Aston Villa appeared to take a little dig at Liverpool on Twitter today. Fans didn’t see the funny side – and rightfully so.
Liverpool sent a request to the EFL on Tuesday evening for their Carabao Cup first-leg with Arsenal to be postponed. There have been further Covid-19 cases at the club, adding to the group who missed the draw with Chelsea at the weekend.
One of those who missed that clash was Jurgen Klopp, of course, leaving Pep Lijnders in charge. But now Lijnders is also positive, ruling him out of the Arsenal game at the very least.
That certainly boosts Liverpool’s chances of getting the Arsenal game pushed back. Not that the world of football is on board with that, however.
There has been a tremendous backlash to the Reds’ request and it seems even Aston Villa have got involved. They decided to Tweet a little flashback to their FA Cup third-round match last season that saw 16 debuts.
Covid-19 ruled out essentially everyone and Villa instead played the kids. Given the timing of the Tweet, in amongst the discussion around Liverpool’s request, it appears to be a dig at the Reds.
Aston Villa take a little dig at Liverpool
‘Clueless’ is right because this entire ordeal is showing people up for not understanding the rules. If Villa could have postponed that game, they almost certainly would have.
Similarly, the Leyton Orient example from earlier in the EFL Cup was a different situation.
Here are the FA Cup rules on postponement:
“If the Clubs are not able to reschedule and play the match on a date in the Weekend Window or
Weekday Window, the Clubs will have no further opportunity to reschedule the match.”
Essentially, there are two windows that a game can be moved to. If the clubs don’t agree on rescheduling for those windows – or can’t because of other fixtures – it’s either forfeit or play the kids. This is also what led to Liverpool playing their kids against Villa in an EFL Cup quarter-final back in 2019.
And Sky Sports point out the rules for EFL Cup postponement here.
“Rule 5.1 of the Carabao Cup competition states a club has to forfeit a match should they not be able to complete it before the next round is scheduled.”
The ‘next round’ would be the final on February 27th – Liverpool can definitely find room before then. Thus unlike Villa or Leyton Orient, they can ask for postponement according to the rules. The gap between semi-final and final makes it possible.
It really is as simple as that.
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