It's also laughable that Keane has comfortably been our best centre half this season.
…..hamstrings troubled me from my late teens & finished me playing even 5-a-side in my 40s, they’re such impossible things to manage. It’s normally the speedier type that suffer.
Found this part of Steve Zocek’s ( @alan ball) interview with our former physio Jim McGregor very interesting. After leaving us, he joined Utd (apologies, I’ve just taken a quick pic from Steve’s book);
I seem to remember we had a spate of injuries in Martinez's second season. Hadn't he got rid of a lot of the medical staff?
Might want to add his name to the successful signings in the transfer thread.
MACCA75
Player Valuation: £70m
Back in the new year at best?
The summer window was so poor honestly. We needed a right back and a left back, and ended up with a young lad that Moyes is never gonna play.
On top of that, I felt we needed a cheap/free versatile defender for squad depth, didn’t get that either. Now we look on very thin ice defensively.
The summer window was so poor honestly. We needed a right back and a left back, and ended up with a young lad that Moyes is never gonna play.
On top of that, I felt we needed a cheap/free versatile defender for squad depth, didn’t get that either. Now we look on very thin ice defensively.
MACCA75
Player Valuation: £70m
Your choice would have been not to have given him a new contract?
Thank god we did, as I have no faith at all that we would have signed a replacement.
MACCA75
Player Valuation: £70m
Feels like, but in reality, probably not. If you think of other clubs first choice central defenders - Mings, Botman, Van der Ven, Gabriel, Stones.. to name a few, all had lengthy injuries or surgery last season.
MisterJ
Player Valuation: £35m
Is he playing badly then, letting the team down?
Drico
Player Valuation: £70m
Not an unreasonable position given the deeply mediocre transfer window we did have.
However, if Keane is going to be as good as it gets for Everton, let's all just give up on notions of truly moving forward as a club. We needed big upgrades there in the summer and they went for the easy option. Which is fine for as long as he continues to play well. But, in the long run, he'll return to his mean and that will not be compatible with a top-half side chasing Europe.
I genuinely fear that today's news means we could get sucked into another battle against the drop. We'll likely be ok, but I think it now more likely we finish, say, 15th than 7th. Lose to Spurs and we're definitely looking down...
They typically have more contingencies in place one of their regular starter gets injured but spurs have been decimated with injuries for years they just lost Madison for the season but again they have a host of other options to soften the blow
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Injuries are getting a bit much for him now at this point. Defenders develop a lot at his age and there's a reason people can see potential in players, if you miss too many games though you'll never reach the heights. From our perspective it's very easy to see him becoming the next John Stones, however is it also too early to say if he'd be the next Mason Holgate? Any player's levels can drop drastically when you're not playing for long stretches.
On the cusp of COVID, Holgate was about to be called into the England squad I'm pretty sure, but he didn't play much after that and his career never recovered. Branthwaite has to be very determined to get through this spell because otherwise he'll be another like Holgate who had the potential and that's it, rather than the likes of Stones who had it all, and even with injuries got through it to the top level. Even on a lower level we saw with the likes of Galloway and Garbutt before that sometimes potential is just that, and even if they show it at a younger age, there's no guarantee that translates to "26 year old experienced PL player" which is exactly what we need, they sometimes lose it too as we've seen.
On the cusp of COVID, Holgate was about to be called into the England squad I'm pretty sure, but he didn't play much after that and his career never recovered. Branthwaite has to be very determined to get through this spell because otherwise he'll be another like Holgate who had the potential and that's it, rather than the likes of Stones who had it all, and even with injuries got through it to the top level. Even on a lower level we saw with the likes of Galloway and Garbutt before that sometimes potential is just that, and even if they show it at a younger age, there's no guarantee that translates to "26 year old experienced PL player" which is exactly what we need, they sometimes lose it too as we've seen.
toffeemeister77
Player Valuation: £6m
Great he's always injured it seems.
NorthernBlue
Player Valuation: £35m
Between 10th and 14th best we can do this season with the way it’s going. We’ve done ok at the back but it’s clear Branthwaite is needed asap.
Holgate was never anywhere near the level that Branthwaite has shown, not even close to being close to being close. He had a couple of months of looking like a half decent centre half in his entire career but people on here massively overrated him. Branthwaite is arguable slightly overrated by our fan but to nowhere near the same extent, he's a genuinely top quality player.
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