Hmmm, not sure really. He gets medical advice which will influence him sure, but it's still his decision ultimately and anybody could see that giving a player who's barely kicked a ball in 3 years 3 starts in a week is a huge risk. He definitely shouldn't take Stewart's word for it imo, should be stronger than that.
Yeah you may be right. Moot now anyway. Hopefully more a three week strain than a three month tear. Please.
If the player looked fit and had trained well, had a thumbs up from the medical team that all was ok and had a player response of "I'm fit to play" you can't blame WS for wanting his best attacking options on the pitch. Hopefully it's not too bad but anything that needs a scan is going to be some short time to manage even if there is not damage. So it's lucky there's a break but I reckon we won't seem him until November now as the medical team will be careful again.
Recruitment teams fault (again) imo. Stewart should only have ever been a bonus striker this season. We needed to buy a starter striker who fits the way we want to play. If we had, we wouldn’t have felt the need to overplay Stewart. Mental to start him 3 times in a week imo. He’s barely started 3 games in 3 years before that. Even consecutive weekend starts is a big step up for him and the max he should do for a good while to build up his body. But yeah, given the recruitment have once again ****ed up the striker recruitment. It’s ultimately on Still to make the call, and he ultimately made the wrong call.
I get taking it carefully with Stewart but right now he is the player our team ticks around and we have two weeks off after the game. You either trust that a year of physio and barely playing have worked or you don’t. Also, this happened after 20 minutes. Could just as easily have subbed him on after an hour and had the same result.
This is such a sensible post. I think SR will do something about the forwards in January. Not sure we will retain Archer and maybe we will recall someone from loam. I think Downs will be farmed out to get more experience although cannot see him improving to the level we require.
And this was only the first triple-league header of the season. He couldn't even get through that. Across the entire season, there are a heck of a lot of triple headers in this league. It's not unlucky that it's backfired. (Yes we've had some weeks where there was a league cup game in the middle, but that's different.)
It's unfortunate for ross to pick up an injury when he was just starting to look good. But just imagine the **** will still would have got on here if he dropped Stewart
On current showing would agree with this too. Would like to see Downs go out on loan & try to build some confidence. Maybe Dutch or Belgian league? If he doesn’t do well there, then got to be sold in summer for me, he honestly looks like one of the worst signings for a long time atm. Archer is frustrating, he clearly has bags of skill & potential, but just not clicking for him. If he can’t show enough by Jan then maybe it’s time he’s moved on? Ross is a sad story really, if he could stay fit I honestly think he’d be good enough to make the step up to Prem, as Delap did last season. He’s clearly too fragile to be our starting striker though. That leaves a big, fat absolutely no one to replace them in that central position & until we get 2 proven goalscorers with a bit of physicality we’re gonna really struggle to get into that top 6. Want to see us go all out to get at least 1 proven scorer at this level in Jan & sign another in the summer too!
I don't think nine games is long enough yet to give Still - but we're probably not too far away from what would be considered fair. There are a further six games between this international break and the next one (split into two triple-headers), so that would seem more reasonable. 15 games is a decent amount. Two defeats from nine games would extrapolate to approximately 10 defeats across the league season. Over the previous eight seasons, only three teams have been automatically promoted with 10 or more losses (Leicester, Sheff Utd, Fulham) but only one side has finished 4th or lower (Villa). So basically, if you lose 10 matches, then you should be looking at finishing 3rd. But two wins from nine would equally extrapolate to approximately 10 wins across the league season. Only three sides have avoided relegation over those eight seasons with with as little as 10 wins, with 13 sides being relegated with at least 10 wins (some of whom had as many as 14 or 15 wins). Our defeats column is top three form. Our wins column is bottom three form. The need to turn draws into wins is imperative; as I and others have said, if we want to challenge at the top end, then a draw is two points lost, not one point gained (unless against a direct top end rival).
We don’t need 3rd. We need top 6 - if being promoted immediately is necessary. I don’t actually see us not making top 6 but I do think a consolidation year would be very good for the team. Young talented players are no substitute for young talented players in a settled team. We are literally a win off 7th place. The team in 7th lost to Derby County. That makes them crap by the metrics of too many people here. It is very early in the season and if only our fans could get behind the team and let it grow then we could enjoy the season. Hard fact is money doesn’t buy titles. You don’t change things overnight. Analysing a time frame for Still to get sacked is absolutely the wrong attitude. By this point under Martin we had lost 4 times and had a -5 gd. And he had a vastly better squad.
