Richard Keys reacts to ‘freakish’ Everton v Leicester City postponement
Richard Keys has taken to Twitter to share his thoughts on the controversial postponement of the Everton v Leicester City game on Tuesday (January 11).
Leicester informed the Premier League that they were unable to field a team for their Merseyside fixture due to a combination of injuries, covid cases and several players being away on duty for the national team at the Africa Cup of Nations.
The fixture that should have taken place on December 19 has now been postponed for a second time with the foxes being at fault for both postponements.
The nature in which games are being cancelled has caused some outrage with Keys tweeting: “Can someone please tell me why Leicester’s game at Everton is off?
“I’ve read all about the ‘freakish injuries’ AFCON call ups & ‘over-load’. But the rules say if you’ve got 14 fit players – you play.
“They obviously have. So why is the game off?”
Frustrating
The stop start nature of this season is becoming increasingly tedious. The Everton players would have been desperate to get back out there and build on the win they enjoyed against Hull City on Saturday (January 9).
It is virtually impossible for Rafa Benitez to build momentum and turn the teams form around if they aren’t playing on a consistent basis.
We could all get behind postponements if they were completely transparent and the decisions at least appeared consistent. Unfortunately, this is English football and things aren’t that simple.
It should be a good thing that if teams are struggling, they are afforded some leeway with their fixtures but too many teams are exploiting the rules.
It is now used as a tactic to get out of difficult fixtures when missing key men. The rules were brought in to combat the difficulty teams find as a result of the pandemic so Leicester’s excuse of missing players through afcon is stupid.
It is the wrong decision by the Premier League and one that will have a negative impact on the Toffees.
In other Blues news, Everton star Andros Townsend opens up on injury return risk.