Men's Soccer (Football) Thread Soccer • Page 574

what a win for Ipswich

 

That Chelsea loss means whatever happens in Brentford vs Arsenal, Forest will end the first half of the season in the top three.

 

We're staying up!

 

The fee for Delap is going to be ridiculous

 

DELAP sitting on my bench with his 11 pts just mocking me

 

2 game ban for Cunha. One of those will be served in the FA Cup.

 

No comment.

 

Don’t City have a cheap buy back on Delap?

 

Less than a straight red for assaulting a staff member? What a joke

 

Silly boy kicking a water bottle, should have assaulted someone instead.

 

Just heard a stat that in Ange’s 68 games in charge he’s only had the starting back line + Vicario available for 37% of those games.


The club didn’t bother to bring in a single defender or keeper over the summer.

 

How often are injury crisis' like Spurs this season expected to occur? You can't stock up on players of quality in fear of such crisis' because it just isn't feasible. The squad wage bill would be colossal and you've also got to start players of quality sooner rather than later in order to keep them happy.

 

Bowen's fractured his foot. West Ham could be dragged back into the relegation battle.

 

It’s not about stockpiling. We don’t have an actual backup keeper, bringing back Forster made no sense. As far as CB goes, the team knows that VDV and Romero are a bit injury prone, so only having Dragusin to backup wasn’t smart. It doesn’t have to be a world class player. We just need some actual depth especially playing a fast packed system with multiple games a week

 

Yeah all true. But this specific crisis was avoidable. We only have a backup RB because no one would take Spence. We’re lucky he’s kinda worked out for us this year. We don’t have a backup LB because Davies has moved to LCB. But he covers both due to the club’s lack of planning. We have to do better than Davies in that spot. Dragusin is the backup RCB. Outside of that, nothing.

What would’ve happened if Spence did leave? We’d have 6 defenders total - the starting 4 + Dragusin and Davies. That’s simply not enough. Especially when Romero and VDV both had injuries the previous season.

 

It’s also funny to hear the club say “let’s see if things change in January”. Guess what? They won’t. The players we have available are already gassed. You can see it every second half when the opposing team takes over the game. They’re running on fumes. The busy schedule won’t lighten up in January. It’s going to be more of the same.

And there isn’t much Ange can do. People want him to sit back more and “play smart”. But there’s no way that backline can defend like that. We’d get destroyed even worse. At least now we’re still creating chances. If only our guys could finish them.

 

I kinda feel like this isn’t a spurs thing and will be a more regular thing until the players strike for a better schedule. Feels like EVERY team in the prem is hurting for healthy squads. I know Brighton have lost a ton of people, arsenal as well. City have some real key injuries for people who’ve played loads of minutes. Bowen just got hurt for WHU. Liverpool seem to the only ones to have stayed healthy — also just how good does someone like Salah look compared to players who didn’t have the summer off for international duty? Feels like everyone looks sluggish/tired.

I haven’t seen any articles on it so it might be anecdotal, but it feels like there are way more injuries this year league wide but idk it could be just narrative.

 

It’s definitely a league-wide problem. Players are being asked to do too much. It’s getting absurd.

Spurs injuries have been worse this year though. Both in numbers and how they’re concentrated on an area we’re already shallow in. Yes, it is a problem other clubs also deal with, but we’ve been ran poorly and that’s why it shows up more for us.

 

Just watched Invincible, the Arsenal Wenger documentary on Amazon Prime and it’s so well done.

Obviously the bulk of it is about the unbeaten PL season, but the final 20 minutes touches on the decline that followed and is a really good insight into the mentality of someone used to winning who begins to struggle due to financial issues the stadium caused, and how he just couldn’t bring himself to leave.

 

I think I saw something saying Spurs, Arsenal, Ipswich, and Brighton have had by far the most injuries this year.

 

Rooney leaving Plymouth. What a disaster run that man is on. From being touted as a future United manager to probably not managing any premier league side.

 

if he still leaves after doing that “it’s all talk” celebration after scoring against West Ham

Jude did the same celebration with Dortmund before leaving, so maybe they are just in perfect harmony

 

would have loved a season without a big emotional departure

22/23 — Firmino, Milner
23/24 — Klopp
24/25 — Trent

 

Won't get a gig anywhere else. Maybe the Highlands league in Scotland has a place for him?