I worried that both of these could be gone in January. Inniss to one of Man City, Liverpool, or possibly Chelsea. Famewo back to Norwich, before going to Real Madrid or Barcelona, depending who is ready to hand over the £40 Million. Surely this likely, as since they got injured, they have become the two greatest players to ever grace the Valley turf. Every week they don’t play, they get better and better. It’s incredible, how much they have improved.
Apparently, without them we are fodder to be beaten by anybody, good job it was not us at Marine yesterday, we would have taken a right bloody beating. Without them, we are a complete shambles, the other 9 players, I can’t remember their names, are purely extras in the Inniss and Famewo show. How we managed to extract these SUPERSTARS into our humble team is beyond me. God we could play just the two of them. And win games..... Famewo taking corners Inniss heading them in.......
ok, this is complete Tosh, but reading some of the comments on this forum and elsewhere, some of our fan base seem to believe this is true. ALL our issues are because these two are not available, if they were fit, it would all be different. I look forward to never losing another game on their return.
Yes, they are an excellent CentreBack pairing at this level, and both undoubtably gave us the solidness at the back that HELPED to keep clean sheets. However, they were playing in an in form team, that was winning games. God forbid, they come back and we let a goal in, let alone lose a game.
The point I’m trying to make is not related to LB IN OR OUT. It’s that our issues, in my opinion run deeper that Inniss an Famewo being absent. Blaming the poor performances, purely on the loss of these two is shortsighted. Yes, we miss them, yes we would be performing better with them. But, is their absence the only reason we aware now slumping down the table, and looking like a shambles of a side..... Of course not, so let’s not think their return is going to rocket us back up the table.
Comments
Would we have conceded either with Inniss and Famewo, my answer is no.
Pearce was shocking for the first and for the 2nd both Pearce and Oshilaja got done by the same player so he had a clear shot on goal, in my opinion Inniss would have stood firm and got the block.
People think we'd be a lot stronger at the back with our two first choice centre backs playing.
We would.
never seen such aggressive division amongst the fans.
I do think they are a huge miss, but so has Doughty being injured and Chucks not being able to play the 90 minutes. I think our first team is a top six side. The rest of the squad is average at best, and there in lies the problem.
The problems are bigger than their absence and without wishing to labour the point it is precisely why I have challenged peoples expectations.
There is nothing I posted elsewhere that has not been by countless others. I have just suggested people join the dots
Inniss and Famewo will not solve all of our problems because of the loss of confidence so evident in recent weeks and opposing coaches will have worked them out a little more
They will however offer precisely the platform needed to make us harder to beat.
They did very well in their opening spell with us but peel back the layers and we are talking about a Palace Reserve who has not yet proven his consistent ability to perform and Famewo who has been excellent but beyond Luton, Grimsby and St Mirren nobody had ever heard of.
They have performed considerably better than Oshilaja, who I like. He plays with real commitment but he was fourth choice CB last season for a reason he is a League 1 journeyman utility defender.
I also have a great deal of time for Pearce but he has struggled for years to play a full season and to perform consistently with 2 games a week.
2018/2019 - Bielik, Bauer, Sarr, Pearce with Pratley as back up
2011/2012 - Morrison 45 appearances, Taylor 41 appearances, Cort as back up with Wiggins the best Left Back in the division.
That is the strength from which you win promotions.
I feel Inniss (44 League 1 Appearances across 6 seasons) and Famewo (circa 22/23 starts in senior football) can offer a lot but its a big ask for them over the full season along with Maatsen starting his first full season in senior football.
When you look at these profiles where all 3 have things to prove at this level then perhaps you will understand why Pratley and Watson get to play regularly in defending the back 4. You are going to move heaven and earth to protect these guys as they settle in.
When we went on our little run we had Pratley AND Watson sat in front of 2 pretty good center halves. It wasn't pretty to watch but we didn't concede goals. I praised Bowyer for this, in fact I think I compared him to Eddie Jones.
I expected the "hand break" to come off after the international break. Instead the wheels came off.
Having kept 6 clean sheets on the spin we have now conceded 2 in each of the last 5. More worryingly we have stop scoring goals as well. We had, probably, 5 or 6 offensive minded players start on Friday night and didn't creat anything more than a few half chances. Innes and Famewo, nor Nesta and Maldini, or going to solve that problem.
In short of course we would be a better team with those 2 in it, it would be churlish to suggest we wouldn't. But would it solve all our problems? Far from it.
How long will people keep trotting this excuse out? Once they got injured we should have found a better way of dealing with it.
I'm surprised at how low people's expectations have become particularly given we're in L1.