escape2victory

Seeing as he tweaked it today with the left back tucking in and the right back being more advanced, there is zero excuse not to start Ricardo now. Have Bounanotte & El Khannouss rotating the 10 position and Mavididi on the left. Harsh on Ndidi but we need more attacking players for home games likes Everton. Hermanson Ricardo Faes. Okoli. Kristiansen Winks. Skipp Buonanotte. El Khannouss. Mavididi Vardy

Cannons shite, Dyche thought it, Maresca thought it, Cooper thinks it !

I don’t agree with the signing but I suppose the club will be thinking we have mavericks on the wing in Mavididi and Fatawu, who can be match winners but can also easily drop a 3/10, and whilst we think they can step up to the PL, we aren’t 100%, so If we can dip them in and out with seasoned PL wingers in Ayew and BDR who will give a 7/10 when called upon and with Ayew can act as 3rd choice forward too, must be the angle the club is thinking. Still need a 10 to compete with Buonanotte and a striker

Presuming we get Zaha and Hlozek done in time. Would stick Hlozek straight in as we don’t have any other option. Mavididi and Fatawu deserve to start but if not doing it then Zaha and Buonanotte off the bench. Choudhury over Ndidi as can cover more of the pitch these days and neither can pass a ball anyway. Ideally a new left back/wing back as Kristiansen and Thomas are shite Hermanson Faes Vestergaard Okoli Ricardo Winks Choudhury Kristiansen Fatawu Hlozek Mavididi

Decent this. Will give us good wide options with Mavididi, De Cordova-Reid, Fatawu and Asprilla. Still need a striker, a creative midfielder and I’d like us to get a new left back as don’t rate our current options

I get building up when in possession in a back 3 and pushing one of the full backs forward, but he needs to re-think the personnel. Having Ricardo as the right CB is a huge waste and pushing Justin as the attacking full back is also a waste as he is a headless chicken in the oppositions third

Ahh I love 3 atb, probably for nostalgic reasons with O’Neills 90’s team. I think at times too much is made of formations. Generally most systems defend with 5 and attack with 5

Looked to me in the 1st half at least, was a 3-4-2-1 with Ricardo and Fatawu as wingbacks and Mavididi and McAteer as the 10’s. i like the system but the wingbacks are key and quite a specialist position that we don’t really have in the squad. Ricardo/De Cordova-Reid could do a job on the right but none of Fatawu/Kristiansen/Thomas are suited to the left wing back role Imo

Those saying it isn’t a priority position, it clearly is to suit the system Cooper wants to play (back 3). I’m all for a back 3 system. The success Wolves and Palace have had recently in the 3-4-3, shows it can work well in the PL. The key to it though is the wing backs and I’m not convinced we have the personnel yet to effectively carry it off. Ricardo (Yes), Justin (not good enough offensively and better as right sided CB), Kristiansen (not good enough imo)

Do feel a little bit for Vestergaard and Faes with the corners as the delivery doesn’t really give them a chance. It’s always the same pattern, don’t beat the first man with the first, then over compensate with the next and loft it aimlessly past the back post and then finally try a short corner which ends up with Justin on the corner of the box smashing it out of play for a goal kick. Rinse and repeat

The way he says ‘to be honest’ to begin every answer is really starting to irritate me !

Why on earth did he put KDH and Ndidi on opposite sides ? Our most attacking threats are KDH and Mavididi on the left and Ndidi and the winger on the right. Didn’t look balanced all night

Good explanation and I wasn’t aware of the FFP changes so that makes some sense but I still think we should have been more ruthless with some of them. Tielemans the prime one really, summer of 21 had just scored the winner in the FA cup final. His stock was high, 2 years left on his deal, should of sold him then if not prepared to sign a new deal, wouldn’t of been short of buying clubs that summer

Our transfer and contract strategy has been bonkers for ages. Spending approx £128m over the years on Tielemans, Soyuncu, Amartey, Praet, Ndidi, Iheanacho, Vestergaard, and letting them all run their contracts down and leave for free, awful strategy and been a soft touch on contracts for years. We need a proper sporting director dealing with this, Rudkin isn’t capable. I remember Pearson not being impressed with his promotion into role in 14/15

Some observations, the wingers need to go on the outside more rather than the safe option of cutting inside . In their defence, they can’t always go on the outside as the 8’s are constantly making runs wide looking for the ball down the line, which blocks the space for the winger. They need to mix up that tactic, hold their position at times and keep the winger isolated with the full back. A criticism of Enzo’s tactics is that they are so well drilled and machine like they struggle to adapt to in game situations and think on their feet at times. Also Justin needs time out of the team, not just been poor on the ball but his defending has been surprisingly poor. Their winger had the beating of him today and the Cov Japanese winger had his pants down too