Injuries again

Leicester are definitely not worse off than us by any stretch of the imagination, they won 4-1 today and had a very strong bench.

We will be lucky to have a striker of any kind fit. Might have to look at under 23’s

I get the sense that some Leeds fans feel hard done by re injuries and all that. Please tell me those in that camp do realize this was of our own making? The club went into this season knowingly and by design.

Any belly aching about the result of our own plan is ridiculous. Small squad is the root of everything. As I've said before no one held a gun to our heads and said "Leeds can only have a small squad, and can only spend this amount."

We chose this path. Now we just deal with it FFS.

comment by milkyboy (U12731)
posted 11 hours, 47 minutes ago
Couple of points.

The ‘injuries’ listed in that site include covid and African nations cup absentees. On pure injuries, we’re way above average.

The effect is obviously felt more in a small squad, but it also means that our injuries as a proportion of squad size is way higher than everyone else’s. In short our % of injured players is ridiculous and in absolute terms we have way fewer players available to field than everyone else despite no major covid impact or players on international duty
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Good points, Milky. We are seriously stretched at the moment and if we lose Forshaw or Meslier between now and March, we will be in for relegation dogfght, I think.
We have had to manage a high rate of attrition since Bielsa arrived. I also wonder if the newly laid pitch at Elland Road is a contributing factor? It seems very skiddy to me and leads to players overstretching. A number of our injuries are a result of this, notably Roberts last week and Coops and KP in the Brentford game.
With regard to our dealings in the transfer market, it also seems that the players who come in from overseas are particularly prone to injury, Raph being the exception. perhaps this helps to explain why home grown players fetch a premium in the transfer market.
Finally, players' recovery time from injury is poor. Even minor injuries seem to take 6 weeks or more to clear up. Is our treatment room up to scratch?
It's a lot to take on board at the moment, I am just hoping we get through this month with no additional injuries.

comment by Batty (U4664)
posted 2 hours, 18 minutes ago
I get the sense that some Leeds fans feel hard done by re injuries and all that. Please tell me those in that camp do realize this was of our own making? The club went into this season knowingly and by design.

Any belly aching about the result of our own plan is ridiculous. Small squad is the root of everything. As I've said before no one held a gun to our heads and said "Leeds can only have a small squad, and can only spend this amount."

We chose this path. Now we just deal with it FFS.
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No one needs to hold a gun to our head for how much we can spend to be limited though.

It’s one thing to suggest that we should have spread the budget differently. But a very different argument to say we are not spending enough.

How much should we be spending? Where does the money come from?

You're asking the wrong poster Faith if that's directed at me.
My point is, the club has set out its stall already.

They decided a small squad, on the wages that they're on,
with a limited budget to add other players, was best
for the club this season. Despite COVID and the risk of
injuries. Which believe it or not, I'm fine with. I don't
think it was the smartest way to go. But, I accept it's
the way the club and MB chose to go.

Fans now acting like we've been hard done by,
and that we are somehow less fortunate, or less equipped
to deal with where we are now, need to give it a rest.
Premier league doesn't care about excuses after the
fact.

The club made this bed willingly and we all have to lie
in it. And hope like hell we get lucky and stay up.

Interesting point above about the pitches but I guess we've got what we've got and spent a lot of money installing them. Certainly an angle that might have had an impact given we play 50% of our competitive football and 100% of our training on them.

I thought it was Bielsa who wanted a smaller squad, and AR that wanted the academy bringing up to date!..

We now have what they want, and both will be used no matter what anyone here thinks!..

As for the pitches and injuries, if they didn't keep watering them in wet or muddy weather and half time breaks then maybe they wouldn't cut up like they do, that'd help a little against injuries!..

comment by Wetherby White (U6810)
posted 18 hours, 28 minutes ago
Leicester are definitely not worse off than us by any stretch of the imagination, they won 4-1 today and had a very strong bench.

We will be lucky to have a striker of any kind fit. Might have to look at under 23’s
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They played 2 kids in the starting line up - debuts I think and had 6 kids on the bench with shirt numbers 40-60. Not sure which report you’ve read because leicester situation is like ours

Batty is quite right though. It’s hard for the fans as we are all clearly wanting to compete higher up the league and progress in the cup and the injuries have killed us in relation to % of senior players.
Bielsa never complains to his credit - just believes in his approach and stands by it. We just need to trust Bielsa.

Apperently the club dont want Drameh to go on loan unless the injury crises easies.