Nathan Patterson on getting injured

Unbelievable how much bad luck our club suffered last season with injuries to players. Combine that with poor refereeing and mysterious VAR decisions, it is a minor miracle that we stayed up.

I feel for this lad on whom I have high hopes - but he seems a strong young man. He looks a very good modern full back. If he stays fit and healthy, he should come up to speed quickly. I hope Scotland are not rushing him in too quickly and he is given time to ease himself into the hurly burly of competitive football.

An interesting article.

He seems to confirm what many of us thought about Lampard's willingness to give young players an opportunity. Although he managed the player in not wanting to throw him in at the deep end. A fragile team in the midst of a relegation dogfight on a seemingly never-ending downward spiral.

Also that he has Seamus Coleman as a mentor. A player who also came from a so-called lesser league and went on to become a great servant for Everton in one of the top European leagues.

On the injuries, this one just sounds unfortunate, but I do hope we sort out whatever is wrong at Finch Farm. Is it the training? Is it the medical staff (I think we've been through a few iterations)? Is it the players we buy and don't do our research well enough?

Compare that to the obvious not too far away. Don't have a massive squad on the scale of Man City but don't suffer prolonged or serious injuries to major players and can still run around like Duracell bunnies for 97 minutes in every game of the season.

Apart from when St Virgil clashed with Pickford. And we'll never be let to forget that one.

A quote from The Echo from Patterson.

"He likes young players and wants to develop young players and bring them through. He wants a young squad so I’ll make sure when I go back for pre-season I hit the ground running and give them something to think about."

Don't know whether that's in The Scotsman piece but "he wants a young squad" is music to my ears!

Fingers crossed his injury was a ''one-off'' and he will return for next season and be the other half of a really good full-back twosome with Mykolenko.

Coleman did really well and has the experience but is past his best. On defence, it's dangerous to carry players who are a yard or two slower than they used to be. Other teams will have done their homework and Seamus, although still quite quick, is now a liability.

Yesterday, I watched Everton's first game against the Saints from last season and Keane was a shambles in the first half and his form for the rest of the season was iffy, to say the least.

I hope things will be a lot different this season but he isn't as reliable as I first thought. More of a Mike Lyons type, good in the air but slow on the ground.