INJURIES AND SUSPENSIONS

[dawlishmatt]

Every club in every division suffer with their fair share of injuries and suspensions. Torquay United are no exception to this but after every defeat Gary Johnson and most supporters moan that we loose games because of our injury crisis or players being suspended. Last season Halifax Town had more players out through injury than Torquay, often having only 3 players on the substitute bench and yet they finished 4th in the league with 25 wins. Chesterfield also had a severe injury crisis which included a serious injury to arguably the best striker in the league Kabongo Tshimanga yet they also reached the play offs. Can anyone tell me that Halifax or Chesterfield had better players than Torquay? Ben Wynter who many believe was one of the best defenders in the league made 44 appearances for Torquay last season. Joe lewis 41, Amarni Little 38, Connor Lemonheigh-Evans 39, Dean Moxey 37, Danny Wright 33 Tom Lapsile 29 and Asa Hall 26.

I'm sure that most supporters would agree that these players are good at National league level. So an injury crisis doesn't wash with me. Why did we finish 11th last season when we had arguably a much better squad than the likes of Halifax Town ( no disrespect to Halifax). To me and many other supporters who were at Bromley on 9th October 2021, the evidence was clear. In my 40+ years of watching my beloved Torquay United football club, I had never seen a match in which any team didn't seem interested in playing football. I said at the time that I would never watch Torquay play again until Gary Johnson was no longer manager, how right I was.

So please all you loyal supporters who still attend matches, don't make excuses every week about injuries. The problem lies with one man, Gary Johnson.

[happytorq]

Oh, do shut up.

You don't think that missing;

• Dan Martin

• Dylan Crowe

• Corie Andrews

• Kieron Evans

• Ben Wyatt

• Ryan Hanson

- through injury isn't harming our results? at least 3 of those guys would be starting every week, possibly more.

If you add on the injuries that we've had to Lapslie, Jarvis, Marshall, & Omar, as well as the "They're getting old" issues with Moxey and Hall, it's not a surprise to me that we've not been great. And *then* once you throw in the needless suspensions that we've had, I'm not sure what's expected.

we've not been good enough this season, that's very fair to say. That we were forced to start with 5 loanees on saturday (2 of whom were drafted in that day) tells its own story.

If you've not watched Torquay play in over a year, who the **** are you to say what should be done?

I've said before that there are legitimate questions to be asked of Johnson - such as "why did you sign a player like Marshall who is clearly mental?" or "why the hell do we have so many players who could be outrun by a stoned snail?" but if you can't see that the injuries are a mitigating circumstance (the vast of majority of which - this time - are contact injuries sustained in games - then I really don't know what to tell you.

[Admiral]

We were crap before this injury crisis

[dawlishmatt]

happytorq, you don't get it do you. Perhaps it's something in the water over there in the good old USA? My post is about the players who play each week, as the league table shows who are rubbish. Whatever starting 11 Johnson picks each match, surely the players should be of a standard that doesn't find the club bottom of the league. This is obviously not the case, the league table doesn't lie. Gary Johnson is 100% responsible for team being bottom of the league.

As regards the budget that Johnson has this season, nobody knows. We don't know anything about how much the players are paid and what uncle Clarke has given Johnson to spend this season. Anyone who blames Osborne for the plight the team finds itself in is just speculation. In my opinion Gary Johnson and his useless brother are just fleecing the club.

Finally happytorq, you mentioned that " who the **** are you to say what should be done" because I haven't been to a match in over a year. Your profile on the forum states that you live in the USA. I wonder how much it costs you to travel from the states to watch Torquay and how long it takes you to fly across the Atlantic?

[happytorq]

Before this injury crisis? We started the the season with players missing!
Day 1 - we were without Dan Martin (probably our most improved player last season), Aaron Jarvis, and Tom Lapslie. Andrews was injured after less than 20 minutes (replaced by the erstwhile Nathanial-George), and Hall was only deemed fit enough to play for 1bout a quarter of an hour.

I mean, yes, we've not been a very good side all season, but it's disingenuous (at best) to say that the injuries hasn't had a major part to play. Injuries also have a cumulative effect because you're forced to play guys who probably need an extra week or two. Again, that does expose some of the squad-building issues we've had (replacements not up to snuff).

[happytorq]

Finally happytorq, you mentioned that " who the **** are you to say what should be done" because I haven't been to a match in over a year. Your profile on the forum states that you live in the USA. I wonder how much it costs you to travel from the states to watch Torquay and how long it takes you to fly across the Atlantic?

I imagine it takes me the same amount of time, give or take, as it would anybody travelling 3,000 miles to see their side play. I actually have seen the team play - albeit on 'television' - this season, and I listen to every game on the radio. I'm not going to get into a pissing contest with you about it, but you've clearly stated that you don't watch any games; the inference there is that this applies to in-person games as well as those those that are broadcasted. So, while you are entitled to an opinion on the side, it's probably not as well as informed as those who do go regularly, just as mine is likely not as well informed because listening on the radio 90% of the time doesn't offer the full - aha - picture.
Incidentally - not sure why it's relevant, but the cost varies depending on when I go, but when I was there in May the ticket price was about $1,400 return, although the previous september it was about $900. (i got to watch 2 games then, mind).

If the management have brought in the players that they feel would suit the system they want, and then a large number of those players are denied them because of injury, that is an extenuating circumstance. Yes, the team that has been left behind has been pretty terrible, in the main, and of course the blame for that should lie with Johnson et al. Johnson appears to prefer a relatively small squad, and has done for a while, so he should be held accountable for what happens if the available players are not up to the job. I'm not saying he's without blame but the point I'm making is that I don't think he should be judged on his team building until the team he has built has actually been able to play.

I don't know the budget situation - if he was given a budget unfit for purpose I don't think GJ would hang around (he probably doesn't need the money at this point, after all). That he's still here suggests that he felt the budget that he was given is sufficient. That's not necessarily to say it's a large budget - and it's 100% certain to be nowhere near what Wrexham and Notts will be spending. Still I'm not going to blame the owner there, given how opaque the situation is - it may well be that the club has decided that trying to compete with those teams this time around is not feasible, and so bringing in so many young players might've been a strategic call; muddle through this season, and compete next year (when presumably at least one of those two teams will be gone).

Let me ask you this - given that the team is, as you say, 'rubbish', do you feel that a different manager would be able to get different results with the same group? Like him or not, GJ is probably part of the reason that the players we've signed came down so to me it's very questionable that somebody else would. If there is any more money available from the owner, it makes sense to me to put it towards the playing squad rather than paying off a sacked manager.

[Admiral]

We do have an injury problem, but we still have Moxey fit who is the only consistent performer. We couldn’t beat Watcombe in the 3-5-2 so that’s the real problem. Every team has to deal with injuries over the course of the season.

[dawlishmatt]

happytorq, personally i would like to see someone like Asa Hall as player coach / Manager with a director of football like Neil Warnock as director of football overseeing and helping Asa as he starts his managerial career. Don't forget that is how Paul Buckle started out in management as Paul Tisdale's no 2. Look at the success Buckle brought to Torquay. By getting rid of the brothers Johnson and Aaron Downes, I'm sure that a Director of football and a player manager wouldn't cost Uncle Clarke as much as he's been shafted for now.

[teddiebear]

H0ahahahaha

[Bristol_Gull]

The question is why do we have a particular injury problem upon recent seasons? I may have rose tinted glasses, or perhaps decent good performances gloss over injuries, but I cannot remember so many back to back seasons where half the squad is consistently sidelined!

How do we compare to other teams?

Is it the modern game? Training practices? Management?

[gullsgullsgulls]

The question is why do we have a particular injury problem upon recent seasons? I may have rose tinted glasses, or perhaps decent good performances gloss over injuries, but I cannot remember so many back to back seasons where half the squad is consistently sidelined!

How do we compare to other teams?

Is it the modern game? Training practices? Management?

I was thinking the same. I haven’t seen the stats other than we are top (bottom) of the discipline table so have had more suspensions than the rest of the league.

I think there is a spiral effect where the fewer available players means rushing those with knocks back sooner and not being able to rest players which results in longer and more frequent injuries.

I would also guess that younger and older players are more prone to injuries, but perhaps for different reasons. Are we lacking a core of 22-30 year olds in this squad?