Early team news for Saturday's game re: Mee, Arfield, Walters, NKoudou, JBG

See link
http://www.uptheclarets.com/ben-mees-se ... s-way-back" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not good news but not a disaster hopefully.

Let's get the 3 points Saturday, and all but make sure of a European tour.
It's been a great season what ever happens, but it would be such a shame should it end on a whimper , and we miss out on our IMO deserved tag of best of the rest.

Hopefully it's not the mythical I'm off type Keane injury?

claretpipe wrote:Hopefully it's not the mythical I'm off type Keane injury?

I'll ask.

Do we believe Arfield is genuinely injured, or frozen out as he's made it clear he won't be signing a new deal? Hopefully not a similar situation with Ben Mee...

Arfield was in the gym the other Saturday whilst the rest of us were at WBA.
I've not had much info recently as I've been poorly and out of action myself, or on light duties

Dyche is an intelligent man. I cant see him discarding legends of his time like Mee and arfield like that.

cricketfieldclarets wrote:Dyche is an intelligent man. I cant see him discarding legends of his time like Mee and arfield like that.

Agreed, he didn’t freeze Ings out or others. Dyche is intelligent enough to do what is best for him and the team. Scotty has never shown anything other than commitment to the cause and certainly from my perspective will leave with nothing but thanks and fond memories. I can’t under value the joy he has not only brought us himself, but also what he has been part of over the last few years. If Ben Mee goes too in the summer he will leave with exactly same.

I get what you're saying but Dyche is all about teamwork, or as he usually puts it "the group". If one or two members of that group are half thinking about their summer move and lose focus by just 10%, then especially with the way we play it will cause problems.

well we are absolutely screwed if anything happens to Tarks or Long now then

Im still not confident with Long. Another couple of good games and I might be changing my mind.
Concerned about this though. It seemed almost immediatley after the rumours of him leaving in summer came about, he was absent with a knock, now he's out for the season? Coincidence, probably.
Either way, it is impossible to gaugue anything when our manager talks about injurys, a knock for Dyche was 1 month out for Tarkowiski!

We have got away with having only 3 proper cbs all season, although it could still be an issue if Tarky gets injured or suspended that has a big impact. It was always a reckless gamble imo and one which we surely won't take ever again.

If we throw away a 6 point lead to relinquish 7th and a spot in Europe, all because we didn't sign a central defender in the last 2 transfer windows, there'll be hell to pay

I think Ben Mee and Scott Airfield are injured because I'm not a conspiracy theorist.

Vegas Claret wrote:well we are absolutely screwed if anything happens to Tarks or Long now then

In the same way we'll have big problems if Heaton, Mee, Defour, Brady and JBG are all injured at the same time.

Major problems!

Spijed wrote:In the same way we'll have big problems if Heaton, Mee, Defour, Brady and JBG are all injured at the same time.

Major problems!

Who's your emergency CB then ? Taylor? !

Vegas Claret wrote:Who's your emergency CB then ? Taylor? !

Dunno, but the point is had someone mentioned at the start of the season we'd be missing all those players, especially Heaton, Defour, Brady & even Wood for a number of matches then one word would have stuck in the minds of most supporters:

Relegation.

Yet we've not missed any of them at all in recent weeks. In fact we seemed to have got better the more injuries we've had.

What makes you think our season will suddenly collapse were we to play Taylor in the middle of our defence when we've had so many injuries to the rest of the team?

When our goalkeeper got injured, a goalkeeper came in to replace him.
When our central midfielder got injured, a central midfielder came in to replace him.
When our winger got injured, a winger came in to replace him.

We now have no centre backs to replace our centre backs.

That's the difference, and one would have thought that was blindingly obvious.

UpTheBeehole wrote:When our goalkeeper got injured, a goalkeeper came in to replace him.
When our central midfielder got injured, a central midfielder came in to replace him.
When our winger got injured, a winger came in to replace him.

We now have no centre backs to replace our centre backs.

That's the difference, and one would have thought that was blindingly obvious.

And I'll bet no-one though the replacements were good enough to keep us up in 7th.

There is one reason and one reason alone why we never signed another central defender. Dyche thinks the other players are good enough to cover.

Many thought Kevin Long wasn't good enough, yet he's been brilliant. Many said he simply wouldn't be able to step up. They said he's a Championship defender at best.

Yet all the while our manager has got a team, with quite a few injuries winning the last four.

Still, many know better than him.

We`ve been in 7th place since week 11 of the season and i`m pretty sure that`s where we`ve stayed, we have done brilliantly with injuries to the spine of the team without losing 7th place, it`s been unbelievable.

UpTheBeehole wrote:If we throw away a 6 point lead to relinquish 7th and a spot in Europe, all because we didn't sign a central defender in the last 2 transfer windows, there'll be hell to pay

But look on the bright side - you've been preaching Armageddon for years and it's never come true. You'd finally be able to jump up and down shouting "Look at me! Look at me! I was right!"

Spijed wrote:Dunno, but the point is had someone mentioned at the start of the season we'd be missing all those players, especially Heaton, Defour, Brady & even Wood for a number of matches then one word would have stuck in the minds of most supporters:

Relegation.

Yet we've not missed any of them at all in recent weeks. In fact we seemed to have got better the more injuries we've had.

What makes you think our season will suddenly collapse were we to play Taylor in the middle of our defence when we've had so many injuries to the rest of the team?

Sorry mate, but if you think playing a full back at CB in the remaining games in the PL isn't a risk (not saying he won't be good but I have serious doubts) then I'm amazed - the fact we tried to sign a CB in the last window would also indicate that the manager sees the need for one. Hopefully Long and Tarks will stay fit etc so it will all be hypothetical. I wouldn't have put Barnes in goal when Heaton got injured, I think it's a big risk putting an untried full back at CB that's all.

When Defour was injured we adapted to a 4 4 1 1, maybe SD would adapt and play 3 at the back and use Taylor and Lowton as wing backs, who knows but in Dyche we trust UTC

If the manager wants a centre half, he will get one. There are free agent centre halves available.

If, however, he doesn't just want a centre half, he wants the right centre half - that could be trickier. And as Dyche has shown several times in his career here, he'll sign no-one at all rather than sign the wrong one.

Playing a full back at CB would be a risk. As would every single other option under the sun. There is no risk free solution.

cricketfieldclarets wrote:Dyche is an intelligent man. I cant see him discarding legends of his time like Mee and arfield like that.

Want to bet! Ask George Boyd.

IanMcL wrote:Want to bet! Ask George Boyd.

Ask him why he turned down Premier League Burnley for Championship Wednesday?