Liverpool game takes place despite Corona

Jürgen Klopp was right in the eye of the storm that the coronavirus conjured up. English football simply cannot free itself from the relentless grip of the pandemic, which threatens to shut down the game more and more. Klopp and Liverpool FC had to tremble for their FA Cup game on Friday until a few hours before kick-off because their opponents Aston Villa was infected. It is the most prominent of a series of incidents that could result in a cluttered schedule.

“The Cup in Chaos”, headlined the daily newspaper “Mirror”, the Times sees the FA Cup “under the control of Covid”. The appropriate reaction to the events on Thursday, when Villa closed its training grounds because of a “significant number” of positive corona tests. The entire first team and the coaching team are in isolation. The third-round game against Liverpool will still take place, also because there are hardly any alternative dates available. The calendar provides for the fourth FA Cup round in two weeks.

A contingency plan ensured that Liverpool’s Cup match would take place: players from Aston Villas U-23 and U-18 teams have to face the champions, who have starred. The example of Derby County served as an example: Interim coach Wayne Rooney’s second league club was able to save its cup game against sixth division club FC Chorley on Saturday in the same way. After numerous corona cases in the team, Rooney and the professionals stay at home, the youngsters take over.

Basically: If a club can provide 14 healthy players, the game is played. The cup match between Southampton FC and the third division club Shrewsbury Town was canceled after several positive tests with the underdog. The FA wants to decide on the next steps at the beginning of next week. It is also possible for Southampton to advance without a fight.

As unfortunate as the situation is at the moment, the clubs will understand that the move will be made. “Football is getting a bit secondary, that’s where we are now,” said Brighton & Hove Albion team manager Graham Potter. The games are important and he would like to play them, but it is “not a matter of life and death – it is the FA Cup,” said Potter, whose team is scheduled to play at fourth division club Newport County on Sunday.

English football has been fighting desperately against the virus for a long time, the mutation of which is around the UK and is transmitted even faster. Several Premier League games have already been postponed. All the worse that privileged players like those from Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City celebrated in a larger circle on Christmas or New Year’s Eve and violated the Corona rules.

English football should quickly get the situation under control so that the season does not have to be interrupted, as for example coach Sam Allardyce from West Bromwich Albion demanded. Sean Dyche, team manager at Burnley FC, therefore brought up a swift vaccination of the players.

“My point of view is – and I’m not saying that it is the only correct point of view – that vaccination is the way forward for football,” said Dyche. Of course, in his opinion, no risk groups should cut back for football players, but he would like to see a quicker approach. How realistic this is remains to be clarified.