Doubt Ox had any intentions to leave this year.
Doubt any club would be ready to pay a fee for him so seeing out his contract is his only chance to get ‘good’ contract.
Even on a free he will struggle to find a club in the summer.
Henderson, Fab, Thiago, Milner. Who is our fifth senior centre mid if Keita (maybe) and Ox (definitely) are out?
Carvalho has been here five minutes and has mainly played 10 or wide left. Sure, we can chuck a kid in to play an unfamiliar position if needs be but for a team with aspirations of winning a title it isn’t ideal is it. Morton was lined up to go out on loan and most people hadn’t heard of Bajcetic until last week as he’s a 17 year old with zero competitive first team appearances.
So, as polite as I can say this, don’t come out giving it “FFS” like this isn’t potentially an issue. Ox is out for a bit. Henderson, Thiago and Keita all miss games regularly and need some rotating. What we’ve got behind them are a 37 year old, a player with a questionable injury record and a couple very talented, but still very green, kids.
Once the season starts, you lose a couple of players to illness or niggling injuries, like Keita and Jones currently have, all of a sudden we’re very very thin on reliable quality in that area. We’re a week away from the season starting and you can already seen the issues coming.
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and? Its another game he is missing
Guy honestly isn’t worth discussing, been a non factor for about 3 years now…as much as I hate to say it, it’s similar to Lallana’s last few years at the club.
People talk about being “unlucky” with injuries, he’s legit ALWAYS injured…people hated on Sturridge even after he formed one of the best strike partnerships we’ve ever seen.
If the club want to keep him until his contract expires so be it…paying 35m for an injury proner in last year of his contract was never going to work out. We move on.
So? It’s not like it’s a massively important game and that he didn’t feature at all the previous day…
Jones?
No team interested in him, he will be gone end of season. Naby was almost injury free last season. 
If that’s the case then I have a very differing definition of the term “senior” to others.
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He’s played 75 competitive first-team matches for us.
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He’s played in 75 competitive first team matches but his minutes in those games add up to less than equivalent of 50 games with a quarter of those coming in League Cup and FA Cup outings. He has less than the equivalent of 25 Premier League games under his belt, rarely starts rarely gets 90 minutes.
You aren’t a senior pro at 21 with that amount of game time under your belt. He’s still a prospect that has yet to prove himself.
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some of ya need to wobble ya heads for a bit.
Ox struggles to get a place in a team that is one of the best in europe and in the top 2 best teams in the premier league.
We don’t have enough meaningless games in the last few years to get him a good run. He’s unfairly judged because of that.
As an example james milner is hard worker and makes tactical fouls and we don’t expect goals or mazy dribbles so it’s all good.
Ox works very hard for the team but is judged on 60 -70 mins every few months with a lack of goals and shots/assists.
I was not convinced when we signed him but i am certainly sure his career took a bad turn due to injury whilst playing for us.
He deserves every penny he gets paid. He also comes across as a thoroughly decent chap who is hurt by his lack of consistency and game time but doesn’t cause dressing room unrest.
hope that all makes sense because i think i am living in a zoo at the moment and cannot find the time to proof read this.
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Wasn’t there supposed to be a behind closed doors match against Aston Villa midweek? Maybe it was canned in view of all the unforeseen injuries.
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Problem is who do you rest if you have 6 senior MF for 3 places. Players like Jones will be included in any system like that because no one has a squad like that in which they have 3 starters for one position on the bench.
The issue is the injury prone nature of the CM.
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It’s after the Fulham game according to TIA:
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Aah ok sorry I thought they’d squeeze one in the middle of the 9 days break
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We have the numbers in midfield, but obviously the issue will be durability for a few. Some of the main men are starting to get on a bit now too, so the niggly injuries are mounting up.
The main vulnerability for me is if both Fabinho and Henderson are out at the same time.
We will obviously refresh our midfield next summer, probably with two incoming, and in the meantime Jones and Elliott might yet establish themselves further so that they will be the type to count on for the coming years.
My personal opinion is that Elliott will do that, and Jones is borderline, but while we find out, Jones is at least a squad man and I wish him all the best as he tries to kick on a bit.
As for Ox, I could see the thinking when we signed him. He wanted to be a midfielder, and he had a good spell for us, breaking through the lines and offering a shooting threat too. Serious injury put paid to that, and since then the team has moved up a level too.
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Senior pro is a term typically reserved for when talking about influence on the group culture. Making up the numbers in the first team squad is a completely different issue. Jones is now going into his 4th year with the first team and the squad has very clearly been put together with him being considered a member of it, not a kid who come in off the sidelines if an emergency calls for it (e.g. Morton). In that sense he is a senior player (i.e. not a youth or reserve player).
EDIT: That was in response to @rab not sure why it tagged @CanuckoLFC
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You have your interpretation, I have mine and it’s okay if they differ. Being part of the squad does not make you a senior option in my eyes, especially when you are one of the most junior members of the squad.
He’s senior in that he plays in senior squad and no longer does the age group games. Doesn’t mean he’s a senior member of the squad or option at centre midfield given his age and relative inexperience.
And it doesn’t really matter anyway, what matters is whether we’d be happy with him possibly starting week in week out if we picked up an injury or two to more established players? He’s certainly not currently challenging them to take a starting place so I’d say it’s be a pretty big ask if it comes to it.
I am O.m.n.i.p.o.t.e.n.t!
FTFY
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