The Ricardo thing is genuinely baffling. On Saturday VK stayed back more, whilst Justin played higher with Ayew tucking inside (the average position map confirms this). So the argument that Justin has been preferred because he can tuck in as a 3rd centre back doesn't even apply as surely Ricardo would offer more than Justin in this more attacking role?
On the face of it, it also seems unlikely that Ricardo would have fallen out with Cooper personally, given that Cooper seems to be a good man manager and Ricardo seems to be the archetypal professional. But Ricardo is a highly technical player and loved playing under Maresca, so is it possible that he may have voiced concerns about the less sophisticated playing style that we now seem to be deploying, upsetting Cooper in the process?
Either way, Cooper is clearly cutting off his nose to spite his face in not using Ricardo even as a sub. Will be fascinating to see how things play out moving forward; would be a real shame if Ricardo's time at the club ended in the way that Cags' time did.