{"id":4555,"date":"2022-01-05T17:24:33","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T17:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=4555"},"modified":"2022-01-08T15:17:20","modified_gmt":"2022-01-08T15:17:20","slug":"jurgen-feared-the-reaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=4555","title":{"rendered":"J\u00fcrgen Feared the Reaper"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Arsenal were supposed<\/strong> to be playing a League Cup tie against Liverpool at the Grove this Thursday evening at 7:45 BST. But in advance of travelling supporters heading South from the land of Scouse the Reds successfully petitioned the Football League to postpone the game due to their combination of Covid (including J\u00fcrgen Klopp and his assistant), injuries, and loss of players to the African Cup of Nations. The latter isn’t an excuse the Football League is supposed<\/strong> to listen to, but combined with the Reds’ other issues, and them being Liverpool, it looks like they got a hearing on that basis as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because, unless they suddenly release a list of their new Covid-afflicted players (come on, J\u00fcrgen, release the list…or are you…scared?) they should never have been granted their petition. The EFL rules, applicable to most clubs, state there have to be 14 players registered with the League able to play the game, 11 for the pitch and 3 for the bench. Other than that, there should have been no other reason for the Football League to consider postponing the match, except, well, Liverpool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their weak, mumbly, run-on, hand-over-mouth statement the EFL said: \u201cHaving now fully reviewed the circumstances involved, the League has accepted Liverpool\u2019s request after determining, albeit reluctantly, that a postponement was the only option as the club looks to mitigate against the further risk of infection amongst its squad and staff alongside ensuring public health was protected by not travelling from Liverpool to London.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the heck? Parsing that sentence would take a Faustian bargain. It appears<\/strong> that the EFL is helping Liverpool mitigate against future infection rather than considering currently infected playing staff (which is their purview, right?). But no one should believe Liverpool will ever get favorable treatment when they whine, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absent any new knowledge about the players infected (release the list, J\u00fcrgen!), let’s forego a full listing of the remaining players from the 40 Liverpool have registered with the EFL\/Premier League. Because, really, who wants to be *that* bored? It boils down to having available 29 of those 40, including 2 goalkeepers and at least 12 outfield players that could comprise a minimal squad in accordance with EFL rules. It could have looked like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelleher<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TAA — Van Dijk — Konat\u00e9 — Robertson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Henderson — Fabinho — Milner<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ox — Jota — Jones<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bench: Adrian, Tsimikas, Gomez, Beck, Morton, Gordon, Minimano<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, Liverpool put the Football League under pressure make a decision, and a decision they indeed made. Is this just a transparent ploy from a worried J\u00fcrgen Klopp to avoid having to play a resurgent Arsenal with a squad that is depleted, yet not skeletal? Everyone starting above has played in the past few weeks in their games. The entire bench has been on the bench or on the field in their past few games. So what are they afraid of? Why go whimpering to the Football League?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because: Liverpool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are coming off of an outstanding showing against Man City, and would have been able to play in a similar manner against a somewhat depleted (yet still clearly dangerous) Liverpool side. The hassling, harrying defense that we played for the first half against City (indeed, before Gabi was sent off) was a thing of beauty, and we should have similarly been able to boss a Liverpool club that is clearly feeling sorry for themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They’re afraid of facing our squad, one which came within a five-minute period of madness from beating the title holders and current leaders of the Premiership. They’re afraid of losing and not being able to change enough to make the return leg at Anfield something they can get anything out of, other than being bounced out of the Cup. So, even in the absence of J\u00fcrgen’s list, they forced the game to be rescheduled as a second leg, for Thursday, 20 January, still at 7:45 Emirates time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why? Because. Liverpool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arsenal were supposed to be playing a League Cup tie against Liverpool at the Grove this Thursday evening at 7:45 BST. But in advance of travelling supporters heading South from the land of Scouse the Reds successfully petitioned the Football League to postpone the game due to their combination of Covid (including J\u00fcrgen Klopp and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4555"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4555"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4570,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4555\/revisions\/4570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}