Injuries.

[WestHampsteadBee]

How does this club have an injury crisis every single season... I don't get it. No matter who we sign, who the manager is, we always end up with 10 players injured at some point during the season. Coker, Kabamba, Clifford and Kenlock (guessing he's now injured as well given Grimwood's return), all played loads of games last season and boom, injured. Even Taveres played 27 games last season, injured. Browne, obviously a risk. Nartey on pay as you play anyway so no impact to club finances but still. Does this happen at every club... I know we only employ 1 full time physio and have done for a couple of years. That's not acting like a professional football club. We have some of the best facilities in the league yet see ourselves 8 men short 7 games into the season. Seems crazy to me.

[jerroll]

Is this not why we have gone down the big squad route but certainly is worrying after 7 games.

[Beesting]

I do think a lot of our signings have had chequered pasts with injuries.

Browne - Long history of Injuries (Brennan stated he would need to be managed)
Wilkinson - Hamstring issues
Tavares - Dont think got over 25 odd games a season at Dag & Red
Nartey - Basically retired due to injuries
Oluwo - Injury prone at Chelmsford (DB stated he would of been EFL if not)

Look at it the other way, we have players in our squad, who with us and previous clubs are always available.

Okimo, Hartigan, Brunt, Kanu & Stead are nearly always available so i dont think it's specific to training more to do with the players bodies susceptible to breaking down.

Signings like Kizzi, Glover who appear to be body hardened and hopefully will get through a full season like they have previously.

[Jimbokav1971]

I think Beesting makes a good point. Some of the signings this season have been quite far away from what we were led to believe a "DB signing" would look like.

Even if we ignore Nartey as a bit of a punt that might not have worked, (but still might depending on what's wrong with him), the injury history of some of the others really does leave a little to be desired.

You could even possibly add Shelts to that list too, because he's had problems too.

On the plus side, players who are always fit and available really are worth their weight in gold. The problem we have really is that players who previously had really good injury records have broken down, (Kabamba & DC), and in truth it's the absence of just these 2 players that has actually caused the problem.

If Nicke is fit, then a mixture of Stead & Wilkinson spelling him for periods in matches works great, and if DC is fit then we can quite comfortably work with a few different options around him.

Nicke has made 49, 43, 35, 48, 53 & 51 appearances in the last 6 seasons, (so to be fair he's probably due a spell out injured).
DC has made 40, 44 & 39 appearances in the last 3 years.

Put both these players into the team and we're laughing no matter who else is injured.

Browne & Tavares were always big risks. Tavares especially has already shown us how good he is when he plays.

The 3rd player who I think we're probably missing most is Clifford, and again he has a pretty reasonable history when it comes to availability. He's played 37, 18, 39, 41 & 30 games in recent seasons. Looking at 30+ as a marker, that seems pretty reasonable and it's just sods law that we've effectively lost a 1st choice player right through the spine of the team.

[Edit]

It should be added that the reason DC is injured is because he was rushed back too early when clearly not ready, (in hindsight).

[becbee]

This is just how I see it. Which makes Browne and Wilkinson our only forward signings as a risky gamble at best. Browne looked very good in pre season , Wilkinson looked promising - but that's no use if they can't play.
Basically DB has taken a gamble with all 5 in the hope that they wouldn't all succumb at the same time.
Made worse because Kabamba, who is usually reliable, is currently injured. Same could just as easily happen to any of our other reliable players.

[peterstebbings]

DB gambled to get the most out of the market, and at the moment it looks like a gamble that could backfire

Expect if players like Browne and Tavares did not have poor injury records, they would have been out of our budget. So Dean took a risk on them and hoped to manage their frailties in a way their previous clubs perhaps didn’t

Unfortunately, his bold assertion on Beespod in preseason that he knew how to manage Browne’s fitness issues has turned out to be wrong.

[PBBee]

DB gambled to get the most out of the market, and at the moment it looks like a gamble that could backfire

Expect if players like Browne and Tavares did not have poor injury records, they would have been out of our budget. So Dean took a risk on them and hoped to manage their frailties in a way their previous clubs perhaps didn’t

Unfortunately, his bold assertion on Beespod in preseason that he knew how to manage Browne’s fitness issues has turned out to be wrong.

I think he got injured the very next game after that was said

[Jimbokav1971]

I think we have to remember that we've only played 7 games so far.

I think I'm correct in saying that Tavares has featured in 5 of them. He missed the 1st one and the last one and came on as a sub in the 2nd one. He's been available for 5 of 7 games and that's not awful. If he plays 50% of games between now and the end of the season then he will 100% be a successful signing because it will mean that he has played almost 30 games, (27 by my count assuming 5 Cup fixtures). You'd like to think that Tavares will be available for more than 50% of our games going forward.

Browne obviously not been available at all yet, (but again it's only 7 games), and if he returns tonight and is available for only 50% of our fixtures between now and the end of the season then he would still be available for 22 games.

So what I'm saying is that if we're using a 30 game availability as a benchmark, (and that seems to be what DB has done), then there is still every chance that these players can comfortably hit that target this season, because they're not a million miles away from it even at 50% availability.

[Beesting]

Get what you're saying regarding Tavares, however, how many of the five featured games has he been 100% injury free and how many of them has he been fully up to 100% match sharpness?

[pauln50]

Being a bit of a dinosaur I know pretty much nothing about modern tactics,( though the high line scares me to death), or injury management , I just know that when I started watching Barnet in 1962, we would have more or less the same 11 players starting every game, with an occasional appearance from a reserve, no subs and playing about 70 games a season with a soggy ball, to make you see stars when headed, on a quagmire of a pitch. Why is 30 games a season considered the standard and why would anyone risk signing a player with poor fitness record?
Answers on a postcard please!!

[Jimbokav1971]

Get what you're saying regarding Tavares, however, how many of the five featured games has he been 100% injury free and how many of them has he been fully up to 100% match sharpness?

I've honestly got no idea, but what I can say that his performances have been excellent every time he's played. Really pleasantly surprised at how good he's been in midfield, (although centre-half not such a surprise).

If most of these injuries are short-term and many due back imminently but just not being rushed then everything is fine. If some are months rather than weeks then it's a bigger issue.

For the record, this is currently the injury list.

DC-- Nartey-- Tavares
---------------------- Coker
----Clifford--Francis
Browne---------
-----------Nicke

So we're 3 players short of a full XI being out, but that still leaves us with plenty.

------------------------------Hayes/Happy
---------Kizzi/Grimwood--Oluwo/Rye-- Kenlock/Okimo
RHJ/Cropper---------Harts---------------Shelts-----------Kanu/Glover
------------Chapman---------------------------Brunt
--------------------------Stead/Wilkinson

There are 6 centre-backs there so if 1 or even 2 more are injured then so be it. Great for Joe Rye to be able to step up and show what he's got I say.

Cropper could cover at centre-half at a push, (certainly more ably than Pritch did last season).
Glover can cover both WB positions and also probably turn his hand to playing #10 too by the looks of him. (Great signing!)
Brunt could probably do a job alongside Harts at a push.
Chapman is already spelling Stead up top.
Wilkinson is starting to make an impact up front and looks decent.

I know we're not top of the league, but even with all the injuries that still a pretty decent squad to pick from.

Let's just see how 3 points, (or not), makes us feel tonight.

[jerroll]

Being a bit of a dinosaur I know pretty much nothing about modern tactics,( though the high line scares me to death), or injury management , I just know that when I started watching Barnet in 1962, we would have more or less the same 11 players starting every game, with an occasional appearance from a reserve, no subs and playing about 70 games a season with a soggy ball, to make you see stars when headed, on a quagmire of a pitch. Why is 30 games a season considered the standard and why would anyone risk signing a player with poor fitness record?
Answers on a postcard please!!

They also went to work during the week so had less training sessions to pick up injuries!!

[Ajtheone04]

I remember our previous physio answering a question from a fan about our injuries on twitter. He said something along the lines of 'DB is a great guy but he didn't always listen to my advice' I think the phrase he ended his post on was 'DB is the sort of guy you want as a friend, but not as a boss' - Interesting food for thought.

Also, don't we have two medical professionals now? I thought we advertised for another position at the start of the summer break.

[becbee]

Being a bit of a dinosaur I know pretty much nothing about modern tactics,( though the high line scares me to death), or injury management , I just know that when I started watching Barnet in 1962, we would have more or less the same 11 players starting every game, with an occasional appearance from a reserve, no subs and playing about 70 games a season with a soggy ball, to make you see stars when headed, on a quagmire of a pitch. Why is 30 games a season considered the standard and why would anyone risk signing a player with poor fitness record?
Answers on a postcard please!!

Yes but you are talking about no subs/ one sub and when players were given injections to get them through matches.
Tommy Smith of Liverpool could hardly stand when he was involved in a penalty shoot out at Wembley.

[rudebwoyben]

Being a bit of a dinosaur I know pretty much nothing about modern tactics,( though the high line scares me to death), or injury management , I just know that when I started watching Barnet in 1962, we would have more or less the same 11 players starting every game, with an occasional appearance from a reserve, no subs and playing about 70 games a season with a soggy ball, to make you see stars when headed, on a quagmire of a pitch. Why is 30 games a season considered the standard and why would anyone risk signing a player with poor fitness record?
Answers on a postcard please!!

And these players really suffered for it after their careers ended. Things are different today.