Adding to that Wood, Grant and Redders should be pretty quick returns too. The former obviously depends on not getting any complications with the COVID.
Yazbek, I’m not sure, depends if his omissions was more precautionary/protective or an actual injury.
Kosta will be a long way off before he could start. I would think he wouldn’t start a game this season.
A month ago they said a couple of weeks?
What happened?
Around a month ago I think they said it’d be around 6 weeks, but apparently he had a minor set back. Though I haven’t heard an update since then. If he’s only about a month away then he’ll be back half way through the season. We’ll just have to wait from the next update from the club.
He has covid currently too doesnt he?
I heard he did as well from somewhere. Probably not bad to get it while injured anyway.
He was a couple of weeks away, then he had the setback a month ago and apparently needed 6 more weeks.
So I give him 2-4 weeks, from now, barring any other setbacks?
Sounds about right. I’m missing him a bit less since Elvis is playing really well, but nice to have some competition for the spot. Even if he’s a month away, not so bad as our schedule eases up a bit now and we have the usual one game a week for a while.
Or we could shift Caceres over to the left and have Kosta play on the right.
In saying that, I think Elvis will be moved out to the left so that Kosta can play up front.
You’re dropping Ninkovic?
I’d have him start the big games but I think he’s best utilised coming off the bench the majority of the time.
I’m pretty sure that was the role intended for him this season but injuries and the COVID impacted schedule have seen him start more games than expected.
Not sure about that.
We don’t really have a viable replacement for him. So I’m not sure I see that planned for. We brought in Burgess, obviously, but coming off his “hiatus” he was never going to be a ready made replacement.
I’d guess we’d have rather Ninko start most games and sub him off when the job is done. Maybe with a bit of rotation around fixture congestion.
The problem with that is it means we drop one of our 2 best players for this season, Elvis or Caceres, because I can’t see Corica starting without Alfie & Kosta when they’re both fit.
Flipping it the other way, who’d you rather come off the bench with 30 to go when we’re chasing the game? Out of the 4 options (Milos, Kosta, Caceres & Elvis), I think Milos is the one that can play through a deep defence the best.
Ideally we’d cryogenically freeze him until we work out how to stop the ageing process but until that happens we need to manage his load with 30-40 minute cameos with the occasional 70-80 minute appearance rather than the other way around.
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I suspect Corica takes the view that, if he starts Ninkovic we won’t be chasing the game…
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The problem is that we’re all complaining that we’re doing the same old thing and relying on the same old players and it’s getting less and less effective. Maybe having Ninko come off the bench is smarter as it allows our players to shift the teams style of play away from a Ninko centric one? I mean he’s not going to play forever (until cloning is perfected), so I’d take the hit and shift our reliance on him away and give the other players a shot. If it works, it works, if not, we need to look at recruitment in the off season.
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I agree, but that’s a decision you make in the offseason and I’d expect us to recruit a suitable replacement as part of that strategy. Our recruitment didn’t reflect that. We got Burgess, who we knew needed more managing along than Ninkovic.
The problem is that keeping Ninko on does nothing for us long term. To me, this season should have a reasonable expectation of a mid table finish followed by an ok finals run with an added bonus of making the final. We’ve been hit ridiculously hard by injuries with almost half our 1st team essentially out, on top of multiple players being tied up with international fixtures etc. If we can set up a structure that shifts us away from a full reliance on Ninko, then we should be doing it without any thoughts. I mean you’ve already seen Yazbek and Elvis being given huge chances and they’ve stepped up like crazy!
That’s probably where you differ from the club.
They expect to compete every season. So they have to balance the short term with the long.
Last season was cool and wet with lots of evening matches so Ninko was better able to star than on a baking Leichhardt afternoon where just sitting on the hill for a couple of hours took your breath away. Ninko never shirked vs CCM and worked his socks off but in those conditions, 90 minutes is really hard for anyone in MF. Ninko still has it all, but not in the full sun and in full doses.
Thought O’Toole was more than adequate replacement for King and am not worried there. Talbot was fantastic in attack and defence and vastly better than VDS. If Grant wishes to take up an overseas option - and I hope he gets the chance if he really wants that - am happy to see Talbot sit at RB.
Burgess’ cameo was fantastic too - made both goals. I am not worried about our squad now. With Amini alongside all our other really good more attacking MFs and hopefully Yazbek and Hof back soon, plus Alf and Kosta, we still have a fabulous squad.
FWIW, on Saturday we played a 4 - 1 - 1 -2 - 2 with Retre as lone 6 and Amini as an 8 (Milos D style). Corica will never drop Retre but had we had Hof or Yazbek there, I can not see us conceding CCM goal 1 to an unmarked Bozanic, and maybe not even goal 2
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Danny fails us again. 
Pierre Emerick I’llbangyermum has signed for some team in Barcelona.