I’m confident that we’ll be stronger in the second half of the season, but I’m less confident that the run of injuries will stop soon. People are unfairly piling on young men that are playing too much football and too often being asked to play in unfamiliar positions, and those pressures could see more injuries in the coming months.
Perhaps, more importantly, this season is starting to question the long-term viability of running on such a small squad. We reaped the benefits last year when we miraculously went comparatively unscathed in terms of injury, but it took 2-3 seasons to have so many come to their prime and the toll was always going to have to be paid.
Similarly, we cannot continue to include players who have no chance of coming on. A bench that includes Phillips, Gomez, an empty space and Carson sends out the wrong signals to other players. I also think we were too hasty in allowing Lavia, Doyle, Palmer, McAtee, and Borges to leave. I’m sure they wanted to leave to play more football, but I also think that we need to do more to show that there is a pathway into the first team. Such players won’t all make it with us, to be sure, but their presence would allow us to play people in their proper positions.
We’ll be in the mix for pots come May, but the experience of the last few months suggests that we might need to look further down the line and be a little more flexible in our policies.
