Down to the O-zone. Away to Fleetwood Friday Dec 297h 7-45.

[brommers95]

Is Dan out for the season?

The prognosis was that he'd be out for "months". Injury happened on 5th December, surgery was probably a few days later. At a guess I'd say we won't see him back in a matchday squad until end of Feb/start of March.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67660403

[GhostoftheBok]

The prognosis was that he'd be out for "months". Injury happened on 5th December, surgery was probably a few days later. At a guess I'd say we won't see him back in a matchday squad until end of Feb/start of March.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67660403

Evatt recently said he was on crutches and in a boot until (I think) the end of next week. At least he's back around the lads, which will help him stay positive.

[GhostoftheBok]

In his first six months we had four good strikers jostling for two spaces. Dion and Dapo usually the starters but with Bod and Baka bringing genuine threats, albeit differing, off the bench. (We also had Kachunga.) We scored a lot of late goals.

Last season was different. Dion emerged as undisputed top dog by some distance. Dapo drifted and left. Baka lost confidence and left. Kacha worked hard but, well. And Bod had a succession of injuries - brusied foot in pre-season, hamstring for a month in Sep/Oct, illness in Nov, nose problems in Dec and then ankle-knack from Jan to Jun; even after coming back from that he tweaked a hammy in pre-season and then just couldn't get past Ade.

I like Bod, he seems a really good bloke and arguably one of the best footballing brains at the club. Would be lovely if he could get back fit and firing, but I suspect it might be as a sub for now. Ade to run them ragged, then Bod to drag 'em round and drop into the holes.

But we will also need – and without being funny, I had genuinely half-forgotten this - a fourth striker, with Dan out for the season. If Bod is a sub I would like that player to have pace or the oppo could just push up, which will hinder our midfield dominance.

Whilst it's far from some kind of perfect metric, Dion's PPG points to how important he is - which we all already knew

You're right that we don't have "the awesome foursome" this season, with injuries being the major reason. However, we have scored exactly the same number of goals in the first 23 games of this season as we did in the last 23 games of 21/22 campaign when they were in full flow.

Charles scored 8 during that period. Now he's on 13.

Other forward/striker/whatever players scored 19. This time it's just 8...almost all from Vic on 7.

So the good news is that we are getting a lot more goals from the rest of the team. The bad news is the striking department is really susceptible to a single injury to a key man. Or, in fact, to one of two key men - as Vic is clearly now really important.

This is back of a fag packet stuff and I think another player would step up with a few more if Charles got hurt, but we'd not recover everything we lost.

Losing Dan means there is a clear space for a new lad. I don't think anyone feels Jerome is that guy, despite him offering nouse off the bench at times.

[Prufrock]

I was pondering the other day the order of importance of our players, who we'd be most f*cked by an injury to.

I came up with:

Dion
Rico
Sheehan
Thomo.

And Baxter somewhere in that but not quite sure where.

[TANGODANCER]

I was pondering the other day the order of importance of our players, who we'd be most f*cked by an injury to.

I came up with:

Dion
Rico
Sheehan
Thomo.

And Baxter somewhere in that but not quite sure where.

I think I'd add Dempsey to those. He may seem a little invisible at times, but like a sort of Scarlet Pimpernel in White, pops up where he's most needed. He's also always good for a goal shout.

[GhostoftheBok]

I was pondering the other day the order of importance of our players, who we'd be most f*cked by an injury to.

I came up with:

Dion
Rico
Sheehan
Thomo.

And Baxter somewhere in that but not quite sure where.

Sounds about right.

As things stand you'd throw in Vic and Cogley. The Dion 'n' Vic combo is really important and either part breaking makes us weaker (mostly Dion, obviously). Cogley because we've not really got anyone else there with Geth on his way to Asia and even when he's here it's all Cogs really.

If we really have 7 "We're not getting autos without him" players we're probably in bother.

The outfield ones I think are genuinely vital are Dion, Rico and Cogley. We can fix the Cogley issue in the market. The other two we probably can't.

That leaves you Dion and Rico as your "wrap him in cotton wool" players. You're not adding replacements for them as "squad depth" and if you lose them without getting big fees then you're not getting close to replicating what they offer.

Captain and main goal scorer probably isn't a surprise in terms of "can't lose" players. Add in goalkeeper for the traditional trifecta.

It's actually a good thing, to be honest. If you're not massively weaker without those three players then you probably need new ones.

[officer_dibble]

I’d have Baxter in the top 3…Rico and Dion the other two. Dacres Cogley and Randell are pretty important by virtue of lack of cover.