Match Day Thread Southampton v Shrewsbury Tuesday 19/1/2021 8pm BT Sport 2

Probably tomorrow - Friday is the earliest they can reopen their training ground.

 

Saturday 16th January 2021

Referee: Stuart Attwell.
Assistants: Harry Lennard, Eddie Smart.
Fourth official: Robert Jones.
VAR: Jonathan Moss.
Assistant VAR: Andy Halliday.

 

I heard they were considering doing the whole game by VAR...

 

Yes there are.

 

I can see that to maximise profits, the TV companies will remove the ref and make all decisions via an interactive vote via their app. That way they will get as many people as possible paying for subs so they can influence the game and the big clubs will always get the decisions. Rather like now actually...

 

Just posted (on the right thread!)

 

My word, how many penalties per match would Man Utd get that way!

 

Watch the Leeds game get postponed and then us return loads of positive tests.

 

Could work in our favour playing Leeds at a later date.

 

I was feeling a 'bollocks-has-covid-not-gone-yet-then' malaise when I read this. Nice one. An early candidate for post of the year. Sadly can only like once!

 

Wpn't help with fixture congestion this - the devil in me hopes they return a few more positives (asymptomatic of course) and we get a bye.

 

What a mess.

 

It depends what way you look at it. It's difficult to say if it will help us vs Leeds - eg yes Vestergaard might be back, but what if Ings or someone is out instead - but it'll surely help us vs Arsenal. They already have midweek off; we were going to go into it off the back of a tough PL match. Now some of our guys will get a midweek off too - and even those who play vs Shrewsbury still get an extra 24 hours now.

 

Could potentially do so. Instead of two tough away matches in 4 days post the seasons busiest period, Ralph can probably rest a couple for midweek and then play Leeds in a free midweek later on in the season.

However, the PL may end up regretting it if one of us and Leeds has an outbreak down the line and has another 2 games postponed.

Overall I'm pleased it's being played though. When we win it in May it'll be better that we didn't have a bye on the way

 

I'm guessing there might also be a provision that if we were to lose to Shrewsbury, the Leeds game could be played on 4th round weekend. Save us both having a free weekend.

 

Good point, let's hope it doesn't come to that though!

 

Am I missing something?

I would be fuming if I was a villa or derby fan who went out having to play their youth team.

Why are Shrewsbury so special to get another chance?

 

I think its cos Shrewsbury dont have a youth team they could call upon, whereas Derby & Villa do.

Might be bollocks mind

 

Or the youth players used the same training facilities? I doubt Shrewsbury have got a big enough ground to segregate the first team squad from the youth.