For me the most important thing is to get no more injuries, I'd take a loss if it meant everyone survived.
Just an observation, given we don't know when players are back from injury, match fit etc. If we picked up a point or even 3, at this stage in the season, but lost 2 or 3 first choice players to injury, we could easily shed loads of points over the next few weeks. It's a bit like putting out a weak side in a game you're not bothered about. Obviously I want us to win and get no njuries but I don't think it's ridiculous to entertain alternative scenarios.
Goes one of 3 ways... We finally face a team ready to bury their chances and our recent stroke of luck runs out and we have a reality check with so many players out and still to come in. Or we see a close encounter again where we take our limited chances and they don't take many of theirs despite generally being on top of the game. Or we are legitimately the better side, show it by capitalising on their poor form, and deservedly make a statement by taking a score draw or a win away from home. We've added quality but haven't dominated any of our games yet despite being unbeaten in 4. All depends which team turns up on the day, on both sides. My prediction: 1-1 or 1-2
We run the risk of injuries in every game we play surely? It's early in the season,we're doing well and the other night we looked as if the 'gelling' was starting to take place.We can't go into games looking to preserve our players,we have to be positive and go for the throat and points.It's all about building momentum at this stage and putting down our mark (in my opinion)?
We've already gone to no contact in training to avoid any further training ground injuries. It looks like Smith and Longman will be back for West Brom or Coventry, Seri should also be back for Coventry, Sinik isn't far away either.
My prediction is either West Brom will turn up, Livermore will put a man of the match performance in and take all three points or Tufan and Slater will run rings around Livermore and we win and Bruce gets another big severance package and ****s off to Portugal with Junior in tow to enjoy an all-inclusive buffet.
It's just that right now we have so many of them, the state of our bench shows that. It's hypothetical really because the team will go out and do the best they can. It's just that if Mystic Meg said it's either (a) win 3-0 but Greaves, Tufan and Oscar get crocked for a month, or (b) lose but everyone stays fit for the next few games, I'd go (b) every time, We're only 4 games in, plenty of time to pick up points.
Steve Bruce on facing City tomorrow: “I had a great four years at Hull. We managed to get a couple of promotions, made our way to an FA Cup final and qualified for Europe. I had really happy times there.”
