by Brain Traysers »
10 Feb 2021 22:18
URZZZZ Hound Brain Traysers I fear the lack of depth only compounds issues further. 10/11 players played 90+ in an end-to-end game increasing the load on their bodies and injury risk in training or the next match (in only 66 hours time...)
A fair few faded quite a bit in the last 20.
Tbf is happier seeing the likes of Esteves, Aluko and Baldock come on against Millwall. You could see Aluko just wasn’t up to the quality of this game
He played a couple of awful balls but in his defence, by the time he came on, we really were on the back foot, would have been more useful to change 2-3 others around too, admittedly that being hard with the lack of options
Its unfortunate that Pauno hasn't really been able to make subs to rest players in recent games, but equally frustrating that he has chosen not to when we have been comfortable:
- 3-0 v Cov: Olise subbed at 2-0 up on 64' (injury), but Swift, Rino and Ejaria stayed on until 3-0 and red card (73'-78' subs)
- 0-0 v Preston: Aluko off on 77 (only sub). Tight game
- 3-1 v B'muff: Swift and Ejaria subbed reasonably late at 3-0 (72'-78'), Olise, Joao and Holmes at 3-1 (88'-89'). Comfortable scoreline but 2nd half was all them
- 0-0 v Stoke: Swift off after 60', Olise after 88'. Tight game
- 1-3 v Brentford: Semedo off on 77' at 1-1, Ejaria on 90+3. Tight game until 86th min winner
On one hand lots of tight games where chucking on a youngster could have backfired (with the manager owning that risk), on the other, opportunities to rest players were missed when 'comfortably' leading against Cov and Bournemouth.
