So Gabby gets injured in a meaningless friendly for Brazil managed by a former Chav..

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Originally Posted by redgunamo

Right. Good point. That's why we're apparently after Jurien's twin brother on a free in the summer, I suppose :-\

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Looks like we are going to see some rotation in the back four now, but it is forced. The bad kind.

He really does need to get braver on this and start making the decisions himself rather than waiting for the injuries to do it for him.

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Originally Posted by Peter

Let's not pretend the Premier league is a 'strictly local concern'. It couldn't be less so. The bigger clubs have global fanbases rivalled only by Real Madrid and Barcelona, and a gigantic global audience each week that generates billions. They are globally recognised brands. I accept this is not the case for the other leagues.

Outside of the major tournaments, international football is utter tripe and holds little interest to anyone. It has a hugely important role but it should stick to it. There is too much at stake at club level for players to be wasting their time mid season on idiotic friendlies.

And football is too important to be interrupted by silly football for people who don't like football.

If they want to wave flags they can go on right wing marches :-)

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No need to come over all woke, P. If they want to wave flags, they can watch the cricket or rugby. Beat the ABs, have the Ashes coming up. That's sufficient flag waving so we don't need football internationals.

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Originally Posted by Peter

It's funny. Arteta said when he arrived that his aim was to have two world class players in every position. Yet he has consistently shown he doesn't want to use them.

Ben hardly ever gets a look in. Surely Timber is human, and would benefit from a rest?

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I totally agree. We could be rotating the FBs more. 3 years of coming 2nd in which our B-BW-Odin axis was our main attacking threat. And MLS has been astounding for his age. We should be rotating and keeping all 4 both fit/fresh and with regular minutes.

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Originally Posted by Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult

I totally agree. We could be rotating the FBs more. 3 years of coming 2nd in which our B-BW-Odin axis was our main attacking threat. And MLS has been astounding for his age. We should be rotating and keeping all 4 both fit/fresh and with regular minutes.

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And to a lesser extent, I'd say the same with the centre backs. You cant ask Gabriel and Saliba to play 90 minutes twice a week, every week, and not expect them to pick up injuries.

Surely there is the odd game here and there where our 50 million quid replacements can fill in....

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Originally Posted by Peter

Looks like we are going to see some rotation in the back four now, but it is forced. The bad kind.

He really does need to get braver on this and start making the decisions himself rather than waiting for the injuries to do it for him.

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If injuries are indeed unavoidable, inevitable, then I'm not sure what difference it makes? Just let them play until they get crocked then pick the new blokes and hope that when the first choice is healed, he has to actually sweat over getting back into the team.

Managers will always have their favourites so the best you can get is that his preferences are at least based on performances.

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Originally Posted by Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult

No need to come over all woke, P. If they want to wave flags, they can watch the cricket or rugby. Beat the ABs, have the Ashes coming up. That's sufficient flag waving so we don't need football internationals.

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Trouble with that is that everyone loves waving flags, not just the English :-\

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Originally Posted by redgunamo

If injuries are indeed unavoidable, inevitable, then I'm not sure what difference it makes? Just let them play until they get crocked then pick the new blokes and hope that when the first choice is healed, he has to actually sweat over getting back into the team.

Managers will always have their favourites so the best you can get is that his preferences are at least based on performances.

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Yes, but if they're gonna get crocked, they should get crocked playing for us, not waste vital pre-crock minutes playing meaningless friendlies.

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Originally Posted by redgunamo

Trouble with that is that everyone loves waving flags, not just the English :-\

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I don't mind people waving flags as long as it doesn't lead to Arsenal players getting injured. That's where I draw my line. When some Austrian postman injuries our skipper on purpose.

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Originally Posted by redgunamo

Trouble with that is that everyone loves waving flags, not just the English :-\

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Yes,but they are allowed to do so without the need for an excuse. It is only the English who need the cover of a sporting event to avoid being labelled as a right wing fanatic (as I did above) :-)

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Originally Posted by redgunamo

If injuries are indeed unavoidable, inevitable, then I'm not sure what difference it makes? Just let them play until they get crocked then pick the new blokes and hope that when the first choice is healed, he has to actually sweat over getting back into the team.

Managers will always have their favourites so the best you can get is that his preferences are at least based on performances.

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Some injuries are avoidable. And some are caused by others. For example, of our current crocked forwards only Gyokeres could be considered a result of workload. And his workload was only as high as it was because everyone else was injured.

And short of injuries, physical performance drops with workload. So even if we are not losing players to injury there is a good chance that the overload means we won't see their best.

As we've discussed previously, the whole point of having a large squad is to ensure that you don't need it.