Kitchandro

People can not rate the manager, acknowledge he should be starting certain players that he only brought on as sub, and still enjoy a comeback and last minute winner. I had to laugh that it was Ayew that got it.

1-1 Coca-Cola Cup final 1997.

I’d add that in the 90s stadiums were more varied / unique, visually interesting and atmospheric. Kits were more creative and artistic (took artistic risks even), tickets were cheaper and footballers weren’t as rich so they weren’t quite as detached from the average man. You could still probably see Leicester players at the local, and in the 70s my grandparents were actually acquainted with Leicester players and went to bars with them. Now there is no doubt that you have no shared experiences with these people that represent the club, and no reason to connect with them. I’m sure some people will say that there are things that are much better now, like the quality of the football (personally I find it quite boring and if there is more skill it hasn’t equated to being more wondrous or entertaining) but I think the bad things outweigh the positive changes. If you look at attendances and scorelines you could argue the 50s were even better, but certainly I think football is at its very lowest ebb, it’s basically dead with no tangible or even perceived link with local communities as people cotton on to the fact they are customers with absolutely no say in anything now most profits are from TV money and not ticket sales.

Disagree, Pearson had plenty of charisma, just not with the media. As a fan I loved his honesty and dry humour. In answer to the question I think it’s a really useful trait. Players need to believe in what you are saying, charm and confidence are a huge part of that. Players respond very differently depending on how motivational the manager is and that is personality. There are some exceptions of course, but it doesn’t help if everyone thinks you’re awkward or not likeable.

I have some extended highlights that I taped, not HD quality but it’s basically the whole season if you’d like a link.

It’s funny how ‘showing character’ to these managers always means staying in an extremely well-paid job and not changing anything about their approach to it, and rarely seems to mean having the courage to make bold, attacking decisions and analyse / change their tactical philosophy.

8 - 10 points would be good. I think 5 or 6 is more realistic. Anything less than 7 and he won’t have a leg to stand on.

Shakespeare, Pearson? Neither they nor Cooper had a solid history of that kind of football. All their managers have something in common - convenience. Most because they’ve managed in that division before and are usually readily available, want the job etc. They are the very basic choices someone who isn’t a professional would pluck out of thin air. Shakey was clearly well out of his depth but we kept him on full time anyway cos hey why not. Puel was a terrible appointment that did not progress the club (he wasn’t the DOF or the scout so his credit for signings is limited), Sven and Sousa were really poor appointments. Even if you could argue some of these were ok appointments in the short term, many were kept on way too long and left the club in a similar or worse position. Rodgers the best example of course. Others did very well of course but I’ve always maintained there was no deep scouting or thought put into choosing them like you see with Brighton.

People saying it’s too early need to be a bit more honest with themselves. The only thing that matters is this: do you think the performances are a fair reflection of Cooper’s tactics and selection and, if so, do you genuinely believe he will change? I’d say yes to the first question and, based on the fact he had similar tactical flaws at Forest, no he isn’t going to change. We need to be pragmatic at this football club. He doesn’t have what it takes, time will not change that because, like almost every manager, he will not change.

There are some people on this forum whom I know have been watching football for many years, but who give the impression that they haven’t. People who watch football know that if you put everyone behind the ball and invite pressure for over 15-20 minutes, you will concede 9 times out of 10. It’s just common sense. So it’s pointless blaming Coady when there was so much time and so many opportunities for Palace to capitalise on their territorial dominance. We weren’t playing the percentages and giving ourselves the best chance of hanging onto a lead (or extending it, which is still a viable option at 2-0 & 2-1 btw), and that is the criticism. If you’re playing well and not under the cosh, don’t start putting yourself under the cosh. It’s just cowardice and stupidity. What constantly surprises me is that there are so many professional coaches who have not learnt this.

Yeh, that’s a shit plan though. Backed up by the fact that we lost, and were well on top once we brought attacking players on.

One of those games where the manager gets cut some slack because we finished the game on the front foot, when the truth is he lost us the match by not starting the sort of attacking players who got us our goal. It is a difficult job here, but Cooper is not helping. He needs to realise we need more wins than other teams to survive because of the points deduction. The starting line-up was so negative, that midfield 3 is dreadful. Ref didn’t help by continually getting in the way, stopping the match, falling for their antics, inconsistent with his cards - and on the replay the Tielemens tackle on Vardy when there was a big protest from our players, looked a blatant penalty. The squad is weak but Cooper’s selections are making it worse. Poor manager.

Unless Edouard turns out to be the second coming of Vardy it’s been a poor window. Strange thread this, very negative until the window shuts and then people are happy because we signed another Palace reject on loan. We simply haven’t got enough goals in the squad and creativity comes down to Buonanotte, Fatawu and El Khannouss, who are realistically the only players who offer potential. Defensively we are very poor; too slow and mistakes all over the place. Yes we’ve signed players, but the majority of them don’t even improve our first 11. Are we better than last season? Not likely to be honest. I know it’s a difficult situation with the points deduction and spending restrictions. But once again the planning seems to be lacking. I can’t see the thought process in several of our signings besides just filling the squad with bodies.

It’s easy to just blame social media. I’ve no doubt it’s a factor, mainly because of all the negative news stories on there, like Parafox says, 25 years ago you were barely aware of this stuff. Now you have all this perspective of the world (i.e. it’s not a good place), and that’s too much for kids to handle. But frankly, I just think these figures are an accurate reflection on what life is, especially for young people. I’ve always thought school was a horrible, depressing place focused on conditioning you rather than helping you to become the best version of yourself. Everything about it is about fitting in with social expectations and, in the long term, funnelling you into areas of society where you will be most useful to it, rather than teaching you how to make the best of your life for yourself. Growing up is essentially realising that life is loads of pressure and expectations on you with no likelihood of fulfilment or enjoyment, the prospect of chasing down your next paycheque just to keep yourself alive felt very acutely even in your early teens. Connection is difficult because people (teens and adults) are just faking their way through life to be able to get through it. I had anxiety for my entire adolescence and was not fully aware of it until I was an adult. In my opinion, this is a typical experience. Even as adults, I think most of us are empty or depressed on a regular basis, but that feeling is normalised until we have just accepted it as part of living. We then project this onto our own children and the cycle continues. That’s why young people are key to making society better, they can see why they don’t like it without the prejudice of being conditioned to accept it. Society absolutely does not care about children or young people, I just think things are getting more accurately reported now (much like they are now with neurodivergence and sexual preference etc). This is one positive at least, the kids are understanding how they feel more and that’s a start.

At the same time there are probably hundreds of relatively unknown managers with potential out there who would have come. The type who back themselves to overcome a challenge and exceed expectations to put their name out there in a big European league. What do Brighton do? They scout. Our scouting may as well be non-existent, that’s why we end up with people like Cooper, Puel, Reid and Ayew. Maresca, as much as I didn’t really take to him, was at least a rare occasion where we didn’t just take the easy option - albeit it was still a bit basic to go ‘we’ll just get the guy who works with Pep and we’ll play like Man City’. Cooper isn’t an ambitious manager and it shows. He’s not at fault for us being relegation favourites, but he’s not an asset either. We could do better if we took scouting and preparation seriously.

Did he offer any goal threat or creativity? If the answer is no, he did badly. He’s a forward. I’d suggest he offered nothing in aid of us getting an equaliser. And that’s my issue with the signing, winning a free kick is not enough. We need goals and assists, otherwise why are we paying him?

Pretty much what I expect from us this season. The players are poor, the manager is poor, we’re not good enough. Chasing the game at 2-1, you look at the 11 on the pitch and you know there is very little chance of us scoring. Ayew and Reid are embarrassing signings and I don’t care what people say to the contrary.

So he gets fouled. Is he the only player on planet earth we can find who runs around and gets fouled? Sure there’s no young players with those qualities? The argument isn’t whether he’s liked at Palace, or even if he’s better than we think. It’s whether he offers something significant that we don’t already have in the squad. Otherwise, he’s a pointless waste of money, even if he’s an ok player.

NP was also bringing in young, quality players as a priority. With Vardy, Vestergaard, Ricardo, Ndidi, Reid, etc. we’re not short on experience. We’re short on quality. So again, we ask, what is the point of this signing?

Don’t want to get carried away because the half time score could have been embarrassing and this defence will ship a lot of goals. However, for the first time in years we saw grit and determination in a game we looked outclassed in, and that turned the tables. It’s amazing how much better we looked purely because of getting a bit of confidence from the goal. Very encouraged by Buonanotte, Vardy looked like he still belongs. Not confident we’ll stay up or anything, but a bit more hope than before the match.

Soumare on for someone playing well, no defending that decision.

Should have stayed on.

Considering the defence are playing like they’re not even on the pitch we may as well take one of them off and bring on a midfielder or Mavididi.

In 30/40 years time they won’t have bothered going for 25. There is absolutely nothing attractive about our club to teenagers or grown adults, the older fans will die and our fanbase will shrink. Parents won’t take their kids eventually as well, because it’s too expensive and they never had an affinity with the club when they were a teenager (i.e. now). Football represented something to me when I was young, now it represents something completely different. I still want the team to do well, but I’ll never pay for a ticket again.

It happened with Eric Dier, so yeh. He might be amazing for all I know but Spurs are not much better than mediocre really.