Rightdm00

Pure speculation on my part but given his age, how long he was out, and no mention of any type of surgery I would guess he had some kind of stress reaction or even a stress fracture in his lower leg. The recovery time is usually 2-3 months and pretty much just involves staying off of the affected leg so the bone can heal. The club released a video of Jack maintaining fitness while running on one of those weight reducing treadmills and they had him strapped to a "exogen bone healing system" at one point in the video. I couldn't find any official word so just my best guess.

Sadly that is where I am at now as well. I want nothing but the best for him but I don't see the quality we need going forward in him. I feel like to succeed in the prem you need at least one or two elite talents. For example Elhomandy is the by far the best crosser of the ball in the squad. Another one, Connor has a wand of a left foot that has bailed us out on multiple occasions. I don't feel you can say the same about Hogan.

That's a really good point about them all bringing something different. Konsa is great option when we are going to have a large portion of the possession. You can then switch him out with a larger/more physical CB like Engels or Hause for a Steve Bruce long ball side. Really good options to have.

With the way this team has been setup the signing of McCormack truly is puzzling. McCormack likes to drop into the hole problem is so does Ayew and Grealish also likes to float in from wide position. For 12 million he just seems awfully redundant. I would have much preferred, as you mentioned, an actual attacking midfielder or another athletic central midfielder terrier/harasser.

Can't wait for this derby. We owe them some payback for the L we took last year. I usually hate the 12pm starts being in the states but since I am have Hurricane Irene bearing down on me this works out in my favor. I see a Villa win 1-0 and then me not having power for about 4-5 days.

We really miss the creative energy that GB brought to our center midfield. Its tough for young to impress when he consistently receives the ball at the halfway line and not deeper in our opponents half. Also Young has to beat two guys regularly just to get off a cross since teams are now shading there defense to his half since they dont have to worry about any attack coming through the center. Oh and the Wolves game we just didn't come to play. The fact that we played that poorly and still almost won means something right. I think this draw will have the boys good and fired up going into Goodison next weekend.