Wimbledon's letter to the EFL worth a read. Make valid points about match postponements by opposition teams;
https://www.afcwimbledon.co.uk/news/2021/december/club-statement2/
Exactly how I feel about it. QPR, with injuries. Preston, with injuries.
You'd think they'd be wrapping the remaining players in cotton wool to avoid any further shortage. Are they really doing the maximum to get these games on and keep players available?
But no. Why would they? A little bit of covid, Christmas Day and Boxing Day with the family for the players and staff and replay the game when some of the players are back from injury; everyone's a winner. Except they're not. The opposition measures to avoid such outbreaks have been costly and futile and you now create a congestion in the schedule for the opposition because as Anne Robinson would have said "you are the weakest link" except it's not "goodbye" it's "well done you".
Hopefully they are telling the club they have to announce who is positive and when they first tested positive or why they are unavailable and obtaining controlled proof. Every cancellation has said EFL will investigate. So what's the outcome? Were they really ALL unable to field a team? It seems the club dictate by saying "game off" and the investigation goes afterwards. You hear of the PL telling teams they cannot postpone, Chelsea and Palace two recent examples. Yet it hasn't happened once in the EFL. A few 3-0 forfeits and you'll be amazed how quickly clubs set up bubbles and tell their players to make sacrifices.
If you're lacking players, then it should be through covid, not because you had existing injuries anyway, because that is an issue in squad construction and management. It should be 14 players available due to covid. If you have 10 available because 4 are non-covid you should be throwing in the youths and U23s. It's not for others to bare the brunt of you having signed injury prone players, as an example.
Leeds are a prime example of this, though I appreciate Bielsa's attitude would be to bat on. They have 25 squad spots. He probably uses about 20 because he prefers to work with a small squad. It's therefore nonsense to hear that the Leeds bench were all teenagers and have limited appearances because in their squad, they are numbers 20-25 through choice. It's not the other club's issue to own their thin squad building.
Management is not just picking 1-11 and the tactics for that day. To avoid the season running away from them, the EFL and PL would be better saying "from first week of Jan their will be no cancellations through covid. It is up to the clubs to provide sufficient measures and instill required discipline amongst their players to support this".
If that requires bubbles to be in place or players to effectively self isolate between matches then this is what should be demanded. The player's job is to be available for selection and the clubs and players should be making more effort to enforce that.
