Big injury issues
For me, in addition to the worries about El-Abd being sub standard and our football being mentioned as black arts by a number of football pundits, we seem to have signed a number of old or injury prone players.
We have Tyson, Saunders, Kashket, PCH and Hayes, all of whom are either injury prone or are carrying major injuries. Add to those Bloomfield and CMS and we really could have massive injury risks this season.
Thoughts?
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Was going to reply that I thought it's one of those "fair to raise it but not sure it's a thing" ones. Then I looked through the squad and realised that there are 10 outfield players in the squad aged over 30. I had no idea Saunders was 33!
Add in Kashket, who seems likely to be available less than half the time, and Paris, who can't seem to avoid injury and, yes, I think you may be right that it could be difficult to keep everyone fit.
On the other side of the coin, Sido, JJ, El Abd, Bean and Bayo, of the over-30's, have decent fitness records with nothing to think they're especially likely to be injured more than average. Aside from them, the only over-30's likely to be first choice are Mackail-Smith and Saunders.
The clear thinking seems to be that we'll get a "shtload" of older/injury doubt guys in, and hope a couple of them are always available.
I remember in some autobiography of a top manager whose name I do forget, he said that "out of contract players are always able to agree contracts". So maybe Tyson and CMS came on fairly decent wages, and we can afford them to miss a game or 2 every month
What worries me is the amount of injuries to key players in training,what the hell does Ainsworth have the players doing risking injury when we have a small squad?
It's strange because we didn't have many injuries in 2014-15 with a small squad.
@robin my guess is training.
Scrums, rucks, line outs etc....
I think that was an anomaly. It certainly was crucial to our success in that season.
I think if you look back at the season which almost ended in relegation we had a fat squad with a lot of mediocre players. Gareth seems to favour a smaller squad with a bit of quality and accepts that we will sometimes come unstuck when injuries deplete our options.
That 2014-15 season was pretty remarkable for lack of injuries. I remember Scowen missed perhaps the first month, and Jombati missed the last few months as the main couple.
We were exceptionally stretched around Christmas with 2 games in 3 days as another minor example. I remember we turned up at Shrewsbury away with 3 subs and left some key men out of the starting line up.
But we seem to have had more problems than that over the last 4 games!
You forgot Ingram there Malone!
Yep, you're right.
Despite people declaring that the fill in keeper did "well", he had an exceptionally worrying habit of conceding without even moving. Usually down to incredibly bad positioning, like in the play off final.
And his sheer naivety compared to Southend's keeper in that pen shoot out still is the stuff of nightmares. Along with the infamous" just boot it out Bloomfield", Holloway wasting that chance, and us trying to waste time with about 25mins left
Did lynch not save one? Had the more 'experienced' players buried their pens...he would still probably be here!
Really harsh to blame Alex Lynch for us losing at Wembley. I'm not sure he'd even by in the top five.
He did save one at the start but only because they fired it straight at him. Once they realised that he was too small to reach the corners, it became simply a matter of time.
Overall though, while looking like a child thrown into a mens game, Alex lynch did us proud in the few mostly high profile games he played. Appears now to have lost his place in the Chester team however.
I wasn't saying it was all on him @floyd . If you read my post, you'll notice at least 3 other players/situations referenced. By the time you then add in the penalty missers and the unfortunate hamstring injury from Craig it all added up.
I just can't believe that with such a strong skill in seeing out games/time wasting, we ever got into the position where we allowed a player to lose the ball where he did, and let them race right up to the edge of our boss to deliver a cross.
Smashing it out, fouling someone and then getting everyone behind the ball is well in our nature.
But alas...maybe this year
@Malone Exactly. if Bloomfield had just waited for a Southend player to run into him and fallen over, we'd have gone up...
I dind't say you were 'putting it all' on Alex Lynch, i said you were being harsh. Which you were!
Although had we got promoted I'm fairly sure we'd be in League Two again now.
@TheatreOfChairs that reminds me of someone posting something like: 'We won't get promoted with Ainsworth but even if we do we'll come straight back down again...' just before the play-offs.
We won't win the next game...but even if we do...we won't win the one after.
I've argued with people about this. That wasn't Bloomfield's fault at all, he did exactly the right thing, taking the ball away from danger and then turning back to lay it off to Steven Craig, who was supporting him.
The trouble was, Steven Craig's hamstring had pinged about 3 seconds beforehand and he hadn't kept up. Bloomfield wasn't to know this.
Just one of those things I'm afraid. Was a dreadful feeling when that goal went in.
@eric_plant That's exactly how I remember it too.
Row Z would have done.
would have been the wrong option if he had a teammate backing up to whom he could pass and enable us to keep possession though
He didn't do the right thing at all. He clearly passed the ball presuming that Craig was there, when he obviously wasn't, meaning in effect he played a blind pass, which was one major part of the fatal goal!
Yes, we shouldn't have let Weston get the cross in, yes we could have won the header, blocked the shot, and not had a keeper so woefully out of position it wasn't worth a dive ( as per a lot of the goals he conceded), but Bloomfield should have recognised there were 30secs left and pumped it spark into the crowd.
By the time the ball had been fished out of the crowd, we'd have had everyone behind the ball, and no huge space for Weston to run in.
But...it's done and dusted now...
he didn't pass the ball, he turned back to find Craig wasn't there and was then dispossessed as he was outnumbered by opposition players
go and watch it again - you're inventing a "blind pass" that didn't happen
by the way, Dev's analysis shouldn't get lost in all this
he's suggesting that the Southend players, during the shoot out, realised that our keeper was not the tallest and at that point decided to put their penalties in the corner
"lol"
Eric is right he was tackled way in opposition territory with 10 WWFC players behind the ball. Had he have just booted the ball off and Southend equalised from the throw in he would have been correctly slated.
they scored a goal. it happens. Not sure anyone can really be blamed but if anyone is Bloomfield very low on the list.
Why did I just watch that? I'd avoided watching any highlights of that game and I feel physically sick again.
@eric, While i must admit, i've done my best to expunge the exact details, and pounced on your "looked to lay it off" as an "actually laid it off", one view of that video reminded me of the feelings of the day and the "boot it out" view that everyone around us, and loads on the FB page were moaning about for ages after.
Opponents around him, dribbling into nowhere, a sturdy punt would by far have been the best option there. He may even have managed an even better scenario of smacking it off one of their players and to be our throw! Something that would have guaranteed us seeing it out.
No-one would have slated him, whatever Dev reckons.
Still not sure how Tangerine Man got away with his behaviour after they scored. Against a less family orientated club, could have caused a serious incident.
I've never seen such unreasonable criticism. Some of you should judge yourself by your own standards.
By the way, Alex Lynch is 6' 1.5".
As @micra isn't here to point it out by the way, Lynch was actually 6ft 1 wasn't he, despite fragile appearance! Plenty tall enough, while not freakish Blackman size.