I cant work Worthy's actions out

[NavMan 0]

Here we have a striker who was short on goals.  He comes on as a sub on Saturday and gives the defence havoc as he normally does so  he is obvously fit with the amount of running he did.  He scores a goal and part of a team that came back from the dead therefore his confidence would have been sky high.  We have an injury nightmare with still Svensson out amongst the forwards.  So what does Worthy do.  Play McKenzie in a meaningless reserve game and what happens he gets bloody injured.  If any one else can give me the meaning of this exercise by Worthy then I would be pleased to hear from you.  The man just seems to sometimes completely baffle me. 

[Splendid Rush 0]

To be fair, it''s not completely baffling.  Leon got injured a month ago against Liverpool and came back against Villa by coming on as sub.  He also came on again against Boro, and played really well. 

So Worthy is thinking he will start him against Everton in 7 days, and with Leon only playing around 76 minutes of football since 3rd Jan, he thought that giving him a run out would give him a bit more match practice and add to his fitness.

This obviously backfired, but I can see what he was trying to do.

[Temp the Revelator 0]

NavMan, I think you''ll find that although Leon may have run his socks off for 20 minutes or so on Saturday, following a hamstring tweak it is always policy to get match fitness back up before throwing them in for 90 minutes, hence his appearance for the reserves last night.  Especially bearing in mind that there was a break of 10 days between league fixtures. 

Leon would only have been at around 60-70% of match fitness without the reserve game, if he had come through it unscathed he would have been at more like 75-80%, which would have meant he could start at Goodison and give us a good 75-80 minutes.  Just unlucky really.

[Dame to Blame 96]

[quote]Here we have a striker who was short on goals. He comes on as a sub on Saturday and gives the defence havoc as he normally does so he is obvously fit with the amount of running he did. He scores a ...[/quote]

Fair points there, but i went last night and IMO he did not look at all interested in playing that game along with mullers and WLY, i was right on top of the incident and to me it looked nothing i''m guessing he wanted to come off and made the ankle injury as his excuse to come off and i can''t blame him the game was dire to say the least.

[westoncanary. 0]

Doesn''t seem to make sense does it? Maybe one of the guys from the Sportsdesk could ask at the next Press Conference?

[Homerdude 0]

Presumably, due to Leon being relatively recently injured with a hamstring strain, Worthy was trying to boost his match fitness levels. 

You''re right about Leon probably being full of confidence after netting on Saturday - perhaps from the managers point of view, he was hoping another goal or two / good performance from him in the reserve game would have kept Leon''s brimming confidence level high? 

 

Just our luck in my humble opinion.  

[Notts Canary 0]

Must admit i do agree with u but hindsight is a great thing!! It could have turned out that Leon would have had a blinder and his confidence would have been even higher.

[Thirsty Lizard 3,183]

I''m sorry NavMan but I think you''re talking a load of Charlie Hollocks.

There''s an absolute world of difference between being fit to play for 20 or even 30 minutes as a sub and being fit to play a whole game. How many times have we heard managers and players saying that a player needs to play a few games to get his match fitness and sharpness up?

Thats why Leon was playing in the reserves last night. Yes its unfortunate that he got injured but football is a physical contact sport and these things happen.

One of the most series injuries we got this season was Damien''s and that happened in training. Why not go the whole hog my friend and demand to know what Worthy is doing by letting the players train?

 

 

[Tumbleweed 106]

Agreed- it just seems bizarre. As soon as I saw that he was injured I thought to myself- what the hell was he doing playing for the reserves? Especially with Matty out for another 6 weeks. Madness!!

[StevenageFan 0]

I guess he wanted to keep a few players match fit as we are not playing until Wednesday and probably hoped Leon would bag some goals to aid his morale.  If he had scored and not got injured we would be saying what a stroke of genius, but as it happens I agree with you that it was a stupid move all things considered.

[If I had the wings of a sparrow 0]

I agree I thought the same Barclayendboy, I also thought that when Holt & Safri came off Mullers looked like a man who was about to cry.

[NavMan 0]

Mr Rosario - I dont even know Charlie Horrocks!!!

[Thirsty Lizard 3,183]

But do you know Charlie Hollocks???

He obviously reads/types more carefully than you. (Or perhaps there was a heavy swell when you were typing?)

Anyway, whatever the rights and wrongs of him playing in the reserves last night lets hope that Leon''s fit for Everton. He absolutely terrorised their defence in the second half of the home game if I remember correctly - and hopefully he can do so again in the away game.