But I thought next season was starting early in order to build in the World Cup. If so, there isn't much room for a lockdown pause this season. Am I wrong?
Hmm, it gets a little tight but perhaps not impossibly so. Summer 2022: Last game of Prem season is 22nd May First game of new season is 6th August (a week earlier than 2021). Norwich's first pre-season fixture was 16th July 2021, so you'd probably pencil that in for 9th July 2022. Perhaps pre-season training starts 1st July 2022 for simplicity. So currently, Premier League players have about a 5-6 week gap between the final game of the season, and the start of a standard pre-season. Moving 3-4 games from the festive period to May/early June could cut that to 3-4 weeks of complete rest then a full pre-season program. That doesn't feel unreasonable? Considering Norwich were in pre-season before Euro 2020 finished, that looks like considerably more rest than top players had in 2021 at least. (Championship will start 30th July 2022 next season, also about a week earlier than 2021.) .
Burnley-Watford called off tonight as Watford have had a CoVid outbreak. Decision announced 2 hours before kickoff, good job it's not a 4 hour round trip for away fans...
Telegraph is saying Man U have 19 covid cases across all players and staff. That's a lot. The vaccine doesn't stop one from getting covid, it just lessens the impact. I don't see getting through this wave without a shutdown for football.
Doubts about our West Ham match: https://www.edp24.co.uk/sport/norwich-city/ncfc-smith-calls-for-more-covid-guidance-8566036 It seems both sides need 14 of their 25 squad players available.
Ben Gibson has stated that there was no excuse for their poor performance against Aston Villa. So, Ben why was it so poor? Also, Gilmour’s loan period is until the end of season. Lightweight boy in what is a physical league.
I noticed that whenever Gibson plays he puts routine balls out for corners. Villa had a corner in the first minute 10 in total, he makes me nervous.
A further update on how we are comparing with previous seasons - so despite the home loss to Villa, we actually only fall one point (further) behind our 12/13 season equivalent and stay the same on our 11/12 season equivalent: 2021/22 running total after 17 games: 10 points 2011/12 equivalent running total after 17 games: 16 points 2012/13 equivalent running total after 17 games: 21 points The next four games (WHU A, ARS H, PAL A, LEI A) give us the chance of catching up with our 12/13 form as all four equivalents were losses (CHE A, LIV H, WIG A, NEW A), but they are of course tough games. It would be nice to see us squeeze out five points, but I fear that might be too much to ask. On the other hand, we have no chance of catching our 11/12 equivalent for quite some time, because while the equivalent next two games we played that season were draws (LIV A, FUL H), even if we win the next two we will be two points behind and then under Lambert we managed five wins from the equivalent five fixtures after that (BOL A, TOT A, SUN H, QPR A, BOL H). So we would need eight straight wins from now to catch up with Lambert's season (for the equivalent matches - there is then a stretch of poorer form).
Leicester City's game with Tottenham on Thursday and Manchester United's match with Brighton on Saturday have been postponed because of Covid-19. But not ours again.
Half of the weekend's Premier League fixtures are now off after four more games were postponed because of Covid-19 outbreaks. The latest games affected are Southampton v Brentford, Watford v Crystal Palace, West Ham v Norwich and Everton v Leicester
With a lot of luck we could have half a dozen players back by Boxing Day. Rupp, Sargent, PLM, and Tzolis may be out of quarantine by then. Rashica and Norman should be back from injuries. Kabak hopefully just had cramps. Hanley - no idea really. Andrew O - A stress fracture in his back. He will need to be fully healed before playing again. I don't know how long that takes; It was reported to be 2-3 weeks but that seems a quick return to me.
Injuries are a weird thing - I think as a general rule, minor bone injuries heal quite quickly, where as major soft tissue injuries take the longest (and can ruin careers) - so when people talk about a footballer’s broken leg having ruined their career, unless the whole bone snapped and couldn’t be reset, it’s often the damage to the surrounding muscles and ligaments that actually are the problem. That was different before modern medicine where a badly broken bone was almost a death sentence.
Some of the squad have been getting jabs. I read in an Athletic article this morning that the whole senior squad (and staff) are fully vaccinated, so presumably these are boosters they've only just become eligible for.
Re: Andrew - Smith said “He’s got a stress response in his lower back." Back problems worry me. Maybe I'm over-reacting a little.
Premier League clubs will meet on Monday to discuss the escalating crisis around the coronavirus pandemic. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/59698662
Let’s hope coronavirus doesn’t ruin our chances of survival in the Premier League like it did last time… The team this would really help us Newcastle who will spend 10s of millions in just a few weeks’ time.
