How long until they tell us Thiago is actually out for 6 weeks?
You are just a ray of sunshine, aren’t you?
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If the guy picks up an ear infection on the Saturday morning I’d have been surprised if he was playing within 3 days.
Id probably say we were lucky to see him within a week.
Well, just going on previous injuries
We have two players that are way, way worse than him, hes close to being one of the iron men in our midfield (fitness wise), and that should be the sad part. A midfield squad can carry players that are injured every once in a while, however having 3 is a disaster. Of the three, Thiago is way ahead in fitness and way, way ahead in quality.
I seriously think TAN should crown me as Resident Artistic Maestro and retire this title. All these frivolous challenges to my genius is making a mockery of art. It’s like having 3 Prime Ministers in 2 months.
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Do you have any tutorials?
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If Keita and Ox can gain minutes in the league then it’s worth chancing the arm with minutes in this one for the players we can play, Konate can’t play a full 90 apparently so I assume Gomez and VVD with Trent at RB and Konate on in the second. Nunez can start so start him as it gives us chance to rest one of the forwards to come on.
Konate can then come on later and it also gives Milner a chance to cover some minutes in CM without using him at right back.
If we really need a goal then I’d consider your fullbacks as options further forward. I do think we have at least one option potentially two better than we did have on Saturday. Nunez would have made a difference in that.
I would depending on the situation consider gifting minutes to Bajetic if we do go through I’d start him next week.
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I don’t and I can’t teach pure genius. I wish I am more commercial minded and sell myself out. Those pieces I posted here could have gone for millions in Sotheby’s and the climate activists would be throwing tomatoes on my works but nope I choose to share them here. Perhaps you could just look and stare at them and you get some inspiration
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At least Matip and Keita contribute to the team when available. Ox on the other hand has contributed jack shit for a very long time.
That’s harsh on a player who contributed much to our league win, got injured after, and then had to settle for patching holes in our front line because he was the most suitable player for doing so.
No one denying his efforts way back in the 19/20 season. Just stating the facts that he has not contributed since then due to unavailability. It’s time to cut ties which should have been done last season already.
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I’d like to see a midfield of Elliot - Henderson - Jones.
Risky since Jones has been looking really rusty and Henderson looks like his on his last legs as a starter. Elliot’s been great for us but he’s being wasted in MD when his best position is at RW.
He did play all our Champions League group stage matches, and was on the bench for all the knockout stage matches.
He also scored our first goal when we were trailing Leicester 2-0 in the League Cup, and played the League Cup matches up until the second semi-final, and was on the bench for the final.
Much less of a contribution in the FA Cup, playing only 2 games and not being in the squad for the rest. He also got many games in the league, especially in that section from October to December when we had so many other midfielders break down.
He’s not been a main star of our team yes but I think it would be really harsh to say he “contributed jack shit”. It’s more that he’s relatively replaceable, and hasn’t been able to fully demonstrate what makes him better than the other alternatives.
What should be interesting is that I think a couple of press conferences ago, Jürgen said he didn’t know what would happen with either of Keïta or Oxlade-Chamberlain at the end of the season, which suggests that the coaching staff might not view them as poorly as most fans do.
Jones was good, he needs game time and I think Hendo is our best no.6 at present.
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I’m wondering if, now that Oxlade-Chamberlain is in a condition to fill in at least some minutes, we’ll see him come on as a sub again to take some pressure off the others in terms of game time, which would give us more options.
It’s realistically at least either Fabinho or Henderson, if not both, in the team since Thiago is ruled out.
Jürgen has expressed his distaste for rushing players back from injury so I’d be rather surprised if Keïta was to feature in the next two weeks. Then again, he did give Oxlade-Chamberlain minutes, so who knows at this point? He might feel like his hand is forced. Just hope we don’t jeopardise their recovery.
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In any case, we don’t have much of a choice, not with 2 games a week. If we leave Jones out, we have to bring Fabinho or Carvalho in. One brings the risk of inexperience too, and the other brings the risk of burnout.
Not sure if they want to gamble on Thiago making it for the weekend, so I’m guessing we probably don’t want to risk both Henderson and Fabinho too much.
I don’t often speculate on the line up, but I’m thinking we’ll end up seeing 2 in midfield, and 4 up top (with Carvalho as one of the 4).
Bonus points if we decide now is the time Bajcetic gets to prove himself.
Thiago didn’t train on Tuesday, so I guess it will be Fabinho and Henderson in the midfield.