Quote Originally Posted by hopelesslyoptimistic View Post
The Ayling injury was thought to be serious at the time so not surprised he isn’t back yet - Bamford on a podcast about a month ago suggested he was pretty much ready to go so not really sure what happened there.

If you look at the players that went last summer Pablo, Bernardo, Alioski and Kiko together with Poveda who got a lot of game time from the bench - we only brought 3 players in ready for the first team for what was already a thin squad so it is more stretched in many ways than last year (accepting Berra on played in the last few games).

We simply can’t cope with the amount of injuries to the key players we have and the most obvious gaps as we all know are in midfield (maybe two light there) and back up for Bamford.

Yes we have great kids but too early in their development and experience to rely on lots of them every week as some possibly two years away from being first team regulars.

Sure we will buy in Jan as the gamble of Koch and Forshaw being fit all season has back fired already and now Forshaw fit and playing he shows what having quality in midfield means in this league.

Think we will stay up but will be a lot closer than it should be.

Hope Rapha and Rodrigo fit for Palace
Think the mindset situation Belfast refers to is the biggest issue at present. If they struggle to convince themselves that we arent in some bother, then a good recipe tor going down. Need a win very quickly to turn them...and still reckon it has to be one of these next two.