Sleeping Dave

He’s missed 155 days and 38 games this season through injury. Plus 2 games missed for suspension. He’s started 6 games for us all season and hasn’t played 90 minutes once. I’d say that’s pretty darn close to being a liability. It’s definitely not a player you can count on. It is nonsense. But James has to learn, it was so unnecessary.

That was some finish from Palmer. Incredible finish. Take a bow!

I’m telling you it’s a trick!

Incredible. Must be the shortest injury list since pre-season.

Whenever I play a board game with my kids I refuse to play if they ask me to be red. I’m not kidding.

An interesting fact I wasn’t aware of. Apparently, since the turn of the year, only three teams has performed better than us. Arsenal, Man C and Liverpool. I can’t see how any person wants to get rid of Poch for footballing reasons. Sure, we are quite som distance away from the top three. But still. With a better injury record who knows where we would have ended up? Top five would definitely not have been an outrageous prediction. 2024: Arsenal 17 15 1 1 +44 46 Man C 17 14 3 0 +34 45 Liverpool 18 11 4 3 +20 37 Chelsea 16 8 5 3 +9 29 5. Newcastle (28) 6. Villa (26) 7. Palace (25) 8. Tottenham (24) 9. Man U (23) 10. Bournemouth (23) We have a pro-data full season of 69pts. Still some way to go before we are a solid 75pts team. But we’ve made great progress this year, no doubt about that.

IMO a manager like Tuchel, Conte or Mourinho would be disastrous at this point in time. What we need know is someone who isn't scared of giving the youngsters a fair shot and who doesn't cripple them with structures, formations, boundaries and a proper scolding as soon as they step outside said boundaries.

Oh, ok. Apologies if I misunderstood you. I always care more about winning than playing pretty football. But again, being in the stand would go a long way to cancel out the boring football out on the pitch vs. having to endure it on the telly.

Sorry mate but this is rubbish. I used to go to every single game whereas these days, with family life and a career, I’m not able to. If anything, I find it easier to go through a rough patch being in the stands than sitting at home. Would I feel differently about Poch if I were a regular today? No. It’s about being realistic of where we as a club are. We are not a top side. We are in a serious rebuilding phase and for this I think Poch is the best man for the job (that we realistically can get).

He certainly hasn’t done much at Bayern. In a one team league he is 15 points off the title with a small risk of finishing third. Not pretty. Tuchel is a decent manager, but he ain’t elite. He ain’t the type to build a young squad over time and he doesn’t play very attractive football. I’d rather keep Pochettino to be perfectly honest with you (for the situation we are in).

Well said - I find myself firmly in this camp. Our squad isn’t a top PL squad. Perhaps these names would be in a few years, but the squad is too young and inexperienced to challenge now. We are likely to end the season with 60+ points, a vast improvement from last year’s 44. It’s been clear progress and it’s been made in his first season under difficult circumstances. Give him more time, it’ll take time to rebuild this club to solid top four challenger year after year. Perhaps he isn’t the man to make us title challengers, but such concerns are way premature. First we need to stabilise in the top four and then we can start worrying whether he can win titles for us.

Is not a good look for them. All those players bought for all that money and there’s only a few that look worthwhile.

This season has panned out exactly as expected - volatile in terms of results and some issues that have popped up throughout the season. With such a young side it was inevitable. I’m predicting that to continue next season as well, especially now that Silva is leaving us. We lack experience and the experience we have haven’t had the best seasons either (James, Chilwell, Sterling). I don’t see any sense in sacking Poch. Let him continue to build for another year.

7 goals from open play in such a terrible side is nothing to be sniffed at. He’s had a very good season and Forrest made a steal. £3.5m. Meanwhile we have been taken to the cleaners for several of our players and they are not chalking up 7 from open play. We only have two players who’s scored more - Palmer and Jackson both on 11. After that it’s Sterling 6, Gallagher 4, Mudryk 4, Madueke 4 and Silva 3. Goalscoring remains a massive issue for us.

Although there is some truth to what you say, no club has suffered like us. The real worry here is that it isn’t the first season either, we’ve had injury problems since Roman left us. If there is causality, and not only correlation, is hard to say. But the injury issues we have now is beyond reasonable. If this is the new normal, we will need a minimum 30 man squad next season and that will be absolute minimum. That would mean we’d have roughly 20 senior players available at any given time. That is no way to run a football club.

For the Everton game we had 14 players out injured. 14! I think we are past explanations that are centered around “unlucky circumstances”. Before we can do anything else, such as having strong opinions on the manager or the players for that matter, this issue needs to be resolved. How on earth are you supposed to perform or build any sort of cohesion out on the pitch when players are out injured to that extent? I don’t think we have had less than 8 players injured all season. Whatever we do in the summer, the highest priority must be to get this issue resolved one way or the other. If players like James and Chilwell are deemed as damaged goods then they should be sold. If our physios aren’t doing their job they should be replaced. If the medical department aren’t doing their checks thorough enough they should be replaced. Etc etc. We simply can’t go through another season with this kind of injury record.

Very little evidence of that right now though... Plus, a fully fit best XI is a purely hypothetical argument at this stage. I don't think anyone knows; 1. Which playwers are actually part of it 2. Even if we did, that they'd be fully fit for any extended period of time I'm confused, do you blame Poch for our performances this season? Or are you being sarcastic?

Why is he wrong? Our players aren’t what the board thought they were. Maybe they will be, but it’s at least 3 seasons off. But nonetheless, I said it at the beginning of the season - this team will mix great games with really poor ones and it’s bound to keep going. We don’t have a bonafide top player in any position. We are so far off City is downright bloody depressing.

Well yes, that is been my point all along. As talented as he is, being held up against the best in the game requires him to do this season after season for a prolonged period of time (and preferably without penalties as a crutch). Still, 9 goals from open play and 9 assists in such a poor side isn’t bad by any means. He can be very proud of his first season with us. But world class he is not. Yet.

Palmer has twice as many penalty goals compared to anyone else in the top 10. Would you want Watkins as our number one striker? I vividly remember many ridiculing that prospect when he was brought up as an alternative last summer.

We’ve had plenty of players scoring 9 and assisting 9 in the league over the years. Counting penalties is still something that will be to his disadvantage down the line. That we’ll get so many penalties in one season won’t happen once we are up there fighting for the title. Then he’ll have to find twice as many goals somehow to live up to your expectations. He’s had a very good first season. There’s no reason to overreact.

Does it? Remind me how Lavia has done so far? That Palmer has been a hit is of course a very welcome surprise. But just because he’s been the best AM by far compared to a pretty bad bunch doesn’t make him world class. It makes him a big fish in a very small pond. Like I said weeks ago, let’s see how he performs if/when we are a side fighting at the top of the table. We have had other young players scoring and assisting well early on, only to completely falter and disappear a season or two later. Not saying this will happen to Palmer, just that it’s so typical of this forum to overreact in both directions - either a player is shit or he is gods gift to football. I get it, we are fans. But I find it increasingly easy to take it all with a huge grain of salt - players form will go up and down. Wake me up when we have any player being top class consistently for a few seasons. Feels like ages since we had one that did. When/if Palmer achieves that I will be the first to congratulate him.

I agree it is bizarre to compare prime-Hazard to Palmer. That was sort of my point.

There are plenty of teams where he’d be an automatic starter yes, but for the teams that really matters and who we should compare ourselves with? No, not many (if any). Also, I’m not comparing him to Hazard. Someone mentioned that he is as good as a prime-Hazard earlier in this thread. I’m merely refuting that very ludicrous claim. Is Palmer at his prime right now? Who knows, football isn’t linear and just because you were good (great?) at 21 doesn’t mean you will be world class or even better at 25.

Would a prime-Hazard play for City? Has Palmer ever? Next.