Steve Cooper: The Tactics Thread

[Lambert09]

5 hours ago, Babylon said:

It's not different to what Pearson did, and he built basically a League 1, Championship and Premier league winning teams. A core of players used to the country, the football and the mentality etc, not only helps with a quick integration, but is far more likely to lead to a team spirit fostered quickly. It doesn't mean you don't buy foreign players, just that you don't load the squad with them. 

 

You just need to buy the right ones, Pearson bought a few older heads, but then wanted young and hungry players with something to prove. 

I don’t disagree that a blend is needed. The concern is rather that it’s been said out loud. Is there a need to state you’d prefer domestic?  Especially as we have a strong domestic core already. It might all be fine, I just hope we wouldn’t rule out a gem simply as they are not playing football here already. 
 

We all dream of another mahrez or kante so I just hope that doesn’t get missed because you can pick up a bottom half prem player who we already know will never reach a higher level 

[adam95581]

16 hours ago, Finnegan said:

 

This is exactly what I'm talking about. That Southampton game was 100% Enzoball at its best. 

 

The difference between that and, way, any of the dull, late 1-0 wins wasn't how we played it's how the opponent played. 

 

Southampton had the confidence to take us on head on, try and play us at our own game. We threw down a challenge and they picked it up. Two teams tried to play progressive football and we were just much, much better at the press and the counter thrust. 

 

All of which we'd have happily done against Rotherham or or whoever but those teams just refused to do anything involving leaving their own six yard box. 

 

Why should Leicester and Enzo carry the blame for making that game boring when we were the ones trying to move the ball up the pitch and score? Why does nobody blame the defending side that just played anti football for ninety minutes and hoped for a draw? 

 

When there is such a disparity between financially powerful clubs and the rest, I can totally see why teams refuse to go toe-to-toe. It might make for a boring game but if the underdog nicks it 1-0 playing that way as opposed to getting thrashed 5-0 going for it, why wouldn’t they*. 

*appreciate Southampton aren’t financially inferior to us btw.  

 

[Babylon]

31 minutes ago, Lambert09 said:

I don’t disagree that a blend is needed. The concern is rather that it’s been said out loud. Is there a need to state you’d prefer domestic?  Especially as we have a strong domestic core already. It might all be fine, I just hope we wouldn’t rule out a gem simply as they are not playing football here already. 
 

We all dream of another mahrez or kante so I just hope that doesn’t get missed because you can pick up a bottom half prem player who we already know will never reach a higher level 

Was it not just press reports?

[Spudulike]

 

[Paninistickers]

16 hours ago, Spudulike said:

 

Just something about having a British manager who looks / sounds like a coach I like it. 

 

Rodgers always seemed to be on the sidelines watching and giggling 

 

Maresca bogged down with theory and not articulating himself quite well enough 

 

Puel could barely speak English. 

 

There are shades of shakey that worries me a bit, but Cooper's pedigree is way above shakey. 

 

 

[RumbleFox]

Whether a manager is British or not has literally 0% impact on me and I can’t imagine what it would be like to feel that way. 

[Richard]

1 hour ago, Paninistickers said:

Just something about having a British manager who looks / sounds like a coach I like it. 

 

Rodgers always seemed to be on the sidelines watching and giggling 

 

Maresca bogged down with theory and not articulating himself quite well enough 

 

Puel could barely speak English. 

 

There are shades of shakey that worries me a bit, but Cooper's pedigree is way above shakey. 

 

 

He looks very hands on. The players will either love him or hate him

 

We rarely saw Rodgers so involved in pre-season and Maresca just shouted about shape constantly. Cooper seems very focused on team mentality and togetherness.

 

He was even in amongst the players in the gym for testing. Brenda would've been in his office picking his nose and Enzo would've been having 3 course lunch with Guillem

Edited 11 July by Richard

[BrianSwan]

As a neutral I was looking forward to seeing Leicester City come up and try and dictate the play vs Premier League teams, it's very very disappointing to see you hire Cooper, knowing you will now give up possession willingly after building all season on it.

[Guest]

12 hours ago, RumbleFox said:

Whether a manager is British or not has literally 0% impact on me and I can’t imagine what it would be like to feel that way. 

For a lot of our fans the most important thing about a manager is whether or not they can imagine going for a pint with them

[Lillehamring]

38 minutes ago, BrianSwan said:

As a neutral I was looking forward to seeing Leicester City come up and try and dictate the play vs Premier League teams, it's very very disappointing to see you hire Cooper, knowing you will now give up possession willingly after building all season on it.

We don't know that at all.  A lot of assumptions about Cooper seem to be based on what he did at forest - but the team he has here is nothing like the one he had at forest, so there's no reason why he'll feel he has to just play with a low block.

 

The feeling i get is that he'll play differently against different teams (as opposed to last season where we played more or less the same every week, even when perhaps we shouldn't have).

 

There are a lot of unknowns with our current situation, but for me the three main questions are:

 

- who comes in as an attacking playmaker

- how will untested players like mavididi and fatawu adjust to the PL

- how will players who struggled/were frozen out last time round play under a new manager

[Zear0]

Just hope he can keep the positivity high with players who had good seasons last year. Wilf (if he's here) and Vestergaard were dreadful in the PL but had great seasons last year and need that for to continue. Few poor games and I worry some of the players will get flashbacks to the Brendan days and just not perform. 

Edited 11 July by Zear0

[StriderHiryu]

I was in my friend Luke's channel talking transfers and tactics in this video:

 

 

 

Obviously it's all speculation, but still a bit of fun to talk about. Not the most flattering thumbnail though!

[whoareyaaa]

One thing is for sure he won't be scared to play two strikers if required which would be a massive bonus

[Babylon]

On 11/07/2024 at 08:19, RumbleFox said:

Whether a manager is British or not has literally 0% impact on me and I can’t imagine what it would be like to feel that way. 

Impacts whether I have a clue what they are talking about or not. 

[cropstonfox]

On 11/07/2024 at 08:19, RumbleFox said:

Whether a manager is British or not has literally 0% impact on me and I can’t imagine what it would be like to feel that way. 

Couldn't imagine what it would feel like not to care about our own nation.

[RumbleFox]

2 hours ago, cropstonfox said:

Couldn't imagine what it would feel like not to care about our own nation.

What do you mean?

[Bptiger]

Rather than think about who we want how about getting rid of the deadwood , then we might be able to bring in two better class players . 
we got to move on two keepers

thomas has too go

soumare is another who can’t handle the EPL

got to many centre half’s two got to go 

daka never done anything in the EPL and was just as bad in the championship 

That’s 7 players that could bring us 2-3 players in positions we need 

but as usual nothing ever gets done untill they walk away as free agents 

 

 

[cropstonfox]

12 hours ago, RumbleFox said:

What do you mean?

Maybe a bit of football protectionism. Nurturing our own coaching and grassroots infrastructure is something we should all care about

[lcfc_forever]

22 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

I was in my friend Luke's channel talking transfers and tactics in this video:

 

 

 

Obviously it's all speculation, but still a bit of fun to talk about. Not the most flattering thumbnail though!

Brilliant video! Thanks for sharing, I like how we have that flexibility between 3-4-3 and 3-4-2-1.

I thought the same as well about Carvalho but sounds like our relationship with Liverpool is bad after they poached Nyoni. But surely we’ll use the loan market more generally. 

[StriderHiryu]

33 minutes ago, lcfc_forever said:

Brilliant video! Thanks for sharing, I like how we have that flexibility between 3-4-3 and 3-4-2-1.

I thought the same as well about Carvalho but sounds like our relationship with Liverpool is bad after they poached Nyoni. But surely we’ll use the loan market more generally. 

I will post more after the first streamed game of pre-season. As it stands we still don't know exactly what's in Cooper's mind. The rumours of Soule also point at a potential 4231, and given Bobby Reid can play that position too, we'd have some depth there. I personally expect 3 just because it allows Vestergaard to start and offer some protection for him, whilst using his ability on the ball, which I still expect to be central to how we play this season.

 

For what it's worth, Fatawu played in a 343 for Sporting under Amorim. I think it's fair to say he didn't shine in it, but he's matured as a player since then, so it's not unprecedented he goes back there for some games.

 

Game one is against Spurs, so far that one I'd much prefer to have him as a winger / inside forward. They will push up, which means if we can pass our way through their press, our wingers will get chances. For that reason I'd also start Ricardo in the pivot too. But against more physical teams like Brentford, I'd put Ndidi there.

 

Let's see what happens!

 

 

[Paninistickers]

2 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

I will post more after the first streamed game of pre-season. As it stands we still don't know exactly what's in Cooper's mind. The rumours of Soule also point at a potential 4231, and given Bobby Reid can play that position too, we'd have some depth there. I personally expect 3 just because it allows Vestergaard to start and offer some protection for him, whilst using his ability on the ball, which I still expect to be central to how we play this season.

 

For what it's worth, Fatawu played in a 343 for Sporting under Amorim. I think it's fair to say he didn't shine in it, but he's matured as a player since then, so it's not unprecedented he goes back there for some games.

 

Game one is against Spurs, so far that one I'd much prefer to have him as a winger / inside forward. They will push up, which means if we can pass our way through their press, our wingers will get chances. For that reason I'd also start Ricardo in the pivot too. But against more physical teams like Brentford, I'd put Ndidi there.

 

Let's see what happens!

 

 

I'm expecting Cooper to be far more tactically flexible. Something weve rarely had ( Puel demonstrated a.semblence of invention - tho limited to the big teams only -.... ....Rodgers only bothered v Man City with an 11 man low block. 

 

With the personnel we have, I can see 343 and a 4231 or even 433 (with false nine) ...I also think we'll see far more of the fit players and use of finisher subs. *Hamza and even McAteer may well have key roles for their fitness. 

 

Edit; *cooper at forest never used to panic at 1 or even 2 -0 down, instead concentrating on stability and staying in the game and to finish strong. I can see Hamza and McAteer used to run hard for 70 mins

Edited 13 July by Paninistickers

[The_77]

2 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

I'm expecting Cooper to be far more tactically flexible. Something weve rarely had ( Puel demonstrated a.semblence of invention - tho limited to the big teams only -.... ....Rodgers only bothered v Man City with an 11 man low block. 

 

With the personnel we have, I can see 343 and a 4231 or even 433 (with false nine) ...I also think we'll see far more of the fit players and use of finisher subs. Hamza and even McAteer may well have key roles for their fitness. 

Claude Puel benched Vardy and played Shinji Okazaki as a false 9 against Brighton. Burned into my mind after flying in from NYC and dealing with rail replacement on top of that normally annoying trip to the AMEX. 😂

[The_77]

Just now, The_77 said:

Claude Puel benched Vardy and played Shinji Okazaki as a false 9 against Brighton. Burned into my mind after flying in from NYC and dealing with rail replacement on top of that normally annoying trip to the AMEX. 😂

Still a great day out with @Chocolate Teapot 😂

[StriderHiryu]

31 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

I'm expecting Cooper to be far more tactically flexible. Something weve rarely had ( Puel demonstrated a.semblence of invention - tho limited to the big teams only -.... ....Rodgers only bothered v Man City with an 11 man low block. 

 

With the personnel we have, I can see 343 and a 4231 or even 433 (with false nine) ...I also think we'll see far more of the fit players and use of finisher subs. *Hamza and even McAteer may well have key roles for their fitness. 

 

Edit; *cooper at forest never used to panic at 1 or even 2 -0 down, instead concentrating on stability and staying in the game and to finish strong. I can see Hamza and McAteer used to run hard for 70 mins

Totally agree, and these were some of the things discussed in the video. For some games I could see the double pivot be strictly defensive and physical, for others I could see us playing more like under Enzo when playing out from the back and generating the man advantage in midfield.

 

Cooper is more of a horses for courses manager, and this season more than any other, that's a very good thing.

 

I too hope he is willing to use subs. That was a failing from Enzo who too often only made 1 or 2 subs. Maintaining a press is huge, it gets the entire team up the field and reduces the defensive pressure. Late on against tired legs, even squad players make a big difference. On top of the home grown lads, I expect to see Golding and Reid used this way (if they aren't starters). I can only see Vardy start half of our games at most, but in those games where he comes on in the last 20, he's still knows where the back of the net is, and guaranteed to put in a shift.

[whoareyaaa]

On 08/07/2024 at 21:16, Guest said:

I will be intrigued to see what's going to happen with Ricardo and Winks, who I think you could make a reasonable case for being two of our best players but who thrived last season in pretty specialised roles as part of a team that dominated possession every week. If we do end up in a 3-4-3 or similar then that strikes me as being bad news for both of them because I'm not convinced Ricardo is physically capable of getting up and down the flank these days (and maybe Justin isn't either) and similarly, is Winks mobile or athletic enough for a midfield two given we're likely to be without the ball most of the time? I could see the two of them in midfield together with someone more combative - whether that's a new signing along the lines of Florentino Luis or we can get Wilf to sign up and return to his old ball-winning ways - but then you're either sacking the wingers off or it's a back four. The former I think is obviously a bad idea considering we've got Mavididi, Fatawu and now also Reid, and if the latter then not only would the Okoli signing seem a bit unnecessary, you also have to wonder where that leaves Vestergaard and Coady who I think would really struggle unless in the middle of a three. **** knows.

I think we will line up 4 - 5 -1 to start with