Erikse

Back "soon" for the last 2 months

Seems like de Bruyne is ready to start now though. Hopefully he isn't very fit, but seems like he's doing well.

Should have a warning in the contract when signing players from now on. "Sign at your own risk." Being a Newcastle player is dangerous these days.

I'm really torn on Walker vs Doughty. Doughty won't keep a CS, even at Burnley away. But he might get an assist or something. While with Joelinton out I kinda fear that Man C will keep a clean sheet. At the same time I might just be a pessimist. The game is at St James after all..

Any opinions on Haaland starting vs Burnley (in 19 days)? He is out for our game, but has also been training with the team for about a week or so. I have a wildcard active and thought I should just transfer him into my team while it's a free transfer.

Man City has way more depth, but has obviously been suffering a little bit due to de Bruynes absence. He has now been training for a month. Here's what Guardiola said some days ago: “The quality and potential is there. A big injury, concerned the most to try to avoid it. Be careful with minutes. “[He will say] ‘I want to play’ but we have to be careful. “Speak with him and with the physios and the guys who knows the best process for his minutes. Kevin needs to accumulate weeks with training sessions, weeks and minutes. Four, five, six sessions in a row. “Minutes again, one day 90 minutes and training good. That's the best for Kevin.” What I read from this is that the player unsurprisingly wants to play, but the manager (and the medical staff?) wants to be more careful. Guardiola is known for being very careful with rushing players back. This was a pretty serious injury though, so I understand that it's not exactly the same. But you could compare it to Willock perhaps?

Joelinton injury history: Willock: Isak: Historically these rarely got injuries, let alone serious ones. Joelintons muscular injuries from this season are worse than any other muscular injury he has ever had before this season.

Sounds good, but I've learnt to not get my hopes up until they are actually in the squad.

But just like with our international break in november nobody will return in that break, so it doesn't even help with anything else other than not getting more injuries.

I think we will just have to accept that we will have 10+ players out for the rest of the season. Players gets injured once again over and over, and some of them last forever while we get new injuries.

We've constanly had 3-4 central midfielders missing since the start of november.. And it will be 4 for atleast another month.

It is because of FFP. Long term it's not the best to spend money on players that you will eventually let go for free, unless it's a crazy deal like Trippier for £12 mill. Spending £20m on an older player impacts how much we can spend on players who will stay for a long time, or who will atleast increase their value. We bought some older defenders in the first window. It worked, but now we will soon have to go shopping for a bunch of defenders again, and FFP is limiting us, while we are also in need of players in other positions at the same time. The owners has been very consistent with the idea that this is a long term project, so we don't buy players just to improve in the near future. The exception was the first window where we were near relegation.

The problem about 30+ players is that you often have to sign another one 2-3 years later to replace them.. Not allways, but you never know.

Barnes and Anderson were both supposed to be back in december. Then it was january. Now it's february. I expect Murphy and Willock to return in march with how this is going.

He's just making it up I'd assume.

They often do somehow. Remember the season they finished 1st or 2nd in every tournament.. Their squad wasn't even that deep.

Kind of crazy how Moyes does so little rotation in any tournament and escapes with barely any injuries. Until now atleast, now they have a problem. Edit: And Tonali doesn't even count in this stat..

We've been saying this about Man Utd for about 10 years, haven't we? Both clubs are poorly ran. I wonder how much Chelsea will be able to spend in the future. Maybe Man Utd can get their act together with Ratcliffe coming in. Like most seasons many was saying before the season that every big club will be firing on all cylinders, but as usual that's not what actually happens.

Conference you mean? Isn't the FA Cup Europa League?

How did he shoot there... Reid again?

Can't believe he's 35. He plays like he's still 25.

Really thought about it, but ended up on Pedro because of fixtures and saving funds for when players like Salah, Trent and Son is back. Do you guys think Haaland will come off the bench against us?

Joelinton twice.. Third time he's injured with a muscular problem this season. We've basically had 4 central midfielders out of a large amount of games. Joelinton was also supposed to be a rotation option for Gordon when Barnes is out, but big Joe has either been injured or had to cover CM exclusively due to all the injuries in that position.

That's true. But not after 02/03, or am I wrong?

Well, I was the type of kid to pick a completely random team, so it could've been a team like Birmingham, Bolton, Charlton, Leeds, Sunderland, West Brom, Blackburn or Middlesbrough. There's a few there that would've made me even less happy to be fair.