Chelsea suffers from new Covid pain as Liverpool criticizes the fixture list

Thomas Tuchel said yesterday that Liverpool’s assistant manager had criticized the “absurd” festival schedule and that Chelsea “must start from scratch” when choosing a team for the League Cup quarterfinals. Chelsea could only name four outfielders on the bench for a goalless draw against the wolf on Sunday because of the coronavirus infection and the wave of injuries.
Midfielder Lewis Baker, who was scheduled to appear in Brentford in today’s League Cup quarterfinals after many academy stars were trained on the first team, is now being tested on his own. .. “We can now start from scratch, and this is what we are doing now,” Tuhel said.
“We have postponed training until late in the afternoon. We are preparing for the match now. But even planning the training is very exciting because we don’t know how many players will arrive until the last hour. “
Frustrated Tuhel lamented that Engoro Cante had to rest due to a recent knee problem, but Giorginho was negative against Covid after the previous definitive results were not obtained. Because it was there, I will come back.
Chelsea demanded that the match with the wolf be postponed and was rejected. The next day, the Premier League chose not to suspend the schedule, even though six of the ten weekend games were canceled.
The decision was made on the same day that Britain’s Top Flight reported 90 new cases of coronavirus between players and staff last week. This is a big leap from 42 last week. Tuhel said he wasn’t surprised at the decision to continue, even though he felt the club was making a strong claim.
“I shared my thoughts with everyone,” he said. “We accept the situation and the challenge. We had 14 (outfield) players (within the team), and with many of them we took a great risk. We are complete. I didn’t feel safe. Apart from that, we accept the next challenge, and it won’t be easy because these guys are out. “
Liverpool Assistant Manager Pep Linders has issued a strict warning about the demand for penalties for the remaining Fit players. Jurgen Klopp’s Men is one of eight clubs to play in this week’s League Cup quarterfinals and is packed with league match schedules during Christmas and New Year.
Liverpool are currently quarantined for Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho, Thiago Alcantara and Curtis Jones for Covid and are expected to spin hard against Leicester today. They will face two Premier League matches over the next three days and will face Leeds and Leicester again.
“I think it’s ridiculous to have to play within 48 hours because the risk of injury is much higher and the quality of the game isn’t very good,” Lijnders said.
“The quality of the game goes down as we get tired,” he added. “If higher quality is needed, we need to respect the fact that the Premier League (team) will take 72 hours to recover.”

Manchester United reopened training ground after the outbreak of Covid
Manchester United reopened the Carrington training ground yesterday following an outbreak of the coronavirus that forced them to postpone two Premier League games. United closed Carrington for the first 24 hours eight days ago, and the match between Brentford and Brighton at home was subsequently discontinued.
“Manchester United players have begun to stagger their training at Carrington and begin to return,” the club said. “Last week, due to the Covid-19 outbreak at the club, the complex was closed due to the activities of the first team, but was reopened in the morning (Tuesday).
“Therefore, this will allow interim manager Ralf Rangnick and his team to prepare for the next match, the Premier League meeting with Newcastle United at St. James Park on Monday, December 27th. United is currently 6th at the Premier League table, two games less than most of the top teams. They are planning to travel to face Newcastle struggling next Monday and will have a home game with Burnley three days later.