Everton v Leicester City was postponed once again in a decision attacked by rivals. There has been a lot of misinformation, so here is why it was postponed.
Rival supporters have gotten up in arms over the Premier League decision to postpone the Everton v Leicester match for the second time. The fixture was previously postponed and the league rescheduled the match for this period.
As a result, plenty of misinformation has been spread regarding the cause of the postponement. The most common misunderstandings are: the “Foxes have so many COVID cases because they go to darts”, “LCFC are just trying to get games postponed due to AFCON”, and “they could field a team against Watford so why not now”.
We will go over what Brendan Rodgers has said as the stated reason, as well as looking at each assumption in turn and seeing why they are simply false.
Leicester City are injured
As per LeicestershireLive, the Northern Irish boss has explained quite clearly why the King Power side had the match postponed:
"“The reality is we have eight first-team players available. We have to see what that looks like. But certainly it’s way below what the stipulation would be”"
The primary reason why the Foxes had the game postponed is to do with a massive number of injuries – a lot short term – which has decimated the number of available players. Rodgers would have only eight senior team players.
The Premier League rules are that any team must be able to field an outfield team of 13 plus one goalkeeper. All registered senior team players and ‘sufficiently’ experienced U21’s players count towards this total.
The King Power side have eight plus one at the moment, as they do have goalkeepers available. However, they do not have the number of outfield players required.
The counterpoints
So, the first common attack is that a number of the east Midlands team‘s players went to the darts, and that somehow this means our fixture had to be called off. To be certain, only four players went to the darts – Hamza Choudhury, Harvey Barnes, James Maddison, and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
Out of those four, three of them are available and none of them have contracted COVID-19 or spread the virus to any players in the club. It is not a COVID outbreak which has crippled Leicester and nor does that argument make any sense.
The second idea is that LCFC want matches postponed during AFCON due to the absence of Kelechi Iheanacho, Wilfred Ndidi, Papy Mendy, and Daniel Amartey. So, that would be three extra players.
Eight plus three equals 11. That is still not the required number so is not a logical argument. It is also clear that we can win without those three – we thrashed Watford 4-1 – so it is not necessary to cancel because of AFCON.
The FA Cup argument
The final argument is that we were previously able to field a team in the FA Cup against Watford. The clear difference is that the two competitions have different rules for team selection.
In the FA Cup, you either play the fixture or you forfeit because you can select from almost your whole player pool. We have already stated the PL rules, but to be clear, there is a registered pool of 25 over 23’s and then you can play U21’s.
To be blunt, Rodgers would have called for the FA Cup fixture to be postponed were the option available. The majority of our first and second teams in the senior side are unavailable and having to rely on U23 debutants is a risky game.
Luckily for the King Power side, the risk paid off in the tournament. However, it would not have paid off in the Premier League against top – well, relatively speaking anyway – quality opposition. The number of injuries we have puts Leicester had an immense competitive disadvantage.
It is within the interests of the competition to maintain its integrity by allowing teams who are effectively crippled to have a fair chance at the match when then are not quite to vulnerable. Simply put, we could put up a team for the Watford game because we were forced to, not because we wanted to.
That being said, I would love to see what you think the Leicester City side would have looked like if the Foxes were forced to play the Everton match? Let Foxes of Leicester know on our social media channels.