Knockaert injured

[GOM]

Sky hedging their bets?

Chris Hughton hopes Anthony Knockaert will be fit for Brighton's Premier League debut despite ankle ligament damage.

Or

Hughton expects the winger to miss around three weeks of pre-season, making him a doubt for the home game against Manchester City on August 12.

http://www.skysports.com/football/n...-not-serious-brighton-boss-chris-hughton-says

No conflict there, in the first quote he hopes he will be fit for Man City and in the second he is a doubt for Man City, both saying the same really.

 

[perseus]

Only a 3 week lay-off. A bit of a blow, but relief it is not a long term injury during the season.

Bad luck with long term injuries injuries will get any three of 13 teams relegated.

It takes a very good player to get up to match speed after missing lots of games.

 

[Weststander]

Only a 3 week lay-off. A bit of a blow, but relief it is not a long term injury during the season.

Bad luck with long term injuries injuries will get any three of 13 teams relegated.

It takes a very good player to get up to match speed after missing lots of games.

Did Boro, Hull and Sunderland go down due to bad luck with long injuries?

 

[perseus]

Did Boro, Hull and Sunderland go down due to bad luck with long injuries?

No. All three teams went down because of lack of quality players.

Sunderland's cause was hampered by injuries but I think they were overdue and would have gone down anyway.

Hull did not have a very strong squad, or a settled side or formation, or quality throughout the side.

Middlesbrough did not seem to have a settled formation either, departing from thir regular 4-2-3-1 when they could not score enough.

In contrast Burnley persevered with 4-4-2 which did them well at home but was hopeless away.

It seems that other fans do not fancy our chances of staying up.

Maybe I'm thinking along the lines of avoiding

obvious weaknesses which can be exploited by the opposition, like a failure of having a strong enough attack, or losing players through injury,

not strong enough on the left hand side if we lose players through injury

deficient at keeping possession and managing a game when leading.