SSN reports Harry as saying that Ledley has an abductor strain, and will be out "for a while". I suppose it shouldn't come as any great surprise, but with Gallas still out as well, we are going to have to rely on Kaboul to hold our defence together.
This begs the question who is going to be the other centre half, is Daws fit yet otherwise what are the options?
Daws should be fit soon, IF he has no further setbacks. In the meantime we can hope Corluka is ready for Thursday, so we can rest Kaboul for Sunday.
I think the most obvious captains are Ledley, Gallas and Daws. I think Modric got it yesterday based on seniority or something. As great as he is I don't see him as Captain. The armband should now surely go to Parker, (I think) the only member of the team with any sort captaincy experience. Shame about King though, what an astonishing record in those last eight games he started!
that's a bit bold but what a shame for King, I always knew he had ability and a fantastic attitude and all people know of him is that he is prone... it's a much bigger shame than for Kieron Dyer considering how good King is... In my opinion the fault is that his knee has been through that many ops that he can't train as much as others leading to more injuries when he's giving 100% on the pitch. If I was Harry I wouldn't know what to do with this one.
A united fan talking about defensive frailties Your defence is all over the place at the moment, you probably need Cahill more than us.
No, he couldn't. If we'd have matched Bolton's valuation, then someone else would've matched it too and then given the player better personal terms.
I'm not sure that would've happened but it was definitely a possibility, I'm sure teams were keenly waiting to see if anyone was ready to come in for him but you can sometimes knick a player on deadline day before another side can make their move.
I'm betting he was given the armband as part of Harry's ploy to appease him and keep him at the club, much in the same way that Wenger did with Fabregas and is now doing with RvP. It's a big mistake, in my view.
It's not the first time he's worn the captain's armband for us, since he wore it a few times late last season, and given Chelsea weren't sniffing around there's no need for any theories on that. Surely we'll give the armband to Parker now - although what to do when Daws or Gallas are fit again? Bolton decided to play silly buggers, though - we offered something like £7m plus Bassong, but Coyle demanded £7m plus Defoe. Suffice to say, should we go back for him in January, it'll be an offer of hard cash and nothing more.
Lets hope Bassong can produce some consistency, he has played well before but is always liable to make a clumsy challenge or misplace a pass. He`s not a patch on King but we do have some games against weaker opposition coming up, but a CB pairing of Kaboul and Bassong doesnt fill me with much confidence.
Bassong and Dawson played most of our games when we finished 4th, if I remember right, CB. Maybe Kaboul and Bassong might gel, given a run in the side?
A real pisser about Ledders, not surprised, and I don't think Seb did a lot wrong yesterday, got straight into it to his credit. The goals came from Walker getting caught out on both occasions.
I'd definitely blame Modric for the first goal, Notso. He sent Walker wide to deal with the overlap and then totally ballsed up any sort of challenge on Gutierrez(?).
PNP to be honest tackling back is not his thing, every time I see Modric tackle it usually ends up a free kick. However having said that he should at least get his body in the way.
Then all we need is Gallas to return. And Dawson. Corluka would be nice, too. Kranjcar and Huddlestone would give us options. Pienaar might make a difference. Lennon's pace would be an asset in tight games. Good job we've not got many injuries though, eh? Other teams have two players out and it's a crisis!
