As well as the injuries...you can also see his substitutions and introduction of players is also governed by the medical team. Frey only playing 15 minutes here and there indicates to me he really isn't ready to play.Varane playing 2 or 3 matches before going off again. Then you get players like Field or Saito who seem to be always fit until crippled by a serious catastrophic injury....you cannot do anything about those injuries It is the soft tissue injuries that are crippling us ( pun intended) this year
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/west-london-sport/id1638897966 Pick the bones out of this David McIntyre interview with Marti. Q1. Are you quitting? a 10 minute listen
Listening to that he doesn’t seem to be quitting & quite content to carry on & try to improve things & move forward unless the CEO has other ideas
The effort taken to both learn his name and get it in a song mean the fans now feel compelled to sing it.
I'm sceptical about anything said in interviews like this , after what happened with Beale. At the end if the day , if he goes he goes, will it make a huge difference to us getting promoted ? No, cos we don't have the financial clout to get out of this division whether he stays or not. It could have a bearing on whether we get relegated or not, should he leave and we replace him with a shocker. The football this season has been pretty turgid to put it politely, but we have had an incredible amount of injuries. I just don't think our squad is good enough overall to challenge for promotion even via the play offs, would that change with a different manager, doubtful imo. I couldn't hold it against Cif if he left for a club with better prospects, he's kept us in this division which was quite an achievement with this squad , especially last season.
We have had a load of injuries this year. Am I right in thinking we had the least injuries of any team in the 4 leagues last year? Isn’t it just averaging out as it does It is not like we have an old team these days I expect Liverpool to have a load next year
I think the truth of it is the relationship between Cif and Nourry probably is a bit rocky. I don't necessarily believe Cifuentes actively wants to leave though but that doesn't mean he won't if a better offer comes in, which wouldn't make anything he's saying in his interviews untrue, we aren't talking another Mick Beale scenario. I hope they can resolve their differences amicably, I would like to see Cifuentes with a season unhindered by injuries.
Let's just see how it goes. I do think Marti is annoyed at the medical and performance team...but that is Nourrys forte...so there could be friction. If Nourry is not a sociopath they will discuss it sensibly and Marti and us will be in a better place next season. To me the fitness, readiness has been a problem all season. We will always get the serious clashes that put out Field and Saito... But JCS, Frey , Varane, Kolli Lloyd and Chairs second injury are worrying from a operational point of view
Signing known sicknotes seems to be our forte in recent seasons, until that stops we'll never be competitive...
There's a reason we buy them...they're cheap. It worked out with Field, and I think JCS made the most season appearances of his career last year - but now the Ghost of Dubai is non-present our injury record is back to ****
