The amount of injuries we've got is one thing, but the concentration of them in one area of the team is crippling. Pelkas, Tetteh, Allahyar, Traore, Oulad M'Hand are all the players who would be providing creativity and support around Oscar and they're all long-term injured. And then there's also Covil who, given the other injuries, surely would be in the equation if he wasn't also injured himself. And perhaps more of a push, James Scott too. It's an absolutely incredible concentrated run of bad luck. It seems like because it's gone on so long we've sort of got used to it and forgotten how hamstrung we actually are.
Bitter blow that, Pelkas is quality, and was getting better game by game. Probably Tufan needs to step up and fill that role, though will he move out in January? It will be interesting to see what happens with Pelkas now, on loan, will they take up the option to buy at the end of the season?
Rosie wants a small squad to improve morale, keep players on their toes fighting for places. But if we get 5-6 injuries we’d be down to bare bones all the time, and this seems to be our constant state of being.
Might be time for Sinik or Jarvis to take his chance. I’m not sure about playing Doc/Slater there, they’re CMs, we need their energy in the middle of the park. If Allahyar and Tetteh are back in January, that’s two wide/attacking players, if we get this lad from Palace then that should at least restore the balance.
Sinik doesn’t get a chance, he comes on makes a bit of an impact in the 10 minutes he gets and then we’re back to the limited grafters in the starting 11.
Can't help but think if Sinik was impressing in training he would have had more opportunities. Have to say when I've seen him come on, I can barely remember him beating a man or putting in a cross. Tufan on the other hand looked really good when he came on at Watford and I think this is an opportunity for him to really establish himself in Liam's first XI.
looked good in the last away game before the World Cup when he came on. He’s usually brought on when we’re desperate and everything needs to be forced. Would like to see him get a run of games before we decide he isn’t good enough, cos he’s shown glimpses of talent
Our luck seemed to totally turn once Shota left, now it's going bad again though definitely not up to the level it was before yet. Pelkas wasn't available through much of Shota's time.
Tufan was good at the start of the season but I'm not sure he could really keep up with the pace of games [number of games and overall pace within them all]. Of course we didn't have Seri for quite a while back then so that probably didn't help.
It's definitely too early to say he isn't good enough, but there must be a reason he doesn't get that run of games even though we've had a chronic lack of wingers for a long time. Rosenior mentioned that he likes playing with out and out wingers and he's brought Longman in to play more regularly since he took over, but he hasn't done the same with Sinik. From what I've seen of him, part of the problem is that he isn't really a traditional winger who takes men on and gets behind the defence. He seems to have a trick in him but hasn't been able to get on the ball anywhere near the goal in his appearances so far. Despite all the talk of big midfielders and defenders, I expect a winger to be our top transfer target in January.
Dimitrios Pelkas (Greek: Δημήτριος Πέλκας; born 26 October 1993) is a Greek professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for English Championship club Hull City on loan from Fenerbahçeand the Greece national team
