We didn’t win the 09 final though because we were without all our best players and Chelsea had theirs. So Drogba and Lampard made the difference meanwhile we didn’t have Arteta Yakubu. Had we had Jags Arteta Yakubu and Chelsea had been without Terry Lampard Drogba it would have increased our chances of winning that game.
Of course I don’t know what the answer is but we just keep blasting the managers. If their best players are never available for them though then they’re not going to win many games. No managers would.
We can't really compare then and now.
Yes, our squad has been hit by injuries.
Why is that? Well, we signed James who is famously injury prone. That's fine cause the trade off is when he's fit, he's brilliant. However, it also seems that without him in the team, our entire attack falls down. Given he's only fit for, tops, half a season, that doesn't seem like a very smart tactical decision to me. Surely we could be working on other ways of crafting goalscoring chances without James? And no, I don't mean giving it to Digne to pump in from deep.
You said yourself, Silva might have kept his job if not for injuries.
It seems the one injury that has truly crocked us is Doucoure, because now our midfield is just getting carved open - hence why yesterday we had all of our players camped on the edge of our own penalty area. Well I'd say it's a poor reflection on recruitment that we don't have one other player in the squad capable of doing a similar thing.
We also don't have one player who can drive with the ball to any great impact. We have Iwobi who runs about like a headless chicken with it or does one thing well then boots a pass straight into a defender.
It needs to improve. And Carlo needs to start getting some form of identity in place now. Bielsa had League One and Champ players down to his system in months. I don't think he's a better manager than Ancelotti, but 16 months is a good while to be working with a squad. It'd be nice if we now start seeing the fruits of that work when we come back - hopefully with James managing to keep fit, but I'm not holding my breath.
