THIRD ROUND CHAOS AS COVID HITS VILLA
VILLA MUST PICK YOUTH PLAYERS TO FULFIL TIE
THE FA Cup descended into chaos yesterday after a huge coronavirus outbreak at Aston Villa left them scrambling to find a team to face Liverpool in tonight’s big third-round clash at Villa Park.
Southampton’s tie with Shrewsbury tomorrow was called off due to a number of cases at the League One club, but Villa will try to fulfil their fixture with a mixture of Under 23 and Under 18 players.
Their entire first- team bubble — comprising manager Dean Smith, his staff and the playing squad — will be in isolation and absent from the stadium.
The prospective squad for the Liverpool game were all tested yesterday and the match will go ahead if they return negative results across the board, with Under 23 boss Mark Delaney in charge.
Those results are being fasttracked and are expected to be known early today, with the match due to be televised live on BT Sport.
If there are further positives,
however, it is unlikely the game will go ahead.
By playing the tie rather than pushing for a postponement, Villa are compromising their chances of progress. But the FA had made clear early on that any club who could muster 14 players would be expected to play their game or forfeit the tie — and there is little space left in the calendar to rearrange matches.
Villa’s Premier League game against Tottenham, scheduled for January 13, is now in serious doubt and they are due to face Everton three days later.
Villa have already played two games fewer than many of their rivals due to Manchester United’s involvement in last season’s Europa League semi- finals — which were belatedly played in August — and a Covid outbreak at Newcastle which forced that fixture to be postponed.
Fears over disruption to the third round of the competition had been growing all week due to an alarming rise in Covid-19 cases across the football divisions. ions.
News of the outbreak tbreak at Villa’s training ning ground broke early rly yesterday afternoon rh — with manager Smith’s pre-match press conference delayed because the club were in talks with the FA and Premier League.
A joint Villa/FA A statement was as issued yesterday and read: ‘ The Football otball Association and Aston Villa are working closely together to try to ensure that the club’s third round fixture with Liverpool can go ahead as planned at Villa Park.
‘Final confirmation will be made on Friday pending the results of additional Covid-19 testing.’
Villa conducted initial tests on Monday and then re-tested on Wednesday after a number of positive results came back.
Further positives were returned in Wednesday’s testing session. The players have not trained since Tuesday.
Villa are cautiously optimistic about the results of the tests for the Under 23 and Under 18 squads, who train in a different part of the club’s Bodymoor Heath complex and do not come into contact with their senior colleagues.
Delaney will be given full control of the Villa team’s selection and tactics for the Cup game if it goes ahead. The match is the third tie of the third round to be affected by the virus so far.
Like Villa, Derby County will face Chorley tomorrow with a mixture of Under 23 and Under 18 players because interim-manager Wayne Rooney and a number of first-team players and staff are isolating after a Covid outbreak at the club.
Southampton will find out next week if they are to receive a bye to the fourth round. The FA’s Professional Game Board will meet to determine if the game, due to take place tomorrow, must be rearranged — or iif Shrewsbury have to forfeit the tie. Finding space in the fixture list to reschedule the game could be problematic, problematic, with concerns over whether Shrewsbury’s issues will have cleared in time for the tie to take place next week. Southampton then face Leeds in the Premier League the following midweek, with FA Cup fourthround games taking place on the weekend of January 23.
When Villa faced Liverpool in the Carabao Cup last season, the champions used a team of fringe and Under 23 players because the first-team squad and manager Jurgen Klopp were in Qatar competing in the World Club Cup. Villa won 5-0.
Oldham have switched tomorrow’s home tie against Bournemouth to the Vitality Stadium because of the bad weather forecast in the north.