I would genuinely not bother playing anyone important who's carrying a knock for the next two games, give them the next 10 days off and have whoever is half-fit, fully fit for the Brentford game.
Well, I will only lambast them on the defence. To go into a Premier League season with only 4 central defenders, 3 of whom are of Championship standard, was ridiculous. They deserve to get a bit of grief over such an incompetent decision like that. They were forced to get the best out-of-contract players they could, after it was clear they'd f&cked up, but that's now backfired because a 32 year old picked up a hamstring injury, surprise, surprise. So no sympathy with them on that. They deserve it. But Sarr is an unfortunate one. It happened in a match when he was targeted, and Moss didn't even deem it a foul. We do have good cover in Cucho though, so no blame can lay at the owners' door on that one. Again, Dennis was a knock sustained in match play and he shouldn't be out for long. Foster and Kucka are at an age where they will pick up groin injuries, but although I much prefer Foster as the number one, Bachmann can do a job and we can cover Kucka. So the list looks bad, but we should be able to perform to a high level still. The two players we need right now are Dennis and King. The injury list looks lengthy, but we can still cover it, just about. Foster, Kucka, Etebo, Sarr, Sierralta, Nkoulou, Dennis. That's looks bad, but hopefully Kucka and Dennis will come back for City at the very least. Kabasele was on the bench on Sunday, so can't be far off a return. I think Sierralta is not too far behind Kabs either, so will be a welcome return. Maybe this will mean Sarr doesn't go to the AFCON. Maybe it means we keep him at the club for a little longer. He certainly won't be sold in the January window, not with a knee ligament injury. So, there could be a silver lining to all this.
I’d say going into the season with Foster and Bachmann was a big gamble too - and Etebo being our only defensive minded CM (who isn’t even a CDM) was careless too. I stand by my statement really. The Sarr injury is the only one where we really have any kind of respectable cover.
I get what you're saying, but I do have sympathy with the owners here. It's a bloody hard job to not only get Watford promoted, but to furnish them with a squad capable of staying up. I think they've done well to a point, and I cannot be too critical over other areas of the squad, which were upgraded and have proved to be at least competitive. Louza was signed as our Hughes replacement, but it's taken him time to settle. Etebo was doing a great job in the role until his injury. So, that was an unlucky break to have lost Etebo, as the injury occurred during a match. We clearly didn't have a big budget, and that dictates everything. They wanted to get the debt under control first, so something had to give somewhere along the line. Dennis and King have immeasurably improved the forward line. Tufan, Louza, Kucka, Etebo and Sissoko competed the extensive rebuild of the midfield, and I suspect it's still not done yet. Rose was a decent acquisition, although he's struggling right now, I can't blame the board for signing him. The only failing was central defence. This is where they deserve a lot of stick, but I do have sympathy with them over issues caused by injury depletion throughout the rest of the squad.
People were saying Sarr was crap anyway, and we should be selling him. He wasn’t interested, downed tools, had a move lined up etc. Not sure what the fuss is about.
Can we just distch this thread and open a "We think they are ok and available to play at the moment" thread ? Would be quicker to summarise.
Nicely stated. However, you do realise this forum is not the place for balanced, well thought out analysis though.......unfortunately.
Maureen is champing at the bit. She'e even been laying off the extra elvenses bun, to get into shape.
That wouldn’t you be making a rather ‘toxic’ (to coin your favourite term) point whilst ‘naming no names’ would it? Your ‘lack of self-awareness’ tour continues around the forum.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/unfit-footballers-manager-danny-rose-25663984 Who are the other fatties then? Reckon Tufan has to be one of them
Masina is back in training judging by the club Twatter account. Wednesday is probably too soon for him but a back three of WTE, Cathcart and Masina is edging closer.
But we sadly edge away from getting to see (Andrew? James? I refuse to learn his first name) Morris in the flesh
Really? The comments from Ranieri after he went off against Chelsea seemed to suggest they were considering amputating his leg.
Etebo is a month away from training so it'll probably be February before he's fit enough to get on the pitch.
I've never heard of another club needing a whole month to diagnose an injury. It's been 32 days since Sarr was injured, it's clear the club know by now but of course us fans don't need to know stuff like this do we.
I don’t know. I think there are injuries where one would need time to assess which recovery trajectory the player is on. They have been quite transparent and said they would be having further scans around this time after which they would have a clearer sense of his recovery time. That doesn’t seem so unreasonable. Have you (or someone you know) ever had tests from a doctor and been told “we’ll know more at the next scan/in a few weeks.” If there is smoke and mirrors I don’t think it is to prevent Sarr going to the AFCON but more likely that Sarr is out for the season and we want to bring in an attacker without the club facing inflated prices as sellers smell our desperation.
