I could have worded that better, I should have just said they were definitely in St Stephens, I've obviously got no idea what they were doing there.
Just as a matter of interest do other teams at the top of the championship or there about rotate their squads like city do.
Well Burnley didn't rotate Andre Gray, about the nearest equivalent to Abel, and I can't think of many teams in the Championship that would purposely leave out their best player, especially if that player was an inform striker. Even if he'd played him for the first hour and then took him off with QPR in mind it would've made at least some sense, but to expect him to come on and fight fire in a side that was clearly struggling was probably more likely to see him finishing the game injured, as he would clearly need to up his game even more to make a difference.
I don't know why this is so controversial. Hernandez has played some proper stinkers when he's been tired. In terms of fatigue and the effect has on him he's one of the weakest players I've seen. It made sense to rest him. It was only two games ago that he did **** all at Rotherham. He's not a 46-game a season player by a long shot.
It's so controversial because we needed him on the pitch, as was proven after he entered the fray. I'd understand your point more if we'd had someone other than Akpom to rotate him with, it just made no sense whatsoever, he still played him but at the end of the match as opposed to the start when we could have poked our noises in front, and that could have made all the difference.
I know you don't like him, but we're a different team when he starts, I'd take a tired Hernandez over Clucas or Akpom any day of the week (I think it's bollocks anyway, he looked fine yesterday and we only looked like scoring after he came on). We've won 65% of the games Hernandez has started, we've only won 29% of the games he hasn't started.
Bruce in the interview keeps talking about looking at formations and systems but doesn't consider trying a more attacking approach.
Well we have Diomande, but for whatever reason Akpom was preferred. He'd probably have been useless if he started. Like he was at Rotherham. Like he is in every game after international duty. He also seems very susceptible to minor injuries which presumably is made worse by two games in three days. It's true that Hernandez irritates me at times but I'm under no illusions that he's anything other than our best striker at the moment. It's not that I don't want him starting, I just think Bruce was right to point out that Hernandez can't cope with a lot of football based on the previous evidence and for once, he actually followed through with it. His absence can't be the reason for our **** away form.
Akpom shouldn't start in away games as the only recognised striker. He's too immature for such a role - it needs a bit of experience
He played Snodgrass and Maloney on either side with Clucas and Akpom up front, apart from a different choice of personnel in those positions I can't see how a formation could be much more attacking than that.
Agreed. Asking Akpom, an England U21 International, to play up front shouldnt be too onerous for him. People keep saying on his own, **** me he has players around him still. Its his job to challenge their CB's, hold the ball up and offer himself as a target. Bad attitude is his problem. Send him back. Get in two or three CF's. A loanee, a lower leaguer with a point to prove and an old warhorse-who's going to show some spirit and fight.
He's been in the squad for over two weeks, unless he plays, he's never going to be match fit, though I suspect he'll start against Brighton.
I hope you're right, but he's made two sub appearances and looked alright, then not even got on in the following two games. Seems odd.
Agreed. Really surprised he didn't come on at 2-0 against Burnley. Put him up top with Hernandez and let them run at Burnley and see what they can do.
Conjecture, he wasn't useless when he came on so why would he have been useless if he'd started. He hadn't flown half way around the world in international duty, in fact those that went have said that he looked fresh when he was eventually sent on in a desperate rescue mission. As for Diomande, if he's fit enough to be on the bench he should be fit enough to start, or at least play a part in the game, so **** knows what's going on there. Hopefully not another case of Bruce buying a 'not a strikers arsehole', or turning him into one!
