claretspice wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2024 8:36 am
Right. So we agree that generally his work rate and fitness are not an issue, so presumably we can rule out a general lack of commitment. Good to clear that up.
Which leaves us agreeing that if he's down on fitness now, its directly related to his injury lay off. If we accept the premise that hes not as fit (and i dont think his performances, especially at Chelsea, particularly support that theory but lets park that for now) there are two options:
A) he's come back from injury with a lesser commitment to fitness than before he left off.
B) he's no less committed but is still hampered in some way by the injury, bearing in mind he returned earlier than expected
For your own reasons you've gone with option A without acknowledging that option B exists, which seems quite remarkable to me. Its at least as possible that he's struggling because he's volunteered to play through the pain barrier to try and help the team in a do and die period. And yet your assumption is that in the space of 2 months he's turned into a wastrel, and is poster boy for some wider fitness malaise within the squad. I don't get that im afraid. It's always worth remembering we don't know what is going on behind closed doors and we almost never have the full picture about a player's fitness or injury position- almost every player is managing something at this stage in a season. And given what Foster has been through this season it seems right to be particularly careful before casting aspertions in his direction.
I'm not sure why you're presuming his work rate isn't an issue. That's literally the issue we are discussing isn't it. I think it's quite a big issue in terms of how we want to press. The reasons for why it is an issue is what is up for debate.
I'm not sure he's really the 'poster boy' as you'd described, it's one thread about a game in which in my opinion his work rate was extremely lacking.
Your point about him playing through the pain barrier is valid, that's a distinct possibility, however if that was the case I very much doubt he'd be playing as much as he is without being subbed or being brought on off the bench, so I'm inclined to think it isn't related to the injury it's just his general fitness.
We are never going to know the real reason but from what I saw in the last few games something isn't right and I don't know what game you watched against Chelsea but from what I saw and I commented at the time, he clearly wasn't fit for that game and seemed to have been told to conserve energy as much as possible by staying central and waiting for the right opportunities. It nearly paid off with the big chance he got before going off.
However I thought by now he would have had time to build his fitness back up but it doesn't seem to have improved one bit since then, which is what angered me whilst watching the match and resulted in this thread (which was probably harsher than it would have been if I hadn't posted it straight after the game)