Got there so early last night that i managed to catch Barnard and Schneiderlin signing autographs outside. I asked Morgan how his knee was and how long he'd be out for, he replied with "a couple of days ish". If we could get him back for Middlesbrough away it would be massive.
Hopefully he's right and the stud he got in his knee didn't damage anything. We really could have used him against Reading.
There is the chance he just didnt understand me. Or with how secretive nigel is with injuries he could have just lied. But to me "a couple of days ish" would suggest monday or tuesday hed be back training. Probably too soon for peterborough, but with him in against middlesbrough on saturday, thats pretty much the first 11 playing.
Indeed. Lots of instances in the final 30 mins where we had the ball over the left hand side of pitch, and De Ridder was unmarked over on the right hand side. No disprect to Hammond, but he was never going to be the sort of player to pick De Ridder out first time. Took two or three passes to get the ball to De Ridder (by which time Harte had got out to him), when Morgan could have done it in one. Similar to the way that he and Chamberlain worked last season. That said though, I thought Hammond had a cracking game, so I'm not having a go at him.
I prefer schneiderlin because hes a better holding midfielder than hammond. Have you noticed that when schniderlin is out, how many goals we concede from shots outside the box that were not closed down properly? The two against pompey and one from last night are recent examples
Morgan will not have misunderstood, his English is excellent. To have him back ..... mon dieu! Ca, c'est une reve! He and Lambert are the key to our success.
Yeah my brother asked for a picture with him and we asked how long, he replied "next week mate". Sounds good!
Thought Hammond was good vs Reading until he got visibly tired after about 55mins. Not surprising with the shift he'd put in prior to that together with Palace. Desperately need Morgan back for Saturday! Not sure Deano's got the legs for tomorrow but I bloody hope he does. On the bright side, Cork is one of the fittest players I've seen for a while...
Not that I've seen a lot of Boro this season, but they don't appear to be an in-your-face type of team. I don't think their strikers and midfielders get right on you, the moment you receive the ball. So in that respect, Morgan should thrive against them. Give that lad time and space, and he will feed our attackers. Would be massive if he's back.
Id imagine we wont see Nigel being as cautious with him as he would normally be. He usually wont play them unless they are 100%. Can see a calculated risk being taken with playing Schneiderlin as long as hes close to full fitness
We desperately missed him last night. The amount of times we were bunched on the left and there was Chaplow, De Ridder or Butterfield in acres of space on the right screaming, almost begging for it only to be ignored was laughable. We could have used Morgan to spread the play and keep Reading nice and honest.
Don't think we'll ever see Nigel take a calculated risk with a player. (Whisper it...but we might need him for the p***-o***). However, if he is back to training next week, it sounds like it was bruising rather than any kind of ligament damage...so, as someone said, good news.
Hopefully, we needed him against Reading to control the pace of the game, we looked far too rash with the ball
