16 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Just as bad as Dave imo. 

I've never seen a player with such technique as Ruben to be so brain dead in the final third. 

haven't watched much of Celtic, but I thought he looked decent enough in the World Cup.

9 minutes ago, forbzy said:

haven't watched much of Celtic, but I thought he looked decent enough in the World Cup.

Nah he's pretty average tbh. 

4 minutes ago, Chelsbear said:

Nah he's pretty average tbh. 

Ideally we would be able to sign a player that can cover RB and RCB. That way they could even potentially feature in the same team as Reece if we opt for 5 at the back.

5 hours ago, OriginalS said:

We could play what ifs from today until tomorrow if you want.

He we actually built his minutes up instead of going from 0-60+ (there is no evidence he was planning to hook him at 60 either for that sake) like he said he would we'd still be in the race for Top 4. If he's out for months now we are not in it anymore, pretty major deal and it was avoidable.

How do you know he hasn't had his minutes built up behind closed doors and in training...Like every other professional footballer.

5 hours ago, OriginalS said:

Alright, no need to continue this.

Do forgive me for giving Potter the benefit of the doubt and hoping he and us would get away with it. Bottom line is that a decision the manager made now has probably cost us any hopes of salvaging the season so i'm a bit pissed off at that.

You don't even support the club so you wouldn't understand would you.

However as previously mentioned by a few of us, if our entire season hinges on a RB/RWB then we're in a pretty parlous state anyway. Bad enough being a one man team but when that's a defender, we cannot seriously have designs on the highest positions in the table.

4 hours ago, Gol15 said:

The difference on that right hand side with and without James is just too much. Keeping him healthy from now on should be the priority for the whole club.

or get a rrasonable back up, not a techincally limited guy(legend accepted) who is breathing out of his ar$e in 20 mins becuase he is two years past his date.

Frimpong I suppose or Dumfries in January. But they mustn't dick around over it. They need to go and get it done in week one.

3 hours ago, El regreso said:

The PT coming out and posting that suggest there may have been a disagreement of what should happen to him playing wise. Also look at Reece reaction when he leave the pitch.
 

For me its complete bollox and blame shifting. To have a personal fitness coach he must have provided sufficient data to Potter to make a decision on his minutes.

No player should even get near the bench of a PL match unless they are fit enough to play for an hour. If the PT said he could only play 45 minutes, i am convinced he would never have started. You just wouldn't do it.

I cannot belive that Potter would override the coach's input either.

1 hour ago, Sconnie Blue said:

It's going to be difficult finding a player that knows full well they will be second fiddle to James. 

I do agree to the notion though that at this point we need to find a RB that can compete with James. 

But that isn't how football works. James might be made of glass, the signs aren't good. We must have competition there and if the next one coeming in can hold his position then James either gets used elsewhere or sits out. Benches are full of multi million pound players. Both Lmaptey or Livramento could have coem in durign this period and been good enough to keep James out. We need to get a player that is good enough for the position and hopefully has enough versatility to be used elsewhere if necessary.

Without Recce our attack is dire and the defense becomes porous. To have such an influential player injured so much is really the worst thing. With Recce and Kante firing all cylinders we could've probably challenged for the title. Without them, getting top 10 looks a challenge.

Obviously gutted for James and us. He is a huge influence for us and its sad to see such a young player getting injured so often, I hope both him and Broja recover well as we need everyone fit next season if we want to compete.

It has being mentioned before by someone but I would love to see Chalobah start as a right back for a couple of games since we have converted to back 4. I think Chalobah has all the attributes to do very well, he is young, has pace and height, powerful and sound defensively. Perhaps offensively he is not that great but at right back instead of wing back he would be perfect cover for James. Similar to what Ben white is doing for Arsenal. 

54 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

How do you know he hasn't had his minutes built up behind closed doors and in training...Like every other professional footballer.

Because by minutes built up I obviously mean in competitive football. But i'm not going to repeat myself on this matter.

But let me just give you a hypothetical: James is now out for another month at least. Should we again throw him straight into the XI for a Premier League game after he's trained for a little while? 

50 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

or get a rrasonable back up, not a techincally limited guy(legend accepted) who is breathing out of his ar$e in 20 mins becuase he is two years past his date.

Frimpong I suppose or Dumfries in January. But they mustn't dick around over it. They need to go and get it done in week one.

Time for the last dance...

13 minutes ago, OriginalS said:

Because by minutes built up I obviously mean in competitive football. But i'm not going to repeat myself on this matter.

But let me just give you a hypothetical: James is now out for another month at least. Should we again throw him straight into the XI for a Premier League game after he's trained for a little while? 

Its how the game operates for every single player. Why should it be any different for him. If he needs to be out for 4 months before being in contention then that is fine. He needs to go away and sort his rehab out properly.  We need to then get an alternative and Reece will then need to work his way back and try to compete, but of course run the risk of not gettign back in. Its the same for all.

1 minute ago, WhiteWall said:

Its how the game operates for every single player. Why should it be any different for him

What do you mean? And shouldn't it be slightly different for him as he's injury prone and our most important player. To me it would make sense to show extra caution and I will be of the same opinion when he's "ready" again after another month out. But I gather you want to throw him right into the XI again when he's trained for a littlebit?

14 minutes ago, OriginalS said:

What do you mean? And shouldn't it be slightly different for him as he's injury prone and our most important player. To me it would make sense to show extra caution and I will be of the same opinion when he's "ready" again after another month out. But I gather you want to throw him right into the XI again when he's trained for a littlebit?

Why do you keep saying this. Its a professional football club and dealing with injured players is an every day part of that process. He will be and would have been given a full rehab programme and will be fully monitored throughout. He would have got to a point where his medical staff would have sanctioned his return. Its not down to Potter or any other part of the matchday team, unless they overrode the advice from the fitness team.

The questions have to be asked of the fitness and conditioning team as to the programme that they have in place and the feedback they are giving to team management when called upon. Of course there is also teh possibility taht he is just injury prone, which is sad but has blighted many other players equally as good as Reece is.

Let's hope the medical team get it right behind the scenes this time so that by the time he makes the matchday squad he is fit enough for a sustained peiod.

I think the one thing you could say about Potter is that he isn't reckless, headstrong or gung ho.

He's cautious and considered.  He would have taken advice from the medics the rehab team and the player himself.

Reece showed absolutely no discomfort at all , but whatever happened was gonna happen eventually if there's an underlying problrm.

I think we can forget about playing with wing backs for the rest of the season. A couple of fullback s like the old days ?

 

So if he is out for a month, what games will he miss? 

16 minutes ago, BordeauxBlue said:

So if he is out for a month, what games will he miss? 

City for start at the bridge!!!

I think he will be out for CL match against Dortmund on the 15.2. for sure, maybe also for rematch on the 7.3.

1 month is a laughable prediction, it could be a season ending surgery. we are doomed without him

17 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

It's going to be difficult finding a player that knows full well they will be second fiddle to James. 

I do agree to the notion though that at this point we need to find a RB that can compete with James. 

Plenty of players who is okay with being 2nd but harder to find someone that isn't a huge drop in quality

It's a nightmare to have gained such a player as James and signed Chilwell, only to witness as they become injury prone players that can't get a full season without injuries. This alone set us back and we simply had to get Cucurella. Instead of spending in other areas we might actually need to buy another full-back on top of the expected departure of Dave.

18 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

It's going to be difficult finding a player that knows full well they will be second fiddle to James. 

I do agree to the notion though that at this point we need to find a RB that can compete with James. 

You can't find RB who is as good as Reece. What we need is improvement on other position so if there is a drop off in one position , the impact on the team is not significant.

Take for example yesterday, when Reece went down and was replaced with azpi. We need one of our midfield to provide more offensive output because azpi is not as good as James in that area. Zakaria and jorgi could not give us that. 

Edited December 29, 20223 yr by Bob stark

4 hours ago, Bob stark said:

You can't find RB who is as good as Reece. What we need is improvement on other position so if there is a drop off in one position , the impact on the team is not significant.

Take for example yesterday, when Reece went down and was replaced with azpi. We need one of our midfield to provide more offensive output because azpi is not as good as James in that area. Zakaria and jorgi could not give us that. 

I agree. I think the first half against Bournemouth is what Potter wants in his football (which is something I wanted to see from him immediately). Dynamic front three, more bodies in the attacking end, two CMs being utilized as outlets and overloading the midfield, and always a midfielder bombarding forward into vacant space when an attacking player drops. 

I want to believe the 2nd half issue was due to fitness rather than Azpi and James switching, as the drop off in the entire team looked knackered after 60 mins.  

 

 

3 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

I agree. I think the first half against Bournemouth is what Potter wants in his football (which is something I wanted to see from him immediately). Dynamic front three, more bodies in the attacking end, two CMs being utilized as outlets and overloading the midfield, and always a midfielder bombarding forward into vacant space when an attacking player drops. 

I want to believe the 2nd half issue was due to fitness rather than Azpi and James switching, as the drop off in the entire team looked knackered after 60 mins.  

 

 

Sconnie, I can't believe a top Premier League team has a team of players who are exhausted after 60 minutes. It looks that way, but why ?

Other sides play higher tempo than.is for 90 minutes and look fine !

11 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Sconnie, I can't believe a top Premier League team has a team of players who are exhausted after 60 minutes. It looks that way, but why ?

Other sides play higher tempo than.is for 90 minutes and look fine !

It was the same earlier in the season. We look knackered in the second half. Don't think the team were fully fit until maybe Milan?