Erikse

I think you have just gotten used to the extra minutes, because what you are saying is simply not true.. The rules are still there in use. https://www.ft.com/content/f4584a58-df20-4bdb-bd71-f485e590d0c6 Couple this with the fact that there is way less timewasting in general due to the new rules, which may also have gotten increasingly better during the season, we are probably talking around 10 minutes more ball in play per game. Which again means more than 15% more football being played. Over time, that will have a real impact on player health.

Again, nothing to do with what I said. Having 14 injuries all at once is not something you see every day, regardless of the team. That is not an opinion, but a fact. No reason to discuss it. How much it impacts the team has nothing to do with my post. Despite us getting used to having around 10 injuries per game, 14 would still be a crazy number. Just like 13 was a crazy high number.

On another note, I had a look at number of injuries in the PL compared to the other European leagues: Premier League - 126 injuries Bundesliga - 87 injuries (18 teams) La Liga - 65 injuries Serie A - 61 injuries The new stoppage time rules for the PL must be a factor imo.. It would make no sense for it to not have a real impact in terms of the amount of injuries.

Yeah, and that's why I am saying that 14 would be abnormal, even for us, who has had way more injuries than anyone else thoughout the season. Why are you bringing in depth and player material when that wasn't my point?

We all remember what having noty a bench was like, when we had a decent starting lineup. The schedule was tighter back then so it hurt us way more though.. But, they won't have any good options in terms of fresh legs.

I am purely talking about the amount of injuries. Did we ever have 14 injuries for a game? Give me an example, and I will have look.

14 players injured today for Chelsea. That's wild, it would even be wild for us this season. Betinelli must be the only player I have heard of on that bench.

Well, it's all PL for them now until the end of season. Out of CL, and the FA Cup final is 6 days after the league finishes. Carabao is finished, and we knocked them out at the start of the season anyways.

This doens't help us much. May have to buy a GK from a different team now instead, if this is all we're getting.

David de Gea could go from being the best shot stopper in the world for a while, into a period of making a series of embarassing mistakes.

If we can forget about the whole "we only need elite players" thing that was so common here last summer, we will see that buying such players can at the very least make sure that we won't have to play players such as Krafth and Dummet once we get some injuries. This guy also seem decent, and the type of player that could fit our system.

Haven't seen that, maybe I should've checked it more thoroughly first before making the comment. Surprised to see Tottenham also having this amount of losses.

Waiting for the news articles stating that Villa has to sell their star players to comply with FFP. Or maybe that narrative is just for us..

Just realised that Lavia has played just 1 game for Chelsea due to the injuries he has had. It's quite incredible how much money they have spent on players who hasn't done anything. If another club failed this hard in the transfer market, they would already be relegated by the PL due to FFP breaches.

I agree with a lot of what you are saying, but the Arsenal fans were straight up intense. They were going on for about a year about our timewasting, commenting on every Newcastle loss that we deserve it for timewasting against them. I have never seen anything like it, not even on social media. We had Leeds do the same to us, we got over it after a week. It happens a lot in football, atleast before the rules for this season. The only reason they didn't go on for longer was because then the Gordon goal happened, and now they are still going on about that after every game we lose. Apparently everytime we lose it's because of karma from that Gordon goal. We have had fortune against other teams before, they may whine on social media for a week or so, but with Arsenal fans you never hear the end of it. After a mid season league game, it's not like it happened in a final either. I swear, no other fanbase would be this intense about those games. Not even Liverpool or Man United. It's just embarassing at this point.

If this was true, we would also be at a disadvantage qualifying for Europe.. We were the ones who proposed this whole thing, weren't we?

Just had a look, and in 15 away games he has 1 goal and 2 assists. 2 of those came against Sheffield Utd in the 8-0 trashing. At home he has 9 goals and 7 assists in 17 games, pretty much 1 g/a per game. Crazy difference, but ofcourse it's not just him. Far from it.

Unfortunately getting younger replacements is really expensive these days unless your scouting is top notch, so it's hard to move on older squad players when you are restricted financially. Us having such an old squad is just another hangover of the Ashley era, not just because of the players that are left from that era, but also due to the fact that we had to go for a quick fix in the first window without breaking the bank. It worked brilliantly for us, but it makes it a little trickier now.

(Also, if I say something over the top, like there's no way Trippier will be that impactful for us next season, I will trigger the entire "Trippier is the god almighty" gang to come after me. That's too scary for me!)

Well, I did actually say that I don't believe he will be anywhere near the same as he used to, so that's my actual opinion. But I would love for me to be wrong, and would be the first to admit it. In the end we all want the same thing, whatever works best for the team.

Honestly I don't understand what you mean by that. Never heard that saying before.

Man United? They have the biggest income out of them all, don't they?

Don't mind him being here next season, but I have a feeling that next season we are going to start questioning whether it was right to keep him for another season or not. I hope I can look back at this and say that I was wrong. However, if he doesn't play anywhere near the levels that he used to, or can't keep up with our playstyle in terms of injuries and/or fatigue, it won't be hindsight to point out that we could've sold him (I'm sure the hindisght argument would be used). At the same time, we would need another RB if we sold him, so it's definelty not clearcut.

Sure. Would just suck to bring in Ortega, only for him to be benched for the double. But I agree, it looks like Ederson is out for the season.

Do we know that Ederson will be out for the 37 double?