Injury crisis...

To clarify - a “gritty” midfielder needs to have creative skills but also energy and some defensive qualities ie not another Brooks but a Joe Allen type - my ideal recruit.

I’ve always rated Allen and he could be tempted by another chance to stake his claim in the PL... Stoke not looking like they’ll do much this year...

However, he’s not the answer long-term, I don’t think... Guessing L.Cook was/is that...

If we’re thinking that the summer is when Eddie is gonna do his serious business, then if Huddersfield go down there’s a couple, in Billing and Pritchard, that would look good at DC.
 
all this talk of inflated january transfer fees
anyone got proof of this or is it one of those urban myth thingies?
just asking
I asked the same question last week. My view is it is a myth. What actually happens is different types of players are available in January compared to the summer.

Clubs on a bad run might be more prepared to cash in on their assets in Jan. Similarly you might find bargains on players who are out of favour. On the flip side, clubs doing well won’t want to jeapodise their season in Jan.
 
Hopefully not all from Celtic, but if there was a chance Tierney would come then that would be nice. For me, Roberts, Tiernay, and not sure about a centre back. I like the look of Anderson at Sampdoria, but would be intrigued of Al's opinion on Saar at Nice or Djiken at Caen, heard both mentioned but not seen enough to know
Someone's been doing his homework
 
To clarify - a “gritty” midfielder needs to have creative skills but also energy and some defensive qualities ie not another Brooks but a Joe Allen type - my ideal recruit.
Or... we could get Harry Arter back...when he went I thought ahh well we've got Lerma but now I really miss him.
 
If Eddie and the board do not want to spend big, there's a 22 year old CM at Dundee FC called Glen Kamara and one at Ipswich who is out of favour in Teddy Bishop. Can someone who has seen them tell me what they think.
 
The Chelsea line up may have to pick itself

Boruc

Cook
Ake
Daniels

Pugh
Surman
Lerma
Brooks

Mousset
Defoe

I believe that you may find that Jack Simpson will be involved. This is a game that we will lose anyway so this may be an ideal opportunity to put Kyle Taylor and Namdi Obofore in midfield to give the senior players a rest.

Playing too many senior players for this game will result in us losing the Brighton game as they will be knackered after playing three games in seven days. Play the youth side at Chelsea, we have nothing to lose.
 
I believe that you may find that Jack Simpson will be involved. This is a game that we will lose anyway so this may be an ideal opportunity to put Kyle Taylor and Namdi Obofore in midfield to give the senior players a rest.

Playing too many senior players for this game will result in us losing the Brighton game as they will be knackered after playing three games in seven days. Play the youth side at Chelsea, we have nothing to lose.

Last week you said playing youth/reserve players against premier league opposition was a ridiculous idea and would knock their confidence. Nice to see it only took you 7 days to come around.
 
I think there has to be a mix, some youth some fringe players some experience. Defence is the worry not to many options, plus we can't afford to lose any more, cook and ake need to stay fit
 
As it stands, squad wise...

Goalkeepers
Begovic
Boruc
Ramsdale
Travers

Right Backs
A. Smith
Francis

Seaman

Centre Backs
Ake
S. Cook
Francis
Mings

Simpson

Left Backs
Daniels
Rico

Centre Mids
Lerma
L. Cook
Surman
Gosling
Taylor
Ofoborh


Wingers
Fraser
Brooks
Stanislas
Ibe
Pugh

Strikers
Wilson
King
Mousset
Defoe

Well, I mean, it's an absolute state. No available right backs, 3 available centre backs (one of which is a youth academy player), 2 available Centre Mids. But we also have 5 Wingers competing for 2 starting positions. That means we can't play a 3-man midfield, or 3 at the back safely. Brilliant. And of these fit players, how many are out of form atm? Probably Stanislas, Brooks, Fraser, King, Defoe, Mousset and Daniels. Yikes.

And then you remember that EH was playing Smith at Left Back ahead of both Daniels and Rico, which I thought was ridiculous at the time and is now starting to look suicidal. The main problem I have with this is that it's purely to accommodate Francis in the team. And thats not having a go at Francis; EH seems to think one player is good enough to cover two positions somehow. Which has really come back to haunt us now. And if he doesn't think this needs sorting out in January, then I don't know what to say. He needs to decide once and for all whether Francis is a CB or a RB, and then recruit accordingly. Otherwise our defensive options will always be imbalanced. Personally, I view him as a backup, right-sided CB.

I'd like to see EH maybe show some faith in OUR youngsters as well, at least as much faith as he does in the youngsters he spends £££s on. You look at West Ham, Southampton, Everton, Wolves; all clubs around us that play academy players in and around the first team. Hopefully we see some more of Simpson in the Xmas period, hopefully we can have a look at Taylor and Ofoborh, and maybe Seaman will get some games, considering we DON'T HAVE A FIT RIGHT BACK. We won't know how good they are until we see them play. What I absolutely don't want to see is a back 3 of Cook, Ake and Daniels, with Simpson on the bench. If you want to play 3 at the back, play Simpson and have a bit of faith.
 
Last week you said playing youth/reserve players against premier league opposition was a ridiculous idea and would knock their confidence. Nice to see it only took you 7 days to come around.

I am trying work out if you are completely dense or not. I was referring to not playing them in the Premier League where points are at stake. This is a League cup game, a game that we are very likely to lose anyway. So in which case this would be an ideal opportunity to give the younger players i.e. Kyle Taylor and Oforbore some game time against quality opposition and in so doing so, resting our senior players in view of the injuries that we have so that they will be fresh for the Brighton game.
 
Can we refrain from personal abuse as part of the debate? It belittles the point you're trying to make.

I will try but I have noticed that you do not pull up other people for doing the same thing.

In this case it was obvious that I was referring to not playing the youth players in the Premier League. This is a cup game of which would be an ideal opportunity to try out these younger players as the result is meaningless.
 
I disagree completely

No game is meaningless, we're not so big that we can dismiss cup competitions, despite what we might infer from Eddie's cup selections the last five or six years. I think it's a crying shame to see the decline of the cup competitions and I'd hate to see my club accelerating that
 
I'd like to see EH maybe show some faith in OUR youngsters as well, at least as much faith as he does in the youngsters he spends £££s on. You look at West Ham, Southampton, Everton, Wolves; all clubs around us that play academy players in and around the first team. Hopefully we see some more of Simpson in the Xmas period, hopefully we can have a look at Taylor and Ofoborh, and maybe Seaman will get some games, considering we DON'T HAVE A FIT RIGHT BACK. We won't know how good they are until we see them play. What I absolutely don't want to see is a back 3 of Cook, Ake and Daniels, with Simpson on the bench. If you want to play 3 at the back, play Simpson and have a bit of faith.
I see a lot of merit in this opinion. If not now, when ? We are in a comfy position points wise and are looking very thin on options. Give the youngsters a chance to shine. We may unearth a diamond and it may go tits up, but when the injured return we can still go back to plan A and comfortably stay up. Eddie can be too risk averse at times and also too protective of the youngsters. I would hope that he has learned something from David Brooks. Sometimes youngsters are more ready than you think. I don’t think anybody would criticise him for blooding the youngsters in our current situation and it could prove to be a master stroke. Fergie would never have had the success he had without showing faith in the youngsters. I think this is something Eddie should seriously consider and he doesn’t have a lot to lose. If it goes well he’s a genius, if it goes badly he can resort to plan A with little damage.
Of course Eddie can best judge if a player can cut it in the Premier League but what did he expect of Brooks when he signed him. Food for thought ?
 
I will try but I have noticed that you do not pull up other people for doing the same thing.

In this case it was obvious that I was referring to not playing the youth players in the Premier League. This is a cup game of which would be an ideal opportunity to try out these younger players as the result is meaningless.

No, I’m not dense, and certainly don’t appreciate personal attacks when merely questioning something you quoted last week. You said playing against premier league teams would knock their confidence, Chelsea are premier league opposition.

And, the game is not meaningless at all, first time we can reach a semi final, chance to win a cup etc etc.
 
RB is the only real problem, L Cook obviously a big loss but he was having a terrible season so far anyway.
Can't understand people suggesting we give our youth team players a game, they've not even proven they're good enough for league 2 yet so I doubt we'll be starting them in the prem.
 

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