Absolutely delighted to hear that Turner, Catts and Titus are all playing tonight. I had a fear that we would be starting the season still with 3 or 4 injuries but this wont be the case. Only Campbell is a long term injury, with Meyler back in light training and Gordon expected back in September by all accounts. If we can add that striker we all crave and maybe also a wide left sided attacking player (no names mind lol), our squad will pose a wonderful nightmare for Bruce when it comes to team selection for the Liverpool and barcodes game. Great stuff for the team.
dead pleased that catts is back, if anyone needs a solid preseason it's him, plus with the central midfielders we have at our disposal now, this could well be a make or break season for the lad...
like you say great stuff i only hope we dont have a repeat of last year. Towards the end of the season i was thinking about talking the old magic sponge and first aid box to the games
We are much stronger mate. Gardener, Vaughan, Meyler, Catts, Steed, Sessesgnon, Richardson, Larsson & Colback will all be battling for 4 places and every one of them are good enough to play first team football. Last season, 1 injury would have ****ed us totally.
I've been keeping an eye on Meyler on Twitter and it seems this visit to the States was a great success, so hopefully he's getting close to a comeback as well.
i think we have the most competitive midfield weve ever had in the PL and its in the middle where ive alway thought us to be soft, i cant remember us controlling the middle of the park since Ball and Clarke (twat). But the team we have now and the prospects of whose to join have me very excited indeed fellas!
Brucie was quoted as saying that he was in light training/running this week but wouldnt be rushed back. Got to be thinking around September for Gordon and perhaps October for Meyler really.
i would use meyler sparingly ease him back in give him as much time as we gave gyan just to be sure because hes too good a player to risk his career, But with the options we have there is no need to so happy days. The player i want to see have a solid and most importantly settled season is Catts, i think taking the captaincy away will be a blesing in disguise and help him concentrate on his game, I hope O'shea can ben a calming presence in the dressing room and while Catts may not like it to begin with hopefully he will see that its going to benefit him in the long run and knucke down.
Totally agree that we should take it easy ant rush Meyler back, and we don't need to now. He was looking so good before the United game, even in it he was playing well, hopefully he gets back to that level, and we have yet more competition across the middle.
Just a thought but with the added competition maybe Catts will be forced to channel his talent into now playing for the team by removing the cards from his game…..or else maybe splinter time on the side?
It's not always Catts fault tho. I watched Gerrard, Rooney, terry, Ferdinand, scholes and about 10 other players commit much worse fouls and get nothing last season. Gerrard got a yellow for a blatant intentional elbow in Welbeck's head and Catts was getting bellowed for a push or a shoulder charge and even for winning the ball. I agree he sometimes needs to think but he seems to get booked simply for being Lee Cattermole. and if you ask him not to make those challenges you remove an important and very big part of his game. He got sent off twice last season for committing 2 yellow card offences. No-one else in majority of sides in the league would have got yellows for the first challenges he made against brum and wigan. And the 2nd against wigan I would defy any player to make that challenge. But I guarantee that Rooney and Gerrard would only have got a talking to.. I rate Cattermole and think he is under-rated - looking for a big season from him this season.
I couldn’t agree more that he's been hard done by on many occasions but the Ref's now see it as a "no smoke without fire" scenario .I’m Just hoping that with the increased competition he’ll get to focus more. Loss of the armband at such a young age if it happens might also help with him coming back in a season or two much more mentally stronger to lead.