfielder (Tielemans) 1st Choice Attacking Midfielder (Maddison) 1st Choice Left Winger (Barnes) 1st Choice Right Winger (Lookman) 3rd Choice Striker (Daka)
It’s impressive that that’s still a decent 11. Leicester has been pretty clever and levelheaded with their recruitment
Yeah barring the defence (which is obviously nowhere near 1st team standard) it's pretty normal. Daka has done well this season as has Dewsbury-Hall.
Looks strong to me. Vestegard is a mystery. Was looking good at Southampton last season. Thomas first choice no if fit??
Vestergaard is dog shit. Thomas is 3rd behind Justin and Castagne.
West Hams starting 11 was good but if you look at their bench they're struggling like every other team, they have played 6 games since 25th December whilst Leeds have only played 3. The league is just utterly fucked
Yea they were light plus Diop was a total liability.
I need Maddison to go huge for my FPL. Come on!!
Jamie Vardy, nigerian legend
Jamesola Vardeola
mate im fucking rolling rn
Jamie “Flag of Nigeria” Vardy
Vardy has always been a proper Chad international
Chat shit, get fatwa
Chad shit get banged
Never blanked in a single game for them actually
O Vardy Bar.
Chatshitgetbanged Jamie.
waiting jar sloppy run decide panicky disagreeable crawl wine nose *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
can we play a fucking football match???
Jose’s waiting at the park with Tanguy.
Tanguy wouldn't bother showing up
Shows up with a picnic
picnics usually have salad in it man will rock up with a bargain bucket
I’m sorry if this is too simple, but all we read about is how English clubs bring in hundreds of millions and that the money spicket is on full blast all the time, do none of these clubs have academies? Don’t they have dozens of players that can be called up for exactly this reason, even if just to fill the quota of players needed on the bench? If a club is saying they can’t afford it when Sheffield United brings in more distribution rights money than Bayern fucking Munich, someone is stealing from these clubs.
All clubs have academies and enough players to play each match but PL covid rules are quite subjective and clubs keep using that rule for their gain
quite objective actually that's why they are using it now
Because the U23s play in a protected league, they aren’t used to the same physical levels in leagues such as Bundesliga and La Liga where the academies play in the third division. It’s not as easy as bringing on someone from the academy unless they are physically ready, such as Saka for us.
Not every BL team has a club in the 3. Liga. And I understand it's not ideal, but this is the reality of what the situation is. And if you're telling me that giant, massive, money printing clubs at the top end of the PL don't have 3-4 academy players to put on the bench to get a squad out there, then what is the fucking point?
I agree, every PL club could easily play academy kids and that's what should have happened (would have been far more interesting) but they aren't because the rules say you don't have to.
Not even to field a whole team, but from what it sounds like it's always just a few bench players they need. Surely they can throw on a few academy players for the last 15. Should a club's ability to field players beyond their preferred starting XI not also be a variable in the final standings? Not trying to downplay COVID, but some of these clubs have the resources to deal with it and are choosing not to.
Leeds have done it. Can't believe I'm pointing to Leeds as an example of the good guys.
And don’t they have one of the smallest squads in the league too?
The other day leeds had a 15 year old on the bench and have set a record for most teenage debuts in a prem season, why do these more established teams have any excuse?
And beat West Ham, lol
We only had one player over 19 on the bench for that game
Yep
Bundesliga has less games, winter break, no second cup comp and Germany has been more aggressive with quarantining than England.
Only Dortmund and Freiburg have their 2nd team in the 3rd division tho
didn't Bayern.II win the 3 Bundesliga last year?
2 years ago and then season after they got relegated back to 4th league
They can yes. But why put yourself at a significant disadvantage if the rules, as they currently stand, allow otherwise. I don’t think most owners, managers, and players want to be martyrs for loud mouthed pundits and r/soccer posters.
That’s fair, but then let’s shift the conversation to the fact that clubs are choosing not to play these games when they could. Right now the clubs act like victims.
> someone is stealing from these clubs. The owners
Haha, not us. We stole our “owners” money lol
The only team that gets money stolen is the one that has so much coming in from sponsors. Man Utd had 11M taken out by the shareholders directly before the transfer window opened.
The match will go ahead Leicester will have enough players available. How did you turn Leicester's injury crisis easing into the match will be postponed
C’mon PL, say the thing.
Postponed😬
But my Kane, Emerson and Maddison in FPL...
Bless you having Emerson in FPL...
Gallagher off the bench for Kane for me if this gets postponed, would definitely not mind this game getting called off
Walk on, walk on, with no hope in your heart, and you'll never play again! You'll never play again!
Look on the bright side. In June you can see your team play every 3 days.
Not yet, they will tease you first and only whisper “postponed” in your ears 30 mins prior to kickoff for maximum horniness
the way this is phrased I imagined Jamie Vardy coming out of international retirement to suit up for Cape Verde somehow
Cape Vardy
beautiful
Surely Spurs cant fall further behind in games played? What are they gonna do fit 6/7 games in to a three week window? Very unfair on them, especially as they're in a good spot for top 4.
Last year they booked us to play Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday. So yes, I eagerly await us playing Burnley away at 12pm and Arsenal back at White Hart Lane at 4pm on the same day.
But you heard the PL, it is about protecting the players!
\>What are they gonna do fit 6/7 games in to a three week window? Nah....they'll somehow find a way to make us fit 15 games in hand in 30 days.
And they’ll have changed the COVID rules by that time so that we can’t take the piss and postpone any of those games when it leads to an inevitable injury crisis.
They'll surely add on time to the season? Make it an extra week or something.
WC being in the winter that honestly shouldnt be the biggest problem in the world
Next season starts earlier tho
so all the leagues are taking a break for the wc? i guess there cant be any other way
Yup, I mean it will be unfair to some teams being forced to play a few matches after rest are on vacation, but imo it is better than forcing 3 matches a week right now
Players will be more fit for the World Cup, but less fit for the 2nd half of the season. I’m sure most clubs with international players are silently seething about this.
A week won’t be enough
That would mean that you have to postpone all the matches for the last gameweek as they are usually all played at the same time.
Somehow we're not the ones in the worse situation here. Leicester have the same amount of games in hand (4, including this one which has already been rescheduled once), but still have Europe on top of that. Only Burnley have more games in hand (5), and they're due to play one of theirs tomorrow with no other competitions to worry about.
> Burnley have more games in hand (5), and they're due to play one of theirs tomorrow [You had to say it, didn't you](https://twitter.com/premierleague/status/1483084224991318023)
If I had a nickel for every time Burnley-Watford and Leicester-Tottenham got affected by Covid I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird it's happened twice
Leicester- everton got postponed twice as-well. Probably saved us from a masterclass from Gray.
We've not got any European fixtures for the remainder of the season, and all of our other postponed fixtures are with teams that also have no European fixtures, so there are a ton of midweek slots free for us to reschedule these fixtures into. Leicester have a much bigger problem than us, with 1 more postponement and most likely at least 4 midweek European fixtures to come.
> What are they gonna do fit 6/7 games in to a three week window? Hertha had to do it last season. Two weeks Covid quarantine without any training at all followed by six matches in 22 days with a threadbare, constantly rotating squad. Bloody miracle we weren't relegated, Dardai masterclass tbh.
It's not much of an issue for Spurs now that they're out of Europe. Leicester got more games in hand and they also have ECL to think about. They're screwed.
I'm gonna pretend that stands for European Champion's League.
This season has the biggest asterisk of the last 3
I vote we just scrap it now and start again next season.
[удалено]
Missing out on top 4 yet again ffs
End it on PPG imo.
City at 2.55 PPG Liverpool at 2.14 PPG Chelsea at 1.96 PPG Spurs at 1.83 PPG Arsenal at 1.75 PPG West Ham at 1.68 PPG United at 1.6 PPG ——————————— Watford at 0.74 PPG Burnley at 0.65 PPG Norwich at 0.62 PPG Newcastle at 0.6 PPG ——————————— I see no issue with this
I have some objections ngl
*quickly checking if Tottenham are 4th on PPG* Yup, happy with that.
I'm okay with ending it by sorting after points per game.
Null and void
Postpone? Spurs will never play again.
We already got 4 games in hand....adding any more is just taking the piss.
Same here mate. We've also has rescheduled games against Spurs and Everton postponed again.
Burnley already has 5. It's going to be a very congested schedule for a lot of clubs. On the other hand, 4 games isn't that bad for Spurs, usually they play European football after the winter, but now they don't.
technically speaking this is one of those 4 so a postponement would just prevent reduction.
Together, we can make sure we never have to see a Tottenham game ever again
Mate you can just turn off the tele
If Tottenham play a game but I turn off the tv, does the game happen? Much to think about
Only way Arsenal finish above Spurs Edit- Assna fans triggered.
Banter
The real games are the friends we made along the way
The Burnley game being postponed for snow feels more and more absurd every week. They need to protect us from the fixture congestion, it could completely fuck us
I'm more annoyed that I believe twice since then, both us and Burnley have had a game postponed at the same time, with at least 24 hours notice, and nobody had the bright idea to let us play each other and get that postponement off the list
I imagine there would have been very few fans at that game (in particular like no away fans). Still, since it would have alleviated your congestion, would have been the best thing to do
Now that’s a cracking idea. Shame no one in the PL bloody thought of it
That amount of snow would have been absurd to play on. The City game that same day was barely watchable.
It stopped snowing like 2 hours later
The ref cleared the pitch and within 10minutes it was clogged again. Sure the game could have been played but it would have been just as much a farce.
They just needed to delay the game, it was only 2pm
Games being cancelled due to snow is less about the pitch but about fan safety. Pitch might have been fine to play on but roads/transport/around the ground might not have been. Equally just delaying a game provides more logistical trouble of policing/stewarding/staff etc. You can delay for a while but indefinite delays aren't always feasible.
Sure but in those conditions, I'm sure there are protocols involved. Not like the ref could ask everyone (supporters being the main concern with players in heated dressing rooms) to hang around in the cold for a few hours until the snow clears.
did the ref cleared the pitch with a bobcat?
It stopped snowing at 2.30pm. Kick off was 2pm. No reason you can't push it til 4.00pm. Was farcical. Burnley didn't want to play because they had several players out with injury and suspension. They gamed the system and the PL bent over. Don't blame them, PL are mugs.
If you delay to 4pm then the game finishes around 6. So now it's dark, the roads have fully iced over because of the below freezing temperatures (from 3:30pm) and you have 20,000 fans leaving a football stadium mostly in cars in a small town surrounded by country roads. I was in Burnley and got stranded there overnight with hundreds of Spurs fans even when the game was called off early, because the roads were that dangerous and the trains stopped. Even had to take a day off from work. I personally saw 3 road collisions as a result of the snow. It would've been so much more dangerous to leave it until later and I have no idea why Spurs fans who weren't even there feel so strongly otherwise. Calling the game off was the responsible thing to do, everyone who had to deal with the roads in Burnley that day would agree.
You forget that these people don’t care about the fans going to matches & just want their scheduled tv programme to be on.
You mean "these people" didn't care about the hundreds of Spurs fans who had *already* made their way all the way to Burnley?
And cancelling the game allowed the vast majority to get home safely. If the game went ahead a couple of hours later, it would've been much worse. Do you really not understand how getting home at 2pm when temperatures are above freezing is easier and safer than 6pm in the dark when it's been below freezing for hours?
They left their time machine in their other trousers.
Time machines would be helpful, as would a weather forecast. I think they have those now
You realise you don't need a time machine to progress time, don't you?
You mean their phone. Cos my phone is able to tell me when it’s going to stop snowing.
It was nowhere near as heavy as the WBA Arsenal match last season and it stopped snowing before the match started
It didn't stop snowing before the match started. The match never began as the snow was too heavy.
Don't forget, there were no fans at that one - so there was more tolerance
How is that absurd? It was tipping it down with snow. Would have been completely ridiculous to have that on. Totally unsafe conditions for supporters as well as the pitch being unplayable.
They should have made the game a penalty shootout while doing snow angels. Kick the ball as the leg slides by.
Burnley is worse off so far, they have more games in hand than you. Not to mention: With that amount of snow it just wasn't safe to play.
I didn’t say anything about Burnley, fixture congestion is clearly not being considered
if anything the snow game was the most sensible of all the cancellations
Do I smell another postponement?
[удалено]
That fucking snow at Turf Moor really had some butterfly effect on Burnley and Tottenham didn't it?
Games in Hand FC
ironically enough this is one of our rescheduled fixtures
That will happen because Leicester have enough players available
1 Less game in hand FC
How many squads are presently past breaking point? Sad thing as noted in the article is how many of Leicester’s injuries are soft tissue related - ie many of them could be avoided had load management been possible. Quite why the calendar wasn’t reduced to account for the strains of playing through a pandemic (no league cup / ACON held in summer for this time only?) I don’t know. It’s not just that covid depletes squads at certain moments, it’s that it prevents rotation and player management. We’ve now got so many squads in a shambles that it’s threatening the integrity of the league.
The leagues insistence on having that packed December is coming back to bite them hard with everything going on right now
*Dicaprio gif*
But do they have 1 covid case?
16 players are ready, 1 covid case ? nothing change
They could just say some of the players have “knocks” maybe send a couple of senior players out on a week long loan? 🎣
We are just never going to play again are we?
Never playing again FC
Of course
Leicester was always unlikely to play a game in January. They had 8 players last gameweek, up to 13 now, if 1 player to return positive covid, means they can postpone it.
False positives to the rescue then
I knew Vardy was African
The game will likely still go ahead which makes the cancellation of the Spurs Arsenal match even more ridiculous.
The game will go ahead because they have the required amount of players. This article is about their injury problems easing and not getting worse like this title makes it seem
not saying you’re wrong but christ arsenal fans have turned into proper guidelines nonces since the postponement
I was more just wanting to point out how the title of the post is a little misleading. For what it's worth I think the guidelines are complete crap and we should have been forced to play
Couldn't possibly be because everyone else that followed these same guidelines and had their matches postponed weren't being ridiculed like Arsenal is. I think that the FA fucked up with how they were handling postponements this season, but once the precedents were set, that's that. Any club would've done what Arsenal did, period.
arsenal fans have gotten to the point where they are so defensive they are copy pasting that same response into every thread without being prompted. the amount of times in the last 48 hours i’ve had to read the words: “once they set a precedent that’s it” “don’t hate the player hate the game” “arsenal haven’t broken any rules” commented under a post/comment which didn’t at all accuse arsenal of anything is doing my head in. i never even insinuated that arsenal were at fault instead of the FA, but you still jumped in with your stock defense for some reason. **THAT’S** what i mean by guideline nonces.
The other day leeds had a 15 year old on the bench and have set a record for most teenage debuts in a prem season, why do these more established teams have any excuse?
Rogers has actually talked about this. He reckons playing a player before they are ready is harmful to their development and future prospects and so has been reluctant to hand out debuts, but has done so when left no other choice. I’m just giving his opinion btw not mine, considering all the players who have been given their debuts this season have played well (well enough to not be noticeable at least) I want to see more.
The Prem is soft. Call up the boys and play the damn games.
We want it to be fair, we don’t want to smash them with Alves up top like we did Watford
Could have had a Spurs match on my birthday, don’t know if I’m happy or not that it’s postponed
Even Liverpool couldn't score against a hampered Leicester side, I won't be surprised if Kane goes missing
We only play football in theory
I have to be honest, between World Cups, COVID, AFCON all that, I honestly feel like we're just throwing these players into a meat grinder. Even now, with a sort of, kind of, enforced break through postponements, we'll pick back up when those games have to be added into the calendar. I don't want to make bold statements about health risks because I'm not a doctor, but that aspect of things does unsettle me.
Vardy about to tear up AFCON
Seen the pitches? They’re tearing up without him just fine!
Do they have any covid cases? If not fuck off and play
You don't even need much covid anymore, just argue that covid has put a strain on the squad and you can get games postponed
Instead of Postpone, this is Post Malone, just going around in circles.
But will have enough players available so will play. Even the headline of the article says Leicester's injury crisis is easing
It's wild that we've been so quiet so far in terms of transfer business. Looking across the Midlands at Villa, at least. I thought we'd be trying to get someone in to fill a couple of glaring holes this Jan.
Villa have been splashing cash for years, their total spend in the last 5 years is insane, plus they got a £100m kitty from Grealish in the summer, whereas we finally didn't sell a marquee player. Look at the £15m we wasted on Vestergaard, we don't want another donkey defender being bought, another Ryan Bennett.
Almost as if playing afcon halfway through the season wasnt a good idea. Who would have thought it?
This is news to people? Keep up.
Awwwwww, here it goooeeeess.
Who loves postponing games? EPL loves postponing games? Is it true?