3 games in, 1 point, overall assessment …

[The_77]

We should have been down by several goals at halftime against Spurs and Villa.
 

We cannot accept Ricardo’s exclusion or Cooper allowing his defenders to do anything but defend. 
 

I get where we are as a club and I’m OK with us losing plenty of games this season; however, Cooper is not helping matters with his decisions and his inability to answer simple questions about what he’s doing with our players. 

 

 

 

 

[Guest Chocolate Teapot]

I don't think Justin has been that good but I think people are forgetting how good ricardo actually is.

 

Playing walking football in the champ as a midfielder is very different to what he's going to have to do this season. I get the selection tbh.

[Ric Flair]

Just now, Chocolate Teapot said:

I don't think Justin has been that good but I think people are forgetting how good ricardo actually is.

 

Playing walking football in the champ as a midfielder is very different to what he's going to have to do this season. I get the selection tbh.

Justin hasn't been that active though. He has defensively but he's by no means up and down like a modern full back is. He's being asked to sit, which Ricardo can do very well. One of his best assets is his last ditch defending too but more importantly he is one of the players in this squad who know how to retain possession when the opposition are coming after us wave after wave.

 

I think we could employ 50 different managers and less than 5% of them would be doing this to Ricardo. 

[Guest Chocolate Teapot]

4 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Justin hasn't been that active though. He has defensively but he's by no means up and down like a modern full back is. He's being asked to sit, which Ricardo can do very well. One of his best assets is his last ditch defending too but more importantly he is one of the players in this squad who know how to retain possession when the opposition are coming after us wave after wave.

 

I think we could employ 50 different managers and less than 5% of them would be doing this to Ricardo. 

I've never been impressed with Ricardo's defending tbh. Justin is a way better one on one defender. Imo.

 

There are many legitimate things you can hammer Cooper for but ricardo vs Justin is just leicester fans imagining it's 2020.

Edited 1 September by Chocolate Teapot

[The_77]

4 minutes ago, Chocolate Teapot said:

I've never been impressed with Ricardo's defending tbh. Justin is a way better one on one defender. Imo.

Ricardo was a very weak defender when he first came to us but he worked his ass off on improving in that department. I think he’s every bit as good as Justin and Kristiansen in the tackle and he is far better at pushing up the pitch or making a safe pass once he wins the ball. 

[Guest Chocolate Teapot]

Just now, The_77 said:

Ricardo was a very weak defender when he first came to us but he worked his ass off on improving in that department. I think he’s every bit as good as Justin and Kristiansen in the tackle and he is far better at pushing up the pitch or making a safe pass once he wins the ball. 

He was certainly but his last two seasons in the prem were anonymous, maybe Cooper sees that?

[Ric Flair]

5 minutes ago, Chocolate Teapot said:

I've never been impressed with Ricardo's defending tbh. Justin is a way better one on one defender. Imo.

 

There are many legitimate things you can hammer Cooper for but ricardo vs Justin is just leicester fans imagining it's 2020.

Justin is very good 1 v 1 but positionally we know he's vulnerable and Ricardo's strength is those last ditch tackles, plus his obvious prowess at passing and ball retention.

 

It's a contentious one. It's hard to accept given Justin has struggled massively to regain the sort of form he showed before that horrible injury in late January 2021, where as last season albeit in a different position Ricardo just looked so good and Justin steady.

 

Cooper's PL teams average almost 2 goals against in 58 games as a manager and an inability to keep hold of the ball. Decisions like this perpetuate and facilitate it.

 

 

[The_77]

1 minute ago, Chocolate Teapot said:

He was certainly but his last two seasons in the prem were anonymous, maybe Cooper sees that?

Then why can’t Cooper answer simple questions about him without stumbling over his words and acting like he’s never even heard of a player named Ricardo?

[ARM1968]

If we approached games more positively we would likely get more out of them. Currently it seems Cooper wishes to keep things tight first half and then try a bit more 2nd half. That is t working. When we go for it we actually look quite good. Cooper needs to take the breaks off and actually allow the team to fight for the points. We’re not going to nick safety by staying tight. 

[Guest Chocolate Teapot]

1 minute ago, Ric Flair said:

Justin is very good 1 v 1 but positionally we know he's vulnerable and Ricardo's strength is those last ditch tackles, plus his obvious prowess at passing and ball retention.

 

It's a contentious one. It's hard to accept given Justin has struggled massively to regain the sort of form he showed before that horrible injury in late January 2021, where as last season albeit in a different position Ricardo just looked so good and Justin steady.

 

Cooper's PL teams average almost 2 goals against in 58 games as a manager and an inability to keep hold of the ball. Decisions like this perpetuate and facilitate it.

 

 

Well exactly....theres bigger problems in the team than a bloke that would have pulled a hamstring in the first 5 mins against Spurs.

[Guest Chocolate Teapot]

6 minutes ago, The_77 said:

Then why can’t Cooper answer simple questions about him without stumbling over his words and acting like he’s never even heard of a player named Ricardo?

No idea, maybe Ricardo is still sulking because Enzo left.

[The_77]

4 minutes ago, Chocolate Teapot said:

No idea, maybe Ricardo is still sulking because Enzo left.

Never thought I would be too but here we are. 

[Guest Chocolate Teapot]

Just now, The_77 said:

Never thought I would be too but here we are. 

Think we need to give cooper a chance. We signed 5 players in the last two weeks of the window and they're all improvements on what we've got.

 

We've no idea how fit those players are realistically. He's been royally stitched by the Club and will take the flak but I saw something in the second half yesterday that makes me feel more positive than I have been about the club in a long long time.

[The_77]

3 minutes ago, Chocolate Teapot said:

Think we need to give cooper a chance. We signed 5 players in the last two weeks of the window and they're all improvements on what we've got.

 

We've no idea how fit those players are realistically. He's been royally stitched by the Club and will take the flak but I saw something in the second half yesterday that makes me feel more positive than I have been about the club in a long long time.

Hey, at least he sat Reid. Baby steps but still progress. 

[dannythefox]

We’ve got problems now with who we can actually get on the pitch, Ricky P needs to start, that new kid and Stephy he’s going to have to change it he’s got no choice. Need a win out the next two 

[StriderHiryu]

Extremely relevant to many of the thoughts in this thread!
 

 

 

 

[Royston.]

1 point more than expected.

 

We haven't been thrashed (yet)

 

Cooper neglecting Ricardo and using Mavidid as an impact sub, using 3 DM's

 

The usual finger up the arse approach to transfers in and out.

 

 

 

[Royston.]

13 hours ago, Chocolate Teapot said:

Think we need to give cooper a chance. We signed 5 players in the last two weeks of the window and they're all improvements on what we've got.

 

We've no idea how fit those players are realistically. He's been royally stitched by the Club and will take the flak but I saw something in the second half yesterday that makes me feel more positive than I have been about the club in a long long time.

Cheese's inflatable dinosaur???

[kristianity77]

Thing is, we aren’t good enough to play a tight game and nick a goal or two and hope we win every once in a while.

 

so with that option pointless, why don’t we just go out and ya know, try to win and play on the front foot?  It might mean our goal difference is worse come the end of the season but goal difference means nothing if you don’t have points on the board in the first place.

 

i accept we are going down, but id rather go down like Blackpool did rather than how Sheffield United did last season 

[Babylon]

Jesus, the way people go on about Ricardo, you'd think it wasn't the same player who managed to only start about 28 games in his last three Premier League seasons combined. 

 

Anyway, I've seen enough to be encouraged. I appreciate the effort and attitude from the players, we really need to just start off a bit more positive. I can understand a bit of caution as he gets used to the players and see how they all fit together. But we don't have the time for that to take too long, I need to start seeing a little bit more positivity. 

 

He can't make the players make better decisions though, there are so many brain farts at the minute, I swear most of our issues against Villa were down to us doing sloppy passes. 

Edited 2 September by Babylon

[Ric Flair]

I just think we as a fan base but more importantly the club need to be quick to realise the situation we're in and we've very little margin for error.

 

I accept any notion of getting rid of him currently is premature even though I stand by my reasons. But how long do we give him? The next 6 games, 5 of them are against our relegation threatened rivals. 

 

With a potential points deduction hanging over us, Cooper's track record in this league, I don't think we can afford to let him carry on through that critical period if he's masterminding a pillocks of it.

 

If we don't win 1 of the next 2, he's got to be under the spotlight, especially if his decision making continues to baffle.

 

I think 2 wins from the next 4 otherwise bounce him before it's too late.

 

I hope we look back on this and I can be criticised for being too impatient.

[OwnGoal]

We’ve looked very poor at 0-0 in all three games. Looked like a team who’d struggle to win 5 or 6 games all season. Chasing the game after conceding as offered a little bit of hope. Whether we’ll be able play like that against an opposition who aren’t winning is the key going forward. Last twenty on Saturday with more attacking players on we look more than capable of staying up. Will we still look dangerous though if we start with that setup or will we get picked off being to adventurous. Next two games will tell us loads more. 

[FoxOnWheels]

Winks, Ndidi and Skipp together if people are happy with that I’m out of words I get being solid but you have to score goals as well and attack teams none of those 3 can effectively thread balls through or score themselves so it just leaves us competing in the battle in the middle of the pitch but then when we have the ball there’s nothing dangerous happening cause it isn’t in any of them 3’s game

[Chico1958]

I feel for Steve Cooper, He's come to a Club where the Fans were against his employment from the start, with a Mediocre Team with low budget additions.

 

His Team Selection has been poor at times but we don't know what's been going on behind the scenes.

 

Wout Faes coming out and saying he's unhappy, perhaps Ricardo feels or has said the same.

 

I agree with the 3 DMs was baffling on Saturday, although we are not privy to fitness levels either.

 

In glimpses we've looked good in particular when Mavididi has come on.

 

So for me I'll give Cooper some slack until we start playing Teams that we should be on par with 

 

Palace

Everton

Bournemouth

Southampton

Forest

Ipswich.

 

[orangecity23]

This tactic of "keeping it tight" by starting defensively cannot keep happening, because as it stands we pose zero attacking threat at all in the first half of games so far. All we've done is given ourselves a handicap which requires us to score multiple goals while chasing a game. Trying to keep it tight against villa meant we needed to score 3 goals in 20 minutes to win.

 

I wouldn't be opposed to it if we had set up in a solid block which carried a counter attack threat but there isn't one. Abdul is the only pacy player starting and he is often pinned back at right back. We are getting penned in to our own half where we give up chances because it's hard to have the space to get any possession going. Having Mavididi back in would give us pace on both flanks, plus add one of the number 10s to give us a chance of retaining the ball and progressing it down the centre (it could even be Ayew at 10 if Cooper is determined to get his experience in there and his hold up play could be useful) and we could be a lot more solid at the back by having a threat in the other direction, as the opposition will have to back off a bit to not leave themselves open to a counter attack.