We don’t really lack rotation options with players fit though. The only first choice player we don’t have a clear one for is Dier. Losing 3 forwards at once (Lucas hasn’t been fully fit) - the first choice, backup and third choice on the right side - and having Skipp recovering and Bissouma still adapting at the same time has been hugely problematic. Our first choice CMs are knackered and we have too many injuries to play 343, as Gil isn’t getting a look-in. There are still deficiencies in the squad and Conte has plenty to answer for but the injury problems have been and continue to be serious. Loads of teams are slipping up when you wouldn’t expect them to. City have the benefit of a large squad and an incredibly effective forward who doesn’t need resting because he’s not going to the World Cup. Pretty much everyone else is already struggling or beginning to.
The thing there is we still have Sarr available, yet Conte isn't using him - which is bizarre considering he reportedly blocked his loan in the summer. Similar can be said for Harvey White appearing on the bench a few times already this season, yet he's not given a few minutes in games where we could have given Hojbjerg or Bentancur an early sub And this is the issue, we're exacerbating our injury problems by knackering players while waiting for the injured ones to return, while others aren't getting a lookin at all, so the balance is certainly off at the moment
In more cheery news from the weekend, the fan who hit his head on the pavement outside the Crown & Anchor after a Newcastle fan sucker punched him was discharged from hospital today
Someone was also on the floor across the road from Paddy Power’s too, not sure what the cause was though, hopefully nothing too serious.
Just reading back some comments. This genuinely made me laugh out loud, I’d like it twice if I could! You should’ve whispered that much, much more quietly and posted it with the smallest possible font. These two posts at least restored “board sanity” after CK’s mishap.
It's weird that he does like to rotate the LCB, with Davies and Lenglet alternating with one another, but that's about the only example Even weirder when last season he described Rodon as Dier's understudy yet usually had him rotate with Davies, while this season he's described Romero and Sanchez as CCB options (but not Lenglet, weirdly) yet in practice Sanchez is the RCB understudy even though Tanganga's game is closer to Romero's
The club has been fined £20k for failing to control our players when the ref was ****ing ****. Robbed and robbed again. ****s.