Evatt em. Skid marks at the Pirelli. V Burton Albion Away, Tues. 15th Feb.1945.

[GhostoftheBok]

Xav coming in to start would surprise me, more so at RWB. It's not his kind of position, even in our system, and he's just back from injury. After all of Evatt's talk about "building them up and no breaking them down" it'd be very odd to see him throw the kid right into 90 minutes on that Burton pitch.

Unless we switch to a 4 at the back, my team is the same as Brommers' with Gordon coming in for John (as I said earlier).

Would love to be in a position to give Xav half an hour or so towards the end, without it being a desperate throw of the dice.

[officer_dibble]

Pitch looks a shocker as well. Definitely some merit in getting it forward as early as possible and playing in the final third. Definitely not a pitch to risk injuries on. That being said I would be disappointed to see such an obviously poor replacement as Gordon start. So I’m probably less up for changes than some.

[GhostoftheBok]

Pitch looks a shocker as well. Definitely some merit in getting it forward as early as possible and playing in the final third. Definitely not a pitch to risk injuries on. That being said I would be disappointed to see such an obviously poor replacement as Gordon start.

Do you think John should play 90 minutes every game until the end of the season, regardless of fitness? Or do you want him to try Sadlier?

[sonicthewhite]

Do we want to risk upsetting Sadlier so soon in to his BWFC career seeing as he hated that position of LWB at Rotherham?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

On Dion Charles: at Oxford there was a point, not long before he came off, when he sprinted at absolutely top whack a full 30 yards to challenge their left-back, more or less in front of our dugout. I felt like I'd rarely ever seen a Wanderer run that fast and hard even when going in the right direction, let alone tracking back. He can't possibly keep that up and I don't think it's any accident that he's been subbed in eight of his nine appearances (the exception being Shrewsbury, where he was too busy scoring a worldie). In fact, Evatt has subbed him on 78 minutes in each of the last three games, which might be a curious coincidence, but it could also be Dion hitting a wall.

It's not just about players running out of breath, either - if they're in the red zone we might start losing them to muscle injuries.

I get the idea of reverting to the back four but for now I'm intrigued by Brommers' idea of getting Aimson in the back line for Burton's aerials, and sending Gethin up the wing. Might even give him and Marlon 45 each. In most cases I doubt we'll see players "rested" entirely out of the 18, it'll be a breather on the bench.

As for LWB - I have a funny feeling he might try, in a home game against lesser oppo (so maybe this weekend v Wombles or the following Tue v Lincoln) he might try Dapo or even Xav on that left-hand side. Dapo could do it passably, IMO - obvz not his best position but basically in our game it's offer high width and track back, both of which he does brilliantly. A good opponent might pick it apart but as I say, against a lower-third team when we're still shit-or-busting after 3pt hauls, it might be tempting.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Do we want to risk upsetting Sadlier so soon in to his BWFC career seeing as he hated that position of LWB at Rotherham?

It's a very fair question but (as with my point on Dapo above) I think playing LWB for Bolton and Rotherham are very different things indeed.

[officer_dibble]

Pitch looks a shocker as well. Definitely some merit in getting it forward as early as possible and playing in the final third. Definitely not a pitch to risk injuries on. That being said I would be disappointed to see such an obviously poor replacement as Gordon start.

Do you think John should play 90 minutes every game until the end of the season, regardless of fitness? Or do you want him to try Sadlier?

Not sure, Sadlier might be worth a go, didn’t look particularly disciplined in the sub appearances. I just don’t rate Gordon. With us being on a roll I’d like to keep winning…but yeah not at the expense of breaking players. Rather play Gordon for one game now than be forced into him playing more later on.

I guess what I’m saying is I get why people are saying play him but I’d be disappointed to see his name on the team sheet.

[Worthy4England]

Pitch looks a shocker as well. Definitely some merit in getting it forward as early as possible and playing in the final third. Definitely not a pitch to risk injuries on. That being said I would be disappointed to see such an obviously poor replacement as Gordon start.

Do you think John should play 90 minutes every game until the end of the season, regardless of fitness? Or do you want him to try Sadlier?

Not sure, Sadlier might be worth a go, didn’t look particularly disciplined in the sub appearances. I just don’t rate Gordon. With us being on a roll I’d like to keep winning…but yeah not at the expense of breaking players. Rather play Gordon for one game now than be forced into him playing more later on.

I guess what I’m saying is I get why people are saying play him but I’d be disappointed to see his name on the team sheet.

I think we can all see when someone is clearly looking a bit shagged. But tbf, the only two people who know are the player and Evatt/management team. My view is we play our strongest XI. Where Evatt thinks that's not possible, I'm sure he'll let us know, through his selection. Regarding John, last season, he played 21 times after joining us in Jan - so I think he'd good for it

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Regarding John, last season, he played 21 times after joining us in Jan - so I think he'd good for it

Hadn't he had an injury-racked couple of seasons? Certainly he got injured very quickly after joining us - same week Kioso was recalled by Luton, IIRC, basically kiboshing both Evatt's wingbacks at once... without which we might not have switched to a back four and who knows how things would have unfolded.

Quick check: he joined on Jan 7th and didn't start a game until Feb 13th. A year yesterday. Happy anniversary, Dec. I liked the way he hurtled round the net to celebrate his goal at Oxford with the away fans. More, please!

[Worthy4England]

That is all correct, I think, but just means that his 19 starts and 2 subs appearances were in a shorter space of time

If I'm still working at 22:30, he can run up and down the park for a few more 90 minutes yet.

[DJBlu]

1000_F_336781806_N8vJtOtvU2mzT0FZ5K3i2Wp5Nk9zqiM3.jpg (424.71 KiB) Viewed 576 times

Will be busting this bad boy out for the game, if you fancy a place on it then same place as before!

[Worthy4England]

'Tis a thing of beauty...

[TANGODANCER]

'Tis a thing of beauty...

A joy to behold...

[sonicthewhite]

Where's the coffee table table to put brew, hobnobs and feet on?

[GhostoftheBok]

Quick check: he joined on Jan 7th and didn't start a game until Feb 13th. A year yesterday. Happy anniversary, Dec. I liked the way he hurtled round the net to celebrate his goal at Oxford with the away fans. More, please!

Dec has already had injuries this season.

I really like him and I'd love for him to play every game, but I'd rather he missed one game than tweaked his hamstring and missed 6.

[Worthy4England]

Quick check: he joined on Jan 7th and didn't start a game until Feb 13th. A year yesterday. Happy anniversary, Dec. I liked the way he hurtled round the net to celebrate his goal at Oxford with the away fans. More, please!

Dec has already had injuries this season.

I really like him and I'd love for him to play every game, but I'd rather he missed one game than tweaked his hamstring and missed 6.

I'm sure that Evatt will make that call, as he sees fit, and doubt anyone would disagree that missing one game > missing 6. If we left it to the forum, we'd have half the team out rested.

[Bruce Rioja]

1000_F_336781806_N8vJtOtvU2mzT0FZ5K3i2Wp5Nk9zqiM3.jpg

Will be busting this bad boy out for the game, if you fancy a place on it then same place as before!

Oh, you must live on Tottington Road, DJ. Why didn't you say?

[Gudnib]

My view is we play our strongest XI. Where Evatt thinks that's not possible, I'm sure he'll let us know, through his selection. Regarding John, last season, he played 21 times after joining us in Jan - so I think he'd good for it
[/quote]

That's my view too. Its a long-shot to go for the play-offs but if we are to have any chance we need our best players on the pitch again tonight.

[Bruce Rioja]

Xav coming in to start would surprise me, more so at RWB. It's not his kind of position, even in our system,

As I mentioned in the Oxford thread, on the subject of Amaechi reclaiming a spot, Evatt told the MEN that "he could play one of the wing back positions or even play as a number 10".

[The_Gun]

My view is we play our strongest XI. Where Evatt thinks that's not possible, I'm sure he'll let us know, through his selection. Regarding John, last season, he played 21 times after joining us in Jan - so I think he'd good for it

That's my view too. Its a long-shot to go for the play-offs but if we are to have any chance we need our best players on the pitch again tonight.
[/quote]
I think the point people are making is that if we are to make the playoffs we'll need to win lots of games, not just tonight's. As such, it's going to be important to manage our squad to try and minimise the chance of injury to our best players and ensure they're available for as many matches as possible. In addition, as DSB alludes to above, it's likely that some players who would be automatic starters if fully fit, likely won't be fully fit after playing a lot of games in a short space of time, and thus we may well be better starting with back-ups who are 100% (especially given that many of those back ups are now also pretty good players).