Wouldn't that just lead to clubs contracting 25 overseas players and 8 Englishmen as back-up, SoS? The rules make a fair bit of sense, in my opinion.
Hi SF, disagree with all that big-time. King and gallas are not fit enough separately or together enough to form solid partnerships. Admittedly, your point is slightly different to the one LDL and I were discussing as we were discussing partnerships, but I don't think their continual injury problems is good news for our defence and its solidity. I see plenty of reasons why Corluka isn't good enough as a Prem CB, if we have the misfortune to see him again (remember the defeat at West Ham) you'll see why, I'm sure. Suarez or Carrol would love to play against him, with his lack of heading ability, tackling ability at CB, and pace. I care massively about the Carling and EL, I want us to win things, and we won't be winning the Prem anytime soon that's for sure. If we get hammered in Greece, you'll see who cares and who doesn't. Fact is we're not sufficiently equipped for this campaign, and the next 3 games are liable to show that. Yes out of the three, the Pool game is the most important, but there's no guarantee we'll win that, even if we lose the other two. The situation looks a mess to me, if it turns out to be that way, then Harry and Danny have to take the responsibility. Injury excuses simply won't cut it for me, nor many others in the Spurs camp or indeed in the media and amongst fans in general.
That's not a realistic situation though PNP, most clubs, English and European, have a strong contingent of their own nations players and I think that's regardless of the rules of the EL and any other regulations at the moment. Though my point was just stating that if a player is contracted to your club, he shouldn't have to then be registered for a certain competition, all players, if under contract should have an equal chance of at least being able to be considered to play.
King and Gallas have always performed well when they're in the team and usually we find our other centreback will put an improved performance also, the big problem last season was Gomes' erratic form and his awful command of the box. Gallas played 27 league games last season and if he can get similar to that again with King getting a few more also we'll be doing very well. I was suggesting tha Charlie could be used as a centre back in the cups and as a last resort in the league, because lets face it, if we're having to play our 6th choice centre back we're not going to be too picky. If you know of a centre back who's better than him and would be happy as 6th choice, let me know. Simply speaking as a fan, I'd much rather we went for the cups too but the reality is that our top players aren't going to stick around if we're only winning the League Cup and missing out on the CL again. Given the protracted nature of the CL reserve cup and the lack of rewards until the latter stages, it's really not worth much of our efforts until(/unless) we get to the quaters. I don't think it's down to us not being well enough equipped, we've just been unlucky with injuries. As I said before, it'd be nice to have Khumalo/Caulker so that we can use them in the cups and avoid using any of our first choice cbs but I don't see how that problem translates to the league - we'll still have a choice between Kaboul, King and Bassong for Sunday.
But excessive injuries is clearly the problem. Even if you write of King's contributions entirely, then we've still got 4 centre-backs. That should be enough. We've got tons of players. First XI: Friedel; Corluka, King, Gallas, Assou-Ekotto; Lennon, Sandro, Modric, Bale; van der Vaart; Adebayor. Second XI: Gomes; Walker, Dawson, Kaboul, Rose; Dos Santos, Huddlestone, Parker, Pienaar; Kranjcar; Defoe. Back up: Cudicini; Bassong; Pavlychenko; youngsters. That's plenty of cover for most positions, yet we're very light because of injuries.
Maybe it's time we took a look at our training staff & methods. And possibly, our medical staff, too. We always seem to be getting plagued by injuries that seem to take, in some cases, for ever to get over.
WEll SF, I can't agree with your analysis, and stand by my points. But hey, each to their own. I also disagree with PNP on this issue, we don't have sufficient cover and the current situation highlights this for me. We haven't got tons of fit players, otherwise we wouldn't be in the situation we now are, too many of our players are injury prone, certainly when they join us (Was Pienaar ever injured so much for Everton?) AS I say, I'll wait till after the Stoke game, before complaining too much as we might get by. If we don't, then for me the injuries excuse doesn't wash, we took a gamble by loaning out cover players/not buying in sufficient cover, and we'll have failed in that gamble if we lose our next three games. Even if we lose two and draw one, that's likely to represent failure too because of insufficient cover.
What worries me is that its been going on for years and nobody within the club seems to have twigged that there might be an issue.
LDL - I read somewhere that players are so highly trained these days that it doesn't take much for a serious injury to occur. I think there is seriously a case of overtraining. Once players have done their conditioning training pre season there should only be light upkeep during the rest of the season and of course match fitness.
I think it's a case of bigger everything, Luke. Today's players are bigger, faster, stronger, and much more fit - in an aerobic sense, anyway. So everything is done harder, faster, etc. A bit like Rugby, in the days I played, it was called a game for all shapes & sizes. That's no longer true. When you get two of today's players colliding at the speed and intensity that they play with, now, something is bound to give.
That would certainly seem to be the most probable reason. Unless, like Owen, he has a weakness there. Again, it's all down to the pressure of today's game - the pressure to be fitter, faster, stronger. Some bodies are more able to cope with the demands, than others.
I think it is really down to the fact that some players are just naturally more injury prone than others,also Spurs seem to have alot that fall into this catagory.I do agree that players are over-trained these days(except King who seems to be an oddity).I just can´t understand how Spurs have so many injuries after just 3 games.I would have thought that playing 1 or 2 games a week would keep you match fit,thus lettiing the players do just light fitness work in training.
Sandro got injured with Brazil and Pienaar got injured with South Africa, though he may not have been fully fit, anyway. Gallas did a hamstring in training, Huddlestone has some sort of long-term problem with his ankle, Dawson's pulled his achilles and Lennon's injured his groin. Doesn't seem to be much of a theme, really.
These early EL games really do give the likes of GDS, Rose, Livermore, Townsend, Walker, and even more seasoned outsiders such as Pav to make a point to Harry, and use it to their advantage in bucking up their ideas and proving to management and us fans that they actually have a future at our glorious club.
Would like to see Coulibaly, Falque & Ceballos play. I have a feeling I've heard Coulibaly is not allowed to play senior games for us this season? may be wrong.... My guess, based on injuries we have and Liverpoo game on sunday; Bassong will play along side Livermore at centre half - Kaboul being rested to play along side King on sunday. Full backs will hopefully be Corluka, who is not great going forward but will offer more defensively than say Walker. Possibly Townsend at LB as he played there in leg 2 against Hearts. Midfield is tough to call, with so many injuries, just depends on who is fit to play. Falque & Ceballos are surely a must after recent performances for spurs XI's etc. if not why do we have them? Gio possibly could feature on the wing? Up front will most likely be Pav, unless 'Arry plays 2 up top in which case may be Gio/Kane. I'm not too worried if we do not win this game as at the moment we have to concentrate on picking up league points. If we need to play a stronger team at a later stage in the group to ensure we qualify then surely that is the way to go as hopefully by then we will have less injuries to worry about. My prediction, a pessimistic 1-0 to the greeks.
