Haven't seen any comments on the extent of Jellys injury. Is it a knee problem and if so how long will he be out for? He's been huge for us this season and we have no one who can realistically play his physical role. What are our options against Liverpool if he's still out?
Bruce said yesterday that it must be bad for him to pull up with an injury! Said Dawsons ankle was swollen too and harpers bicep had torn from the bone ( sounds painful )
Might be jumping the gun re Jela's injury but couldn't Diame play up front ? Strong, holds the ball, not bad in the air. Just thinking aloud really....
We've got Hernandez and ABH in the hole! We've got a lot of creativity in midfield so I don't think we'll be too bad.
We were terrible when Abel came off yesterday, and he did very little in holding the ball up. Against the better teams in the league like Arsenal and Liverpool, we need someone at the other end of the pitch who can make the ball stick and relive the pressure, Jelly has done this well, but I dont see anyone else being able to do that currently.
Oh yes I understand jelly will be missed but I think we've got an abundance of talent in the middle to play with one up front and a real attack minded midfield I'm more worried about the keeper situation.
We've got plenty of talent, but only two first team strikers and one of them might be out for a while. The other has scored 3 goals but not played particularly well, yesterday notwithstanding as I wasn't there. It'd be nice if Sagbo had done well at Wolves and was in a position to come back full of confidence...
Sagbo is the best hold up player we've got. We shouldn't have loaned him out in hindsight. He'd be ideal with Hernandez or Ben Arfa off/behind him to pick up knock downs etc. Though it would mean changing the way we play a bit.
If Jelavic is out for a while then we can recall Sagbo 28 days after the initial loan - unless Wolves want rid. I don't think he's torn up any trees there so he might be back soon. Fingers crossed Jela doesn't have ligament damage.
Could throw HBA up there if it came down to it. I know he's not exactly a striker but he's quick, got excellent feet and can shift a bit. He'd definitely hold the ball up, not with his strength as you expect from a striker but with his excellent footwork. It's just whether he knows how to make the runs and drag the defenders about properly.
Yeah, he's that good he can't even make the first team at Wolves. I notice on Sunlun's 'Real Football' (that's a laff) site that they refer to Altidore and Wickham as 'Forwards' now and not 'Strikers'. Are we going to see a revolution in players positions now? I know what a 'hold-up' player is all about and one of the best I saw was Niall Quinn and Sagbo is nowhere near that standard. If Jelly is out for a while then we have a real problem. Diame has shown his class at this level and together with Livermore and the Hudd we have plenty of ammunition in midfield but little to fire it with.
If that's the case we won't see him again this season, horrible injury that takes a long time to fully recover from. Although given how innocuous it was I can't imagine it was a full tear, so hopefully he'll make a speedy recovery.