A Wasted Wage.

[valleyboy]

Why has PH kept the Bulgarian at Dens, he seems to have no intention of playing him, he signed Gomis to play in his position, when he was suspended he chose the Spanish bomb scare over him, on top of that O'Dea has been carrying an injury from the Killie game, he is getting three injections to his foot every game, and yet the Bulgarian still sits on the bench, surely this wage could have been spent else where, I'm sure he was out of contract in the summer.

[Sebastiano Nela]

personally, I'd play Gadz ahead of Julen. Julen wants too much time on the ball, and doesn't particularly win much in the air either.

[Sebastiano Nela]

Saying that, I don't think he'll be on a massive wage.

If Hartley wont play Hateley at RB or RM. Then I'd say that's a bigger waste of a wage IMO. We've already got:

Low, Ross, McGowan, O'Hara, Vincent, Jules, Gadz, & Curran that can play CM

[Wattie Rojas]

It's looking like we have quite a few players that are a waste of a wage as seb alludes to.

[Bubster]

Allegedly one of our lowest earners.

Cheap, decent cover. No brainer to keep him. 4 centre halfs is hardly overkill.

With Gomis suspended and O'Dea potentially injured we'd have been left with 1 fit centre half  - as it happens O'Dea made it but we were still 1 injury away from having no-one -  what exactly is your issue here?

Wiuld you be happy to run with 3 first team central defenders? 

 

[valleyboy]

We are playing injured players before him, and the spaniard ain't up to it, yet gets a game before him, I'd say we could have cover with Holt and Hatley, maybe even O'Hara

[Bubster]

3 minutes ago, valleyboy said:

We are playing injured players before him, and the spaniard ain't up to it, yet gets a game before him, I'd say we could have cover with Holt and Hatley, maybe even O'Hara

Where are you hearing O'Dea is getting injections? Even if he is it's fairly common for the club to do this, particularly whilst the other first choice is out.

I haven't seen enough of Gadz to say where he sits in my pecking order but he usually does ok when he comes in, is he better than Jules? I honestly don't know.

Ok so if Holt (who IMO would be a bombscare at CH) covered who plays LB? You'd rather resort to shuffling the whole team and/or playing boys out of position than keep a cheap cover option on the bench? 

4 centre halfs is the right number for me, one of those is always going to see less game time. Hartley obviously sees Gadz as our 4th choice. 

If your assertion about O'Deas injury is correct I'd expect to see him sit out on Saturday now that Gomis is back with Jules/Gadz alongside him (maybe both!) Think someone on here said Jules had stitches around his eye  after Saturday?

I'll repeat my question - do you think 3 centre halfs is enough for a full time Scottish Premiership side? If not then you can't call Gadz a waste of a wage.

[harry94]

I think he'll start on Saturday with Gomis and O'Dea as I think Hartley will go to his back 3.

Julen doesn't deserve to start ahead of him anymore. For his limitations, Gadzhalov hasn't really let us down while Julen has achieved that on a consistent basis (even the mistakes that he was accused of in the last few games last season were caused by Julen arsing about and getting in his way initially). I'd even say Konrad was consistently better but had one game every so often where he'd fall apart (not entirely his own fault too). I supported starting Julen this season as I put a lot of last season down to not getting a run from injuries and there is talent there but he's 25 years old and not really a youngster.

In regards to your point about a wasted wage, I think there are other candidates than Gadzhalov. Hartley was being slated for signing him again last season but a few months in and he was a very necessary player and we would have badly struggled without that extra cover (we picked up points in almost every game he contributed to). O'Dea is effectively our captain and leadership figure at the back and if he's fit to play - he'll play. As much as I like Gadzhalov, his communication has been brought into question and Julen gives the impression of being pretty timid. I wouldn't say O'Dea played like a player carrying a bad injury or struggling (if he was, he would have been substituted). Julen has been given his chance because a lot of time has been put into working on a defensive partnership between him and O'Dea. Up until Saturday, there wasn't anything that disastrous that had happened so I can see why he still played.

I think that if we have similar games and Gadzhalov remains behind Julen in the pecking order, you may have a fair point but I would be surprised if we don't see something change soon.

[valleyboy]

10 minutes ago, Bubster said:

Where are you hearing O'Dea is getting injections? Even if he is it's fairly common for the club to do this, particularly whilst the other first choice is out.

I haven't seen enough of Gadz to say where he sits in my pecking order but he usually does ok when he comes in, is he better than Jules? I honestly don't know.

Ok so if Holt (who IMO would be a bombscare at CH) covered who plays LB? You'd rather resort to shuffling the whole team and/or playing boys out of position than keep a cheap cover option on the bench? 

4 centre halfs is the right number for me, one of those is always going to see less game time. Hartley obviously sees Gadz as our 4th choice. 

If your assertion about O'Deas injury is correct I'd expect to see him sit out on Saturday now that Gomis is back with Jules/Gadz alongside him (maybe both!) Think someone on here said Jules had stitches around his eye  after Saturday?

I'll repeat my question - do you think 3 centre halfs is enough for a full time Scottish Premiership side? If not then you can't call Gadz a waste of a wage.

Injections, straight from the horses mouth

i agree with you re 4 centre halfs, just can't see the point of paying a wage for a player that he won't play, going on the performances of our defence so far, you have to admit he deserves at least a chance to prove his worth

[valleyboy]

9 minutes ago, harry94 said:

I think he'll start on Saturday with Gomis and O'Dea as I think Hartley will go to his back 3.

Julen doesn't deserve to start ahead of him anymore. For his limitations, Gadzhalov hasn't really let us down while Julen has achieved that on a consistent basis (even the mistakes that he was accused of in the last few games last season were caused by Julen arsing about and getting in his way initially). I'd even say Konrad was consistently better but had one game every so often where he'd fall apart (not entirely his own fault too). I supported starting Julen this season as I put a lot of last season down to not getting a run from injuries and there is talent there but he's 25 years old and not really a youngster.

In regards to your point about a wasted wage, I think there are other candidates than Gadzhalov. Hartley was being slated for signing him again last season but a few months in and he was a very necessary player and we would have badly struggled without that extra cover (we picked up points in almost every game he contributed to). O'Dea is effectively our captain and leadership figure at the back and if he's fit to play - he'll play. As much as I like Gadzhalov, his communication has been brought into question and Julen gives the impression of being pretty timid. I wouldn't say O'Dea played like a player carrying a bad injury or struggling (if he was, he would have been substituted). Julen has been given his chance because a lot of time has been put into working on a defensive partnership between him and O'Dea. Up until Saturday, there wasn't anything that disastrous that had happened so I can see why he still played.

I think that if we have similar games and Gadzhalov remains behind Julen in the pecking order, you may have a fair point but I would be surprised if we don't see something change soon.

Harry I think your backing up my arguement, he's proven in the past he can do a job, so unless he gets the chance this season it's a wasted wage.

[Bubster]

I'm struggling to understand why you have chosen to phrase your question the way you have.

It seems you are quite simply asking if Gadzhalov should be playing ahead of Julen - which is a reasonable and valid question - that's why teams have squad players - to push those ahead of them and try and get in the team before them.

Phrasing it the way you have though seems to be you trying to point the finger of blame at Hartley for wasting a wage on a 4th centre half - despite you yourself admitting 4 Centre halves is a reasonable number to have.

Surely you can see that even if Gadz was playing ahead of Julen then you would simply be asking the same question - is Hartley wasting a wage on Julen?

Would appear to be a cheap (and unnecessary) pop at our manager for building a modest sized squad. See if we were like Utd circa 2015 with a squad packed full of panic signings I could get behind your logic but at the moment we have a pretty thin squad with 6 first team defenders.

[BCram]

Sometimes a topic heading actually gets a discussion going. It's happened in this case. You've taken it to mean a pop at PH, I think it's a worthwhile discussion which actually is showing that PH is not being profligate.