Steve Cooper: The Tactics Thread

[phoneticerror]

23 minutes ago, Dusty said:

He is absolutely desperate to bring players in isn’t he. I do sympathise with him a bit, the club is an all round mess - he is a part of that but he’s not getting any help either.  

Worked out really well for Forest didn’t it.

[JimJams]

12 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

A club that's spent 25m on a centre half and a young teen lad.

Who would that be then?

[Fox1norfolk]

11 hours ago, trooky said:

I don't think Cooper's playing politics with the board.

 

You need a settled first team and playing style before you start promoting youth, especially after a few weeks at the club. 

 

Alves didn't even feature towards the end of  last season after injury under Enzo.

 

He would need to be exceptional in preseason training to force his way into the starting lineup this early.

Last season at times we played attractive attacking football and succeeded in the main objective. We have lost one main player KDH, but more importantly losing the manager with his style and tactics could prove to be disastrous. We have replaced him with someone who seems to know what he wants ,but basically does not know how to do it. We needed an inspirational manager who would attract new recruits and that is one of the reasons the best players we really will need are turning us down. Although there have been a handful of new signings, not one of these is a potential game changer

[suffolk fox]

8 hours ago, moseeds said:

 

Totally taken aback by that line. He comes across a bit laid-back in interviews and after the intensity of Maresca I'm not convinced the players are warming to this guy at all. With trite statements like that how can they?

 

If the first 3-5 games go horribly wrong several senior team members will mentally check out at which point relegation is inevitable. Watching the game today it felt like an old-fashioned championship match with no clear positional play and tremendous amounts of energy expenditure.

 

I can't remember the last time I felt this pessimistic. Even last season once Maresca was onboarded and we had glimpses of what could be during pre-season the mood lofted significantly. This time around with the pending points deduction and the tactical salad we've now seen I'm not sure just how bad it will be.

 

We got spoiled by Maresca.

Spoiled by Maresca really?  His boring negative football personally did my nut in.  Sideways and backwards football, no idea tactically when things went wrong.

Losing to the likes of Plymouth, Millwall, and not having a tactical clue in how to change things during the game.

 

Yes, he got us promoted, yes, we  won the Championship, (just).  However, with the squad he inherited we should have at least competed last season and also for the millions of pounds of talent we had, arguably, we should have been promoted.

 

Some, will never take to Cooper because of his Forest connections.  I, find it quite refreshing he can see our problems on the pitch and isn't frightened to say it, he appears as frustrated as our fans that with 2 weeks to go he has been unable to bring  anyone in.  We desperately need a number 10, and a centre forward, and another creative midfielder.  Whether our board will address these issues I am not convinced.

 

Please though, lets not paint Maresca as some sort of managerial genius, because he certainly is not.  His latest ramblings, why his Chelsea got dicked by Man City in America, yes, lets blame the pitch.

[foxinsocks]

24 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

100 this. 

 

A club that's spent 25m on a centre half and a young teen lad. And last year bailed out Everton with 10m on a lad we didn't need nor played. 

 

The club at every administrative level is a total shambles. A disgrace 

 

The 

We seem to be very poor at getting players out....Other than lettingbthrm run their contracts down.   Is this coz our wages are too high?  Or is it coz we don't force their agents to find them a new berth

[Groby_Blue]

Last season we all pretty much said promotion was the only aim. Job done and plenty still moaned. 

 

This season the only aim is to stay up. If we achieve that, people will still moan. 

 

It's just the way of football. 

[brownfox]

The club seem to be sleepwalking into the new season hence the pessimism on here, me included. Last year we had Maresca who was a stubborn mule with his Plan A and Plan A only, but when it worked we looked like a Premier league club playing in the championship, this year we are looking like a championship club playing in the premiership. The club need to make some serious decisions especially in transfer market. We need to sell Thomas, Souttar, VK, Soumare and Daka. The latter clearly isn’t working.  Clear some of the players that don’t seem to be in any plans generate money and go buy younger hungrier players. Not BDCR and it’s worrying that we are linked to Jordan Ayew WTH!

[Dickov22]

2 minutes ago, brownfox said:

The club seem to be sleepwalking into the new season hence the pessimism on here, me included. Last year we had Maresca who was a stubborn mule with his Plan A and Plan A only, but when it worked we looked like a Premier league club playing in the championship, this year we are looking like a championship club playing in the premiership. The club need to make some serious decisions especially in transfer market. We need to sell Thomas, Souttar, VK, Soumare and Daka. The latter clearly isn’t working.  Clear some of the players that don’t seem to be in any plans generate money and go buy younger hungrier players. Not BDCR and it’s worrying that we are linked to Jordan Ayew WTH!

‘need to sell’. Easier said than done. Luke Thomas barely even looks like a football player.

Souttar, VK, Soumare  all on massive wages so hard to shift 

 

Daka is absolutely terrible. See Luke. No one will want to buy him 

[brownfox]

3 minutes ago, Dickov22 said:

‘need to sell’. Easier said than done. Luke Thomas barely even looks like a football player.

Souttar, VK, Soumare  all on massive wages so hard to shift 

 

Daka is absolutely terrible. See Luke. No one will want to buy him 

Surely there is some tech savvy people on here who can compile a YouTube compilation video of “the best bits” and start an advertising campaign! 

[brownfox]

Just now, brownfox said:

Surely there is some tech savvy people on here who can compile a YouTube compilation video of “the best bits” and start an advertising campaign! 

I’m not serious by the way but I am tempted to go under cover in other teams forums and start spreading gossip “Luke Thomas future England captain” no offence to LT but we just need the funds

[moseeds]

17 minutes ago, suffolk fox said:

Spoiled by Maresca really?  His boring negative football personally did my nut in.  Sideways and backwards football, no idea tactically when things went wrong.

Losing to the likes of Plymouth, Millwall, and not having a tactical clue in how to change things during the game.

 

Yes, he got us promoted, yes, we  won the Championship, (just).  However, with the squad he inherited we should have at least competed last season and also for the millions of pounds of talent we had, arguably, we should have been promoted.

 

Some, will never take to Cooper because of his Forest connections.  I, find it quite refreshing he can see our problems on the pitch and isn't frightened to say it, he appears as frustrated as our fans that with 2 weeks to go he has been unable to bring  anyone in.  We desperately need a number 10, and a centre forward, and another creative midfielder.  Whether our board will address these issues I am not convinced.

 

Please though, lets not paint Maresca as some sort of managerial genius, because he certainly is not.  His latest ramblings, why his Chelsea got dicked by Man City in America, yes, lets blame the pitch.

Spoiled because Maresca tried to give the team a clear identity which other teams did fear. Some fans seem to have forgotten it was Maresca's first full season in the job. He was learning just as much as the players. No manager comes ready-made.

 

I'm sure at Chelsea with the squad they have and his learning experience with us, he will have a plan B. It's inevitable and an obvious evolution.

 

Back to Cooper. He has inherited a weaker, smaller squad that really need guidance. His players will of course be judging him against their old boss. Consider how many players were making enthusiastic noises last year about training and learning. On the pitch we might be seeing the outcome of that lack of buy-in. It is only preseason so I'm trying not to get carried away in criticism. But the shape of play, the ability to game-manage is nowhere near the levels we saw early on last year.

 

Have a look at Arnie Slot's Liverpool to see how quickly new tactical plays can be set in which only help boost morale and buy-in within the squad.

 

 

[squidsworth]

We need to play to our strengths which is mav and fats down the wings, didn't see much at all of that yesterday but it's the only game I've seen in pre season so maybe I'm not best placed to judge. They just seemed to be sitting too deep to me.

I also felt the forwards were isolated for much of the game and there was no real link between the middle and them. Just hopeful punts forward that no one got onto was the theme.

Probably to be expected since no KDH or Madders in there to do the play making, and the likes of ndidi ain't gonna be filling that hole and winks looked pretty ordinary trying to do it on his own.

I see we are 1/2 odds on getting relegated, even without points deduction that is probably a fair reflection of our chances. Cooper could be gone by Xmas, though no doubt our leadership will not have the balls to do anything even if it's more of a horror show than it's looking right now.

[Dusty]

1 hour ago, phoneticerror said:

Worked out really well for Forest didn’t it.

Well they stayed up tbf

[guest123]

1 hour ago, suffolk fox said:

Spoiled by Maresca really?  His boring negative football personally did my nut in.  Sideways and backwards football, no idea tactically when things went wrong.

Losing to the likes of Plymouth, Millwall, and not having a tactical clue in how to change things during the game.

 

Yes, he got us promoted, yes, we  won the Championship, (just).  However, with the squad he inherited we should have at least competed last season and also for the millions of pounds of talent we had, arguably, we should have been promoted.

 

Some, will never take to Cooper because of his Forest connections.  I, find it quite refreshing he can see our problems on the pitch and isn't frightened to say it, he appears as frustrated as our fans that with 2 weeks to go he has been unable to bring  anyone in.  We desperately need a number 10, and a centre forward, and another creative midfielder.  Whether our board will address these issues I am not convinced.

 

Please though, lets not paint Maresca as some sort of managerial genius, because he certainly is not.  His latest ramblings, why his Chelsea got dicked by Man City in America, yes, lets blame the pitch.

yeah, Maresca was useless. only got us promoted and won the league in his first go

[em9999]

With the team Leicester had In the championship last season I don't think Enzo did anything special and definitely nothing to warrant getting the Chelsea job 

Edited 4 August by em9999

[foxes_rule1978]

43 minutes ago, em9999 said:

With the team Leicester had In the championship last season I don't think Enzo did anything special and definitely nothing to warrant getting the Chelsea job 

That is totally the truth. McKenna did a better job with Ipswich, I suppose he hadn’t smelt Peps farts so doesn’t get the recognition. 

[JimJams]

24 minutes ago, foxes_rule1978 said:

That is totally the truth. McKenna did a better job with Ipswich, I suppose he hadn’t smelt Peps farts so doesn’t get the recognition. 

EFL manager of the season shortlisted by Man Utd to replace Ten Haag didn't get recognition.

[coolhandfox]

Great tactical overview by Dominic Wells

 

https://medium.com/@dominic.wells24/doms-comms-week-10-fullbacks-b68b88c31d6a

[phoneticerror]

4 hours ago, Dusty said:

Well they stayed up tbf

Would they have if they had a points deduction?

[Dusty]

3 minutes ago, phoneticerror said:

Would they have if they had a points deduction?

Well that’s a hypothetical situation so you can’t really tell. Would they have survived if they had been docked 4 points after the season had finished? No they would have gone down on goal difference. But they might have won more points throughout the season if they knew that was coming, much like Evertons bump after they were docked points. 

[phoneticerror]

1 minute ago, Dusty said:

Well that’s a hypothetical situation so you can’t really tell. Would they have survived if they had been docked 4 points after the season had finished? No they would have gone down on goal difference. But they might have won more points throughout the season if they knew that was coming, much like Evertons bump after they were docked points. 

Yeah it’s all hypothetical. If we got away with just a 4 point deduction I’ll be buying a round for all the lads in immediate vicinity of my seat.

[sbfox]

8 hours ago, suffolk fox said:

Spoiled by Maresca really?  His boring negative football personally did my nut in.  Sideways and backwards football, no idea tactically when things went wrong.

Losing to the likes of Plymouth, Millwall, and not having a tactical clue in how to change things during the game.

 

Yes, he got us promoted, yes, we  won the Championship, (just).  However, with the squad he inherited we should have at least competed last season and also for the millions of pounds of talent we had, arguably, we should have been promoted.

 

Some, will never take to Cooper because of his Forest connections.  I, find it quite refreshing he can see our problems on the pitch and isn't frightened to say it, he appears as frustrated as our fans that with 2 weeks to go he has been unable to bring  anyone in.  We desperately need a number 10, and a centre forward, and another creative midfielder.  Whether our board will address these issues I am not convinced.

 

Please though, lets not paint Maresca as some sort of managerial genius, because he certainly is not.  His latest ramblings, why his Chelsea got dicked by Man City in America, yes, lets blame the pitch.

Maresca was so boring and so negative that we scored the second most goals in the league with two strikers that were past their best and Daka, respectively? 

 

Cooper looks massively out of his depth by contrast. No defined style. Players pressing for pressing's sake. Its genuinely scary how far we've fallen in two months. 

[kingfox]

2 hours ago, coolhandfox said:

Great tactical overview by Dominic Wells

 

https://medium.com/@dominic.wells24/doms-comms-week-10-fullbacks-b68b88c31d6a

Perfect assessment that. 
 

I also think Jordan Blackwell has hit the nail on the head in the Mercury too, agree pretty much with every point he’s made.

 

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/steve-cooper-ricardo-pereira-problem-9459171

 

Starting Ricardo at LB/LWB is a solution that needs trying. While we also need a different alternative to Ndidi in midfield, especially if Cooper isn’t keen on playing Ricardo there. 

[JimJams]

Ricardo on the left?  With Mav coming inside?

[kingfox]

4 minutes ago, JimJams said:

Ricardo on the left?  With Mav coming inside?

If Cooper wants to stick with what we saw yesterday and in other games, it’s the only solution I can think of. Ricardo as a RCB when in possession...no thanks. While Cooper doesn’t seem too keen on playing Ricardo at CM. 

 

I’d rather go back to what we played in the first half against Palermo, 4-3-3 in possession could work with the right personnel, you just have to get more industrious midfielders instead of Soumare and Ndidi.