Injuries

[CalverleyBoy]

Said it at the start of the season, December will be the test for us and other teams; lots of games to be played in cold damp conditions; the teams with a strong bench will be the ones to survive and expect to see changes in league positions - perhaps Byram needs to do a John Barnes and get some leggings

[WTF11]

Hiya Clive.

Injuries & suspensions gonna happen now, for sure & a few will be "managed" carrying them, no doubt.

Maybe Farke can bring out Firpo's hidden talents to slot in if Byram cannot always manage his muscle situation through the colder, wetter spells coming ?
Suspect Farke will wanna see Firpo in action before deciding what to do in Jan window regarding our left-back options going forward.

As Byram sure has had an injury-hit career & it looks as though Farke will try to play Djed Spence at right-back after the break.

Byram at Carrow Road had 2 hamstring operations & 21 months on the sidelines missing 40 games.
Knee issues further limited his West Ham appearances & another knee injury on loan at Forest cost him 39 games missed.
Similar situation when at Leeds with a nasty hip condition diagnosis that cost him nearly a season out too when younger.

Reading that Byram at Leeds grew up as a central midfielder & centre-half until he was 16 then he was moved out to right-back when Warnock arrived, after 4 Managers later Rösler decided to play him right side-midfield in his failed 4-3-3 2015 campaign - so he can slot in across the lines as his playing history shows but at the cost of injuries occuring.

Recruited as a right-back for Norwich for £750,000 from West Ham in the summer of 2019, Byram actually then became first-choice "left-back" under then head coach Daniel Farke by the time of the pandemic.
Byram had barely played in that exact position during his professional career before Norwich, one should remember.

Then Dean Smith's arrival at Norwich saw 'full-back' Byram switched to a central defensive role on the left of Norwich captain Grant Hanley which kept Ben Gibson the established & fit, left-footed Canaries centre-back out of their starting 11, stats reports point out.

Maybe gonna be time to introduce a new dependable face into the set up in our bid to move up the table.

Err, Firpo has "hidden talents"? You mean something like being a wonderful snowboarder, or has a penchant for making wonderful pastry sweets? . Seriously, they guy will never be an effective left back as long as he has a hole where his a55 is. He has shown some ability when playing further up the pitch, a kind of left sided mid-fielder, but he hasn't go anywhere like the tracking back/positional awareness and just sheer physical ability to act as a road block to opposition attacking down that side of the park.

And whats all the regurgitation of Byrams past injuries, changes of playing position etc, with no comment whatsoever about how well he has played since returning to ER? Yes, he has had (past tense) all those issues, yes he has lost a lot of game time when recovering from injury/restorative surgery etc. which begs the question just how great he could have been without all those interruptions. However he is now an LUFC player and unless and until we know what the issue is that took him off against Plymouth for my money he is the best we have in that position and I for one would hope that he comes back fit for the next match and we are able to see Firpo stay where he belongs, off the pitch.

And as for a "new dependable face", not so much new but I suspect a hell of a lot more dependable than Firpo is already on the clubs books, Hjelde.

[Monaco_Totty]

Err, Firpo has "hidden talents"? You mean something like being a wonderful snowboarder, or has a penchant for making wonderful pastry sweets? . Seriously, they guy will never be an effective left back as long as he has a hole where his a55 is. He has shown some ability when playing further up the pitch, a kind of left sided mid-fielder, but he hasn't go anywhere like the tracking back/positional awareness and just sheer physical ability to act as a road block to opposition attacking down that side of the park.

And whats all the regurgitation of Byrams past injuries, changes of playing position etc, with no comment whatsoever about how well he has played since returning to ER? Yes, he has had (past tense) all those issues, yes he has lost a lot of game time when recovering from injury/restorative surgery etc. which begs the question just how great he could have been without all those interruptions. However he is now an LUFC player and unless and until we know what the issue is that took him off against Plymouth for my money he is the best we have in that position and I for one would hope that he comes back fit for the next match and we are able to see Firpo stay where he belongs, off the pitch.

And as for a "new dependable face", not so much new but I suspect a hell of a lot more dependable than Firpo is already on the clubs books, Hjelde.

Steady on pal.
Introduction of a new face ?
As in what we have already or if Farke sez NO then by the window!

Tom Lees (Huddersfield ex-Leeds) & Sam Byram both live in York, as do their folks & recently visited the York College Footballing Academy.

Doing a Q&A session Lees had said Huddersfield recently had targeted the Leeds left-side but had been surprised at Summervilles back tracking to double up with Byram highlighting the importance of individual players continued overall game development to the budding pro's present.

Sam Byram also had talked about his development & issues of how he combated his times out with injury & the importance of following a planned man-management of his body nowadays.

Hence my comments depicting all said matters regarding injury, returning & players overall individual game development.

I had also noted your match day thread comments on Farkes substitutions against Plymouth

A colleague from my working days at York college was kind enough to share the Whatsapp video group call with me - so maybe now you'll get my addressed gist. 👍

[CalverleyBoy]

Farke will do well to keep players in January,. the hounds are already sniffing around Gray

[WTF11]

Steady on pal.
Introduction of a new face ?
As in what we have already or if Farke sez NO then by the window!

Tom Lees (Huddersfield ex-Leeds) & Sam Byram both live in York, as do their folks & recently visited the York College Footballing Academy.

Doing a Q&A session Lees had said Huddersfield recently had targeted the Leeds left-side but had been surprised at Summervilles back tracking to double up with Byram highlighting the importance of individual players continued overall game development to the budding pro's present.

Sam Byram also had talked about his development & issues of how he combated his times out with injury & the importance of following a planned man-management of his body nowadays.

Hence my comments depicting all said matters regarding injury, returning & players overall individual game development.

I had also noted your match day thread comments on Farkes substitutions against Plymouth

A colleague from my working days at York college was kind enough to share the Whatsapp video group call with me - so maybe now you'll get my addressed gist. 👍

Well I don't know what was covered in whatever WhatsApp call you refer to, so no, I don't get why you felt it necessary to re-iterate what we all know about Byrams trials and tribulations without providing reference to his recent performance as balance/context.

As for going forward, we have the requisite strength, we just need the willingness on the part of Farke to have the same kind of faith he has shown in previous underperformers like Rutter, which has paid great dividends, in the likes of Cresswell and Hjelde (and Joseph should there be issues with Summerville or Rutter).

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Firpo is decent going forward and is strong enough to be effective defensively plus he has pace - playing him alongside Cooper would be a little scary though.

[Monaco_Totty]

Speed, stamina & positional awareness needed for a modern wing-back of course.

Firpo of course will get flagged up by his critics on the "positional awareness" tag.
Farke full-backs must be able to switch from covering their zones so require the needed tags of speed stamina, aka Djed Spence.

But he also likes full-backs who can move inside into central spaces when his teams have the ball (aka Byram).
So technically Sams an ‘inverted full-back’. Sams movement adds an extra presence cutting in towards the centre zones of the pitch which Farke encouraged in all of his teams todate to open up spaces for others to exploit, stats will show.

I believe & hope that Firpo may provide that kind of full-back requirement if called upon - if not then we'll all know quickly come Jan window.

Leo Hjelde is no mug for a 20 year old for sure.
At 6'2" & 75 kg he's obviously a solid barrier defensively & arguably a frame better suited for a central-left defender,imo.

Playing at full-back sure has consequences with bigger framed players nowadays. Look at Pascal Struijk, 6'3" & 79 kg recent injuries for example.

But having said that with Djed Spence operating on the right as a required Farke style full-back then Herr Farke could develop Hjelde movement mobility better going forward as 'speed' durability is not the kids forte.

[spaldy]

Farke will do well to keep players in January,. the hounds are already sniffing around Gray

I am worried about several of our players including Summerville, Gray, Meslier, Ampadu, Rutter and Strujik. Even Kamara looks like a solid prem player. We have a team better prepared for the prem than when we were in the prem the last 2 years.

[spaldy]

No disrepect intended for Kamara. He's a great player. Just didn't get into the lineup until a month ago and he's been brilliant since his late start.

[WTF11]

Speed, stamina & positional awareness needed for a modern wing-back of course.

Firpo of course will get flagged up by his critics on the "positional awareness" tag.
Farke full-backs must be able to switch from covering their zones so require the needed tags of speed stamina, aka Djed Spence.

But he also likes full-backs who can move inside into central spaces when his teams have the ball (aka Byram).
So technically Sams an ‘inverted full-back’. Sams movement adds an extra presence cutting in towards the centre zones of the pitch which Farke encouraged in all of his teams todate to open up spaces for others to exploit, stats will show.

I believe & hope that Firpo may provide that kind of full-back requirement if called upon - if not then we'll all know quickly come Jan window.

Leo Hjelde is no mug for a 20 year old for sure.
At 6'2" & 75 kg he's obviously a solid barrier defensively & arguably a frame better suited for a central-left defender,imo.

Playing at full-back sure has consequences with bigger framed players nowadays. Look at Pascal Struijk, 6'3" & 79 kg recent injuries for example.

But having said that with Djed Spence operating on the right as a required Farke style full-back then Herr Farke could develop Hjelde movement mobility better going forward as 'speed' durability is not the kids forte.

Slight change of "tone" there?

Seems we have at least a partial agreement on Byram and his capabilities, hopefully (always "hopefully"), he can stay clear of serious injury and maintain his place. For my money, Hjelde is the ideal stand-in, for all the reasons you mention. Firpo is not. His positional awareness is, as you infer, not his strong point, and coupled with a distinct lack of enthusiasm for tracking back he leaves holes along the left that the likes of Struijk have had to fill, to the detriment of central defensive capability/coverage.

Not quite sure how it's possible to suggest Spence is anything other than a !work in progress" given injuries that have prevented him from showing whether he is good, bad or indifferent. Watching Gray against Leicester and Plymouth, his link-up play with Kamara and James, hold-up and challenges won etc, I'd be asking why you wouldn't play him if fit, rather than bring a player already having suffered serious injury and risk disrupting a formula that works?