| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper 09:42 - Apr 12 with 1577 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 10:08 - Apr 12 with 979 views | KeithHaynes |
Absolutely, 100% nail on the head. |  |
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| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 10:08 - Apr 12 with 966 views | onehunglow |
Briefly. I agree with Chris,which is something in itself.
I do believe the players have had enough of Cooper and roiled into him,then gone out and done the business ,which is the main thing. |  |
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| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 10:21 - Apr 12 with 962 views | KeithHaynes |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 10:08 - Apr 12 by onehunglow |
Briefly. I agree with Chris,which is something in itself.
I do believe the players have had enough of Cooper and roiled into him,then gone out and done the business ,which is the main thing. |
Thing is there wasn’t much in the way of change, the usual suspects were picked with Routledge. I thought again we were slightly lucky early on, and the dodgy free kick which led to them hitting the post was another bit of luck. However, the whole thing seemed more fluid, quicker and the players seemed to want it. Whatever happened then I hope it happens again tomorrow. | |
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| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 10:22 - Apr 12 with 961 views | Badlands |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 10:08 - Apr 12 by onehunglow |
Briefly. I agree with Chris,which is something in itself.
I do believe the players have had enough of Cooper and roiled into him,then gone out and done the business ,which is the main thing. |
It's what's coming through the rumour mill and coincides with the social media blackout.
Coincidence?
I don’t believe in them.
We played extremely well, our shots went in and theirs didn't, we had two real fullbacks and 1 1/2 cbs.
That said Millwall tried playing football, their press was very loose and defence lost its structure for long periods. We have done well against teams who don't quickly close down our players. |  |
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| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 10:26 - Apr 12 with 948 views | Dr_Winston |
Ayew ran straight over to Cooper and celebrated with him so I'm note sure if there was a serious chance of a player revolt. A frank and honest exchange of views perhaps.
But yeah. Performances like that do nail the lie that this squad is incapable of playing decent attacking football or scoring goals. We can but hope that this is the lesson that finally sinks in with Cooper, or whether he will again revert to type in the future. |  |
| Pain or damage don't end the world. Or despair, or f*cking beatings. The world ends when you're dead. Until then, you got more punishment in store. Stand it like a man... and give some back. |
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| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 10:31 - Apr 12 with 949 views | 9MilesHigh |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 10:22 - Apr 12 by Badlands |
It's what's coming through the rumour mill and coincides with the social media blackout.
Coincidence?
I don’t believe in them.
We played extremely well, our shots went in and theirs didn't, we had two real fullbacks and 1 1/2 cbs.
That said Millwall tried playing football, their press was very loose and defence lost its structure for long periods. We have done well against teams who don't quickly close down our players. |
I agree with that. I said early in the game that Millwall were missing a huge trick here as they allowed Matty to drop into the sweeper position and dictate play for us.
However, we weren't afraid to keep the ball, we didn't look like the bloody thing was alien to us and we sprayed it around with patience. You have got to have the belief and mindset to do that so what changed. There's no way Cooper would have got stuck into them to do that after knocking it out of them for 2 seasons.
Our front 3 as well were completely fluid. Routs played both centrally and on both flanks. There was a lot of interchanging and we looked dangerous throughout.
But coming back down to earth, they had some decent early chances and hit the post second half - but it's my belief that if we can have the confidence to keep playing like we did, we'll score a lot more goals and then we won't have to rely on trying to defend a crappy 1 nil lead. | | | |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 10:34 - Apr 12 with 947 views | 34dfgdf54 |
Let the shackles off, and we score over two goals in one game for the first time this season against one of the form sides in league.
We have the players, 100%.
Lowe was brought in as a striker, Cooper said when we signed him, Saturday shows what he's capable of when playing with confidence. |  | | |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 10:39 - Apr 12 with 940 views | 9MilesHigh |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 10:26 - Apr 12 by Dr_Winston |
Ayew ran straight over to Cooper and celebrated with him so I'm note sure if there was a serious chance of a player revolt. A frank and honest exchange of views perhaps.
But yeah. Performances like that do nail the lie that this squad is incapable of playing decent attacking football or scoring goals. We can but hope that this is the lesson that finally sinks in with Cooper, or whether he will again revert to type in the future. |
That was telling, but I'm not sure what exactly it said.
Ayew has done this before, mind, he did it early doors under Cooper when Cooper had brought him in from out in the cold. Cooper also starts Ayew religiously and never hooks him when sometimes it's been more than deserved, so Ayew does indeed have a lot to thank Cooper for.
It could be as simple as that.
It could be that Cooper was willing to try something different after the frank discussions and Ayew was thanking him for that. Not every manager is willing to change, so maybe credit to Cooper for that.
But it was a good move, some decent close quarters passing and we created the overload on the right with Ayew in space. Maybe it was allowing the front 3 to be more fluid in their positioning as they interchanged the whole game - and to great effect.
We''ll have to deal with teams who really press high again in the future so I am not dull enough to think, that's it, we've cracked it, as they allowed Matty too much time and he could come back and turn and play facing their goal. Some teams won't let us do that....
But the more we're on the ball and can find the guts to look to keep it, patient, possession based with fluidity of movement ahead the more we'll be able to deal with high presses and the more space we'll have when we beat the press.
It's got to be more of the same and not revert back to Cooper-ball. | | | |
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| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 10:44 - Apr 12 with 929 views | 9MilesHigh |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 10:34 - Apr 12 by 34dfgdf54 |
Let the shackles off, and we score over two goals in one game for the first time this season against one of the form sides in league.
We have the players, 100%.
Lowe was brought in as a striker, Cooper said when we signed him, Saturday shows what he's capable of when playing with confidence. |
Think it was the second time but otherwise, spot on.
What chance does any striker have when the rest of the team behind you is incapable of building any sort of flowing attacks.
Play with freedom and movement and the goals will come. It's never been about this "number 9" - that was always just Cooper making excuses and looking to shift the blame and focus away from him. | | | |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 10:57 - Apr 12 with 914 views | Dr_Winston |
Our performances this season remind me so much of those in the early stages of the 17/18 campaign, in that there's clearly far more attacking ability in the team than they're being allowed to show by the way the manager is choosing to set the team up.
Had Clement had more bottle at the time we could easily have picked up another five or six points and not been relegated at all. Just hope we don't rue a similar missed opportunity. | |
| Pain or damage don't end the world. Or despair, or f*cking beatings. The world ends when you're dead. Until then, you got more punishment in store. Stand it like a man... and give some back. |
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| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 11:04 - Apr 12 with 909 views | Thornburyswan |
Will be interesting to see what he does for Sheffield Weds, very easy to make the case to revert back to the 5 at the back to include Cabango to combat their physical get the ball in the box approach.
If we stick to the Millwall side I’d expect us to concede but we should be better going forward to - heart says 2-3 but might have to settle for 2-2. | | | |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 11:08 - Apr 12 with 902 views | Catullus |
Obviously I want the change we saw against Millwall to keep going, I want the same fuidity and attacking intent but I will still sound a note of caution. How good were Millwall? Others have said we were a bit lucky early on AND Millwall didn't close us down like other teams.
How we deal with a good press going forward will be the test, assuming we keep the same team and tactics.
I'm hopeful of another win and more than 1 goal but as much as anything, whatever the result I want good performance. It wasn't pleasant watching decent players looking like rabbits caught in headlights, scared to pass, scared to move, scared to shoot. What we saw against Millwall must keep on being seen. Be brave, be adventurous and if we do go up, do it because we deserve it. | |
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| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 11:09 - Apr 12 with 900 views | 9MilesHigh |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 11:04 - Apr 12 by Thornburyswan |
Will be interesting to see what he does for Sheffield Weds, very easy to make the case to revert back to the 5 at the back to include Cabango to combat their physical get the ball in the box approach.
If we stick to the Millwall side I’d expect us to concede but we should be better going forward to - heart says 2-3 but might have to settle for 2-2. |
For me it's not just about the formation
I have no problem with 352.
The issues we have had is the lack of attacking options and the ability to create chances. We can play a whole lot better with 352 than we've done this season.
The other issue is the unwillingness to change things up and have an effective plan B.
Hopefully we've now all seen that this group pf players are capable of keeping it tight and playing bloody good football. | | | |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 11:17 - Apr 12 with 888 views | jasper_T |
Until the second goal we weren't anything noteworthy, even for a Cooper performance. Did look more confident after absorbing early second half pressure but it wasn't until Rowett changed their system with the triple sub on the hour that we pulled away and actually looked the better team. They tried force themselves back into the game, didn't work and it opened them up to the counter. After our second their heads dropped and the third goal while classy was near walking pace for much of the buildup.
Nice scoreline but we've played better under Cooper this season, against better sides. Hopefully it's the start of an upturn in performance rather than a peak. | | | |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 11:18 - Apr 12 with 886 views | 9MilesHigh |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 11:17 - Apr 12 by jasper_T |
Until the second goal we weren't anything noteworthy, even for a Cooper performance. Did look more confident after absorbing early second half pressure but it wasn't until Rowett changed their system with the triple sub on the hour that we pulled away and actually looked the better team. They tried force themselves back into the game, didn't work and it opened them up to the counter. After our second their heads dropped and the third goal while classy was near walking pace for much of the buildup.
Nice scoreline but we've played better under Cooper this season, against better sides. Hopefully it's the start of an upturn in performance rather than a peak. |
Totally disagree with almost all of this | | | |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 11:43 - Apr 12 with 853 views | builthjack |
A positive post. Crickey. |  |
| Swansea Indepenent Poster Of The Year 2021. Dr P / Mart66 / Roathie / Parlay / E20/ Duffle was 2nd, but he is deluded and thinks in his little twisted brain that he won. Poor sod. We let him win this year, as he has cried for a whole year. His 14 usernames, bless his cotton socks.
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| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 11:50 - Apr 12 with 845 views | Chief |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 11:43 - Apr 12 by builthjack |
A positive post. Crickey. |
Well apart from stopping short of giving credit to the manager. Who was actually the bloke who the picked the players and set up the side to go and win the game mind.
Oh yea it was 'the noise'.
Pathetic |  |
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| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 12:13 - Apr 12 with 818 views | monmouth |
All about attitude and mindset and using the players for a plan rather than imposing a plan on the players.
If Cooper has changed, great., and I don’t really care what the cause was. If he hasn’t and reverts to type, we’ll soon be back in the Clement/Monk/Clotet rut, going nowhere.
It will be fascinating to see the power battle...maybe even him with himself. At least there’s some hope in the season now. I really hope if he goes ‘same again’ that the result if it’s not good doesn’t see him use that as an excuse for Negative City Nebraska again. |  |
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| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 12:41 - Apr 12 with 798 views | builthjack |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 11:50 - Apr 12 by Chief |
Well apart from stopping short of giving credit to the manager. Who was actually the bloke who the picked the players and set up the side to go and win the game mind.
Oh yea it was 'the noise'.
Pathetic |
Never forget the noise | |
| Swansea Indepenent Poster Of The Year 2021. Dr P / Mart66 / Roathie / Parlay / E20/ Duffle was 2nd, but he is deluded and thinks in his little twisted brain that he won. Poor sod. We let him win this year, as he has cried for a whole year. His 14 usernames, bless his cotton socks.
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| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 12:55 - Apr 12 with 785 views | nantywatcher |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 11:50 - Apr 12 by Chief |
Well apart from stopping short of giving credit to the manager. Who was actually the bloke who the picked the players and set up the side to go and win the game mind.
Oh yea it was 'the noise'.
Pathetic |
Spot on Chief - there are some real numpties on here. Their opinions must come from reading too many Roy of the Rovers comics. | | | |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 13:03 - Apr 12 with 774 views | 9MilesHigh |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 12:55 - Apr 12 by nantywatcher |
Spot on Chief - there are some real numpties on here. Their opinions must come from reading too many Roy of the Rovers comics. |
You think we took to the game v Millwall with the same mentality and mindset we've done for 85%/90% of the season?
That would be the sheer definition of a numpty. | | | |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 13:03 - Apr 12 with 772 views | 9MilesHigh |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 12:13 - Apr 12 by monmouth |
All about attitude and mindset and using the players for a plan rather than imposing a plan on the players.
If Cooper has changed, great., and I don’t really care what the cause was. If he hasn’t and reverts to type, we’ll soon be back in the Clement/Monk/Clotet rut, going nowhere.
It will be fascinating to see the power battle...maybe even him with himself. At least there’s some hope in the season now. I really hope if he goes ‘same again’ that the result if it’s not good doesn’t see him use that as an excuse for Negative City Nebraska again. |
Chief,
I refer you to this... | | | |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 13:12 - Apr 12 with 763 views | Chief |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 13:03 - Apr 12 by 9MilesHigh |
Chief,
I refer you to this... |
For what reason? | |
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| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 13:13 - Apr 12 with 761 views | 9MilesHigh |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 13:12 - Apr 12 by Chief |
For what reason? |
It's a nicer way of getting a message across.
Hopefully opens up your eyes. | | | |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 13:15 - Apr 12 with 759 views | Chief |
| "The" Best Football we've played under Cooper on 13:13 - Apr 12 by 9MilesHigh |
It's a nicer way of getting a message across.
Hopefully opens up your eyes. |
My eyes to what? | |
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