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catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
What I think is interesting about Gordon, over and above it's quite a strong and clear story from Ancelotti that he fancies him is that this return will likely suit younger players more than experienced ones. To me it's like a glorified pre-season, but probably with far sharper issues on fitness (3 months out, very little training being done etc) so players will be relying upon their natural fitness to a degree. Often at the early part of pre-season you see the young lads excel a bit, and then the first teamers catch them up a bit as the season approaches. I suppose a 19 year olds body just doesn't go as out of shape as a 29 year olds does.
For Gordon, and to a degree Lewis Gibson there is a big chance emerging. I'm sure players will have niggles, and certainly early on in this they will probably have a big advantage over others.
One silver lining of this season, is we do have a younger squad, which may (and only may) help us compared to some of the older squads.
ultra
Player Valuation: £15m
Also the youngsters would benefit from having no crowd present, with all the pressures that usually entails being missing
The write-up in the Times is interesting. Restarting the season when the stakes seem pretty low is a good opportunity to blood the likes of Gordon. The danger is that you blood too many at once and the whole thing is undermined. You want young players to play alongside regulars to get them used to proper first team football.
Indeed, but of the youngsters I would say only Gordon and Lewis Gibson, if we can get him back off loan ,are ready to step up this season. There may be a few bolters like Simms, Adeniran, Branthwaite and Onyango who get squad experience to aid their development but few others are knocking on the 1st team door.
Was thinking that too, especially as fitness is going to be an issue when you consider the lay off everyone has had
I always think the reason kids look good early in pre-season is because they’re absolutely busting a gut trying impress while the senior pros are just going through the motions to stay fit. As games become more competitive that willingness is no longer enough to elevate them and so they plateau.
I think - assuming teams are going to take the restart seriously - it will be difficult to catch anyone cold. They’ll have been training for long enough to be fully fit.
No crowd could be a big help though.
I think he will probably be out on loan next season and playing every week.
TheBigIguana
Player Valuation: £100m
There's a non-zero chance that if we use him for what's left of this season he ends up being someone who is good enough to play for us every week. But we need to play him consistently over these 9 games to find out.
toffeejack
Player Valuation: £100m
I don't think any player will be fully fit when the season resumes, i can imagine it being a total farce and the standard of play to be even worse than before, which seemed almost impossible
If this lad makes it here I will streak across Goodison naked.
Yeah I agree. Sorry 'fully' fit probably wasn't the right wording, I just mean I don't think players are going to be slowly easing themselves back in over a period of weeks, they're going to be fit enough not to get mugged off by little whippersnappers like they do in pre-season.
Not really seen the lad play much, but I've suddenly become against Gordon ever setting foot in Goodison
Im a ginger magnet.
catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
Thats possibly a factor too, but I do maintain a younger players body will get up to pace quicker than an older player. And it has been a big lay off, I know they've done some individual work, but in honest it will be 2 months where they did very little intense work at all, which will be quite unique for most players. I think you will see some wide volatility in results.
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