Injury Updates

[14/04/91]

The idea that we can't sign a proper backup is ridiculous. United, Liverpool and Arsenal all manage to keep their forwards happy. Even Chelsea have Giroud and (for now) Morata.

Top teams have depth in every position. Sure, the best forwards in the world wouldn't be prepared to be back up for Kane. But there must be literally hundreds of younger forwards who can play up front or as an inside forward who'd jump at the chance to learn from Kane and Poch.

Keep their forwards happy?!.....
United have currently got £450k per week of strikers on the bench.
Arsenal have got 2 strikers. One of them visibly gets the hump when he’s taken off.
Liverpool get away with keeping Sturridge happy because he’s made of glass & knows he cannot be a regular.

We use Son as back-up and we have an experienced Spanish international also.

 

[Ghost Hardware]

Sell Llorente and buy an up-and-coming striker. We’ve had trouble in that department as everyone’s viewed themselves as playing second fiddle to Kane. They’ve now got 2+ months to be the main man in front of Eriksen, Lamela, Son, Moura, Dele - including in UCL quarters.

Thing is, Poch will prefer someone who knows the system. If we bought a young prospect I don't see him getting thrust in the deep end. I agree we need a young striker, but I just don't see Levy and Poch commit to another striker in January. I also don't know if we could buy anyone worthwhile in Jan.

 

[tonester]

Considering we now have an abundance of fit defenders, maybe it's time to go back to three at the back for a bit? Once Son returns it'll start looking a little rosier anyway. Unless someone else gets injured in the meantime

 

[yiddopaul]

The idea that we can't sign a proper backup is ridiculous. United, Liverpool and Arsenal all manage to keep their forwards happy. Even Chelsea have Giroud and (for now) Morata.

Top teams have depth in every position. Sure, the best forwards in the world wouldn't be prepared to be back up for Kane. But there must be literally hundreds of younger forwards who can play up front or as an inside forward who'd jump at the chance to learn from Kane and Poch.

We have depth in every position. Or are you suggesting we have 4 players for each position. The amount of injuries we've had is a freak that couldn't possibly have been foreseen.

 

[Colonel Dax]

We have depth in every position. Or are you suggesting we have 4 players for each position. The amount of injuries we've had is a freak that couldn't possibly have been foreseen.

Disagree. We absolutely could’ve foreseen our issues in midfield.

 

[SugarRay]

Disagree. We absolutely could’ve foreseen our issues in midfield.

What, when our two best midfielders are permacrocks...nah, never!

 

[Saoirse]

We have depth in every position. Or are you suggesting we have 4 players for each position. The amount of injuries we've had is a freak that couldn't possibly have been foreseen.

In central mid these were our options back in the summer

Winks (recovering from major surgery and months out)
Sissoko (yet to play well at all)
Dembele (injury-prone and struggling to the point he was clearly going to be offloaded fairly soon)
Wanyama (injured, and had been for most of the previous season)
Dier
Dele/Eriksen out of position
Untested youth prospects (Skipp/Amos/Oakley-Boothe)

If anything we've been very lucky with CM. Winks recovering and staying very fit, Sissoko unleashing the best form he's had since moving to England by far, and Skipp quickly adjusting to top-level senior football despite total inexperience are all more than we could have hoped for and easily outweight the relatively short absence of Dier, which is the only CM absence that hasn't been totally predictable.

 

[DFF]

Sissoko becoming a monster this season absolutely papered over the cracks in midfield. They were always there.

 

[Johnny J]

We have depth in every position. Or are you suggesting we have 4 players for each position. The amount of injuries we've had is a freak that couldn't possibly have been foreseen.

No, we don't have depth at CF. We have Kane, one old striker who can barely move, and one that is nowhere near good enough. One look at Llorente's PL minutes shows just how much faith Poch has in him. "Depth" means actually having viable options, not just numbers.

Son isn't a striker. Moura isn't a striker. We need someone good up front as a backup. All top teams have this, even those with great strikers.

As to foreseeability, we absolutely could foresee that Kane, who plays virtually every game, even when carrying knocks, would get injured at some point. I'd even go so far as to say that his ankle ligament injuries make future ones more likely; as I understand it, once you've done them once, they're weakened and more likely to go again. So yes, I think one doesn't need a crystal ball to see that if Kane gets injured we don't have proper backup.

As for midfield, it surely was apparent last summer that Wanyama had a chronic knee problem; the ITK alluded to it being like King's knee issues. We also knew that Dembele was fading and always likely to miss a significant amount of games through injury. That's two first-choice midfielders we knew we couldn't rely on. Sissoko has done well this season but he remains limited compared with a proper CM, and I very much doubt Poch was expecting to rely on him in that position.

We have been unlucky with injuries, but some of those we saw coming, and I don't think it's unreasonable to expect your only decent striker to get injured at some point if you play him every single game.

Sadly, our decision not to recruit this summer looks like it will cost us. We should have shifted unwanted players for realistic prices and invested in quality replacements. They didn't need to be worldies. There's quality out there.

 

[dagraham]

I get the impression that the same people who say we couldn’t have foreseen glaring weaknesses in our squad are the same ones who continually blame referees and bad luck for all of our defeats.

 

[eddiev14]

Don’t expect him to play until end of March, into April

I assume this means he’ll be back in training early March but miss the international break to get fit.

 

[EastLondonYid]

I have never ever wanted a team to lose more than i want South Korea to.

 

[Tottenhamboy85]

I have never ever wanted a team to lose more than i want South Korea to.

Complete opposite from the last tournament ?

 

[SpursDave88]

Shocking from the club ...criminal mismanagement.

One fit striker (Fernando Llorente) one fit Central midfielder (Winks).

Poch has worked miracles with this squad - if I were him I would leave at the end of the season - levy has sold him up the river.

I expect us to be out of the top 4 and out of the cups and CL by the time Harry is fit again.

 

[chinaman]

No one any good will be on loan. Might as well sign Defoe on a free.

 

[Paolo10]

No one any good will be on loan. Might as well sign Defoe on a free.

Signed for Rangers for 18 months.

 

[EastLondonYid]

Shocking from the club ...criminal mismanagement.

One fit striker (Fernando Llorente) one fit Central midfielder (Winks).

Poch has worked miracles with this squad - if I were him I would leave at the end of the season - levy has sold him up the river.

I expect us to be out of the top 4 and out of the cups and CL by the time Harry is fit again.

Stop overreacting ffs.

 

[EastLondonYid]

So levy should have known that we would lose kane, son, moura, dier, sissoko, wanyama, aurier, all at the same time... Get a grip ffs

 

[Paolo10]

Cover for Kane has been a problem for a long time.

 

[SpursDave88]

So levy should have known that we would lose kane, son, moura, dier, sissoko, wanyama, aurier, all at the same time... Get a grip ffs

Wanyama has been permanently injured...so yeh.

Aurier is irrelevant we have two other fit fullbacks.

Sissoko had one foot out the door in the summer.