1 minute ago, Scott Harris said:

Exactly. I've heard all of that before with our players. James slight hamstring problem turns into him missing almost the entire season. Colwill got a slight toe injury and disappeared for months. This happens often with us.

Exactly...way too often.

The last one, that annoyed me, was Jacksons just before the USA trip, he missed all of preseason. No news about Lavia or caicedo out yet either.

 

12 hours ago, Simplymo said:

Exactly...way too often.

The last one, that annoyed me, was Jacksons just before the USA trip, he missed all of preseason. No news about Lavia or caicedo out yet either.

 

His absence helped us though….so not all bad

1 hour ago, nonotnowjim said:

His absence helped us though….so not all bad

Didn't we lose pretty much every game in pre season? 

20 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Didn't we lose pretty much every game in pre season? 

Yep - think of how badly we would have been annihilated with him on the pitch.  

49 minutes ago, nonotnowjim said:

Yep - think of how badly we would have been annihilated with him on the pitch.  

Or he could have won every one for us. Lol

I'm not really bothered about that tbh, it's more along the lines of I think he is one of the players that would have benefitted with more time with the squad to gel and to get upto fitness in rgds to preseason. But then again maybe it was a good call as the pitches there were rubbish, don't need to make the ankle injury worse!

The issue now though is I don't trust them when they say it's a minor or slight injury until maresca says they are fit to play in a pre match conference or they are on the teamsheet.

As long as Lavia is back, be interesting to see how we play if Caicedo is out injured for a bit. I honestly don't think we will miss him that much.

 

6 minutes ago, Nibs said:

As long as Lavia is back, be interesting to see how we play if Caicedo is out injured for a bit. I honestly don't think we will miss him that much.

 

Yeah, if Lavia is back that's fine. But he's out with a hammy too which is why he wasn't on the bench. I like that lavia has stepped up. Initially i thought him and caicedo can share that position and workload so they can hopefully stay fit and injury free. Didn't think past both being injured at the same time and soo bloody soon.

Pochettino was getting the blame for not making Enzo and Caicedo work, but it's showing little sign of improvement under Maresca either. Maybe they just don't work well together. Caicedo has to do extra running because Enzo doesn't have the athleticism to do it himself, which is having a negative impact on Caicedo's game. The modern Premier League midfield cannot carry Enzo types anymore, he just doesn't have the agility, physical strength or pace. You basically need an extra midfielder in there to cover for him, which takes away from our attack.

34 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Pochettino was getting the blame for not making Enzo and Caicedo work, but it's showing little sign of improvement under Maresca either. Maybe they just don't work well together. Caicedo has to do extra running because Enzo doesn't have the athleticism to do it himself, which is having a negative impact on Caicedo's game. The modern Premier League midfield cannot carry Enzo types anymore, he just doesn't have the agility, physical strength or pace. You basically need an extra midfielder in there to cover for him, which takes away from our attack.

Our best run under Poch came when Enzo was out injured. We looked much better in midfield with Conor/Caicedo combination. I suspect we would see similar with Lavia/Caicedo 

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

Pochettino was getting the blame for not making Enzo and Caicedo work, but it's showing little sign of improvement under Maresca either. Maybe they just don't work well together. Caicedo has to do extra running because Enzo doesn't have the athleticism to do it himself, which is having a negative impact on Caicedo's game. The modern Premier League midfield cannot carry Enzo types anymore, he just doesn't have the agility, physical strength or pace. You basically need an extra midfielder in there to cover for him, which takes away from our attack.

I can't see us winning anything with Enzo in midfield.

Hopefully we can flog him to Madrid for a break even fee when Modric finally hangs up his boots.

Eghbali and our hapless SDs however have form for doubling down on "strategies" that clearly aren't working, so I half expect them to make him permanent captain soon as well 🙂 

Edited September 1, 20241 yr by Sexyfootball

Mostly disagree about the bashing that Enzo is getting. He is nowhere near to being the biggest problem in our team. 

If we moved the ball quicker from the back (i.e stopped with the slow and stagnant sideways passing - followed by 15 touches, before knocking it back to where it came) and had a proper DM playing, then the Enzo points around athleticism all fall away.  

He is progressive, moves the ball quickly and tries to make things happen....But invariably hindered by the sh*tshow of a system we play to.

2 hours ago, nonotnowjim said:

Mostly disagree about the bashing that Enzo is getting. He is nowhere near to being the biggest problem in our team. 

If we moved the ball quicker from the back (i.e stopped with the slow and stagnant sideways passing - followed by 15 touches, before knocking it back to where it came) and had a proper DM playing, then the Enzo points around athleticism all fall away.  

He is progressive, moves the ball quickly and tries to make things happen....But invariably hindered by the sh*tshow of a system we play to.

It would definitely help. I don't think he is useless or anything like that, he's a good player. I'm just not convinced he can be a constant in our midfield if we want to progress. There are too many physical limitations for him. He's too easy to play against in most games and too easy to nullify.

10 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

It would definitely help. I don't think he is useless or anything like that, he's a good player. I'm just not convinced he can be a constant in our midfield if we want to progress. There are too many physical limitations for him. He's too easy to play against in most games and too easy to nullify.

Came into Caicedo thread thinking you were talking about Caicedo and realised you're talking about Enzo. But it probably applies to both.

And that is one of our main issues. We spent £200+ M on this midfield duo who are no more than okay. For that sort of outlay you would expect to be dominating midfield battles more often than not and it's simply not the case.

14 hours ago, nonotnowjim said:

Mostly disagree about the bashing that Enzo is getting. He is nowhere near to being the biggest problem in our team. 

If we moved the ball quicker from the back (i.e stopped with the slow and stagnant sideways passing - followed by 15 touches, before knocking it back to where it came) and had a proper DM playing, then the Enzo points around athleticism all fall away.  

He is progressive, moves the ball quickly and tries to make things happen....But invariably hindered by the sh*tshow of a system we play to.

This. It's been screamingly obvious that they're better playing at tempo, anti-Maresca if you will. Slow it down, pass sideways and backwards, meaningless possession, means the oppo defence is set and ready to pounce on the counter. Exactly what happened yesterday. And pretty much what happened when the oppo worked out Leicester last season.

We were outnumbered 3 v 2 in the defensive transition that 2nd half. Unless you are prime Makelele or Kante, you are always going to lose that situation. Caicedo was then asked to play RB with Enzo as the sole DLP. This in turn made the transition even worse. 

Difficult to blame either Caicedo or Enzo here. We were clearly overrun in midfield that 2nd half and Maresca risked going for the win. 

Feel like half the time he goes in for a tackle he fouls his opponent. Probably way over exaggerating that but it frustrates me a lot watching him.

8 hours ago, Dubair said:

Feel like half the time he goes in for a tackle he fouls his opponent. Probably way over exaggerating that but it frustrates me a lot watching him.

It's what DMs do. Count up Rodri's fouls. The skill is in not giving away a YC in the process.

8 hours ago, Dubair said:

Feel like half the time he goes in for a tackle he fouls his opponent. Probably way over exaggerating that but it frustrates me a lot watching him.

That spart of his job as a dm now, breaking up play by any means.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cmXEqAyqpM

 

what a game from him. top

Exemplary. He’s growing in every way at the club - performances and leadership. It’s fun to watch. 

There won’t be a peep about his form from the media because his name isn’t Declan Rice. 
 

Only Rodri has been better than him in 2024. 

Quite fitting he has arguably his best performance for us in this future.

Almost feels like closure from his debut at the same ground (which was held against him as used as basically an invitation for hyperbole for months).

Lost track on the amount of tackles he won that stopped an attack. 

That assist was a beauty too, what a player.

The loud mouths are going to be very quiet now!! 
 

Really really good today. Best player on the pitch.