Foster and Beyer remain out

[Goody1975]

missing Foster has been so hard for us this season, he made such a difference when he did play. Hope he gets his injury sorted and can hit the ground running next season

It's a massive blow, I really thought Foster, Odobert and Fofana as a three pronged attack would give us a real chance of winning games.

Everything is on Fofana's shoulders now and he is very raw.

[gandhisflipflop]

true!

But it really is a BFC obsession that we must play defenders in midfield!

From Branchy (who knew where he should play), to Edgar and finishing on Tarks…let them be lads.

Don’t forget Bikey

[whiffa]

Results or no results, I think Beyer has been found seriously lacking at centre back at this level. Someone mentioned above his performances in the cup ties last season too against the top clubs.

I guess it comes down to opinion, I for one still value him as our best CB and feel like our defensive frailties when he's played haven't been his fault. O'Shea is a completely different player now to who he was two months ago for starters.

[123EasyasBFC]

Beyer still has so much to offer as a cb but you can tell at this level why he used to be a right back when he came through youth systems. Can’t help but think abit like Michael Keane, had Beyer been able to play with an experienced head next to him like Ben Mee I think we would see a different player.

Beyers injury record is slightly worrying

[Vegas Claret]

It's a massive blow, I really thought Foster, Odobert and Fofana as a three pronged attack would give us a real chance of winning games.

Everything is on Fofana's shoulders now and he is very raw.

yup, he got into good positions last weekend so I guess we are pinning our hopes on him continuing that and putting a few of them away. The only alternative being Jay now is a worry, he just can't get in behind any more, father time and all that.

[Quicknick]

It's a real shame that Foster is out for a while, as I was interested in seeing how his partnership with Fofana developed. We haven't had two strikers as good as these two up front together since the early/mid-'70s.

[Newcastleclaret93]

I think it’s very much about systems for Beyer (and the rest of our defenders). I honestly believe if you slotted Beyer into Everton’s defence next to Tarks he would look really good.

However our system leaves the defenders so isolated and as a result they all look miles off premier league level (albeit against the best forwards in the world).

[Quicknick]

I think it’s very much about systems for Beyer (and the rest of our defenders). I honestly believe if you slotted Beyer into Everton’s defence next to Tarks he would look really good.

However our system leaves the defenders so isolated and as a result they all look miles off premier league level (albeit against the best forwards in the world).

Agree. And following that logic, Tarkowski wouldn't look so good in our defence.

[Benson]

It's a real shame that Foster is out for a while, as I was interested in seeing how his partnership with Fofana developed. We haven't had two strikers as good as these two up front together since the early/mid-'70s.

Ings and Vokes possibly??

[fidelcastro]

Ings and Vokes possibly??

Wood and Barnes probably.

I don't know how we can possibly claim Fofana is that good after two games, the last of which he missed two excellent chances to possibly get us a result.

[Quicknick]

Ings and Vokes possibly??

That a bad call. I had temporarily forgotten about them, but potentially, F & F are better. We probably will never find out.

[claretspice]

I think the position with Beyer is relatively straightforward. He's only 23, and has played less than 100 first team games. Quite a lot of those 100 games came at full back and less than 50 have come in either the Premier League or Bundesliga (i.e. top flight).

As a result, it isn't a surprise that this season he's been exposed at times as both naive and not especially strong. Whilst that might be exposed less playing in the sort of lower block Dyche uses, the reality is that the sort of goal Beyer was at fault for us conceding v Everton (their second, Keane nudged him out of the way far too easily) wouldn't be acceptable for anyone playing for Dyche. That lack of phyical presence has been an issue on a number of occasions, and on others his positioning and desire to overplay has been exposed. With good coaching and conditioning (and he's already put on quite a lot of muscle from the player who joined last season) all of that is solvable (he looks basically to have the tools to be a very fine player to me) but it may take a bit of time. I don't see that playing him in an unfamiliar midfield position will help with that process, but I do think he'd benefit from playing football perhaps at right back - and if he is fit, there might be a logic to adopting a back 3 for the rest of the season.

The overall experience of our centre backs generally seems to me an under-emphasised point this season. O'Shea (140 games of which 20-odd were in league 2) and Delcroix (another with less than 100 club games) are 24 coming up 25, Al Dakhil is only 21. We tend to think of Ekdal as experienced but he himself only turned 25 in October and again his very little football at this level under his belt. At full back we've had a lot of time where 4 of those 5 centre backs have been joined by Vitinho, who again is 24. With Trafford behind them its hardly surprising that we've been naive and lightweight. Esteve looks more physically developed but much of the same applies. Tarkowski was pretty much 25 before he became a first team regular with us - playing alongside Ben Mee, who was then an experienced player but was himself nearly 27 before he regularly started in the Premier League at centre half. So the comparison with Mee/Tarkowski will never be entirely fair because they were players at their physical peak when they were playing that role for Burnley, and in Mee's case in particular had a lot of football under their belt.

No surprise that O'Shea has adapted best this season - he's the one who is of the age and has had the games to develop the physicality and game sense to compete at this level. For me, he's a considerable distance ahead of Beyer right now.