So, where do we go from here?

r00fie1

r00fie1

Well-known member
With 14 players currently unavailable [including the two involved in International duty] I cannot remember a time, when over half the Senior Squad was missing, and we hadn't enough players left to form a second eleven! This is not a blame thread, but just how is Michael Carrick and his staff going to stop the dam from breaking over the next few weeks? We have some very skilled youngsters, but some lack experience and the physicality required in man's football. With the physical stretching and mental pressure on players, performances like yesterday may recur. We looked jaded, laboured, sluggish yesterday. I suggest it wasn't a question of attitude - being lazy or unthinking, for instance. But, at times we may have done ourselves a favour by being a little less intricate about our play and, a little more typical old-fashioned "get rid" of the ball.

With some players not quite fit, we can't rush them back, because that makes them more vulnerable to worsening the injury, and we lose them again! It was good to see Kavanagh make his debut, and it was interesting - if not somewhat frightening - to see the number of youngsters on the subs bench. Some of us may have seen the U18`s and U21`s who are well coached, and It's good to follow their progress. That step-up to the Senior game can be too soon, and youngsters can easily succumb to pressure. Is it appropriate to look at those who have had loan experience and bring them into the frame. I'm thinking of people like Jack Hannah?

Villa are going to be a challenge. Carrick always says football is about playing every game and going out to win. He won't have the "focus on the league" mentality. How can we approach that with the resources we've got, or do we just focus on getting to Wembley and winning the League Cup?

:unsure:
 
Hopefully a couple or 3 new signings in Jan and also blooding the youngsters - what else can we do?

Forget about league position as long as we are clear of relegation, its just a case of getting through this period with what we have. Personally I always felt this was going to be a transition season anyway and the play offs would be a stretch too far - at times we have looked excellent but have been way too inconsistent, not surprising given the number of new players in the summer and the fact most were untried in this league.

Fully fit we are a striker and maybe a 10 away from being a good play off side - address that in the summer and go again next season
 
I can fully accept losing games, in the way we have against Rotherham, Cov or Hull recently, as long term with a fit squad we would have won all 3 of them and be comfortably in the play offs.

With players hopefully returning to fitness, we could absolutely have a run t the play offs in the 2nd half of the season, and if we don't its no disaster, as his season was very much a transitional one
 
There’s a lot of football to be played yet.
If we can get a No9 in we’ll be okay, once players start coming back.
I don’t think the cup games will go well for us at this moment in time.
 
Morning roofie.

Assuming we have nobody back ready to play on saturday:

I would give our entire first team a rest against villa. Play the kids. If we have a couple of senior players ready to play a part from our injury list, stick them on the bench.

We could also utilise engel and bangura because they have at least rotated a bit.

Accept that we will get turned over by villa. And give the lads a week's rest and hope to be ready for Chelsea.

What we shouldn't do is rush loans or permanent signings to cover a couple of weeks.
 
We're going to get tonked by Chelsea no matter who we field. Our only hope is that they keep missing chances like they have of late! Villa may well put out a weakened side as they are in with a very real chance of a top four finish and perhaps even winning the league.

Like it or not I expect us to be "concentrating on the League" pretty soon 🤷‍♂️
 
Laughing said:
Morning roofie.

Assuming we have nobody back ready to play on saturday:

I would give our entire first team a rest against villa. Play the kids. If we have a couple of senior players ready to play a part from our injury list, stick them on the bench.

We could also utilise engel and bangura because they have at least rotated a bit.

Accept that we will get turned over by villa. And give the lads a week's rest and hope to be ready for Chelsea.

What we shouldn't do is rush loans or permanent signings to cover a couple of weeks.
Click to expand...
I’m all for this
 
Laughing said:
Morning roofie.

Assuming we have nobody back ready to play on saturday:

I would give our entire first team a rest against villa. Play the kids. If we have a couple of senior players ready to play a part from our injury list, stick them on the bench.

We could also utilise engel and bangura because they have at least rotated a bit.

Accept that we will get turned over by villa. And give the lads a week's rest and hope to be ready for Chelsea.

What we shouldn't do is rush loans or permanent signings to cover a couple of weeks.
Click to expand...
I'm sure you're right, laughing.
Carrick told a reporter he wouldn't bring in loans just to provide cover, because injured players would be back and we`de be left with a spare body.
This will be the biggest test of his fledgling Managerial career, so far, and I think almost all of us have absolute faith and belief in him to pull us through.
I'm a bit past it, so I wouldn't be much use to the squad :love:
 
You take every game as it comes and you play the best team you can believing you can l win each game no matter who you are playing, if you do anything less football is finished in my opinion, I find it hard to accept some fans just want to give up before a ball has even been kicked, if you loose by a big score or pick up an injury, thats football, well it always was.
 
I still think we will finish in the play offs, and I feel more comfortable about that this year than I did last season, we were almost too good in the non essential games and we seemed to gloss over the defeats in the big matches, and went into the playoffs expecting to win them. This year we are going to struggle to reach the play offs but i feel we will and we will be battling all the way to do it but maybe we will be a bit more street wise about it if we do.

The cups we are ****ed unfortunately but you never know until it happens. The only positive I can see from winning Villa now is that one of our league games will be put back later in the season and more players will be back.
 
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Going to be a tough month by the looks of it - hopefully by February we might be able to get something near to our best eleven on the pitch, until then 🤷🏼‍♂️
 
exeterboro said:
I still think we will finish in the play offs, and I feel more comfortable about that this year than I did last season, we were almost too good in the non essential games and we seemed to gloss over the defeats in the big matches, and went into the playoffs expecting to win them. This year we are going to struggle to reach the play offs but i feel we will and we will be battling all the way to do it but maybe we will be a bit more street wise about it if we do.

The cups we are ****ed unfortunately but you never know until it happens. The only positive I can see from winning Villa now is that one of our league games will be put back later in the season and more players will be back.
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And this time we will have momentum - last season we had already breezed the play off position.
 
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