CRISIS? What crisis? Boro fans of a nervous disposition may be increasingly jittery as a highly localised injury epidemic grips the side's specialist stoppers but boss Gareth Southgate remains stoically unflustered. "Whenever players are injured, it gives an opportunity to other members of the squad," he said, opening the door for forgotten utility man Jason Euell to make a spectacular opening day stop-gap appearance at the heart of the defence.
The news that battle scarred Alpine hardman Emanuel Pogatetz's pre-season knee niggle now requires surgery takes the tally of sidelined centre-backs to five.
Alongside cult hero Pogi on the treatment table - ironically the news that he was going under the knife came as he trumpeted the strength in depth at the back in his daily pre-season diary in the Gazette - are talismanic Teessider Jonathan Woodgate, now two weeks behind in his rehabilitation after knee surgery, Boro's £1m a game perma-crock man Robert Huth out after an ankle operation, badly bruised Chris Riggott and Matthew Bates, who is battling it out with Tony McMahon for the title of Unluckiest Man At Hurworth after suffering a second cruciate injury on his return to first team action.
That could leave Boro to face Blackburn in the politically sensitive curtain-raiser at the Riverside on the opening day with an untried pairing of Andrew Davies and David Wheater. Politically sensitive because many sceptical Boro fans who did not renew are waiting to be convinced of both the reality of Southgate's pledge of entertaining football based on energy and pace and of the substance of a transfer policy that has been coloured by Steve Gibson's pre-deadline talk of "spectacular" signings. The first home game is crucial to winning many wavrers back into the fold with a compelling display that bodes well for the future and it would be a disaster if the bold vision were to falter because of a disjointed display by a makeshift defence.
Of course, accidents will happen. Injuries are part and parcel of football and with the increased pace and athleticism of the game it seems they are ever more frequent. The more rabid element of the Chickenrun tendency stop just short this side of suggesting the club have engineered the situation in some inexplicable act of masochism but that is madness. Ask fans of any club and they will tell you that their quest for glory/battle against the drop/bid for mid-table obscurity last season was hampered by the worst imaginable ever injury nightmare. Bemoaning the casualty list is a ubiquitous mantra of mitigation in the modern game.
But while many clubs have injuries - Newcastle have seven first teamers out at the moment according to the physioroom.com treatment table - most can comfort themselves with the bodies being scattered around the different departments. Boro's misery is concentrated in arguably the most important area of the pitch and leaves Southgate with a major league migrane.
It could be that Luke Young, the specialist square peg brought in to solve a long term problem position will make his Premiership debut out of position in the centre while Andrew Davies, a centre-back by trade misses his chance in that role and remains on the right. Young started his career as a centre-back and while it is far from ideal for him to resume it so unexpectedly it may be preferable to the prospect of rookie Wheater alongside Davies, a player who is enthusiastic and hardworking but who has been exposed and error prone whenever called upon at the heart of the defence. With Seb Hines on the bench.
Meanwhile the pre-season injury pile-up may raise some embarrassing questions, especially if the team do not get off to a winning start. Were the club short of one fit, experienced central defender? Last season Southgate, Cooper and Ehiogu were taken out of the equation but only Huth came in and he has yet to feature in any meaningful way.
It should certainly raise questions over the wisdom of signing Huth, long a benchwarmer at Chelsea and who arrived with an injury and in a model of consistency has continued in the same vein. To be fair to Southgate it was an inherited move that had been worked out in advance by the former manager but he had a chance to veto it - as he did with the ill-fated courting of Douala - and when it was set in train he was not to know that Woodgate would become available but as the horse-trading went on beyond the deadline there were presumably opportunities to pull the plug and let would-be gazumpers Newcastle sign him instead. In retrospect the £6m could have been far more preductively spent elsewhere.
The injury situation is most unfortunate. It is not yet of "typical Boro" proportions. A least none of the new boys have gone down yet in the way that Juninho did. There is nothing more sickening than seeing the expensively purchased architect of a bright new dawn being stretchered off in a poxy pointless kick-about. Let's hope Tuncay is wearing two sets of shin-pads on Saturday and is treated with kid gloves in training.
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »