Home Match Build Up 29/12/2021 L1: OUFC v AFC Wimbledon

[Oufcad30]

I have lost track of who is and isn't available, does anyone know roughly what our fit squad is looking like at the moment?

From what I can remember, all positive players who missed Wigan will be back, as will JT, no Henry, Stevens still a bit away and Winnall and Cooper injured? Think that's right

 

[IsleofWightYellow]

The current top 5 will not pull away.

That’s good to know. Who will finish in the top 6 then?

 

[Salaghaf]

The letter that Wimbledon have sent is ultimately meaningless and won't make any difference.

They say that the lack of positive cases is not down to luck, but there is absolutely no way they can support that. The protocols they have put in place are no different than anything we have done at Oxford. We have split the under 23's and youth squads all season, test several times a week, keep players in bubbles and have done everything practical to maintain infection control should someone test positive. Yet we've had at least 3 "outbreaks" that have affected players (pre-season, Wigan away and Wigan at home).

This is impacting every club on every league as well as every other profession. Anywhere people work closely with others there is a chance of having spikes in infections, and Wimbledon will be incredibly lucky not to have their own squad affected at some point.

They ask for 5 substitutes to be used per game, which is perfectly reasonable and something most of us would agree with. But the reasoning to ask now doesn't make sense. If clubs are unable to field 13 including a keeper, or whatever the threshold is, then increasing playing squads to 18 will only lead to more games getting cancelled. And its difficult to know whether they support FA Cup replays or not.

Either way this letter will be filed under Bin at the FA and we'll carry on as before. That's not to say that I don't agree Wimbledon, but public health will always trump disgruntled football club in these situations.

Ah, thanks for the clarificationn. You really are such a wonderful fount of knowledge.

 

[m]

That’s good to know. Who will finish in the top 6 then?

I don't know yet, but you can name your odds with me if you think the top 6 will remain as is.

 

[DannyW]

The letter that Wimbledon have sent is ultimately meaningless and won't make any difference.

They say that the lack of positive cases is not down to luck, but there is absolutely no way they can support that. The protocols they have put in place are no different than anything we have done at Oxford. We have split the under 23's and youth squads all season, test several times a week, keep players in bubbles and have done everything practical to maintain infection control should someone test positive. Yet we've had at least 3 "outbreaks" that have affected players (pre-season, Wigan away and Wigan at home).

This is impacting every club on every league as well as every other profession. Anywhere people work closely with others there is a chance of having spikes in infections, and Wimbledon will be incredibly lucky not to have their own squad affected at some point.

They ask for 5 substitutes to be used per game, which is perfectly reasonable and something most of us would agree with. But the reasoning to ask now doesn't make sense. If clubs are unable to field 13 including a keeper, or whatever the threshold is, then increasing playing squads to 18 will only lead to more games getting cancelled. And its difficult to know whether they support FA Cup replays or not.

Either way this letter will be filed under Bin at the FA and we'll carry on as before. That's not to say that I don't agree Wimbledon, but public health will always trump disgruntled football club in these situations.

Everything practical would include all players being fully vaccinated and I don't think were there with that. I know you can still get it when fully vaccinated but it lessons the risk and the vaccinated seem recover better.

 

[Scotchegg]

Everything practical would include all players being fully vaccinated and I don't think were there with that. I know you can still get it when fully vaccinated but it lessons the risk and the vaccinated seem recover better.

You can still catch it when vaccinated, and still infect others. So regardless of the vaccination status of players, creating bubbles and minimising close and sustained contact with others will significantly help prevent secondary infections. In that regard, the club have done everything practical possible to reduce the impact of covid, but even that hasn't been enough.

So it go back to the point about Wimbledon, I understand their frustrations as we went through the same thing with Crewe last season. But there's no way that the EFL will change their position, and there's nothing in this letter to suggest they should.

 

[Foley]

You can still catch it when vaccinated, and still infect others.

Vaccinations reduces the risk of catching and infection of COVID.
So if everybody is vaccinated this reduces the risk of having games cancelled. If some players and staff are not vaccinated, by definition not everything is being done to reduce risk.

 

[DannyW]

You can still catch it when vaccinated, and still infect others. So regardless of the vaccination status of players, creating bubbles and minimising close and sustained contact with others will significantly help prevent secondary infections. In that regard, the club have done everything practical possible to reduce the impact of covid, but even that hasn't been enough.

So it go back to the point about Wimbledon, I understand their frustrations as we went through the same thing with Crewe last season. But there's no way that the EFL will change their position, and there's nothing in this letter to suggest they should.

I think that really you know that players should be vaccinated but cannot bring yourself to post anything you regard as a negative. I didn't even mention the letter my point was about us doing everything and we haven't.

 

[Oxford84]

the problem with Wimbledons letter is the moment they have 10 players missing they wont want to play any game at all either.

 

[Scotchegg]

I think that really you know that players should be vaccinated but cannot bring yourself to post anything you regard as a negative. I didn't even mention the letter my point was about us doing everything and we haven't.

I completely agree that everyone should be vaccinated, and those that aren't are incredibly stupid.

The point remains however that vaccination is not mandatory either nationally or within the football industry. So the club can't control vaccinations, but they can control all other aspects and have gone above and beyond league standards to minimise risk.

Wimbledon have made no reference to vaccinations in their letter, because they also can not control whether or not their players get vaccinated and I would suggest that it's exceptionally unlikely that they (or any club) have 100% compliance throughout their playing squad.

I specifically said that our club, as Wimbledon also claim, are doing everything practical to control risk of infection. Enforcing vaccinations are not practical so the point you make has no bearing on the point I have made.

 

[Scotchegg]

Vaccinations reduces the risk of catching and infection of COVID.
So if everybody is vaccinated this reduces the risk of having games cancelled. If some players and staff are not vaccinated, by definition not everything is being done to reduce risk.

I will say again, the club is doing everything practical. They are unable to enforce vaccinations so this isn't practical.

 

[oufc1991]

I think we all agree well I hope we do that the players and staff should be vaccinated but we can't force people to have things injected in to them unfortunately I think the only way it will ever get better if clubs stopped signing unvaccinated players but again would you really not want to sign a Herbie Kane or Matty Taylor when at this level they are great players just because they haven't had the jab

 

[DannyW]

I completely agree that everyone should be vaccinated, and those that aren't are incredibly stupid.

The point remains however that vaccination is not mandatory either nationally or within the football industry. So the club can't control vaccinations, but they can control all other aspects and have gone above and beyond league standards to minimise risk.

Wimbledon have made no reference to vaccinations in their letter, because they also can not control whether or not their players get vaccinated and I would suggest that it's exceptionally unlikely that they (or any club) have 100% compliance throughout their playing squad.

I specifically said that our club, as Wimbledon also claim, are doing everything practical to control risk of infection. Enforcing vaccinations are not practical so the point you make has no bearing on the point I have made.

Liverpool seem to have controlled it and as boards realise that expensive assets ( yes at our level also)are at risk of not playing for long periods and in some cases never again, contracts will start to have vaccination clauses in them. There are already a couple of unvaccinated players suffering from long covid and the risk is much reduced in the vaccinated.

 

[Scotchegg]

Liverpool seem to have controlled it and as boards realise that expensive assets ( yes at our level also)are at risk of not playing for long periods and in some cases never again, contracts will start to have vaccination clauses in them. There are already a couple of unvaccinated players suffering from long covid and the risk is much reduced in the vaccinated.

The same Liverpool who recently had three players miss the Newcastle game after testing positive, and a further miss the Spurs game?

I'm not doubting the importance of being vaccinated in any walk of life. But no club is able to control this so its a moot point regarding whether or not we, Wimbledon, or anyone else is doing what they can to minimise risk.

 

[Orkney Islands Yellow]

Given Wimbledon's letter I fully expect them to show up regardless on Wednesday. Their letter could come back to haunt them over the next few weeks but you have to admire their resilient intent.

 

[Orkney Islands Yellow]

The current top 5 will not pull away.

Sunderland currently winning.

 

[OX14]

Vaccinations reduces the risk of catching and infection of COVID.
So if everybody is vaccinated this reduces the risk of having games cancelled. If some players and staff are not vaccinated, by definition not everything is being done to reduce risk.

Where is the data showing being vaccinated reduces the risk of catching/carrying/spreading this virus? I understand the vaccine is being affective at helping people only having mild symptoms and not needing to go to icu. But if over 80% of adults are double vaccinated how come we have over 100k daily testing positive. General question not trying to be funny by the way.

 

[tonyw]

I think the part of Wimbledon's letter that resonated most with me was this bit - "We want to take this opportunity to call on the EFL to undertake its due processes and implement the strongest-possible measures to ensure that - where a club is able to fulfil a fixture - it does so,"

Under the rules as they stand, if clubs can field a team, they should do so, even if it's not their strongest XI and they don't have much of a subs bench (our team vs. Wigan being a classic example of this).

Obviously, I have no proof, but there's a really strong suspicion that not every club postponing games is quite so committed to playing. Maybe 24 clubs genuinely couldn't find 14 players on Boxing Day....but more likely a bunch of them had a few cases, and didn't want to field a weakened team. And the EFL didn't implement the strongest-possible measure to ensure that they did so.

 

[OUFC91]

Sunderland currently winning.

No chance of that changing either - Doncaster are rubbish

 

[TailsWeWin]

Perhaps someone should count the postponed-when-playing-stronger-opposition numbers?!