The College Dropout

Forgot about Ramsey. Martinez has only missed a few games. And the regen doesn’t count man.

Yeh true but they replaced starters with backups (Lenglet, the snitch - neither start). We had an opportunity to replace some of our injuries short term and decided not too.

I’ve got stocks in Jackson. I think he can make it.

Not as bad as us but: Mings ACL - captain and LCB starter Kamara ACL - DM starter Buendia ACL - AM starter Pau. Carlos. Konsa. The first choice LB. All missed chunks of the season. + European football in May. Spurs haven’t had the serious injuries but Maddison, Richarlison, Van De Ven, Bentancur - that spine of the side have all had injuries. We’ve obviously had the worst injuries in the league. But neither Villa or Spurs have been particularly lucky with injuries. Arsenal have though. Partey, Jesus and Timber aside - they’ve had good luck with injuries. Jesus isn’t even in their strongest team.

Both have suffered badly at times with injuries too. It’s Arsenal who have kept a good core fit throughout the season.

West Ham have been bad for some time. The draw against Liverpool is more of a testament to how badly Liverpool have been recently. Fully expected a Chelsea win.

I’m sorry I really needed that haul from Jackson.

Agree with this. But I also think Howe drew some conclusions from that game. Lascelles was solid when he came on and was solid throughout. He took the LCB slot when it was Burns to begin with. That pushed Targett down. Initially based off 1 game. Likewise Hall had 2 bad performances and he was relegated to the deep bench.

Agreed. I just feel we lack a bit of footballing ability in there. But I guess we are more Klopp Liverpool than Pep/Arteta

I’d still like another ball playing CM.

I really hope we don’t break up the band. I would love for us to just add to this or only lose like a Miggy or something. A season with a normal squad injury record, Tonali l, Hall and Tino + 2/3 quality additions. We would be a top team.

My biggest big bear with him was a lack of tactical flexibility. Shown in recent weeks he’s got different plans and ways to skin a cat

True. For the money - I don’t think that makes sense either. If we’ve got £35m to spend on a backup striker. A RW. A CB. LB.

And everyone was upset.

You want us to pay 35m for a player to sit on the bench?

We had that with Wood. Lots of people hated him. 36m euros gets you a backup like Nicholas Jackson.

Tbf he’s only playing because there are no other senior options. I think we’ve seen why Howe was hesitant to put him in. We’ve also seen why we’ve spent so much money on him. He has bags of talent. But he needs to develop his game. Glad he had a wonderful game. This run of games will do him wonders.

I’ve always maintained that we should keep him. You don’t get backup strikers as good as Wilson easily.

They concede becaus of him. Petrovic in the bench - I need him to concede now. Most of my rivals in mini leagues have him in goal and he was my backup. Typical. For some reason the NO league leader zagged and is captaining Salah. So I’ve jumped into the lead tonight. Just over 10k OR atm.

Haha! I did think either broken bone, dislocated shoulder or… just bruising. I started him just incase. Delighted I didn’t make the transfer in the end but let’s see how it goes.

We aren’t very good away from home either. And the defensive and midfield injuries are crippling. Im hopeful. But im not sure expectant. im at the place that injuries have crippled us.

Twitter saying we are going multi club.

Think Burnley have wisened up a little.

They agreed to rules. Pretended to abide by them. And didn't. So they could win trophies and league titles. It's much more cheating than what Everton or Forest have done. Forest holding on to Brennan Johnson for a few extra months is fair. City siphoning wages off the books.... is cheating.

Also not much to lose by playing his best side all the time. I think Pep will play his strongest side every game he can unless players are genuinely tired in the moment. I think Gvardiol is in a good moment which is important to Pep. If he's physically fit and not fatigued hugely he'll start all games if Pep thinks he's the best LB. But as you say - Ake could pop up at LB at any moment.