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Injuries / Players not used in pre-season

guy

SC Supporter
May 31, 2007
4,507
6,182
Looks like another absolute disastrous pre-season for us, why does this always happen? Is it Levy, AVB, just bad luck?

So far we have these players injured or still recovering:
Vertonghen
Dawson
Kaboul
Sandro
Defoe

And these players haven't featured at all yet, for one of the other reason:
Bale
BAE
Holtby
Paulinho (fair enough?)
Soldado (obviously)

That's at least 7 or 8 of our "starting XI" who will be nowhere near match fit come the first game of the season. Obviously some of these can't be helped, but bloody hell it reeks of mis-management to me. I don't think any other club in the league would be in such a state of disrepair.

We saw what this did to us last season, and obviously haven't learnt our lesson!
 

silentownage001

Well-Known Member
Jun 4, 2011
416
250
Bale played against Swindon. That might have been it though. Not sure.

Paulinho started training Wednesday so it'd be a bit soon to see him play against Monaco. Since he played in the Confederations Cup I'd imagine that he'd be relatively fit. He had less time off than most.
 

guy

SC Supporter
May 31, 2007
4,507
6,182
Whats with Holtby, Ive seen him on the bench a couple of times but dont think he's played? He will be sorely needed this season I think with all the upheaval and potential Bale departure

It would've been nice for Pauline to play more than one game with his new team before the season starts, assuming he plays next week.

It all spells one thing for me, 1 point from the first 3 games of the league!
 

ILS

Well-Known Member
Jun 21, 2008
3,803
6,913
There is international games before the season starts so atleast a couple of them will get a game in then.
 

TH1239

Well-Known Member
Jan 28, 2011
3,691
8,964
The #1 issue for me when it comes to our roster is this: Will AVB very slowly embed those players who haven't featured yet or will he opt to play the most talented available players, irrespective of the amount of time they've been at the club?

Last season he kept Van der Vaart, Adebayor, Dembele, and Lloris on the bench to start the season (while starting the likes of Livermore, Friedal, Defoe, and Sigurdsson). Will he do the same with Soldado, Paulinho, and any others we bring in? I don't think he can afford to, but he did it repeatedly last year (Holtby in January, also), that it makes me think we won't see our strongest side until after the international break in the middle of September.
 

MightyModric

Well-Known Member
May 29, 2011
1,147
3,201
There is international games before the season starts so atleast a couple of them will get a game in then.

And knowing our luck, half of them will get fucking injured as well!

Pointless friendly.
 

Ribble

Well-Known Member
Apr 13, 2011
3,505
4,777
Holtby was playing the u21s this summer so is probably much closer to full fitness.

Edit: Benny was playing qualifiers too so again probably closer.
 

tiger666

Large Member
Jan 4, 2005
27,978
82,214
Looks like another absolute disastrous pre-season for us, why does this always happen? Is it Levy, AVB, just bad luck?

So far we have these players injured or still recovering:
Vertonghen
Dawson
Kaboul
Sandro
Defoe

And these players haven't featured at all yet, for one of the other reason:
Bale
BAE
Holtby
Paulinho (fair enough?)
Soldado (obviously)

That's at least 7 or 8 of our "starting XI" who will be nowhere near match fit come the first game of the season. Obviously some of these can't be helped, but bloody hell it reeks of mis-management to me. I don't think any other club in the league would be in such a state of disrepair.

We saw what this did to us last season, and obviously haven't learnt our lesson!


What do you suggest we should have done differently?
 

tiger666

Large Member
Jan 4, 2005
27,978
82,214
I Dunno, but it only seems to be us in these situations year after year!


Well. Ok but
We saw what this did to us last season, and obviously haven't learnt our lesson!
seems to suggest we should have learnt our lesson and did something differently this year.

We can't help injuries (maybe we can but I fail to see how that's AVB/Levy fault. More the medical team.) to:

Vertonghen
Dawson
Kaboul
Sandro
Defoe

The players that haven't featured:

Bale - Probably understandable given all that's going on
BAE - Rumours he'll be off so want to avoid injuries
Holtby - No idea there
Paulinho - Just joined
Soldado - Just joined

So the only one really to question is Holtby. Hardly a disaster.
 

Bemuser

Member
Aug 7, 2008
206
13
Holtby has been injured for pre-season. AVB said this a couple of weeks ago. It was also confirmed by the ITV4 commentators yesterday.
 
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