Unhappy Villas-Boas hits out at Football League

[sloth]

Wheres Smith on loan this time? I thought he might be used as Walkers understudy this year

And from all reports Tromso are going to be putting out there reserves, so our reserves/youngsters should be enough to beat them comfortably!

The issue is less the Thursday/Sunday games, but the Sunday/Tuesday ones. I'm not sure AVB wants to play a team of all youngsters a la Harry anyway, it doesn't seem to fit with the ethos he's trying to instil. Anyway, I'm absolutely certain a good proportion of players who play against Cardiff on Sunday will also play against Villa on Tuesday and we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed we don't suffer the consequences.

 

[sloth]

This is not that big an issue with our squad tbh.

Vs tromsø and villa;

Friedel
Naughton - kaboul - chiriches - fryers
Dembele - holtby
Lamela - kane/ade - chadli
Defoe

Vs cardiff and chelsea

Lloris
Walker - Daws - verts - rose
Sandro - paulinho
Townsend - eriksen - gylfi
Soldado

Players can obviously change teams, but you get the picture. Such a big and strong squad should handle this, and we even have a few decent youth players who surely could fill in if we were to pick up injuries.

Chiriches hasn't got a work permit yet. Chadli is injured. Your teams also mean that either Dembele or Paulinho have to play both on Sunday and then Tuesday.

 

[Yid-ol]

We had to do this last year also


Tottenham vs Lazio 20/9/13
Tottenham vs QPR - 23/9/12
Carlisle vs Tottenham 26/9/12
Man U vs Tottenham 29/9/13

If we want to be in Europe and play in cups we just have to suck it up.

 

[Mr Pink]

Well Cardiff and Chelsea should be the complete priority in my mind.

 

[ecce_tottenham]

Much less worried about this than last year.

Players can do 2 out of 3 and still be reasonably fresh for Chelsea the week after

Cardiff must take priority of the next 3 games

 

[sloth]

We have a big squad but 3 games in 6 days is incompetent, negligent scheduling.

It has been proven that 2 days rest time has a negative effect on results and increases player fatigue and the chance of injury, giving us 1 days rest, after a game in which we've only had 2 days rest as it is, well, it's just horrendously incompetent.

Yes we have a big squad, although it will necessitate almost wholesale change to the team between games and even we can't do that. We are either at risk of injury, or League Cup elimination because of some fuckwits who either know what they are doing but don't care, or don't know what they're doing when they should.

We are already at a risk of dropping points against Cardiff if we don't make a fair few changes from tomorrow's game, it's really pathetic and needs to be addressed - a mandatory 3 day rest period between games is needed.

What annoys me is that for some reason Arsenal seem to be getting preferential treatment here. I understand that it's problematic for the police to have both Arsenal and Spurs fans travelling down to Birmingham on the same day, I also can see that Arsenal have a match to play on Sunday too, but which criteria were used to decide their match would be on Wednesday and ours on Tuesday? I guess there may be something we're unaware of, such as a random process which gave them Wednesday, but there should really be a statement on it.

It feels similar to how London Transport prioritises Arsenal home matches over Spurs ones, choosing to carry out their engineering work when we have a home game rather than when they do.

 

[sloth]

We had to do this last year also


Tottenham vs Lazio 20/9/13
Tottenham vs QPR - 23/9/12
Carlisle vs Tottenham 26/9/12
Man U vs Tottenham 29/9/13

If we want to be in Europe and play in cups we just have to suck it up.

There's three days between those matches, not ideal and the bare minimum, but far better than the two days between Cardiff and Villa.

 

[Legend10]

That's a disgrace from the FA

 

[Yid-ol]

There's three days between those matches, not ideal and the bare minimum, but far better than the two days between Cardiff and Villa.

4 games in 9 days there, and we have 4 games in 9 days again.

So yes the 2 days is worse, but then we have 4 days before Chelsea, so that is better than last year, so really we should be in a better position when we come to play Chelsea than we were against Man U.

 

[etchedchaos]

The worst part is that both games are away, so not only do we only have one day of rest but we also have to travel to the games too which won't help at all.

 

[sloth]

4 games in 9 days there, and we have 4 games in 9 days again.

So yes the 2 days is worse, but then we have 4 days before Chelsea, so that is better than last year, so really we should be in a better position when we come to play Chelsea than we were against Man U.

I think you're missing the point slightly, which is that the critical thing fitness-wise is not the total games squashed into a given time period, but the rest days between the games. To demonstrate with an extreme example, you can play four games in nine days with two days off between each game, or you can play four games in nine days, but you play the four games on consecutive days; it's the same number of games in the same number of days but the scenarios are crucially different, and in the second scenario injury and fatigue are much more likely than in the first one.

 

[sloth]

So here's the explanation from the Football League, and I think it's fair enough if unfortunate:

The Football League defended the scheduling, pointing out that it would be unsafe to move Spurs' game to Wednesday, when West Brom and Birmingham are also playing in the Capital One Cup.

Both of those clubs are also playing teams (Arsenal and Swansea) that are in action on Sunday as well.

'There is a fixture congestion issue caused by three Midlands clubs being at home to sides playing on Sunday in the Premier League,' a Football League spokesman said.

'In an ideal world all three games would be played on the Wednesday night, but for crowd safety reasons it is not possible.

'The only option that enables just one of the games to be moved rather than two is for the Aston Villa v Tottenham Hotspur match to be played on the Tuesday.

'It isn't anyone's preferred scenario but it is definitely the least worst option.'

 

[SlickMongoose]

I'd have no problem with a youth team against Villa. Players like Archer, McEvoy, Veljkovic and Bentaleb would be fun to watch.

 

[Riandor]

The big question is why the hell is it taking so long to sort vlad's work permit!!!

 

[only1waddle]

If both Chiriches and Capoue were available then we would breeze through these fixtures with good rotation.. time for some of our youngsters and fringe players to show what their about.. strongest team for Cardiff..

 

[FinnYid]

See little to no actual problem in this. At least we will get some games to our large squad.

I mean 3 games in 6 days, so take midfielders and flanks for example. Capoue and Lennon are out and I count Chadli out too, even if he might make it against Villa.

So we have available:
Sandro
Paulinho
Dembele
Holtby
Lamela
Eriksen
Siggy
Townsend

for 3*5 starting positions, so even with Chadli out, it's still only 2 games for 7 of those and 1 game for one. Choose best possible XI for Cardiff and rotate according that against Tromso and Villa. Shouldn't be too much of a problem.

 

[FinnYid]

I'd have no problem with a youth team against Villa. Players like Archer, McEvoy, Veljkovic and Bentaleb would be fun to watch.

I'd have huge problem with that, what's the point of our large squad of quality players if we don't use them. Moreover those 1st teamers that weren't starting against Cardiff would have huge problem if AVB picked likes of Bentaleb and McEvoy ahead against Villa. Besides we need more LC games too just to get minutes to this squad.

 

[Pat Rice Spurs fan]

Can we give Gomes a run out on the left wing against Villa if there's no Lennon or Chadli?
I think he'd be better outfield than grandad Bradley.

 

[crokey]

What annoys me is that for some reason Arsenal seem to be getting preferential treatment here. I understand that it's problematic for the police to have both Arsenal and Spurs fans travelling down to Birmingham on the same day, I also can see that Arsenal have a match to play on Sunday too, but which criteria were used to decide their match would be on Wednesday and ours on Tuesday? I guess there may be something we're unaware of, such as a random process which gave them Wednesday, but there should really be a statement on it.

It feels similar to how London Transport prioritises Arsenal home matches over Spurs ones, choosing to carry out their engineering work when we have a home game rather than when they do.

Arsenal should be playing this Saturday with League Cup on Tuesday, we should be playing Sunday/Wednesday. We have to play 3 in 6 days so that Arsenal v Stoke can be on TV

 

[Lighty64]

Arsenal should be playing this Saturday with League Cup on Tuesday, we should be playing Sunday/Wednesday. We have to play 3 in 6 days so that Arsenal v Stoke can be on TV

it's not just Arsenal on same day, it's Birmingham v Swansea too. Swansea are away tonight, away on Sunday and away on Wednesday. they would have to transfer back both games to the Tuesday.

the Arscum 1st team will get a rest anyway as wenger plays his 2nd string in the carling, so their 1st team will be as rested over the 6 days between EPL games whatever day they played.

our only disadvantage is that Villa will field a strong team, which will make it a very difficult game, just hope we can do it as it's my boys birthday so would be a nice prezzie