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Premier League managers split as new ‘festive shutdown’ plans are revealed

Premier League managers are left split as new ‘festive shutdown’ plans are revealed due to the rise of Covid cases this week.

Some top flight clubs are pushing for this break to combat the outbreak in squads, touting the prospect of stopping matches until the FA Cup third round on the 7th of January, with it then returning on the weekend of January 15th.

Only seven out of the 10 fixtures were played this week, with three matches called off due to Covid outbreaks, including Tottenham’s trip to Leicester City on Thursday evening, which initially saw a request to postpone the game rejected before a U-turn a day or so later.

Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham are just some of those named by a report to halt the season until early January.

This weekend’s Premier League fixture list has so far seen five matches fall victim, but what do the managers think should happen next?

Brighton boss Graham Potter revealed his side were unsuccessful in their request for Wednesday evening’s clash with Wolves – a 1-0 defeat – to be rearranged following a positive Covid test and injury crisis at the club.

They were were without a host of key players for the game, with top scorer Neal Maupay and Pascal Gross the latest men to join the growing list of absentees.

Their game against Manchester United this weekend was postponed, only after a Covid outbreak at the Old Trafford club.

The Premier League intends to “continue its current fixture schedule where safely possible”, and Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says he doesn’t see the benefits of stopping the competition.

“Stopping the league is probably not the right thing but with the schedule we have to be more flexible,” said Klopp, whose players are double vaccinated and some have had boosters.

“So far football kept it pretty much outside with the testing regimes, the massive disciplinary things for the boys did really well, but this time it is really difficult.”

Klopp added: “I don’t see the massive benefit of it [stopping the Premier League] because we come back [and] it is still the same.

“If the virus will be gone then I am the first that stops and goes home and waits until it is gone. But that is probably not the case, so where’s the real benefit of it? We hope we can play and Tottenham can play on Sunday.”

Klopp, in his programme notes ahead of the 3-1 victory against Newcastle, urged fans to “trust experts” and “ignore lies” in a plea for supporters to be vaccinated.

He wrote: “My message around this has always been simple and clear, I hope: I trust experts. I follow the advice of smart, educated people who know their field because they’ve dedicated their lives to it and have studied it.

“We are clearly moving back to stricter measures around the team environment and at LFC we are absolutely OK with that.

“As I have spoken about before, we have a very high take-up of the vaccine at our club and have done for a long time. It might be 100 per cent now or as close as is possible, so that’s important.

“I have no issue telling you I received my booster jab as soon as I was eligible and again that will be the case for many if not nearly all within our ranks in the coming days and weeks.”

The Reds boss remains hopeful the situation has been contained but expects there to be more positives in the coming days.

“The situation is difficult for us, the whole world, and we pretty much woke up this morning and had three positive cases,” he added.

“The process we follow is a lateral flow test and then go back into the car and in this moment we had three positive tests, which is not too cool.

“We had to make the decision to send the boys home: three players out, two of them would have started today but it was not a reason to cancel a game tonight or even ask for it.

“We will see how it develops. This virus is around us so long it is unlikely it will stay at three.”

Newcastle manager Eddie Howe believes a break might be needed to stop cases rising further and to protect the sporting integrity of the league.

“I don’t think we want half the games played and half the games not played,” Howe said. “The league really loses something if it becomes disjointed in terms of the number of games played.

“I feel a decision needs to be made for the benefit of the league and to make sure there’s integrity through the competition.”

“It’s (a player’s vaccination status) certainly something we’ll be considering,” he added.

“The vaccination status is something we take very seriously. We’ve been in regular dialogue with all of our players, educating them and making sure that we’re in tune with everybody else and following the same guidelines.

“Am I comfortable with the vaccination levels within the squad? I’m comfortable with everything that we’ve delivered here to this point.

“Coming into the club, I think we’ve been very good with all our procedures, and the players have been very respectful of that. The staff have been excellent, and we’re doing everything we can.”

Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel was asked if the rising cases and match postponements means we have now reached a point where the competition needs a break.

The German told BT Sport: “I don’t know. I don’t want to get involved in this political stuff. If the other games are postponed, they are postponed. If they decide we have to play even with our cases, then we play and do the best.”

Rafa Benitez said: “We can see that the virus is going up everywhere, so then we have to be really careful.

“If the Premier League decide to cancel games, I feel that it could be an opportunity to be sure that we control and test them again, like we’re doing all the time, so that we can start again without any issues.

“Today we had little issues, and other teams had bigger issues so I think we need to be an example for all the rest of society. The health of everyone is the most important thing.”

Brentford manager Thomas Frank has called for all this weekend’s games in the Premier League to be called off – and Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa was asked if he would be in favour of a circuit break and whether he felt the integrity of the competition comes into question if teams are playing with understrength squads.

Bielsa said: “I wouldn’t like to come up against a team that is depleted due to Covid as I wouldn’t like to take advantage of that.

“The authorities are the ones who have all the information to make these types of decisions.”

Twitter users reacted with Premier League managers split as the new ‘festive shutdown’ plans are revealed…

@Ant_Dale86: Then they’ll have to fit in 3 festive fixtures, plus the games already postponed during the period of the season where the cups and Europe resume

@HaraoharaO: Great idea then they all just get covid again in January whereas now most teams are already over the outbreak

@BerjLee: I agree with klopp on this! Whats the point?? Will the world have reset in 2 weeks time and covid will no longer be around

@Bruce_Ball27: Yes, do it. Half the teams aren’t playing anyway at the moment its literally a few weeks and then we can return to a full fixture schedule again.

@WHUBruce: You’ll never find time to play the games

@rossrobson91: Can’t wait to hear all the complaints from these clubs managers when they’ve got to make up all those festive games over a week in the new year.

@SamKayze1: If that happens, it’ll months before it returns. Waiting two weeks or so doesn’t make sense because nothing will substantially change in that time. There’ll just be new cases when the testing restarts and then the cycle begins again

@DannyJewitt: The idea will be to allow time for people to get their booster jab so transmission will be limited when games restart. It also allows teams with outbreaks to get back on their feet.

@tomgreen2608: may as well cancel Xmas altogether then. Boxing day without football is just shit.

@chrislepkowski: Makes sense. Fingers crossed will be applied across leagues

@AlexKnutsen: Cancel the domestic cups to make room for postponed games to be played. What ever resources (money) that are connected to the cups should then be shared between clubs in the EFL as compensation for lost income.

@chrismack_nufc: This decision could literally keep us in the premier league. Get us to Jan with no more fixtures please #NUFC

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