I think there will be one more game if we progress to the next round of FA Cup.
I guess the winter break will be scrapped to accommodate the postponed games.
FA Cup tie is first week of Feb, if we get through Shrewsbury.
Winter break was confirmed as scrapped last summer due to the Covid delays. Expecting it back for next season.
Yeah the League Cup tie dates are to be confirmed, but they will be on the Tues or Weds, hopefully the Weds!
On the one hand, Leeds are shipping a lot of goals right now and it would have been a good time to play them. On the other hand, one less game in a busy period suits us just fine. Provided this one can be rescheduled at a suitable time… and that has me slightly concerned, because the people on the scheduling side of the game don’t care about the players.
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Let’s hope we don’t lose league on GD of 7 goals!
It’s the integrity of the league. Not just us but everyone. We beat Leeds regardless but It’s annoying.
What’s that gap between Jan 23 and Feb 10 
There is a winter break of sorts from the Palace game to the first weekend in February.
However there are also internationals in Asia and South America and with AFCON I think we could avoid any game rescheduled then (if a league 2 team can).
The one outstanding week is that one between the Brentford and Palace, this I assume was a 3rd round cup replay week but that’s gone.
Saying that I assume there must be a fourth round replay week if we progress that isn’t used. So the club should push for that.
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Didn’t they scrap the winter break this season already due to the WC being in December so they wanted to get the season finished earlier, allowing next season to start earlier giving them the time to stop the leagues for WC?
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There is an “winter break” (international period) in late January after Palace.
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The frustrating part is it is still so opaque. How many players do Leeds have out, and out for what reasons? They are now reporting 5 additional cases, but they have also cited additional injuries making it harder for them to fulfil the fixture and the official reason given has been illness and injury. Is this a limitation of the threshold the league put in place? If they are 2 short of getting a postponement can they just make 2 players put their hand up and say they have a sore knee and cannot play? Should they have focused on the number of covid absences rather than overall availability of players?
Keep in mind the famous Boro case in 96 was one in which they had 23 player in total unavailable through injury, suspension and a flu outbreak. That left them only 12 players available 3 of whom were keepers and their request to postpone was denied.
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The FA Cup games go in that gap (weekend of 5/6th Feb) - as I said earlier!
The postponed suits us, however you can just imagine Leeds thinking, Wow, we have so many injuries, what can we do in order to get them fit, and not to miss any games? It’s strange when you look at the article and it says:
The Premier League said Leeds could not play "due to the number of players with Covid-19, injuries and illness.
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There is a two week international break/gap from the weekend 21st Jan to the 4th Feb as I said it won’t go in there or we should prevent from doing so it also shouldn’t go in the gap between Palace and Brentford we should be forceful on that.
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Do you guys think the Leeds game will be played before or after AFCON ends? Any indication yet?
There is effectively one midweek I would hope the club reject it, the next free week that doesn’t clash after that would be end of Feb and beginning March.
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The only way to stop clubs abusing the system is for the PL to demand a list of the ‘injured’ players and tell the clubs those players wont to able to play in the re-arranged game, plus a mass testing of the whole squad. If it turns out the club is playing the system the points should be given to the opposition and no re-arranged game.
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Klopp and Lijnders were complaining that playing on the 26th and 28th is not possible - especially during this moment.
Now they have what they asked for.
Leicester struggled against us with their best possible team. Think their injury problems got worse (Söyüncü and Vardy) and they have to play City on Sunday before they play us on Tuesday.
Makes it a must win game or actually a must win by at least 3 goals (to satisfy @Quicksand )
Alisson, Trent, Matip, Salah, Mané, Jota could all return to the starting line up and maybe even VvD and Fabinho.
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Christmas Eve babe and you are still trying to wind people up…
When you fully understand the consequences of GD come back and talk shit, otherwise go eat your selection box or whatever.
Happy Christmas
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Ah, crap.
I’m generally on the managers’ side when it comes to this topic, but speaking as a fan for a moment, I also enjoyed games around Christmas. It was the best part of it for me!
But can understand it. Leeds were in trouble even before the virus, now their teams just make no sense whatsoever. Ayling covering at LCB, stuff like that, just an absolute mess.
I agree
But their game vs City and against Arsenal went ahead with a depleted squad.
Probably should beat them anyway, but the randomness of cancellations is a bit annoying.
Leicester smelt blood on Wednesday and put out a full team after having games postponed, and now Liverpool have a feee day whilst the Leeds players initially affected should be recovered?
Added to the squad we had vs Spurs??
Its all a bit chaotic from the PL.