Stones injured now.

[Tricky_Trev]

sometimes an injury crisis is impossible to provide against. but with hindsight we should have triggered alderweireld's £25 million release clause. rather than spending £29 million on angelino, steffen and pedro porro.

You’d have to sell a first teamer as there’s no foreign spots free in the squad. That’s why we were looking at homegrown options (Maguire/Ake)

 

[Tricky_Trev]

The disappointing thing is that there still needs to be 2 more ‘centre back’ injuries before Pep would consider the academy. We have Otamendi, Fernandinho, Walker. Still need 2 of them to get injured for Garcia/Harwood-Bellis to play in the league.

 

[lancs blue]

Playing youth is a big gamble.

And yet Garcia is far more of a Pep-style defender than either Walker or Otamendi. Yes he lacks a bit of experience but he's a very calm player who rarely looks flustered.

 

[KS55]

Pep once put out a Barca side with only one recognised defender in it. Watch out for Gundog as a CB.

 

[Bill the Blue]

Pep once put out a Barca side with only one recognised defender in it. Watch out for Gundog as a CB.

Can't be any worse than the position he played in on Saturday.. Haha!

 

[wythenshaweblue£££]

We just lost against Norwich...

Yes we did sure it was a one off.

 

[Gordyola]

The disappointing thing is that there still needs to be 2 more ‘centre back’ injuries before Pep would consider the academy. We have Otamendi, Fernandinho, Walker. Still need 2 of them to get injured for Garcia/Harwood-Bellis to play in the league.

Be careful what you wish for

And yet Garcia is far more of a Pep-style defender than either Walker or Otamendi. Yes he lacks a bit of experience but he's a very calm player who rarely looks flustered.

Well that the understatement of the day

Eric Garcia age 18 one senior appearance in League Cup
Taylor Harwood age 17 Bellis zero senior appearance

 

[HelloCity]

The disappointing thing is that there still needs to be 2 more ‘centre back’ injuries before Pep would consider the academy. We have Otamendi, Fernandinho, Walker. Still need 2 of them to get injured for Garcia/Harwood-Bellis to play in the league.

What a strange take.

You don’t play players for the sake of it just because they’re from the Academy. You play them because they’re as good as or better than what you have.

Look at the quality of Stones and Otamendi. Nobody in the Academy is even close to their level at centre back, and yes, Walker and Fernandinho would do a better job there as well.

Ultimately it’s the managers and team that get criticised when we don’t win, so purposely weakening our team even further by playing players who aren’t ready or aren’t good enough doesn’t make much sense.

I guess it would tick off the ‘played academy player’ box on the internet banter script though so that people can’t say we didn’t play someone from there - which let’s face it, is really what this is about.

 

[levets]

In out team he is a giant, most of our players are virtually challenged

‘Vertically’

 

[Keeper!]

‘Vertically’

LOL thank you