We don’t want anyone to hit the panic button yet, but reports from Greece suggest that Sokratis Papastathopoulos picked up an ankle sprain during Greece’s 2-0 defeat to Finland last night.
The Arsenal man was withdrawn at half-time and replaced by Georgios Tzavellas, leading to some worries that he might be sidelined on his return to London.
Just that Socrates twisted his ankle. Doesn’t say how bad the injury is or how long he will be out.
— Manos Plomaritis (@manospl) October 16, 2018
Right now further details are hard to come by, and perhaps it will be something we get more information on when he returns to the club and is assessed by our medical team.
If he is sidelined for any length of time it would leave Unai Emery with just two senior central defenders available to him: Rob Holding and Shkodran Mustafi.
Laurent Koscielny is still undergoing his recovery from a serious Achilles injury, while Konstantinos Mavropanos is expected to be out of action until the end of October with a groin problem.
Fingers crossed folks.
Hope we have an option to bring back Calum Chambers midseason. Btw does anyone shed some light as to how he’s doing at Fulham?
We’re in October you know. Come January, I expect a few to come back from their respective injuries.
Hes been in and out of the side so far. The commentators on the arsenal game said he was injured but he wouldn’t have played against us anyway
Nacho can play cb, Lichtsteiner too, even Elneny has been played there in the past and hasn’t been terrible. Koscielny will be back soon, Mavropanos also isn’t out for a long time. I’m not that worried about our depth in that position.
Fair point, but all three of these players have primarily played CB in 3 at the back types of formations. Monreal did well in a back 4 a few years back , but it was a stop gap measure then and it would feel like one now too were this to happen.
Now that Sead K is available, we also have Nacho as a central defence option.
A sane, sober comment.
Alas, it is better these days (and worth more clicks) to start the “injury crisis” nonsense and agitate for another signing. Ridiculous. But so it goes in an interlull.
Those Nation League games are just a waste of time. Someone delete this shit please.. give the boys a break or sth. but don’t just waste them on interlulls…
On the contrary they are a much needed upgrade from meaningless friendlies with 22 substitutions .
So, fewer substitutions in these games then?
Yes, only 3 allowed, because they are officially “competitive” matches, instead of the 6 allowed in a friendly.
It may be an “upgrade” but it leaves national team coaches in a quandary. They can treat it as a competitive match, play a strong side, stick to their preferred formation and to win. But then, they can’t give young players a chance (even harder with fewer substitutions), nor experiment with formations and tactics and not worry about the result.
Young players have competitive youth matches, Under 21 tournaments and every age group under. Besides, the best youth players always get chances in the senior team. Just last night, the likes of Chilwell, Winks, Gomez, Rashford played for England.
All this talk of using Nacho (already overplayed as it is) or even Elneny as a CB aren’t convincing to me.
I’d rather the opportunity go to Julio Plez instead. Always been talented but had so many ahead of him. This might be the breakthrough he needs.
As far as I know, Monreal wasn’t in the Spain squad since the World cup, so he’s having a 2 week break at the moment, and had a 2 week break in September. I wouldn’t exactly say he’s overplayed. I’d be fine playing him centre back against Leicester if needs must.
I’d be fine playing Nachos at every position at every game
Bip Bap
Nacho Montrrrrrrrrrrrreaaaaaaaal
Oh, it’s so confusing…..totally agree with your first paragraph Faisal…and completely disagree with your 2nd one….aaaggggghhhhh !!!
Come on blogs! Its quite clear to all that what the internet needs is a an option give thumbs up or down on a per paragraph basis.
I understand that most fans haven’t seen Julio Plez play at all, so there’s a sense of “well if he was so good, why hasn’t he played for us already? He must be sh*t”, which I don’t believe is true. He’s been incredibly unlucky; injuries, bad loans (no surprises there) and generally being at Arsenal in the final tenures of Wenger; when risk-taking, particularly at the back was at an all-time low as we were so bad defensively (and that’s fair too). I just don’t understand why it’s wrong to want to give a talented CB a chance if we’re… Read more »
I don’t thonk anyone is assuming he’s shit…but if he never got even close to first team under Arsene & as yet under Emery then it’s a fair assumption to make that he’s simply not ready.
Bellerin & Ches we knew were close when they got their break, the comparison doesn’t hold up at all.
Ashley Cole was practically out the door on his way to Crystal Palace before an injury (or was it passport issues?) that provided him his opportunity. Same for Flamini on his breakthrough season for us. And I think hindsight is altering stories a bit. Bellerin wasn’t “close” at all; he wasn’t even starting on his loan to Watford in the Championship. It was multiple injuries in the rightback solution that opened his chances. If anything, Bellerin is the perfect example of what I mean (Coquelin too). I also don’t think claiming he’s not close to the first team under Emery… Read more »
‘hindsight is altering stories a bit’
Yep. Your comments on Cole & Flamini certainly prove that. Flamini was one injury to Gilbsrto away from being our first choice DM. Cole the same with Sylvinho. Plez is – at least – 3 injuries away. There is no comparison at all.
He hasn’t even made the bench kn the Europa or league cup..if you don’t think that qualifies as not being close to the first team then I don’t know what else to say to you. It’s a fact, not an opinion.
Lwt it go man. Life’s too short?
is he back from his injury now then?
LUCKILY FOR US, THIS INTERLULL WILL LAST FOREVER!!!!!!!!
It’s really turning in to depression at this stage 🙁
Totally agree with ?
What!……. Not again ????
dun lie blogs. He was splashed and sprawled
How easy is it to bring players back from loan early? Does it happen often?
BTW Glen Kamara was immense in the game for Finland. Buy him back!
Doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room in terms of rotation.
From Leicester on the 22nd we have 4 games in 10 days!
My guess is that we will have to test the versatility of some players and maybe dip into our youth. We can also play a back three with Lichtsteiner, Monreal and even Elneny to fill those spots. We can instruct Torreira to be more protective (almost a back three) to protect those less natural CB if still playing a back 4
‘Socrates Papastathopoulos suffered a sprawl and was replaced in the half-time of our National Division against Finland by Michael Skimbe. Papastathopoulos struck and changed. He was replaced by Tzavellas in 46 ‘Finland and Greece and the reason was that he was sprawled.’
Reading this news did me a Frighten. ‘Struck and changed’! I hope his sprawled foot-hinge destrikes soon.