Injuries

[Samwam27 601]

At the start of the season, some on here were expressing our disappointment that we'd failed to recruit in areas and were still light in several areas + concerned about potential injuries could cause major issues, as it did last season

Others on here were saying lightening never strikes twice and we'd never be in the same situation as last season

Yes here we are!! It's testament to how well were doing, top of the table with the games coming thick and fast. Even a BBC pundit in the Leeds V Everton game was saying subs were needed to freshen up tired legs and provided much needed energy. A draw is certainly better than anything, but I'm in the camp that Farke is still so reluctant in most games to bring on subs, and rarely changes things early.

Something seems off that we seem one of very few clubs to have so many injuries. Is our training different, should Farke be rotating players far more than he does rather than running them into the ground (especially with 5 subs now allowed), or are we simply damn unlucky?

Every game is high stake, and there's few and far games when it's ideal to blood youngsters. But with so many injuries I do feel Farke needs to blood some of the youngsters to protect some of the senior players to freshen things up. He's done it before, it's far from ideal, but yesterday was Coventry, 4th from bottom. That energy, could (hindsights a wonderful thing) have lifted the team enough to get those 3 points.

      

[The Bristol Nest 594]

Or we could have lost.

The team sheet was a list of fit first team players plus Zimmerman. The rest were a risk that may have injected energy or may have weakened the team.

[TIL 1010 5,232]

You do realise there are about a dozen threads on the same subjects ? 😜

[The Bristol Nest 594]

Thanks for your input.

[TIL 1010 5,232]

5 minutes ago, The Bristol Nest said:

Thanks for your input.

Not a problem but virtually every thread you open is going round and round in circles surrounding the same subjects.

[hogesar 10,708]

Farkes been very proactive with subs this season and we've made plenty of them this season, and a lot of them have resulted in us getting winners etc. 

[Branston Pickle 4,131]

Perfectly reasonable to start whatever threads you like - if our resident board police don’t like it they don’t have to post.

We have definitely shown that we have the capabilities to be up at the top, if without hitting top gear, but with constant games coming midweek-weekend it does feel we are running the risk of falling back a bit.  November and December were always going to be pretty key, with 9 games (a fifth of a season)  in 28 days following the international break (ridiculous as that was - 3 games for many, that few needed).

I’m 100% not one that usually has a problem with DF and his subs, but yesterday felt different, and I still maintain that fresh young legs up front for the last 10 mins could have done no harm whatsoever.  That we didn’t do it is just one of those things, we’ll never know how it would have gone.  

In terms of the injuries, the number of players out is weird, but there were a lot of us concerned at the end of the transfer window that we seemed to have enough bodies overall, but that it was skewed against defence and attack. This isn’t hindsight talking - people quite clearly pointed out that we were playing a 46 game season in 5 weeks less than usual, so games would come thick and fast.

In defence, we’ve had to play Sorensen out of position for all his 7-8 appearances due to having no left back cover as we loaned it out; we only have 3 cbs as we let Klose leave (Godfrey too, but he was always likely to go).  It isn’t difficult to have foreseen that we might have problems with relatively few injuries at the back - though thankfully it has worked out ok to-date (notwithstanding Max and we have to wait and see how long he’s out).  I was also surprised we didn’t get a keeper - having a top guy like Krul in place perhaps makes it difficult, but there are always options.

Up front, IMO given we are still paying plenty for them, we would have done as well to keep Drmic (and Leitner) in the mix as soon as it was obvious they weren’t going anywhere; we made a call on Idah which is fine, but our striking options in the last couple of seasons have always felt threadbare once you get below Pukki.   Surely it is better for all parties if the guys we ‘don’t want’ are fit and ready to be called on if needed and so that they are ready to move on in January if that’s still the plan.

This does sound like a long moan, but it it isn’t meant to be - we are still top of the league but seeing us yesterday caused me a lot of concern as a decent side would have picked us off.  Hopefully that is as threadbare as we will see us this season; we should start to see players coming back - Emi on Weds, possibly Pukki; Todd soon; Xavi - who knows. 

Edited November 29, 2020 by Branston Pickle

[TESCO 70]

Yes, hopefully Max isn’t too  bad, abd we will see others coming back over the next few games. Some of it does seem a bit self-inflicted.

[Dr Greenthumb 789]

2 hours ago, Samwam27 said:

At the start of the season, some on here were expressing our disappointment that we'd failed to recruit in areas and were still light in several areas + concerned about potential injuries could cause major issues, as it did last season

Others on here were saying lightening never strikes twice and we'd never be in the same situation as last season

Yes here we are!! It's testament to how well were doing, top of the table with the games coming thick and fast. Even a BBC pundit in the Leeds V Everton game was saying subs were needed to freshen up tired legs and provided much needed energy. A draw is certainly better than anything, but I'm in the camp that Farke is still so reluctant in most games to bring on subs, and rarely changes things early.

Something seems off that we seem one of very few clubs to have so many injuries. Is our training different, should Farke be rotating players far more than he does rather than running them into the ground (especially with 5 subs now allowed), or are we simply damn unlucky?

Every game is high stake, and there's few and far games when it's ideal to blood youngsters. But with so many injuries I do feel Farke needs to blood some of the youngsters to protect some of the senior players to freshen things up. He's done it before, it's far from ideal, but yesterday was Coventry, 4th from bottom. That energy, could (hindsights a wonderful thing) have lifted the team enough to get those 3 points.

      

It’s the championship, you won’t win every game! Given our circumstances yesterday, I’m happy with a point and hopefully players are recovering each day.