No right back. No point saying James will be back after the international break, because he will break down again soon after. He's also missed so much football that it's unlikely that he will be close to being match fit.

As good as he is he’s arguably the worst crosser in the team. 
 

Doesn’t bother picking his head up. Lazy, winging it crosses. 

Just now, Sconnie Blue said:

As good as he is he’s arguably the worst crosser in the team. 
 

Doesn’t bother picking his head up. Lazy, winging it crosses. 

He was decent at it last season. The system is hurting him. He's not an inverted wing back any more than Chilwell is.

4 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

No right back. No point saying James will be back after the international break, because he will break down again soon after. He's also missed so much football that it's unlikely that he will be close to being match fit.

Acheampong ? 

Unlikely to be trusted, but he'd be the next in line as far as specialist right backs go ... 

Anybody notice these injuries almost always seem to happen when we play this slow tempo stuff? It's not surprising, because it's like our players are warming down and then suddenly try to sprint again. 

We played at a much higher tempo against Wolves and we had none of these muscle injuries.

6 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

He was decent at it last season. The system is hurting him. He's not an inverted wing back any more than Chilwell is.

He’s always been poor at crossing. Bosingwa esq. 
 

 

James muscle injury, Lavia muscle issue, Gusto muscle issue. Just like last season is starting up again, even got the sh*t home results to go with it.

Good thing we kept Disasi!

16 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

He was decent at it last season. The system is hurting him. He's not an inverted wing back any more than Chilwell is.

His crossing has never been anything special, he's best at intricate one twos and quick passing which to be fair should be ideal for an inverted full back. 

His crossing is not as bad as some are making it out to be. The issue he had is when he cross the ball there is usually one player in the box which is dumb against 4 defenders unless you are crossing for Halaaand. 

18 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Anybody notice these injuries almost always seem to happen when we play this slow tempo stuff? It's not surprising, because it's like our players are warming down and then suddenly try to sprint again. 

We played at a much higher tempo against Wolves and we had none of these muscle injuries.

To build on this, when players are asked to perform roles that are unusual to them it can put strains on the body they're not accustomed to. Gusto is versatile, but shifting between fullback and the "inverted" slot so regularly might have been a factor.

I can sort of go two ways with this, either it's unfortunate and can be chalked up to bad luck, or it's a sign of things to come.

Last season we faced an injury crisis, I always viewed it as players breaking down because fitness and load management had been absent at the club since Tuchel joined (we lost several dedicated fitness coaches when Lampard left and they weren't really replaced til he came back as interim). Poch got the squad in shape, but at the expense of some injuries along the way. (My evidence for this would be the lack of injuries to many of the regular starters, Caicedo played most games despite no pre-season, Gallagher played 51(?) times and never stopped running, Silva managed to play every 4/5 days despite nearing 40, etc etc.)

My worry this season is we're already seeing fairly young players get rested due to "load management", which 5 games into a season isn't exactly ideal. Not only that, we've also seen players going down with cramp a few times in the opening weeks of the season. Again, based on my admittedly limited understanding, this is not typically something you'd expect to see after a full pre-season. Add on to all this the fact that our current system leaves the back four quite exposed, and suddenly you've got unfit players making half-pitch recovery runs with concerning regularity. The cynic in me worries that we'll see more of these muscular injuries as the season goes on, particularly to our defenders.

Hopefully Reece is fit after the international break.

Poor for Gusto that he’a injured but this season, I don’t know if Maresca’s style limits him that much but he has been poor attatick-wise so far which is a shame considering he was a bright spot last season.

21 minutes ago, Ledgerson said:

Hopefully Reece is fit after the international break.

Poor for Gusto that he’a injured but this season, I don’t know if Maresca’s style limits him that much but he has been poor attatick-wise so far which is a shame considering he was a bright spot last season.

Because he's caught up in Maresca's slow, side-to-side and backwards passing.

Night & Day difference between Gusto of last season and this. Arguably over the 3 games has been our weakest player overall. 
Worrying as last season was definitely a stand out star. 

19 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Acheampong ? 

Unlikely to be trusted, but he'd be the next in line as far as specialist right backs go ... 

Yes, would much rather see Acheampong given a chance than Disasi played at right back.

1 hour ago, Gordon Bennett said:

Yes, would much rather see Acheampong given a chance than Disasi played at right back.

Disasi should not be considered for RB - If we are saying that Chilly isnt a fit for LB, then no way in a month of sundays is Disasi a fit for RB.

1 hour ago, nonotnowjim said:

Disasi should not be considered for RB - If we are saying that Chilly isnt a fit for LB, then no way in a month of sundays is Disasi a fit for RB.

He is a fit if most of the game he's going to be at right centre back in a back three, with Cucurella inverting into defensive midfield from left back. In fact he's far more natural than Gusto in that scenario ... 

2 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

He is a fit if most of the game he's going to be at right centre back in a back three, with Cucurella inverting into defensive midfield from left back. In fact he's far more natural than Gusto in that scenario ... 

Good point but even on Sunday we saw Fofana ending up on the right wing and crossing it into the crowd behind the goal. Disasi in that scenario is even worse - he's absolutely zero attacking ability on the flank.

2 minutes ago, Gordon Bennett said:

Good point but even on Sunday we saw Fofana ending up on the right wing and crossing it into the crowd behind the goal. Disasi in that scenario is even worse - he's absolutely zero attacking ability on the flank.

He's not replacing Fofana though. He's replacing Gusto. Disasi will be hanging back covering the space that Fofana has vacated, as I imagine Maresca will persist with his innovative use of Fofana at RW crossing into row Z LOL

40 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

He's not replacing Fofana though. He's replacing Gusto. Disasi will be hanging back covering the space that Fofana has vacated, as I imagine Maresca will persist with his innovative use of Fofana at RW crossing into row Z LOL

he is a visionary ....

 

...or plain deluded!

9 minutes ago, nonotnowjim said:

he is a visionary ....

 

...or plain deluded!

Must say it's rather amusing to have the SDs sign all these expensive wingers and then see  young Wesley popping up on RW as some sort of Mudryk clone.

Almost as if Maresca is deliberately trolling his superiors LOL

Honestly, couldn't get my head around Gusto inverting and Cucurella bombing down the flank?

Cucurella is fantastic at inverting and he's a natural at it, Gusto is such a brilliant player when he stays out wide and offers a real threat in attack. Why take that away from his game?

I don't know how Maresca doesn't see that, especially after he said he's spent hours and hours watching Chelsea games in summer.

Weird player , very up and down with his performances, maybe it’s due to his age. Even last year I felt the same despite being one of the better performers. Worryingly injury prone aswell

 

2 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

Honestly, couldn't get my head around Gusto inverting and Cucurella bombing down the flank?

Cucurella is fantastic at inverting and he's a natural at it, Gusto is such a brilliant player when he stays out wide and offers a real threat in attack. Why take that away from his game?

I don't know how Maresca doesn't see that, especially after he said he's spent hours and hours watching Chelsea games in summer.

I think a lot of the reason is to have the back three shaped so in possesion Colwill is the CCB and Fofana the RCB as opposed to Fofana CCB and Colwill LCB.

It suits the shape better as Levis biggest strength is his passing (and arguably biggest weakness is 1 v 1 in wide areas) while Wes' niche is ball carrying.

Seems Gusto regularly suffers muscle and hamstring injuries throughout his career.

Hope we can fix it, he's a really good player, don't want him missing games