| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper 09:42 - Apr 12 with 1581 views | 9MilesHigh |
Saturday we were superb and so many talking points it's difficult to know where to start and it's difficult to give Cooper too much credit - at least for now.
The things we've been crying out for all season, we got, but namely...
* Tipping the balance between too many defensive players and not enough attacking players
* Playing the game the right way
* Patience - not afraid at all to play it along the back 4 from one side of the pitch to the other
* Passing - not afraid to keep passing the whole game
* Pulling their players out of position
* Creating chances
* Being brave - both on the ball and movement, not so rigid we are afraid to even think
* Kept on going - from minute 16 to minute 93 we didn't stop trying to build attacks.
So pretty much all of the above are the criticisms Cooper has faced and it got so bad he was thinking this maybe the end of the road for me at Swansea - and he wouldn't have been in this uncomfortable zone at all in his 18 months or so in charge of the Swans before.
We can argue until the cows come home how likely - but more so, unlikely - getting the boot would have been but if we're honest we all know how much pressure he was under going into the Millwall game.
So credit to Cooper?
Not for me, no chance.
Credit to the "noise" that had smashed his door down - oh yes.
Saturday also proved some opinions on here completely barking as well - namely "the squad shouldn't be where it is in the league" and we "haven't got the players for a more expansive game"..... oh and the silly little Cabango v Naughton debate that raged on for too long in certain quarters.
This squad isn't cheap, it's not just made up of youngsters and loanees and the budget is in the top echelons of the division.
This squad has always been capable of playing good football and pinging it around.
This squad has always had decent options up top so the whole "number 9" fallacy that Cooper cruelly created was as fake as his coaching style to date.
All this squad needed was a change of mentality, personnel and a freshening up of ideas.
It ain't any great coincidence that if you play with 8 defensive minded players and 5 at the back with 2 wing backs who aren't exactly renowned for their attacking presence you're not going to get free flowing football.
So I would love to know what went on behind the scenes since Preston. My personal take is the senior players have voiced their opinions and spoken out.
And lastly, a special mention for Routledge as another pair of footballing feet on the pitch did wonders for us. A shame Cooper bombed out Celina. |  | | |  |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 13:26 - Apr 12 with 568 views | Joe_bradshaw |
I’ll give him credit for realising that Connor Roberts isn’t the best right back at the club and if we’re going to play four at the back he doesn’t play. Roberts is clearly the best right wing back at the club so if we’re playing three he does play. Roberts maybe has the potential to play further forward on the right linking with a proper right back.
I hope he deserves credit for that and it wasn’t coincidence. |  |
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| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 13:32 - Apr 12 with 551 views | 9MilesHigh |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 13:26 - Apr 12 by Joe_bradshaw |
I’ll give him credit for realising that Connor Roberts isn’t the best right back at the club and if we’re going to play four at the back he doesn’t play. Roberts is clearly the best right wing back at the club so if we’re playing three he does play. Roberts maybe has the potential to play further forward on the right linking with a proper right back.
I hope he deserves credit for that and it wasn’t coincidence. |
I think there's also been some "noise" in recent games that Roberts was looking rough.
It's an interesting one with him though because I agree, Naughton kept us ticking over on Saturday. Played in some tight spots and influenced play.
I'm not sure Roberts has the guile/craft to play further forward but maybe... | | | |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 13:50 - Apr 12 with 526 views | vetchonian |
Well a few dyas available to get things sorted which have not been available for most of the season with us having a game mid week
We played the same formation against Preston, watch the game again we creqated several chances played some nice football .
Yes some changes in personnel Naughton and ROberts at the back, same midfield and Routledge for Whittaker. Also Milwall didnt put 10 men behind the ball as Preston did down here.
Managers fault when it goes wrong , Cooper deserves some credit....
You have accused him of "stumbling" onto the 3-5 2 yet he was "forced into this due to injury asnd like you he rcognises Guehi is not at his best in aflat back 4 so he made that change last season and it brought results...if it aint broke dont fix it.
A few things not gone our way of late so who is to say Cooper might have liked to change things before.
Routledge and Cullen got injured early in the Forest cup match and they were sidelined, who knows what combinations/rotations a dn formastions we may have seen had that not occurred.
Oh yes of course we had that full US international.....Jazz Richards is/was a full Welsh International yet many on here didnt want him in our side as they believed he was not good enough despite being a full International....
Change of personnel ? 3 from the Preston game BUT the same "pedestrian " midfield..the MOM is again a player so many on here love to have a go at and criticise Cooper for bring on as a sub
Cooper had alreadt changed the formation before this game..We did create chances againt Preston but as I said they usuallu had 10 men back packing the box.
I wonder had we drawn or lost to a last minute penalty or flukey own goal would the Cooper outs be raving about the performance...or if we hadnt scored another goal after going 1 up...
Coopers approach was risk averse...as I said before I believe he has been told to get up us up this year..
According to you the Yanks were nailed on to sack him....so why hadnt they....the international break would have been the ideal time
YOu state about playing with
"2 wing backs who aren't exactly renowned for their attacking presence you're not going to get free flowing football."
Yet much has been made on here about how our attacking wing backs whose assists and goals have contributed to our wins have been sussed out and nullified and that is why of late our form has suffered?
If you really believe pressure on social media and a "Players revolt" led to Saturday I m certainly glad you are not looking after my pension...or maybe I should consult Cooper on that as you seem more than happy to critique his approach to his profession |  |
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| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 13:50 - Apr 12 with 526 views | Joe_bradshaw |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 13:32 - Apr 12 by 9MilesHigh |
I think there's also been some "noise" in recent games that Roberts was looking rough.
It's an interesting one with him though because I agree, Naughton kept us ticking over on Saturday. Played in some tight spots and influenced play.
I'm not sure Roberts has the guile/craft to play further forward but maybe... |
Yeah, maybe with a complimentary player behind him. What I'm getting at is combinations of players can be effective. Rangel and Dyer on the right flank were superb for us for many years and the combination was greater than the sum of its parts. | |
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| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 13:59 - Apr 12 with 517 views | vetchonian |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 13:50 - Apr 12 by Joe_bradshaw |
Yeah, maybe with a complimentary player behind him. What I'm getting at is combinations of players can be effective. Rangel and Dyer on the right flank were superb for us for many years and the combination was greater than the sum of its parts. |
And Luadrup played Rangel and Tiendalli together at times at the right also with Rangel ahead of him to allow additional attacking options without sacrifing too much in defense. | |
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| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 14:10 - Apr 12 with 509 views | Catullus |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 13:15 - Apr 12 by Chief |
My eyes to what? |
Maybe that he gave Cooper some praise, if slight.
Isn'tit the thing in fotball, when things are going well sing players names, when things are going badly, criticise the manager!
To me it's a collective thing, they are all to blame or all to give crrdit to. The manager and players are the team, it's not the team plus Cooper. | |
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| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 14:53 - Apr 12 with 479 views | 9MilesHigh |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 13:50 - Apr 12 by vetchonian |
Well a few dyas available to get things sorted which have not been available for most of the season with us having a game mid week
We played the same formation against Preston, watch the game again we creqated several chances played some nice football .
Yes some changes in personnel Naughton and ROberts at the back, same midfield and Routledge for Whittaker. Also Milwall didnt put 10 men behind the ball as Preston did down here.
Managers fault when it goes wrong , Cooper deserves some credit....
You have accused him of "stumbling" onto the 3-5 2 yet he was "forced into this due to injury asnd like you he rcognises Guehi is not at his best in aflat back 4 so he made that change last season and it brought results...if it aint broke dont fix it.
A few things not gone our way of late so who is to say Cooper might have liked to change things before.
Routledge and Cullen got injured early in the Forest cup match and they were sidelined, who knows what combinations/rotations a dn formastions we may have seen had that not occurred.
Oh yes of course we had that full US international.....Jazz Richards is/was a full Welsh International yet many on here didnt want him in our side as they believed he was not good enough despite being a full International....
Change of personnel ? 3 from the Preston game BUT the same "pedestrian " midfield..the MOM is again a player so many on here love to have a go at and criticise Cooper for bring on as a sub
Cooper had alreadt changed the formation before this game..We did create chances againt Preston but as I said they usuallu had 10 men back packing the box.
I wonder had we drawn or lost to a last minute penalty or flukey own goal would the Cooper outs be raving about the performance...or if we hadnt scored another goal after going 1 up...
Coopers approach was risk averse...as I said before I believe he has been told to get up us up this year..
According to you the Yanks were nailed on to sack him....so why hadnt they....the international break would have been the ideal time
YOu state about playing with
"2 wing backs who aren't exactly renowned for their attacking presence you're not going to get free flowing football."
Yet much has been made on here about how our attacking wing backs whose assists and goals have contributed to our wins have been sussed out and nullified and that is why of late our form has suffered?
If you really believe pressure on social media and a "Players revolt" led to Saturday I m certainly glad you are not looking after my pension...or maybe I should consult Cooper on that as you seem more than happy to critique his approach to his profession |
"We played the same formation against Preston, watch the game again we creqated several chances played some nice football"
That's laughable, absolutely laughable. We created half chances at best and that's been ludicrously kind. We were diabolical.
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"Also Milwall didnt put 10 men behind the ball as Preston did down here."
What?????? Bloody hell, Preston took the game to us. They took the piss in fact, they were the only team trying to play or go for it. They were camped in our half. Never mind watch the game back - watch it properly.
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"so he made that change last season and it brought results...if it aint broke dont fix it."
It's been broken since January. That doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't ever play that again, it means we have needed to freshen up our thinking for far too long.
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"YOu state about playing with
"2 wing backs who aren't exactly renowned for their attacking presence you're not going to get free flowing football."
Yet much has been made on here about how our attacking wing backs whose assists and goals have contributed to our wins have been sussed out and nullified and that is why of late our form has suffered?"
Haven't you noticed how little as a team we've created and scored all season? Our 2 wing backs being one of our only hopes of an attacking sense then of course they're going to be chipping in with the odd assist or goal. But at what expense. If we had taken the first 6 months of the season like we took to the Millwall game then we'd have been creating and scoring a lot more.
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"If you really believe pressure on social media and a "Players revolt" led to Saturday I m certainly glad you are not looking after my pension...or maybe I should consult Cooper on that as you seem more than happy to critique his approach to his profession"
I honestly believe there's been strong discussions these last few days. The sheer mentality to even show the patience to go from side to side along the back four was so unbelievably refreshing. These last few months we've been lucky to have even seen the one pass at the back before it's hopelessly chipped upfield. There's no way Cooper's told them to express themselves more. Like you say, he is risk averse, that performance was anything but.
And where is your pension? In drawdown? Happy to have a look at that for you and make sure it's doing what it should be and you're not succumbing to the risk of ruin. | | | |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 14:57 - Apr 12 with 474 views | 9MilesHigh |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 13:50 - Apr 12 by Joe_bradshaw |
Yeah, maybe with a complimentary player behind him. What I'm getting at is combinations of players can be effective. Rangel and Dyer on the right flank were superb for us for many years and the combination was greater than the sum of its parts. |
Football is all about partnerships, units and chemistry and it's these key elements that Cooper hasn't been able to produce, well, any of them to date, really.
The huge difference between Rangel, Dyer and Roberts is technique. Rangel and Dyer's touch and passing was exquisite. Roberts wouldn't come close in that respect. He does have other qualities of course. | | | |
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| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 15:44 - Apr 12 with 451 views | monmouth |
Those comments about us in the Preston game made my jaw drop. We were so bad that day it just about made my eyes bleed. We’d been working up to it for two seasons, but that was Peak Cooperball. |  |
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| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 18:28 - Apr 12 with 405 views | Catullus |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 13:50 - Apr 12 by Joe_bradshaw |
Yeah, maybe with a complimentary player behind him. What I'm getting at is combinations of players can be effective. Rangel and Dyer on the right flank were superb for us for many years and the combination was greater than the sum of its parts. |
Yeah, we can go all the way back to Jimmy and Leighton, it just worked, some players just click with each other.
Someone wondered if Roberts had the nous for midfield, well he's good going forward, he can cross, has a long throw and he's a goal threat, maybe we could try him in front of Naughton sometime? | |
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| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 18:48 - Apr 12 with 402 views | 9MilesHigh |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 18:28 - Apr 12 by Catullus |
Yeah, we can go all the way back to Jimmy and Leighton, it just worked, some players just click with each other.
Someone wondered if Roberts had the nous for midfield, well he's good going forward, he can cross, has a long throw and he's a goal threat, maybe we could try him in front of Naughton sometime? |
Only trouble with that is overloading the team with more defensive players.
It may work but for Roberts to play there and take Saturday as an example he would have played instead of Lowe, Ayew or Routs and I'm not sure Roberts has the "feet" for that.
However, I would still like to see Bidwell and Manning in the same team. I think they are both worthy of a starting position.
So for me it would be Manning instead of Hourihane. | | | |
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