66 2GM Wednesday December 22 2021 | the times
SportFootball
Thomas Tuchel said he has had to draft
under-23 players into Chelsea’s squad
for tonight’s Carabao Cup quarter-final
against Brentford after admitting it had
been near “irresponsible” to play
N’Golo Kanté against Wolverhampton
Wanderers on Sunday.
Kanté, 30, played the entirety of the
goalless draw at Molineux, despite
having been out for almost a month
with a knee injury, after seven players
tested positive, or showed symptoms,
for Covid-19. Chelsea are expected to be
without at least ten players at Brent-
ford, which Tuchel believes has com-
promised the competition.
“I don’t like judging importance of
games because you can never tell what
it does to you and there’s nothing more
important than winning and perform-
ing together. This is totally against our
nature but maybe we are forced to do
it,” the Chelsea head coach said.
“It makes me sad because this is not
what sport is about and this is not what
we are all about, but it can happen [to-
night] that we prioritise the health —
not the game against Aston Villa [on
Boxing Day] but the health — and do
not take any risk for some of our
players. We accepted the challenge
when we arrived at Wolverhampton
with 14 players [they had 17 in the
match-day squad]. And out of these 14
players with a lot of them we took a
huge risk. And in general we did not feel
fully safe. It will not get easier.
“To have a team of 13 or 14 players for
one match, this is a problem but not the
big problem. We can do it and we can
fight, but from the match [at Wolves] we
have Trevoh Chalobah injured. We
have N’Golo Kanté and Mateo Kovacic
involved, which was taking huge, huge
risks, and now we are paying for this.
“We believe in a certain quality and if
you overuse players or you don’t have
them available in this amount for ten
days, you have the risk that it backfires
in injuries. I think the injury for Trevoh
Chalobah is a very unusual injury. We
make him play, it is my fault.
“What we did with N’Golo Kanté was
close to being irresponsible to let him
play for 90 minutes against Wolver-
hampton. Will he be involved in the
squad now against Brentford? Simply,
no. We will now give him time to recover
and prepare for the Aston Villa match.”
Kovacic, the Croatian midfielder,
played 25 minutes of the game at
Molineux having not played for eight
weeks because of a hamstring injury
and also testing positive for Covid-19.
Kovacic, 27, returned to training from a
ten-day quarantine only two days
before featuring against Wolves.
“This is the concern we have because
they have Covid and then we don’t
know if it’s risky to play them or not,”
Tuchel said. “They cannot start with
five matches in two weeks or three
matches in one week. It’s not possible.We have to protect our players, and
that’s why we brought in the
academy. We think about playing with
them. You can handle these situations
but it will catch us and backfire on us.”
Jorginho was one of the seven players
who either tested positive or showed
symptoms of Covid-19 before Sunday’s
game, but the Italian midfielder is
available for selection after it was
discovered he recorded a false positive.
Tuchel also reiterated his position on
vaccinations after the Premier League
announced 16 per cent of players had
not had a jab. “We cannot force peopleto get vaccinated,” he said. “I don’t want
to get involved in pointing fingers and
starting the hunt for non-vaccinated
people. This is a choice to make.”
Thomas Frank, the Brentford man-
ager, says he now has no positive Covid
cases in his squad. Brentford’s last two
matches, against Manchester United
and Southampton, were called off
because of the virus, but Frank, who
was the first Premier League manager
to call for a break in fixtures, said: “We’ll
put 11 players out. The [postponements]
helped us break the circuit, so from six
cases Thursday, [we have] zero today.”
David Moyes, the West Ham manag-
er, fears the club will be denied the
opportunity to postpone fixtures even
if his entire first XI test positive.
Moyes said he had been told by the
Premier League that the five under-23
players who started in a Europa League
group game against Dynamo Zagreb on
December 9 were now classed as part of
the first-team squad. “That would now
count against us if we got 10 to 12 people
with Covid and they were senior
players,” said Moyes, whose side go
to Tottenham Hotspur in tonight’s
Carabao Cup quarter-final.
Unvaccinated footballers’ own goal,
leading article, page 37Liverpool have described the fixture
schedule, in which they will play twice
in 55 hours, as absurd and explained
why they wanted a break in the Premier
League season.
Pep Lijnders, the assistant manager,
warned the quality of games would
deteriorate as a consequence of the top
flight’s decision to plough ahead with its
timetable rather than postpone match-
es because of Covid-19 concerns.
Liverpool spoke in favour of calling
off a round of games at a Premier
League meeting on Monday, but failed
to win support from the majority of
clubs. It leaves Jürgen Klopp’s side, who
have four positive Covid cases within
their camp, hosting Leeds United at
12.30pm on Boxing Day before facing
Leicester City at 8pm on December 28.
Lijnders reiterated Klopp’s position
and said the lack of recovery time
would damage the quality of games.
‘Absurd’ to play twice within three days
“Jürgen made this point really clear
after the game [a 2-2 draw away to Tot-
tenham Hotspur on Sunday],” Lijnders
said. “We really believe we are in the
position to protect our players. We
think it is absurd we have to play within
48 hours because it is a much higher
risk of injury and the quality of the
game will not be as good.
“If our players are more fatigued,
they don’t make as quick decisions.
They are not as brave, they are not as
creative, there are not as many sponta-
neous actions, they will play the ball to
the side instead of forwards.
“The quality of the game goes down
the more fatigue there is. We have to
respect the fact that a Premier League
match needs 72 hours to recover if we
want more quality. I think it is absurd.”
Lijnders also said the Premier League
should have taken guidance from
doctors in Monday’s meeting rather
than club officials. “The Premier
League should ask them, not the CEOs,not the managers, because health
always comes position No 1 above
everything,” he said.
Liverpool host Leicester in the Cara-
bao Cup tonight and will be missing
nine players, including Virgil van Dijk,
although the captain, Jordan Hender-
son, has recovered from a cold. Andrew
Robertson begins a three-match ban.
Lijnders, meanwhile, has said he
wants to try management again. The
Dutchman left Liverpool to take charge
of NEC Nijmegen in January 2018, but
returned to Anfield six months later
having been sacked after failing to
secure promotion to the Eredivisie.
Lijnders’s contract expires in 2024 along
with that of Klopp.
“That’s the plan,” he said when asked
if he wanted to be a manager again. “Jür-
gen knows this. When the time comes I
will sit down with my management and
see the options I have. But we are in the
middle of this beautiful project and after
that I will decide.”Paul Joyce
Liverpool to object to Tierney’s
appointment for the match at Stamford
Bridge in 11 days’ time, but conversa-
tions could take place between club
officials and the Professional Game
Match Officials Limited [PGMOL].
In 20 domestic games this season,
Liverpool have received 27 yellow cards
and one red. Eleven yellows and the red
were issued in three games by Tierney.
However, Tierney’s failure to send off
James Milner for a second bookable
offence against Manchester City left
Pep Guardiola infuriated.Klopp is off the hook with
FA over referee comments
shoved Diogo Jota to the turf and then
sent off Robertson for a wild challenge
after looking at the pitchside monitor.
He had initially brandished a yellow
card at the Scotland captain.
“You don’t need a ref that helps you.
You need a ref who is clear and objec-
tive,” Klopp said. “In three decisive
decisions he was once right and that
was with Robbo, and twice wrong. All
three were against us. I have no idea
what his problem is with me.” However,
the FA ruled that Klopp’s comments did
not breach its guidelines, which state:
“Any post-match comments that criti-
cise the performance or competence of
a match official are permitted unless
they imply bias; attack their integrity or
are personally offensive.”
There is no formal mechanism forcontinued from back
Clubs warn
of financial
ruin if fans
kept away
League shareholders’ meeting would
be called to decide on broadcast
arrangements.
Insiders say it is almost certain that
would bring blanket television cover-
age and staggered kick-offs, as hap-
pened last season. Some clubs opposed
this but there was strong government
pressure to make all the games avail-
able on TV if fans were not permitted to
attend.
The additional live matches would be
split among the rights holders, Sky
Sports, BT Sport, Amazon Prime Video
and the BBC, depending on the size of
their TV-rights deal. If the crowd
restrictions are in force only for a
couple of weeks, Amazon and the BBC
may be deprived of a live match.
Even one match behind closed doors
will affect finances. Tottenham Hot-
spur and Manchester United can make
about £5 million from a single home
fixture, while Millwall’s chief executive,
Steve Kavanagh, has claimed that a
return to empty stadiums would be
“financial Armageddon” for Sky Bet
Championship clubs.
Swansea City and Cardiff City have
been affected by the Welsh government
restrictions. However, as things stand,
Swansea fans will be able to travel to
southeast London on Boxing Day to
watch their team play against Millwall.
Kavanagh said: “The bigger concern
than getting the games on is the finan-
cial implications of going behind closed
doors or even with reduced crowds.
“A dark cloud is looming for football.
We saw in the Championship last year
all we got were loans and that feels
like an £8 million millstone that has
been hung around our necks. We
have no financial support. You have
the Championship that is on its
knees and the Premier League, who
have spent £1 billion in the transfer
market.
“I worry about going behind closed
doors and I even worry about socially
distanced crowds, because the financial
consequences on a league that is
already known to be a financial basket
case could be really quite dramatic.”
The Premier League and the EFL
both announced on Monday that they
would not have a break in the season
over the festive weekend.continued from back
Tierney has given
11 of Liverpool’s 27
cautions this termIt was near irresponsible of
me to pick Kanté, says Tuchel
Tom Roddy, Jon West Three rising stars to watch
Harvey Vale, 18
Versatile midfielder
with an eye for goal
who joined from
Fulham as an
under-13. Promoted
to development squad this season
after impressing in Under-18 side.Lewis Hall, 17
Box-to-box central midfielder but
comfortable anywhere on the left on
his preferred foot. Represented
England up to under-17 level.Xavier
Mbuyamba, 19
Dutch central
defender who joined
from Barcelona last
year and is known
for playing out from the back. An
ACL injury interrupted his start.CLIVE HOWES/CHELSEA FC/GETTY IMAGES
Hall could be
given a chance
tonight as
Chelsea rotate