[kennethlindheim]

I think it's obvious this season we'll be more reliant than ever on key players staying fit. We have a very thin squad, we won't be able to remedy any long term injuries until January. It strikes me that we are either confident that last season's persistent string of soft tissue injuries (hamstring, groin etc) are not going to be repeated, or we're trusting to luck. Obviously you can't do anything about freak injuries & illnesses but we are also banking on the likes of Emre, Dyer, Luque, Carr, Baba etc not to break down again, not to mention Shola's dodgy hip, and as is well known we are currently very short of cover in certain areas like full back and striker.

I know that Souness and his cronies were very amateurish in their approach to fitness and rehabilitation, and that Roeder pays more attention to this, involving Winsper etc. However as much as the lack of transfers may be worrying, we seem to be placing a lot of reliance on a few key players to stay fit. For instance if Moore did his hamstring again and Taylor his shoulder, we could be left with a CB pool of Ramage, Boumsong and Bramble to pick from, assuming Boum stays put. Oh dear.

Saying all that leads me to two questions; is this season going to be different on the injury front? Was last season's injury record all about Souness' incompetence?