Greenlizard0 Weekend Football Thread ** spoilers ** [20 - 26th December 2013]

No1newts said:
Well that was a surprisingly comfortable, can't believe how close to the top we are :p

451 once again, no more 442!
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Now u see why clubs dont take the EL very seriously. It takes it's toll on the team with injuries and tiredness if u dont have the squad to rotate.

I couldn't believe u went from 5th to relegation battle in the space of a couple of months.
 
Pigeon_Killer said:
And Lucas doesn't look washed up now he doesn't have to cover two people :cool:

Yeah, I went there BaZ :p
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Have I missed something? He's looked no different with or without Gerrard in the side. In games where we've dominated there's never been an issue. The issue's been in games where teams have taken the game to us and pressed us in midfield.

We didn't play that well throughout the game today but Cardiff sat back first half and our midfield looked comfortable. 2nd half, when we seemed to take our foot off the pedal and Cardiff began to come forward more, we looked a bit of a mess in midfield.

Sherwood made the point re Spurs in midweek - you can't play at 100mph all game (especially back to back in a busy period like now) and the 2nd half today was an occasion where we needed to control the game with our possession and we couldn't do that. The game bypassed our midfield a lot of the time and midway through the 2nd half we were somewhat fortunate to get a free-kick when Campbell robbed Lucas and would have been clean through on goal to make it 3-2.

As for the game and performance as a whole. It was quite predictable. The 11 we started with were perfect for games against the likes of Spurs away, where we looked to press them high up the pitch and break but against teams that sit off us, this side lacks somebody that can switch play in midfield quickly and can create something from deeper positions. Today is the exact sort of game where you'd start Gerrard (in a deep laying role) ahead of Lucas. Fortunately Suarez is a god and we took the chances that came our way and killed the game in the first half. If Suarez isn't on form, the lack of goals in this 11 worries me. Although to be fair to him, Sterling's starting to score a few.

edit: and you could flip your comment re Lucas around and say he doesn't look washed up now he's got 2 people covering him. We all know about Henderson's work rate supplementing Gerrard and Lucas but against Spurs, Allen made twice as many tackles and interceptions as anybody else on the pitch iinm.
 
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Newcastle just had the double whammy of new european campaign and massive squad injuries. The latter alone is what West Ham before they hit relegation form, even without european football a huge injury situation in which say 1/3rd of the squad is missing for a huge portion of the year, another 1/3 is injured on and off, and you end up playing a different team almost every week of out of form, unfit, coming back from injury players.... it just destroys a team.

There are a handful of teams in the world that wouldn't have tanked down the table with the level of injuries. The likes of Barca/Real/Bayern, not even convinced of the likes of Chelsea/Utd would have coped. Liverpool have been relatively injury free and not had Europe, and one of the reasons Arsenal is doing better than usual is no significant injuries this season(except the ones keeping guys like Diaby away from the first team which helps rather than hurts us :p ).

Dortmund are currently going through an injury crisis, losing in Europa, losing in the league, 8 points down on Bayern playing a game more after another loss today. Even fantastic squads have serious problems when more than a few injuries/bans stack up.
 
BaZ87 said:
lol we have? Sturridge out for 2 months, Gerrard out for 2 months, Coutinho out for 6 weeks, Johnson out for nearly 6-7 weeks, Allen out for 2 months, Enrique out for 3+ months, Asaps out for 2 months.
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Yep, we've been hit pretty hard but the system Rodgers plays, as well as the form of Suarez, has meant we can accommodate those injuries easier than some other teams. Mignolet's probably my biggest concern for getting injured though.
 
Pigeon_Killer said:
Yep, we've been hit pretty hard but the system Rodgers plays, as well as the form of Suarez, has meant we can accommodate those injuries easier than some other teams.
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I'm not sure it's anything to do with systems. We've just been lucky in the respect that Sturridge started the season scoring and we kept a few clean sheets early and then the injuries to Coutinho and Sturridge (and our poor defensive performances) have coincided with Suarez being back from suspension and scoring 2 goals per game.
 
BaZ87 said:
lol we have? Sturridge out for 2 months, Gerrard out for 2 months, Coutinho out for 6 weeks, Johnson out for nearly 6-7 weeks, Allen out for 2 months, Enrique out for 3+ months, Asaps out for 2 months.
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Of those the only one that matters is Sturridge and Gerrard, and you haven't played anyone particularly good since he got injured. The next couple months while they are out could be a problem.

Few if any of the players you listed were out at the same time and first team members. Sturridge is out but Coutinho was back, Enrique is out, that has improved the team :p Aspas hasn't done anything or shown anything anyway.


Teams get 2-3 injuries, that is "normal" and you cope with that, when it becomes 5-6 it gets bad, when it's constant small niggling injuries for others as well, that is when it falls apart completely. With Newcastle they had situations where they had the equivalent players as you did injured, but all at the same time, with significantly weakened first team, where as you are talking about 1 or 2 players not starting games rather than 4-5, that is a massive difference.

IMagine where you'd be if Sahko or Skrtel got injured at the beginning of the season and missed half the season, Gerrard was injured on and off all season, not a few games ago, then add 2 more players constantly out, then have the rest of the team in and out all season, with no change to establish form AND the addition of European games so those that were fit were more tired, travelling more, losing more. Then factor in they have a 60-70mil a year squad and you have a 110-130mil a year squad(I honestly have no idea where it falls these days, it was huge for being so low, then it dropped, I assume it's going up again so is probably somewhere in that range).

http://www.physioroom.com/news/english_premier_league/2012_13/injury_analysis.php

Here is a good table, scroll down, while not strictly accurate it has most injuries and tries to keep track.

Newcastle had almost 50% more injury time than the next most injured team, Wigan. It highlights what a horrendous time they had last year.
 
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I wanna tell you, I might as well do,
About a boy who can do anything,
He comes from Belgium, his name is Adnan
Januzaj, Januzaj, Januzaj.

:D
 
EIEIEIO up the football league we go! Love going away and smashing the other team. 3-0, 9 wins out of 10 and 7 clean sheets in the process, and planning permission for the new ground. Good time to be a Bee! We most certainly are going up this year... ;)
 
drunkenmaster said:
Newcastle just had the double whammy of new european campaign and massive squad injuries. The latter alone is what West Ham before they hit relegation form, even without european football a huge injury situation in which say 1/3rd of the squad is missing for a huge portion of the year, another 1/3 is injured on and off, and you end up playing a different team almost every week of out of form, unfit, coming back from injury players.... it just destroys a team.

There are a handful of teams in the world that wouldn't have tanked down the table with the level of injuries. The likes of Barca/Real/Bayern, not even convinced of the likes of Chelsea/Utd would have coped. Liverpool have been relatively injury free and not had Europe, and one of the reasons Arsenal is doing better than usual is no significant injuries this season(except the ones keeping guys like Diaby away from the first team which helps rather than hurts us :p ).

Dortmund are currently going through an injury crisis, losing in Europa, losing in the league, 8 points down on Bayern playing a game more after another loss today. Even fantastic squads have serious problems when more than a few injuries/bans stack up.
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Liverpool injury free ?

Enrique, Sturridge and Gerrard are all out. Sturridge being a big loss.
 
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