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Player Xavi Simons

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So, with Xavi now out for the rest of the season, who does De Zerbi put his faith in for that creative midfield role?

Bergvall? Not a natural 10, has an engine but not the creativity needed

Same for Gallagher.

RKM? Not on your nelly

Madders not ready

So, do we put in someone from the reserves/youth team?
Formation change to 4-2-2-2. Gallagher and Bergvall both play as 10s this weekend and hold the width to turn it into a 4-4-2 off the ball.

Can't risk starting all 3 of Muani Tel and Richarlison and having no option off the bench. Spence as a winger might work if Udogie is back but you are clutching at straws. We'll need to move to a 4 man midfield now which will make us harder to beat but alot less creative.
 
So, with Xavi now out for the rest of the season, who does De Zerbi put his faith in for that creative midfield role?

Bergvall? Not a natural 10, has an engine but not the creativity needed

Same for Gallagher.

RKM? Not on your nelly

Madders not ready

So, do we put in someone from the reserves/youth team?
We have to accept there is no creativity and need to ground our points to stay up. We won’t be opening teams up with our midfield and front players.
Bergvall offers very little creatively and can’t play in the 10. Gallagher is our best bet in there because he puts people under pressure and Paulinha must play so we have a bigger threat at set pieces. Thats the only way I think we’ll get points. No kids are getting integrated into the team now so that’s not even worth thinking about.
Getting Madders on the pitch for 20 mins at the end of games might be something we can do but that’s the only way we will have creativity on the pitch.
Sadly we have front players that can’t create anything for themselves out of nothing. We really do have shit players in those areas.
 
I apologise for my comment lastnight. I'd a lot of beers and it was an unnecessary post.It was correctly removed by the Admin and I can only apologise now.

Its just a madness having another ACL. Its very hard to believe that there isn't a higher power working against us and I really don't know what we've all done to deserve this.
Don’t know what you said, but fair fucks for saying sorry.
 
So, with Xavi now out for the rest of the season, who does De Zerbi put his faith in for that creative midfield role?

Bergvall? Not a natural 10, has an engine but not the creativity needed

Same for Gallagher.

RKM? Not on your nelly

Madders not ready

So, do we put in someone from the reserves/youth team?
Archie showed that he is able to be a deep lying playmaker under Tudor. Tel could also do it in a pinch I guess further up field but we'd also need him as a striker since we need to have one of him, Richy and RKM on the bench.
 
Moment of truth for the new regime. They maybe can get away with its Levy and his hires Lange and co but come summer it’s a new page.

They can either keep the better parts of the squad and build under De Zerbi and come back and make sure this never happens again or they can follow the old playbook and go austerity and lose money being penny wise pound foolish getting stuck long term down in the Championship or getting relegated soon as we come back up.

If they are smart they will sell the Romero and VDV’s but then look to keep what De Zerbi wants and strengthen weak areas and that will mean putting £100m or so in on top of the £100m they reportedly put in. It’s their call.
They would get more than £100 million for Romero and Micky ( if we stay up.) Replace those with Vusovic and Senesi at no transfer fees.
 
Maybe it's time for a hometown hero in Williams-Barnett. Whilst it's almost 100% not going to happen, who else is left, realistically? The players who can play that position aren't really capable. That leaves shoe-horning in players into a role that weakens the team.

We're in a pickle, to say the least, and it might be fanciful to think the lad can be a saviour but with the fearlessness of youth, and maybe even the 'fuck it' attitude, he can be a key component.
 
Maybe it's time for a hometown hero in Williams-Barnett. Whilst it's almost 100% not going to happen, who else is left, realistically? The players who can play that position aren't really capable. That leaves shoe-horning in players into a role that weakens the team.

We're in a pickle, to say the least, and it might be fanciful to think the lad can be a saviour but with the fearlessness of youth, and maybe even the 'fuck it' attitude, he can be a key component.

Thompson is in good form and is an out and out left winger, also quick and strong so he might be best placed for the step up. Williams-Barnett is more a 10. So depends on whether we want to play a 10 or winger in the left spot.
 
Maybe it's time for a hometown hero in Williams-Barnett. Whilst it's almost 100% not going to happen, who else is left, realistically? The players who can play that position aren't really capable. That leaves shoe-horning in players into a role that weakens the team.

We're in a pickle, to say the least, and it might be fanciful to think the lad can be a saviour but with the fearlessness of youth, and maybe even the 'fuck it' attitude, he can be a key component.

Hasn’t played for ages. Injured or contract problems? Who knows with us.
 
Gutted for the player.

I don't think it's realistic to blame the medical department for the injuries. Possibly in relation to the recovery periods but the injuries themselves, I don't think that is quite right.

It's sheer bad luck on our part. The kind you really find hard to bear.

Yeah perhaps that's correct. I'm looking for someone to blame really! It's not a good look for them to not deal with it better and stretcher him straight off though in my view. Clearly in a lot of distress and they caused more potentially.

It's very hard to bear, just sickening 😞

I do have hard time attributing them all to bad luck though, given how poorly we function on football related matters. Medical team has been replaced twice now? Or certainly refreshed twice iirc. Perhaps the fitness regimes the players are on (gym stuff etc) is slightly off and they are not strengthening key things they should be. I'm clutching at straws, I just want it to stop, so I hope there is a reason that can be addressed... It's a bit more difficult addressing bad luck though.
 
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