Premier League 2020/21

[spursfan77]

Looks like another postponed game coming up for us Villa on Wednesday , can the season be finished ?

Villa set to field youngsters v Liverpool

Aston Villa are preparing to field a team of youngsters in Friday's FA Cup third-round tie at home to Liverpool.

www.bbc.co.uk

They shouldn’t be allowed to postpone. It’s got to get to the point where if you have enough fit people to play then you do. Or else the season just won’t get finished.

 

[Yid-ol]

They shouldn’t be allowed to postpone. It’s got to get to the point where if you have enough fit people to play then you do. Or else the season just won’t get finished.

So what if they don't have enough fit players?

 

[SirHarryHotspur]

But that would only give us one day of prep as we have a game on Sunday (Marine).

Fulham home game will have to be played at sometime also due to EFL final our away game at Fulham has to be rearranged so that's another to add to the list, Europa League progression also means less dates available.
On Sunday likes of Rodon , Clarke , White , Carlos etc could have a game , take Harry and co to sit on the bench just in case.
If Villa is called off we are going to struggle later in the season trying to fit games in.

 

[Amo]

So what if they don't have enough fit players?

Youth teams. reserves. BTW is there a player registration requirement in the FA Cup? Can they just play some randoms?

 

[spursfan77]

So what if they don't have enough fit players?

Between a first team squad of 25 and the under 18s they could field a match day squad unless it’s taken out 20 players

 

[Monkey boy]

Between a first team squad of 25 and the under 18s they could field a match day squad unless it’s taken out 20 players

cant help but feel the FA have made a rod for their own back when they allowed Man City and Fulham to cancel the games last week.

 

[chrissivad]

Youth teams. reserves. BTW is there a player registration requirement in the FA Cup? Can they just play some randoms?

I'm sure they will need to be on the clubs books.
Wouldn't be able to pull in ransoms on the day

 

[Monkey boy]

I'm sure they will need to be on the clubs books.
Wouldn't be able to pull in ransoms on the day

I’m sure Vincent Jansen won a competition to play for us before now.

 

[Shadydan]

This is a bit mad still...

There can't be any more postponements

 

[Graham Minshall]

We could play a second string team in the cup and be fine, gives the first team a full weeks rest.

If the season is to continue, then the PL and the FA need to come out and say that all games need to be played even if it means players as far down the rosters as the youth teams, otherwise, as there is going to be more and more games postponed it’s going be untenable to try and finish the season.

there should also be a conversation with UEFA to cancel the european competitions as travelling across borders at the moment is ridiculous.

 

[Shadydan]

If the season is to continue, then the PL and the FA need to come out and say that all games need to be played even if it means players as far down the rosters as the youth teams, otherwise, as there is going to be more and more games postponed it’s going be untenable to try and finish the season.

there should also be a conversation with UEFA to cancel the european competitions as travelling across borders at the moment is ridiculous.

Definitely think UEFA need to reduce the 2 legged ties to 1, the situation is becoming untenable.

 

[spursfan77]

Do they have to play the games in the international break?

Couldnt they just move them to the end of the season before the euros. Use them as friendlies for that competition.

 

[EQP]

This is a bit mad still...

There can't be any more postponements

View attachment 80212

There will be, unfortunately. Might have to seriously consider pushing back the Euro's at this rate.

 

[SlotBadger]

Burnley's Sean Dyche says footballers' vaccinations should be 'fast-tracked'

The Burnley manager, Sean Dyche, has called for fast-tracked coronavirus vaccinations in football, arguing that the money saved on testing could be diverted to the NHS

www.theguardian.com

“I think vaccination is the way forward throughout football,” said Dyche. “I can only talk for the Premier League because I’m in the Premier League, but I think it would be good for football. I appreciate some people will be surprised by that comment, but if you think about it rationally, we are all going to get vaccinated. A lot of people wanted football back ... the cash it generates through tax, the wellbeing of what the players do many times has been seen ... there’s a lot of good going through football.

“The amount of money being spent on testing in the Premier League, if that money was channelled back into the NHS and the vaccinations system, surely that’s a better place to be than it is just continuing testing a load of footballers two, three, four times a week. I appreciate there’ll be some people who say, ‘why should footballers get vaccinated?’, but ... if there’s 20 Premier League clubs and 100 vaccinations at a club, let’s say, I would imagine the payback to the system, the NHS and the vaccination system, financially, would be considerable.

“I’m told if you are vaccinated, you don’t need to keep testing. So therefore if the testing diminishes, that money could be used for a much better cause in my opinion, and therefore football stays a competitive industry rather than what it might end up, a skewed industry, because of players missing from games. I appreciate there will be people who disagree with me, probably wholeheartedly, but I just think the balance of getting some vaccinations quicker throughout football, the payback would be enormous.”

 

[UncleBuck]

I’m sure Premiership Rugby would have a few things to say on that along with a lot of other sports.
Mind you at least PR have a contingency plan in relation to a club testing positive by awarding more points to the team who doesn’t have to call the game off...

 

[bradfordspur]

Could adopt the solution used by Sunday league football back in the day. If you had to play a side twice due to bad weather,etc; you played a ‘double header’, two games of half hour each way, back to back. Seemed to work back then

 

[Yid-ol]

Could adopt the solution used by Sunday league football back in the day. If you had to play a side twice due to bad weather,etc; you played a ‘double header’, two games of half hour each way, back to back. Seemed to work back then

Cant see that going down well, most teams will have played each other, but would hate to play an away game for 6 points!

 

[tommo84]

Could adopt the solution used by Sunday league football back in the day. If you had to play a side twice due to bad weather,etc; you played a ‘double header’, two games of half hour each way, back to back. Seemed to work back then

Thats not a daft suggestion, but I’d strongly argue that having 2 teams reduce 2 games to 60 minutes (from 90) would do far more damage to the integrity of the competition than asking a team to call on its U23s to fulfill a single fixture. Everything that is happening in football in its response to the pandemic just smacks of a complete vacuum of leadership where no governing body has the balls to accept and publicly acknowledge that something has to give.

Any arguments about the integrity of the competition being greatly harmed by Villa (or any other team) having to play their U23s against us seem to be rooted in that greatest of football myths: that we all play the same teams twice. That’s always been bollocks. Teams get injuries - sometimes to star players, sometimes to lots of first teamers all at once - but games rightly go ahead despite this potentially skewing results from one week to the next. Clubs change manager mid-season which can completely transform a team’s performance levels. We have a sodding January transfer window which encourages clubs to materially change their team halfway through which, again, skews results from one week to the next. I honestly don’t understand why, when there are already so many factors which distort the underlying principle of a league season, that for this season the Covid outbreak can’t just be accepted as another such factor.

 

[C0YS]

If the season is to continue, then the PL and the FA need to come out and say that all games need to be played even if it means players as far down the rosters as the youth teams, otherwise, as there is going to be more and more games postponed it’s going be untenable to try and finish the season.

there should also be a conversation with UEFA to cancel the european competitions as travelling across borders at the moment is ridiculous.

There is no way UEFA will agree to that. Most of Europe is doing relatively fine, no worse than, say, October, and some countries are actually showing a lot of progress and look likely to avoid lockdowns until the vaccine starts to have an effect. This is a UK problem and the covid variant is a UK problem, do not see why UEFA will suspend anything just for the UK. It might well be though, that British teams may need to forfeit or postpone. Or more sensibly, simply have rigorous procedures in place before players can travel.

The PL have really messed up by allowing suspensions, going against their own advice, which while unfair was done for practical and sensible reasons. In terms of where our fixtures can be played the FA needs to work to suspend the next international break and possibly delay that for later, other leagues with suspensions could really benefit from this too. Next season should provide some more flexibility as the world cup (if it happens) will be in winter of 2022 so there should be a way to make space for games etc. It could well be that come 2022 it's best to just start the season after the world cup in December.

 

[rez9000]

This is a bit mad still...

There can't be any more postponements

View attachment 80212

I'm not looking forward to that @DaleJohnsonESPN match - they're a dangerous side!