Boubacar Kamara - out for the season

[sid1964]

it will be interesting to see what Unai does with the team selection - also in the Summer, i would imagine that we will be looking to sign another central midfield player.

Kamara will probably be out of the team until at least this time next year.

[Demitri_C]

The god really dont want us getting CL do they ? All this terrible luck we having

[frank black]

Any chance of ending the quotathon?

I once did my ACL in B&Q shopping for MDF.
UTV.

I did mine after a BBQ whilst having a dads versus kids kick about. My brain told my legs that they can still do it! sadly, my legs disagreed.

Seems too coincidental that the letters B and Q feature in both of these incidents, perhaps that’s the cause.

[The Edge]

Any chance of ending the quotathon?

I once did my ACL in B&Q shopping for MDF.
UTV.

I did mine after a BBQ whilst having a dads versus kids kick about. My brain told my legs that they can still do it! sadly, my legs disagreed.

Seems too coincidental that the letters B and Q feature in both of these incidents, perhaps that’s the cause.

I think we're on to something.

[Ads]

I cant say one way or the other whether Tim will start on Saturday, but the reasons why he should for me are far longer than the why not;

1)You don't disrupt McGinn by denying us his pressing and ball carrying in wide channels.
2) It's Tim's position
3) Same height as Kamara and he's mobile like Kamara too
4) 30+ games of 2nd division mens football, with both a successful and then struggling side under pressure
4) We ought to monopolise possession in the next 3 games so he'd get a 3 game run up to Spurs
5) We need to continue to showcase more of our youngsters for financial reasons. If Tim grabs his chance, then we have a player to keep or a player to sell that would generate a lot of money on the FFP score.

[sid1964]

We will now see if Tim is good enough to play 1st team football at Aston Villa.

It will be his chance, i hope that he takes it.

[Demitri_C]

The only positove for me is the konsa one seems like unfounded rumours.  Surely if ezri suffered same they would have said same by now.

Hoping now timmy gets a run. Its time to give sone young blood a opportunity

[algy]

It's a really good opportunity for Tim. Hope he manages to take it.

This 2nd half of the season has been a bit crap so far

[Sexual Ealing]

I cant say one way or the other whether Tim will start on Saturday, but the reasons why he should for me are far longer than the why not;

1)You don't disrupt McGinn by denying us his pressing and ball carrying in wide channels.
2) It's Tim's position
3) Same height as Kamara and he's mobile like Kamara too
4) 30+ games of 2nd division mens football, with both a successful and then struggling side under pressure
4) We ought to monopolise possession in the next 3 games so he'd get a 3 game run up to Spurs
5) We need to continue to showcase more of our youngsters for financial reasons. If Tim grabs his chance, then we have a player to keep or a player to sell that would generate a lot of money on the FFP score.

I didn't like the despair that had crept into your posts after the Chelsea game. It's reassuring to have you back being positive (to the point of lunacy!)

[Mister E]

I cant say one way or the other whether Tim will start on Saturday, but the reasons why he should for me are far longer than the why not;

1)You don't disrupt McGinn by denying us his pressing and ball carrying in wide channels.
2) It's Tim's position
3) Same height as Kamara and he's mobile like Kamara too
4) 30+ games of 2nd division mens football, with both a successful and then struggling side under pressure
4) We ought to monopolise possession in the next 3 games so he'd get a 3 game run up to Spurs
5) We need to continue to showcase more of our youngsters for financial reasons. If Tim grabs his chance, then we have a player to keep or a player to sell that would generate a lot of money on the FFP score.

He's also had some Premier league minutes, with a full game against Burnley under the Scouse Fraud.

[ROBBO]

What has really pissed me off for months watching from Oz is every time we play one of the better sides the match caller goes on and on about how many injuries the opposition have got, no mention that a minor miracle happened at Villa where we lost two key players for the season and are still mounting a challenge for Europe.

[Ads]

I cant say one way or the other whether Tim will start on Saturday, but the reasons why he should for me are far longer than the why not;

1)You don't disrupt McGinn by denying us his pressing and ball carrying in wide channels.
2) It's Tim's position
3) Same height as Kamara and he's mobile like Kamara too
4) 30+ games of 2nd division mens football, with both a successful and then struggling side under pressure
4) We ought to monopolise possession in the next 3 games so he'd get a 3 game run up to Spurs
5) We need to continue to showcase more of our youngsters for financial reasons. If Tim grabs his chance, then we have a player to keep or a player to sell that would generate a lot of money on the FFP score.

I didn't like the despair that had crept into your posts after the Chelsea game. It's reassuring to have you back being positive (to the point of lunacy!)

We all have our moments. I don't think I'm necessarily positive or optimistic, I just have a capacity to process quickly and accept situations. I think it comes from watching Zulu as a kid;

"Why us?"
"Because we're here lad and nobody else". Best crack on with it then. Always stuck with me that bit of dialogue. Comes immediately after a bout of hysteria as well. We have finite energy and time that can't be wasted on moping.

[chrisw1]

If there are significantly more ACL injuries in the game statistically - and at Villa in particular - then it is not as tin-hat as many of you are making out in your slating of Tim that there is some additional factor at play.

Whether this is overwork, type of training regime, diet, equipment, playing surface, changing player physique or pure coincidence non of us know at this stage. 

The women's game issue is easier to speculate - you'd assume the game has got significantly harder and more physical since it's gone professional and that seems the most likely reason for the uptick.

It's harder to put you finger on it in the men's game.  I very much doubt it's anything particular to Emery and his coaching teams methods, but dismissing a huge statistical anomaly entirely (if indeed there is one) seems a bit presumptuous to me.

[chrisw1]

Athletic article.  Jacob Tanswell suspects McGinn will drop back.

Boubacar Kamara ACL injury is devastating for Aston Villa – he’s the heart of their team
BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 11: Boubacar Kamara of Aston Villa is substituted off following an injury during the Premier League match between Aston Villa and Manchester United at Villa Park on February 11, 2024 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
By Jacob Tanswell
4h ago
Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injuries can follow the same pattern.

The initial blow, the minutes spent in the immediate aftermath trying to walk on the damaged leg, thinking things might be and then, once the early shock has subsided, the shattering realisation that they are not.

In the 63rd minute of Aston Villa’s 2-1 defeat against Manchester United on Sunday, Boubacar Kamara rode that grim emotional rollercoaster.

After attempting to close down Casemiro, Kamara turned quickly and collapsed to the ground, immediately clutching his right knee. He clenched at the bones peering out from the top of his sock, frightened to move.

As the television coverage switched to various highlights due to the stoppage in play, Kamara’s initial pain, at least, appeared to lessen. He was helped back to his feet by two physios and tried to walk without support to the touchline, despite head coach Unai Emery readying Moussa Diaby to replace him.



Kamara shuffled gingerly to the technical area, without assistance and, crucially, hopping on his right leg, as if trying to test whether weight could be put on it.



Privately, there was hope from those close to Kamara that the pain in his knee would not be overly serious and to the naked eye, the extent of the injury did not appear as cataclysmic as scans revealed less than 24 hours later.

Just after 5pm UK time on Monday, The Athletic confirmed Kamara had ruptured the ACL in that knee, ruling him out for the remainder of the season and ending any hopes he had of making the France squad for this summer’s European Championship. Early projections state the 24-year-old will miss the next five to six months after undergoing surgery in the coming days.

Kamara’s absence adds to the fatalistic sense converging on Villa. Staggeringly, he is the third player in the squad to suffer an ACL injury this season alone, after it happened to Emiliano Buendia and then Tyrone Mings within four days of each other in August.

In some ways, Villa’s achievements so far this season are all the more remarkable when you consider the unrelenting catalogue of injuries they have had to deal with. Emery has not had his first-choice XI for a single match, with players’ unavailability complicated and compounded by reoccurring injuries to a number of key personnel.

Alex Moreno, Pau Torres and Jacob Ramsey — Emery’s entire preferred left side — have all returned to training at some point before suffering another setback related to their prior injury.

Ezri Konsa, Villa’s most well-rounded defender, had to be replaced in the 5-0 victory over Sheffield United on February 3. Konsa played the most Premier League minutes of any outfield player in the calendar year 2023 (3,732 – the equivalent of 41 matches) and while Emery, somewhat optimistically, suggested he would be out for “three to four weeks” with another knee injury, the present feeling is more ominous.

Right now, Emery is without his three best centre-backs in Konsa, Mings and Torres.

Knee injuries, reoccurring setbacks and general misfortune threaten to undermine Villa’s aspirations this season, both in the Europa Conference League, where they play in the last-16 next month, and finishing in the top four/five of the Premier League. Winter transfer window departures have further weakened a threadbare squad short of depth in key positions.

History is not kind to paper-thin teams trying to compete among the elite and across more than one front.

Kamara is Villa’s latest victim and arguably the biggest blow. Plainly, Emery does not have another player like him. Without Leander Dendoncker, a high earner but a mixed performer, who left for Napoli on loan last month, Villa lack an alternative defensive-minded midfielder, adept in anchoring central areas.

“I’m very happy, and his potential is really high,” said Emery last month, talking about the former Marseille academy graduate. “When I am speaking with different people around football and about our players, one of them having a good impact is Kamara.”

Emery is a huge advocate of Kamara because of his necessity to Villa’s overall framework. In possession, he is the chief cog in progressing the ball from deep, often dropping into a third centre-back position and giving license to the full-backs to occupy areas high and wide.



This is especially relevant in breaking down low blocks, as it squeezes Emery’s two No 10s inside and allows Villa to operate with more bodies in advanced areas and covering the width of the pitch, as illustrated here in September’s 3-1 home win against Crystal Palace.



Kamara often receives the ball in precarious positions on the pitch, with opposition pressure threatening to engulf him and having to decide on the next move quickly. This does mean he occasionally runs into trouble buthis  team-mates and Emery view mistakes as a by-product of playing in the riskiest position on the pitch. Their trust in him is total.

“The characteristics of Kamara are very important,” said Emery. “He’s progressing and he’s improving a lot. He’s humble. He’s young but very responsible. He’s very positive, every day, to improve. He listens a lot. He’s always ready to work and his potential is getting better.”

Without the ball, Kamara’s positional awareness guides Villa’s “rest defence” — ensuring the team can apply immediate pressure once they lose the ball and prevent potentially dangerous counter-attacks — and gets him into areas to stop transitions. The decision on Sunday to challenge Casemiro, where he ultimately sustained the injury, was a case in point of him counter-pressing.

Villa are becoming hamstrung in their attempts to break through the Premier League’s glass ceiling and qualify for the Champions League. It has perhaps gone unmissed by the wider public, largely due to how well they have managed, that injuries have beset the club all season. However, it is only now that such persistent knockbacks are having a discernible and damaging effect.

John McGinn has been operating as the support striker to Ollie Watkins within Emery’s 4-2-2-2 shape but will likely move deeper alongside Douglas Luiz to compensate for Kamara’s absence. McGinn is trusted more than Youri Tielemans to provide greater defensive security but is by no means the ideal solution.

Academy graduate Tim Iroegbunam has been namechecked on several occasions by Emery but has only played 25 first-team minutes this season across all competitions. The 20-year-old lacks the experience to step into such a critical position and a system facing this much adversity.

In truth, Kamara’s injury creates a hole no player at the club can truly fill. It is again up to Emery to adjust and overcome this latest setback in Villa’s sequence of bad luck this season.

(Photo: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

[Ads]

There might not be a thing, you don't know, there is no evidence to support the thing that you don't know whether it exists or not...this is absolutely the core ingredients needed to argue passionately and with no little emotion about until at least Thursday when we can start arguing about something else.