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I feel sorry for Stephan. Literally a few weeks ago he had very strong options and a chance to really move us forward. Now he is missing a lot of his best players and if we start to slide it's him who will get the grief.
As I just said on another thread here, we can't compete with most of the other teams in this division so we have to try and gamble on really good players who may or may not be able to recover from bad injury issues.
My fear is that without Madsen we'll struggle because he is so good in that position and that by the time he's back we'll be back in our usual lower mid table position, battling to climb again.
In theory, had most of our players stayed fit and injury free we would be a good bet for the play-offs. Without them it is a lot tougher.
I wonder if they may push Cirkin into left midfield as he was very good for Sunderland in that position. Hopefully Dembele comes back and doesn't break down on the right?
Our seasons seem to be determined by who we can keep fit. Mbengue we can do nothing about, that's just unlucky.
I guess we have to accept that the players we can afford come with high risk of injury, as we are seeing. Burrell is also unlucky because his injury issues are relatively new but Cirkin, Lamptey, Poku etc are players we would never have if they had proven long term injury free records.
We can't compete with most of the teams in this division financially so there feels like little option but to gamble that we get lucky with some of these players.
At the moment we are 'sold as seen' and 'bought at buyer's risk' purchasers.
He seemed to do it over a few games where he landed on the same part of his back. An MRI revealed a bone stress injury to his lower back and that the bone was fractured. Apparently a lot of younger players are getting similar injuries on hard training pitches. Harvey's was a particularly bad one and he had to stop playing immediately.
He does play some very clever 'small' passes in build ups to goals and moves that I think a lot of people miss. Like a number of our players who returned from serious injuries I think there is sometimes a sub-conscious aspect where he seems to protect himself from certain situations where another player would commit to a tackle.
Remember this is a player that came to us, and that we kind of took a gamble on, with a broken back! Let's not forget that or that even after that he's a very decent player, and that he's only just turned 23.
Up front is the issue. Kone's knee is busted and Burrell is injured again. That's your two main strikers done and you are relying on Lloyd as your senior striker at 23, Obikwu at 22 and Kolli at 21. Of which really only Kolli has some first team experience.
For me come January we perhaps need another veteran to help out. It's worked in the past.
Weat London Sport article tonight... That knee looks like it is going to be a real problem this season. So much has improved coming into this season but it was obvious that Richard had a real problem with that knee at the end of last season. Sometimes the amount of bandaging on it was ridiculous and it feels like the medical team didn't properly investigate it before the pre-season. It's a great shame because the kid is getting pelters but I've been saying since last season that he's been playing with one leg!
I thought we looked quite leggy today. That said we were basically beaten by Liam Millar, a player I would have loved to have seen come to us a few years ago and probably should have pursued. A Lee Cook type player if ever there was one. He is great to watch.
As for us, at least we have a week to analyse, get some players fit again and come back swinging next week. Thought the gaffer spoke honestly and sensibly afterwards as well.
Measured. Perhaps Madsen could have started but thought he picked quite a good starting 11. We are going to lose matches. It's how we react that counts!
Apart from Lopez for Wolves not really much for us to fear in either team. Considering both have a lot of recent Prem pedigree neither looks like anything special. We do generally look like we could compete with anyone in this division now.
Blimey what a player he is at this level! Seems to have so much time on the ball, makes it all look effortless. Really great alongside Madsen with Edwards playing the kind of advanced Glenn Roeder sweeper role behind them.
Lloyd is an absolute bloody nightmare to play against because he's very quick and physical and just swarms defenders trying to get out as well. He also seems to have boundless energy which must be absolutely wearing to defend against. I thought he linked up really well with Kolli. They caused lots of problems.
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