ARTICLE: Barton fit but duo ruled out with injury

[boatshed bill]

The thing is: is Defour injured or just not considered match fit? Hasn't he been back in training for a couple of weeks?

[claretspice]

Probably by bending thr framework which has been bent more than once before

[claretspice]

The thing is: is Defour injured or just not considered match fit? Hasn't he been back in training for a couple of weeks?

Defour is a player with a history of niggling injuries following a serious injury that he himself says changed his physiology dramatically. Is it not common sense to be careful with him? He's been training with the first team for about 10 days but clearly we havent been able to get him a training game.

It may well be that the pace of English football has made him a bit more vulnerable to those strains. That might explain both why he has obviously taken a while to adapt (far from uniquely, by the way) and why we're being extra careful with him. There's 10 games left after today.

[taio]

Hamstring injury - 4 to 6 weeks is standard. And of course a player loses match fitness in that time.

[summitclaret]

I think it is unfair to put JBG in the same fitness category as Defour. That Lincoln player made a bad tackle on JBG, which imo incidently changed the course of the game.

I don't think Defour will be here next season. He was on his way to the knackers yard with a last hurrah payout when we took him on, wasn't he?

[RingoMcCartney]

Sadly Summit I think your right on both counts.

[Roosterbooster]

I like Defour - but he would not be awesome in the Spurs or Liverpool at all - he'd struggle to even make their benches. Both Spurs and Liverpool play high intensity pressurised football - no way Defour could cope with that.

I don't get this opinion. Defour does press. He seems to have a reputation for being a soft lightweight foreigner because he's so damn talented. But he presses the opposition incredibly well. And high up the pitch too. In fact, in comparison to Barton, he presses the opposition immensely. And I don't buy him being a sick note. 2 of our new signings have suffered setbacks with recurrent hamstring injuries. This suggests to me the problem is in the training methods, and not conditioning the new players correctly to deal with what we believe to be a very intense style. We have missed Defour and JBGs creativity greatly this season. 2 players who can actually hold onto the ball too.

[alicante claret]

Watch live games over here with group of Belgians who all expressed doubts he was strong enough for P.L. Sadly they are looking correct, does not hide he is class when fit Squad not big enough to carry such a luxury.

[boatshed bill]

I don't get this opinion. Defour does press. He seems to have a reputation for being a soft lightweight foreigner because he's so damn talented. But he presses the opposition incredibly well. And high up the pitch too. In fact, in comparison to Barton, he presses the opposition immensely. And I don't buy him being a sick note. 2 of our new signings have suffered setbacks with recurrent hamstring injuries. This suggests to me the problem is in the training methods, and not conditioning the new players correctly to deal with what we believe to be a very intense style. We have missed Defour and JBGs creativity greatly this season. 2 players who can actually hold onto the ball too.

I think we are mostly missing the underrated Marney. Best midfielder at the club (in my humble opinion).

[TVC15]

I don't get this opinion. Defour does press. He seems to have a reputation for being a soft lightweight foreigner because he's so damn talented. But he presses the opposition incredibly well. And high up the pitch too. In fact, in comparison to Barton, he presses the opposition immensely. And I don't buy him being a sick note. 2 of our new signings have suffered setbacks with recurrent hamstring injuries. This suggests to me the problem is in the training methods, and not conditioning the new players correctly to deal with what we believe to be a very intense style. We have missed Defour and JBGs creativity greatly this season. 2 players who can actually hold onto the ball too.

Well that's your opinion I suppose.
Mine is that Defour is not athletic enough to get anywhere near a team like Spurs.
I do think he is however good enough to get in our side because technically he is our best player and passer of the ball. He has better vision than the rest of the team and is also cleverer than any other of our players in finding pockets of space - again another sign of quality.
Sick note is a bit of derogatory term and don't think it's deserved for Defour. However, since his major injury hits just a fact that he has picked up a lot of injuries and has struggled to reach fitness levels.
His injuries have also come from pretty inoccuous positions aswell which to me suggests that he is prone to them.

[Belgianclaret]

Agree with RB partly & also with TVC15 partly.

Of course Defour is no player for Spurs & the likes, but he surely is one of the most talented players we've ever had.

We are not out of the relegation dogfight by a long while, so we need him back in the team, preferentially next week at Sunderland together with Barton at CM