This I wholeheartedly agree with, None of our benched midfielders are anywhere near the same sort of player as Joelinton, and we suffer without him on the pitch
The Martinez card may have been a fraction of a season but Joelinton had almost 30 starts before the injury...its not like he was out the whole season and champions league was achieved without him.
True but the last few games we didn’t miss him as we still achieved the target as opposed to playing him half fit and causing him to ultimately be out longer. First choice team he would be in, no problems but as it finally turned out we didn’t need him and, therefore, we didn’t miss him.
This all depends if the aim was to finish as high up the table as possible. If it was then I think not having Joelinton for Aresenal and Everton was a big detriment to us finishing 2nd
GeordieGeezer has a mate who is the Oracle Of Delphi and Munson is fixing him up with a job lol. Anyway, yes Joelinton is very key.
Same thing might be said about Tonali or Bruno.....when the bar is set that high any one of them missing could be a huge issue. Its nice in a way cos it shows how good the midfield is but definitely it might be beneficial for Howe to work on a Plan B over the summer.
