Reece James

The unfortunate thing is that we don't have a good backup. We have an aging RB. So many areas of our team have needed upgrading, yet the previous ownership sat on their hands and did nothing about it. No offence against Azpi, but he simply doesn't have he legs any longer. As soon as James went off Bournemouth targeted that left side. It's an easy tactic with Azpi at RB. Hope we upgrade in Jan. 

 
Yes I get that. But Potter should have shown extreme caution with R.James after a serious knee ligament injury.  It's more or less unheard of to throw a player right into the XI after such an injury, even more so when it's someone like James who we know is fragile.

He should have been on the pitch for the last 10 minutes or so yesterday. Then 20 against Forest and then perhaps start against City if everything went well. Now we are screwed instead and that didn't need to happen. It sounds like the James camp is pissed off as well which is understandable. Major mistake from the manager.
"Unheard of" is not really the case - depends on how long the player has been training since coming back.

If Reece James and/or the medical/physio department told GP that "James can't play x number of minutes" and GP said "I dont care, he'll play until he drops", then I agree with you: then it is definitely GPs fault.

If on the other hand they said "he can play" and he couldn't, its on James/physios/his questionable personal coach.

If James/physios/his personal coach said "maybe he can, maybe can't, you'll take a look at his knee - perhaps tap it a little bit and see if it makes a funny noise - and make the decision", the club is the least professionally run club in England because it says itself that it shouldn't be a managers job to make medical assessments of a player

And then there's obviously the chance that it was a case of bad luck... in which case no one is really to blame.

 
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James wasn't thrown in cold, he played 60 minutes v Brentford in the friendly, he will have been tested all data checked to build a plan for rehab, part of which was to play minutes in yesterdays game.

Its horrible bad luck, its not someone's fault, no matter how much some people are desperate to paint Potter as some kind of clueless clown. 
Big difference between Premier League and a friendly. Does anyone think it was a good idea to start him yesterday? Or even if you decided to start him, why not take him off at half time when we are 2-0 up?

This was completely avoidable. Unlucky yes, but it was a massive risk to take so why take it?

 
If James/physios/his personal coach said "maybe he can, maybe can't, you'll take a look at his knee - perhaps tap it a little bit and see if it makes a funny noise - and make the decision", the club is the least professionally run club in England because it says itself that it shouldn't be a managers job to make medical assessments of a player
The statement from his coach speaks volumes. Clearly he's royally pissed off about something and at least to me it's clear what that is.

 
Ah great, captain f**king hindsights back.

Yes, everyone thought it was good to see James play, not a single person said it wasn't, not even you. 

There will have been a plan for his minutes, it's about building fitness and match sharpness. 

Every injury is avoidable, let's just not pick him ever, never gets injured then, genius.

 
The statement from his coach speaks volumes. Clearly he's royally pissed off about something and at least to me it's clear what that is.
Agree, it does. It reeks of blame deflection and hindsight.

Why didn't he post it when he saw James in the starting lineup? Would he have said the same thing if things went as planned and James was subbed off after 60 minutes?

 
Ah great, captain f**king hindsights back.

Yes, everyone thought it was good to see James play, not a single person said it wasn't, not even you. 

There will have been a plan for his minutes, it's about building fitness and match sharpness. 

Every injury is avoidable, let's just not pick him ever, never gets injured then, genius.
I wasn't happy to see him in the XI at all.

I'm sure there was a plan but in my opinion it was a poor one and now our season is messed up because of it. More caution should have been shown and he 100% should have been eased into it. Potter even said he would in his press-conference before the game but I don't know what happened.

‘The plan now is to try and help him play his minutes and the next challenge is building them up in the Premier League, which is not an ideal place to do that but he’s got the capacity to do it.

‘We just need to be clear and careful with the minutes that he plays but I’m confident that the more football he plays, the more we’ll see what a fantastic player he is.’

 
Agree, it does. It reeks of blame deflection and hindsight.

Why didn't he post it when he saw James in the starting lineup? Would he have said the same thing if things went as planned and James was subbed off after 60 minutes?
We could play what ifs from today until tomorrow if you want.

He we actually built his minutes up instead of going from 0-60+ (there is no evidence he was planning to hook him at 60 either for that sake) like he said he would we'd still be in the race for Top 4. If he's out for months now we are not in it anymore, pretty major deal and it was avoidable.

 
I wasn't happy to see him in the XI at all.

I'm sure there was a plan but in my opinion it was a poor one and now our season is messed up because of it. More caution should have been shown and he 100% should have been eased into it. Potter even said he would in his press-conference before the game but I don't know what happened.

‘The plan now is to try and help him play his minutes and the next challenge is building them up in the Premier League, which is not an ideal place to do that but he’s got the capacity to do it.

‘We just need to be clear and careful with the minutes that he plays but I’m confident that the more football he plays, the more we’ll see what a fantastic player he is.’
And in a similar fashion to James "personal coach" you just sort of forgot to mention it until things went sh*t and you could play the role of Cpt. Wise-Arse Hindsight.

 
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And in a similar fashion to James "personal coach" you just sort of forgot to mention it until things went sh*t and you could play the role of Cpt. Wise-Arse Hindsight.
Alright, no need to continue this.

Do forgive me for giving Potter the benefit of the doubt and hoping he and us would get away with it. Bottom line is that a decision the manager made now has probably cost us any hopes of salvaging the season so i'm a bit pissed off at that.

You don't even support the club so you wouldn't understand would you.

 
We could play what ifs from today until tomorrow if you want.

He we actually built his minutes up instead of going from 0-60+ (there is no evidence he was planning to hook him at 60 either for that sake) like he said he would we'd still be in the race for Top 4. If he's out for months now we are not in it anymore, pretty major deal and it was avoidable.
Other than GP saying so, nope, no evidence.

You don't know if it was "avoidable" - there is no evidence that getting injured again would have been impossible if he had played say 30 minutes instead of the 50 or so it took before he got injured. 

Like I said, if Chelsea are going to make Graham Potter decide if a knee-injury is healed, partially healed or not healed at all, there will be a lot more trouble around because he has no medical education as far as I know. Better to do like every other club in England and make those trained to do that job make those calls... unless this is already the case despite your assumptions of the opposite.

 
Other than GP saying so, nope, no evidence.

You don't know if it was "avoidable" - there is no evidence that getting injured again would have been impossible if he had played say 30 minutes instead of the 50 or so it took before he got injured. 

Like I said, if Chelsea are going to make Graham Potter decide if a knee-injury is healed, partially healed or not healed at all, there will be a lot more trouble around because he has no medical education as far as I know. Better to do like every other club in England and make those trained to do that job make those calls... unless this is already the case despite your assumptions of the opposite.
Show me where he said it then.

We disagree and that's fine. I suspect we'll hear more about this and that what actually happened will leak out eventually I can hold my horses until then.

 
Alright, no need to continue this.

Do forgive me for giving Potter the benefit of the doubt and hoping he and us would get away with it. Bottom line is that a decision the manager made now has probably cost us any hopes of salvaging the season so i'm a bit pissed off at that.

You don't even support the club so you wouldn't understand would you.
As I've said, if it is a decision from the manager, the club is royally f**ked because you need a professional team doctor to make decisions on whether a knee is good enough of or not.

You're right, I don't support the club, and perhaps that makes me less capable than you and other supporters to make medical assesements of knee injuries... or maybe none of us have any real insight but with only one of us claiming the opposite. 

 
Show me where he said it then.

We disagree and that's fine. I suspect we'll hear more about this and that what actually happened will leak out eventually I can hold my horses until then.
He said this after the game:
"It's the same area so we're concerned. We'll have to see in the next 24/48 hours. It is a bit too soon but it was in that action, a chop, and he felt something. We have to keep our fingers crossed at the moment. He is disappointed, of course. At the moment, we're just hoping it isn't as bad and we'll keep our fingers crossed.

The plan was for him to not play 90 tonight, the plan was for him to play 60/65 minutes. We just have to hope it's not as bad as it was and that he can get on a speedy recovery."

 
He said this after the game:
"It's the same area so we're concerned. We'll have to see in the next 24/48 hours. It is a bit too soon but it was in that action, a chop, and he felt something. We have to keep our fingers crossed at the moment. He is disappointed, of course. At the moment, we're just hoping it isn't as bad and we'll keep our fingers crossed.

The plan was for him to not play 90 tonight, the plan was for him to play 60/65 minutes. We just have to hope it's not as bad as it was and that he can get on a speedy recovery."
Fair enough, then there is evidence he was going to play about 65 minutes.

Personally I think that is about 50 minutes more than I think he should have been on for but i'm sure i've made myself clear about that now. Maybe it was the doctors who cleared him, maybe it was Potter who made the decision despite some doubts. It doesn't really matter who's responsible but I don't understand why he was on the pitch for so long yesterday after a knee ligament injury. You disagree and that's fine.

 
The difference on that right hand side with and without James is just too much. Keeping him healthy from now on should be the priority for the whole club.

 
The PT coming out and posting that suggest there may have been a disagreement of what should happen to him playing wise. Also look at Reece reaction when he leave the pitch.
 

 
The unfortunate thing is that we don't have a good backup. We have an aging RB. So many areas of our team have needed upgrading, yet the previous ownership sat on their hands and did nothing about it. No offence against Azpi, but he simply doesn't have he legs any longer. As soon as James went off Bournemouth targeted that left side. It's an easy tactic with Azpi at RB. Hope we upgrade in Jan. 
Why do we keep blaming the old regime? Didn’t Boehly (& Tuchel) just hand Azpi a fresh 2yr contract? 

 
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