🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 24. Reece James

[Pizy 18,907]

22 minutes ago, Superblue_1986 said:

Albeit was Wolves, but thought Azpi looked significantly better in that game, just seemed to play more free when pushing up in attack. The issue given his age will be flogging him for the next few weeks game after game. GP will need to find another option to rest and rotate alongside him.

If Reece is out for 6-8 weeks as has been speculated it's hardly ideal, but it's also significantly better than it could have been, similar to Fofana.

My bigger concern is two of our best players will likely miss now the rest of this schedule up to the World Cup in Kante and Reece, and almost certainly be picked for the World Cup if there's any chance of them being fit, and will be risked playing in it. There should definitely be some sort of ruling from Fifa/Uefa which prevents countries calling players up who have had an extended period out injured. We've suffered for years with Deschamps doing this playing Kante on one leg, and we massively run the risk of a similar situation come the world cup for these two.

Azpi has looked decent because we’re now using him the way we should have been for the last 18 months which is as a sub and rotation option. He’s fresh and isn’t asked to do too much. Now it’ll be like last season where he’s starting every match for the foreseeable future. He’ll likely be good for the first few matches but we may quickly start seeing his limitations again.

I feel like the biggest players who are going to suffer with this injury are Sterling and Auba. Reece was really starting to form a strong chemistry with those two because he provides them the exact sort of service they feast on.

Only hope is that Azpi can somehow become the attacking threat he was a few years ago when he was serving Morata chances up on a plate.

[Superblue 6,372]

1 hour ago, Pizy said:

Azpi has looked decent because we’re now using him the way we should have been for the last 18 months which is as a sub and rotation option. He’s fresh and isn’t asked to do too much. Now it’ll be like last season where he’s starting every match for the foreseeable future. He’ll likely be good for the first few matches but we may quickly start seeing his limitations again.

I feel like the biggest players who are going to suffer with this injury are Sterling and Auba. Reece was really starting to form a strong chemistry with those two because he provides them the exact sort of service they feast on.

Only hope is that Azpi can somehow become the attacking threat he was a few years ago when he was serving Morata chances up on a plate.

If Reece's injury is as being reported or currently assumed, which is 6 - 8 weeks with no surgery required then currently we're assuming he's out until the break and then back thereafter.

It's 9 games from now until that break. Realistically before today's news we thought he might miss the next couple anyway, and even if fit I think he'd likely have ended up playing only half those games anyway. It's the big games we'll really miss him I feel - Arsenal, United and Newcastle before the break but we have to find a solution.

If we get a result against Salzburg then the Zagreb game is dead rubber and as much as I don't like to throw away or dismiss competitions, given how hectic things will be after the World Cup, the Carabao cup tie with City isn't as high a priority. That gives a couple of opportunities for GP to explore alternative options (particularly if Reece got injured again in the second half of the season) and keep players like Azpi as fresh as possible. 

 

[Strike 7,489]

2 minutes ago, Superblue_1986 said:

If Reece's injury is as being reported or currently assumed, which is 6 - 8 weeks with no surgery required then currently we're assuming he's out until the break and then back thereafter.

It's 9 games from now until that break. Realistically before today's news we thought he might miss the next couple anyway, and even if fit I think he'd likely have ended up playing only half those games anyway. It's the big games we'll really miss him I feel - Arsenal, United and Newcastle before the break but we have to find a solution.

If we get a result against Salzburg then the Zagreb game is dead rubber and as much as I don't like to throw away or dismiss competitions, given how hectic things will be after the World Cup, the Carabao cup tie with City isn't as high a priority. That gives a couple of opportunities for GP to explore alternative options (particularly if Reece got injured again in the second half of the season) and keep players like Azpi as fresh as possible. 

 

Fofana, Kante and Reece. Three of our most agile players missing this stretch is a blow. Not getting my hopes up now and managing my expectations for the next month till the break. Glad there's no City/Liverpool game in this period.

[Blue Armour 4,439]

3 hours ago, Tomo said:

What I'm seeing is 6-8 weeks so hopefully not that bad.

Although it will probably be a while till he re hits the levels he did vs Milan.  I swear this happens to him every single time he's approaching "fullback Mbappe" levels.

Where did the 6-8 weeks even come from though?

Digging through reports, the only official piece of news is that Grahama Potter has said that he'll see a specialist over the weekend.

Everything else, including news about surgery, or that 'exclusive piece' about ligament damage from the daily mail, looks like pure speculation 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,818]

The concern comes from the scans that were done. That is why he is being sent to a specialist to see if surgery is necessary, surgery could be four months. The damage seen on the scans is best case is 6 weeks recovery. Unless the specialist says otherwise.

 

 

[Nero 1,871]

4 hours ago, YorkshireBlue said:

Don't you think you're being a little bit silly lol.

I mean like last season after that James and Chillwell thing?

[Vesper 30,175]

We are fucking cursed, and ffs, now that failute to buy Joakim Mæhle is massive.

Again, I fucking warned on this.

Cannot believe we are now reliant on Azpi yet again. JFC 🤬

Mohamed Simakan also has looked really good at RB for RB Leipzig as well, and would not just be a CB only option. 1.87m, pacey, strong, more than a decent passer, I think he would have been a damn proper purchase. 

[Tomo 21,751]

7 hours ago, Vesper said:

We are fucking cursed, and ffs, now that failute to buy Joakim Mæhle is massive.

Again, I fucking warned on this.

Cannot believe we are now reliant on Azpi yet again. JFC 🤬

Mohamed Simakan also has looked really good at RB for RB Leipzig as well, and would not just be a CB only option. 1.87m, pacey, strong, more than a decent passer, I think he would have been a damn proper purchase. 

The one downside to having such a world class player is it's hard to get anyone of note in as backup knowing that's all they'll be. 

It was easier on the left because Chilwell isn't anywhere near untouchable even when fully fit.

[Reddish-Blue 2,504]

18 hours ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

The concern comes from the scans that were done. That is why he is being sent to a specialist to see if surgery is necessary, surgery could be four months. The damage seen on the scans is best case is 6 weeks recovery. Unless the specialist says otherwise.

 

 

Just when we start hitting a bit of form under the new boss, bam, our best wingback goes down!

Will be interesting to see how Potter adjusts his tactics without Reece, he was becoming a bit of a cheat code down that flank. 

[Vesper 30,175]

1 hour ago, Tomo said:

The one downside to having such a world class player is it's hard to get anyone of note in as backup knowing that's all they'll be. 

It was easier on the left because Chilwell isn't anywhere near untouchable even when fully fit.

Simakan as a RB/CB would get plenty of minutes, and more when Thiago retires/leaves (granted that could be two more years after thus season)

and Joakim Mæhle splits time as well, he is not always the starter now.

Mæhle is not like my by now multi year-long whingeing over failing on Theo and Hakimi,  lololol

[Mário César 1,255]

and we are lucky that WC will happen in december... if not, reece would miss a lot of games

[Blues Forever 1,232]

 

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

I continue to read 'WC dream in doubt', 'unlikely do feature' dafuq are they writing about? The WC begins in less than 5 weeks. How stupid must Southgate be to still nominate him... for what, the last 5 days of the tournament? If RJ still takes that plane to slave island I am done with wcs

[Johnnyeye 7,509]

ffs fuck injuries man 😡. Get well soon James and screw the WC. Can we not play italian clubs anytime soon pls? ffs

Edited October 15, 2022 by Johnnyeye

[Mário César 1,255]

 

oh go no 

[Blue Armour 4,439]

On 15/10/2022 at 09:35, Blues Forever said:

 

Good thing is he seemingly won't need surgery., which could have kept out for a good chunk of the season.

So he faces 1-2 months out? So it's all up to his pace of recovery. I suspect they'll do another scan in a few weeks time when he feels better. 

It sucks because we are the half the team we normally are with him absent. It also sucks that we may potentially miss him for the Arsenal and United games too, but small consolation that the Arse game is at home. 

Also, we'll still have more than half the season remaining after the end of this calendar year. So that's another positive, I guess. 

[YorkshireBlue 3,277]

On 14/10/2022 at 18:15, Nero said:

I mean like last season after that James and Chillwell thing?

To say the season is over is silly. 

[MoroccanBlue 5,382]

Sorry but if Potter is like Tuchel and only has our attacking threat come from the wingbacks then what is the point?

James being out shouldn't be an excuse, no matter how important he is. 

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

1 hour ago, MoroccanBlue said:

Sorry but if Potter is like Tuchel and only has our attacking threat come from the wingbacks then what is the point?

James being out shouldn't be an excuse, no matter how important he is. 

That’s the thing. The point was getting a manager who confirms with the owners idea of collaboration

potter does not have a magic formula TT has not. As long as we play 3 atb and only 2 or 3 dedicated atttackers we will always rely on our wingbacks for playmaking duties . And only the best like RJ can provide this. I am fine with that. Most of our attackers are quite average anyway and no manager in the world will get them to score 20g a season each. The mistake was not getting a proper backup. 

[MoroccanBlue 5,382]

7 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

That’s the thing. The point was getting a manager who confirms with the owners idea of collaboration

potter does not have a magic formula TT has not. As long as we play 3 atb and only 2 or 3 dedicated atttackers we will always rely on our wingbacks for playmaking duties . And only the best like RJ can provide this. I am fine with that. Most of our attackers are quite average anyway and no manager in the world will get them to score 20g a season each. The mistake was not getting a proper backup. 

But we've already seen with Potter that we move the ball more directly and aren't afraid to have more bodies in the box. Tuchel's issue was his inability to improve our attacking play and attacking players, hence why we relied almost everything on our wingbacks. His possession play hindered our attacking players. 

We should not be over relying on James as we had done with Tuchel.