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IDK about the cup but it's 162 minutes in the league. Frey is 189 in comparison. Looking at the top scorers in the league, under 200 minutes is impressive. Both have good conversion rates too: 26% Frey; 27% Kolli. Frey is more effective defensively though and wins the ball back more.
I thought he looked positive last season and wasn't surprised with the new contract but alas he suffers from a recent scourge of midfielders that go missing. It's no good doing that neat control and pass when you're in space to then leave your mate to it when surrounded by three oppo players. Or not really do the closing down and tackling which you don't necessarily notice apart from when they play the other teams seems to have more space or even like they've got an extra player.
The thing about Morgan I noticed straight away was how involved he was right across the pitch. Really wanting to be involved. It's the very least you can offer as a young player.
He seems a nice lad though and technically sound so I hope it works out for him.
We thought that too. From October to mid-December I think he contributed a lot. In the Coventry match for instance he won ten out of ten duels including six tackles. He's got three assists and should probably have more if we were better at shooting - he puts in a fair amount of key passes.
He ran out of steam around mid-December but I'm sure he'll get his mojo back.
As far as I understand it Spurs didn't benevolently sell him on rather than add him to their puppy farm and loan him out. They dropped a brick and released him to our benefit.
Meanwhile Ashby will certainly have earned more at 18 but as you say Morgan will have learnt so much more already playing regularly at Championship level. Development football is nowhere near as fast or physical. You can see how even Varane has taken time to adapt and he was playing professional football before. Ashby and Madsen just don't seem to have been able to adapt.
I agree the hoovering up of players is an issue. Take Sam McCallum who was decent for us at LB before his injury. Hardly started for Norwich the following season - just 16 times - now at Sheffield Utd and hardly starts there. I thought he was a good prospect but how can he develop with such limited game time?
As I say, it's not just about the next match. Imagine losing Dunne, Frey and Smyth with say calf, hamstring and groin injuries for the next six weeks? He has all of the performance data and I'm pretty sure he or someone else pointed out that when their level drops, e.g. doing fewer runs per half than normal, that's when they pick up little injuries. Because it's a sign of overwork.
Smyth visibly looked at a lower performance level against Luton. And Dunne has played an awful lot of matches for a player with his physique who is playing often at right back and therefore having to do a lot of running. While Frey has had injury issues throughout his career which is why he's at LR and is just coming back from injury (and we've already lost our other senior striker).
The problem with round three of the Cup is the timing just after the really busy Christmas period. Unlike other clubs we didn't even have a week's break as we played on blooming Monday night.
So no you won't be proven right if Plymouth results in a loss because it isn't just about one match it's also about managing your squad with even the injuries we have. If we had Cook and Celar fit he probably could have rotated them over Christmas and played at least two more regulars. But they're not so I think people are being harsh on Marti and not seeing the bigger picture.
As for him not saying all that before the match, I wouldn't expect him to. I was surprised Leicester started their best players TBH. And we nearly pulled it off short of some individual errors and the bad luck of the pen.
I honestly don't think it's just about Plymouth. If this match didn't fall right after Christmas I think he would have taken a different approach. The thiing is we are a very thin squad with injuries to key players already and the two players we can't afford to be injured are Dunne and Smyth. Smyth has looked out on his ar se recently and Jimmy has been pushed to the limit. Experience shows that's when they pick up injuries - as with Steve Cook.
Ideally we'd have Edwards starting with JCS/Paal on his left with Dunne on his right supported by Smyth. Marti was right to rest them because we can't afford to lose them for a six week muscle injury.
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