You are being too short sighted here. Hendo's foot injury was minor he thought he could play on a painkiller but the pain was too inhibiting.
However he provided a crucial assist for the goal that won us the game. This is the exact kind of fixture we would have dropped points in the past few seasons. Teams that finish in the top 4 do not get there by beating the top 3 teams during the season they get there by beating all the other so called smaller teams.
On this basis playing Hendo was absolutely a risk worth taking.
I'd rather we have taken a chance with Can whilst wrapping Hendo in cotton wool and save him vs Arsenal. Maybe we would have won 10-0 or maybe a Bournemouth win, who knows? All I know is, I felt confident of going into Monday's game with a win, regardless of no Hendo or Hendo, so with that being, I found it baffling to risk Hendo.
Now that we have lost him, my confidence of going to the Emirates to nick a point or perhaps even a win has dropped
I'm not confident enough with our team to win any game without a full strength team at the moment. Plus maybe too early for Milner to be leading a side out?
I feel the opposite. I believe our team, whether it's Can or Hendo in the team is strong enough to cope vs weaker teams, especially at home.
As for Milner not being ready to lead us out, perhaps you are right, perhaps wrong, who knows unless it's tried out I guess, but there's a reason why he was given vice captain, so I like to think he would have been ready.
Anyway, whilst I disagree with risking Hendo, we did win, but at the expense of our captain, just hope he isn't injured for too long as we have a difficult run of games
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