In line with the sentiment of goodwill for the season, Jurgen Klopp has voiced his sympathy for Thomas Tuchel for the ravages inflicted by the Omicron variant on the former’s squad. However, the hardship is relative and only to be expected among all clubs with the new Covid Omicron variant on the increase.
Doubtless Tuchel had a limited selection of only 14 outfield players to pick from for the goal-less draw against Wolves with everybody else sidelined through Covid-19, yet what was muted was the fact that those 14 included the same back three who had won a Champions League final seven months prior to that, not to mention the presence of World Cup winner N’Golo Kante in midfield, plus a strikeforce costing at least £90 million.
So, in all honesty, this hardly qualified as being pared down to the bare bones, which still has not stopped Tuchel from thumping his chest bemoaning his team’s plight.
“We suffer very much at the moment, so maybe it would be better to have a short break,” he said, noticeably ruffled with the sense of desperation during a run of three games in eight days.
For the Blues’ Carabao Cup quarter-final against Brentford, the German tactician’s main concern is the number of academy players brought into the line-up, with Harvey Vale, Joe Haigh, Xavier Simons and Alfie Gilchrist all been spotted training with the first team this week, which is a dramatic elevation of status for four 18-year-olds without a senior appearance between them.
However, before anyone gets carried away and starts to feel some pity for Tuchel, let’s not forget that Chelsea’s academy is one of the, if not the finest, in the world, with Conor Gallagher merely the latest breakout star, whose influence on loan at Crystal Palace has already brought an England debut against San Marino this year.
It’s a fact to the academy that whenever Cobham graduates have been called on to assist the seniors of late, the results have been spectacular as was evidenced by centre-back Trevoh Chalobah weighing in last month with a Champions League goal against Juventus.
With this Chelsea scenario in place, Brentford should not believe for a moment in the idea that Tuchel’s ‘forced’ recourse to rely on his youth resources tonight will leave the Stamford Bridge boys in grave danger of being mortally wounded.
Contrary to the belief that the big four would be feeling the adverse impacts most when cold, cruel wind of Covid is blowing through football’s dressing-rooms, it is not the Premier League giants who would suffer disproportionately, regardless of what Tuchel or Klopp might claim.
On the contrary, this is precisely the time when their sheer strength in depth stands them in good stead compared to the rest of the field.
As an example, Chelsea are certainly not alone in having their selection options drastically narrowed down by the virus. Brentford are also similarlystrapped down, with manager Thomas Frank informed of four fresh Covid cases in the middle of his press conference. Yet the main difference between his situation and Tuchel’s is that he has nothing like the same quality of resources, understudies or otherwise, from which to draw.
Hence the privileged Big Four should clam down on protesting too much about their squad resources running thin.
On another grumpy front, Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp insists it is “not possible” for a much-diminished Liverpool to navigate a festive fixture list committing them to three matches in a week but the two glaring problems with this argument are that, firstly, Liverpool – regardless of Klopp’s self-inflicted histrionic sense of alarm – have a squad roster that definitely runs deep enough to cope with even the most extreme circumstances.
Secondly, that the club has of its own volition also signed up to provide the TV audiences with seamless Christmas football coverage, come what may, as the festive football program is one of the most cherished pieces of broadcast real estate in the British game, with Amazon Prime paying an estimated £50 million to screen all 10 Premier League matches on St Stephen’s Day.
This, for those not in the know, is the gravy that helps equip Liverpool and Chelsea with their vast power, enabling them to gear up the finest talents across the continent and to invest with a grand flourish in their highly respectable youth academies.
Hence, in this respect, the suggestion from both the Big Four clubs that the fixture program is unworkable in that it will leave them disadvantaged cannot in any way be taken seriously.
This would be akin to a desperate case of one biting the hand that feeds you.