Recent content by MartinThomas

West Ham did not have to play well to beat them. Can’t see anything other than an away win.

Yes the positioning has still got to be right.

I suppose a one-off cup match is different to playing a lot of youngsters in a succession of league matches.

I don’t think we have much bargaining power on the fee because they know we want to sell him.

As soon as the new date was given, there were comments that there may be another postponement due to the problems at Leicester. Maybe the Premier League need to take some blame for arranging this new date.

I don’t know if the positions of the players are taken into account? You could have enough players but no players in a certain position. Leicester only having 1 defender left could be part of their appeal. Personally I’m not too bothered if the match is postponed or not as we looked sluggish...

It is on the Premier League website. If a team cannot field 13 outfield players for any reason they can ask for a postponement. It goes on to say that the players included are regular squad members and younger players with the appropriate experience.

No I can just see what is going to happen later in the season when we may need the bottom sides to lose and they may be picking up wins against u23 sides!

‘Home grown’ is not relevant because there are home grown players who could have played for the first team for years. It is really about the experience they have.

As I have said we had a side available against Chelsea that would be deemed to be strong enough. The other match you mention is a cup match not a league match.

The rule was posted earlier in this thread.

Of course they could put a side out as they did in the cup. If they play a weakened side in the league it has ramifications for other teams so the league has to decide whether it is making the competition unfair.

If they had only 15 out they may still be able to get the 13 players of the required experience to play the match. As it is they have 17 out so are struggling to do this. The rules are not just about covid now so you need to forget the reasons why they are unavailable. If teams get down so low...

Covid cases do not come into it. We had 13 players of the required experience available against Chelsea. They may argue that they do not have another 5 to add to the 8 ‘regulars’ they have left.

I doubt they would ask for a postponement if they had just lost Vardy - they have also lost Daka, Iheanacho, Ndidi, Mendy, Soumare, Dewsbury-Hall, Thomas, Ricardo, Castagne, Bertrand, Fofana, Evans, Justin, Benkovic, Soyuncu and Amartey.