cityfanlee23

What a manager Danny Röhl is becoming.

9 shots, 5 on target, lose 3-1.

I need to take a deeper dive into this and look at the actual statistics of each match, but a brief look at Coopers 2x pre-seasons at Forest in the Premier League both threw up multiple mixed/poor results. In 18 pre season games in charge of Forest: W5 D4 L9. They failed to score in 8 of those matches. Obviously both of those pre-seasons were stronger than our 4 game stint this season. 22/23: 23/24:

No, you didn't read that.

No, sorry just to clarify i'm not suggesting for a moment that you were, but the original comment I replied to seemed to be taking a subtle dig by randomly referencing all the fans that wanted Enzo gone as if it's somehow our fault that the club appointed Cooper. But I'm not for a second saying you were sniping. Also I would give you some credit on the social media point, it's often hard to really gauge what the fans want apart from social media, most fans on social media wanted Rodgers gone 10 games into the season we went down, but in the ground they were mostly supportive of him from what I'd seen, so it is difficult to gauge. Yes I agree Cooper hasn't been pragmatic so far, but we couldn't have known that until he took charge, prior to taking charge he had a pretty evidenced record of being pragmatic, which is what most teams trying to fight survival need, that's not to say having a strong Plan A system can't work, but I think most of the fans who wanted Enzo to leave thought that his particular plan would not work without significant investment, and without that investment he would continue to force us to play that way and ultimately it would cost us, but I agree that's just a prediction.

To some extent I would agree, we do seem to be changing systems rapidly, under Cooper forest would change formation but the general principles of player were not miles apart, they seem to have just changed the positioning on the pitch to try to nullify opponents strengths, so far in pre-season we haven't really had any consistent style, and the changing of player positions has not really worked. This is the time to experiment, but usually you'd expect us to have some sort of system in place as a foundation that you tweak, it has felt like Cooper doesn't yet know what he he wants to do, and although criticism may be harsh because we are 4 friendly matches into his tenure, it's undeniably concerning. I'm far less confident in Steve Cooper now than I was before we kicked a ball.

It's a guess based on the evidence we had of a full season, you're right we will never know, all we can do is make educated predictions. It's fine to say to say you prefer Enzo's way, right now I agree most probably would given how poor we have been, but again, that's hindsight. Enzo had major flaws as a manager that most thought would be exploited, and Chelsea have been a bomb scare in pre season. The sniping is coming from people who are saying things like "Yeah for all you people who wanted enzo out what do you have to say now huh??!!?!" or words to that effect, that's just pointless sniping and it's disingenuous, I saw maybe 5 people maximum who wanted Cooper as their #1 choice, and the reasons given were legitimate reasons and well-argued. Many fans didn't WANT him but accepted him and got behind him because of his record with young players and his pragmatism, which most fans wanted. It's easy to forget but 10 games before the end of the season the fanbase was majority Enzo out mid-season, or at least Enzo out after the season conclusion, they were for reasons that had nothing to do with Cooper. Again, this idea that a premier league manager who had kept a team up, and was on track to keep them up again despite the club being in a transfer mess, didn't have a plan is just ridiculous, every single manager in this division has a "plan", some are just easier to understand, Enzo's system is really clear because he refuses to change it even when it's not working, you can't miss his plan, that doesn't mean that someone like Ten Haag doesn't have one because it's less obvious. Pragmatism in approach to your opponent is in itself a plan. Again, it's not about saying we can't compare what we have now to what we had before, it's about the subtle digs that Enzo fans are now taking to anyone who wanted him to leave on the basis of hindsight, it's pointless. Barely any of us wanted Cooper as our first choice, but that doesn't delegitimise wanting Enzo to move on. Criticise Cooper all you want he deserves to be criticised for his pre-season performance in charge of us, because whether we are short on player quality, he's obviously made our existing players play worse so far. But don't use that to snipe at fans.

Credit to his dad but for his foresight but I don’t think anyone could be prepared for that

No, it’s using known information about his style of play and stubbornness to make a prediction over how we will do given our financial restrictions. Using the past performance of Enzo to attack cooper is just using hindsight to attack a guy who has inherited a mess because you believe he doesn’t have a Plan A, something that was impossible to know before he took charge here. Of course it’s an undeniable fact that Enzo pre season looked better, again, what’s the point in this observation? Everyone can see we look poor, but you’re comparing the past to the present using hindsight. It’s a silly argument (my original reply was to a post that implied some of the fans are to blame for the current mess because we wanted Enzo to leave even though there were very legitimate reasons) You’re well within your right to compare the two side by side, but this pointless sniping between fans using hindsight to dig at others is irrelevant. Barely anyone wanted Cooper as #1. Pragmatism was his plan in the league, pragmatism is changing your team to counter the opposition and it’s a very legitimate plan. Just as sticking to one system is a plan.

Again this is such a pointless gotcha, cooper had a plan at Forest, how would anyone know he would come here and seemingly not have one? Enzo leaving and cooper joining are completely seperate events, many people wanted Enzo to go, I really don’t know of many who had cooper as their number 1 choice. We haven’t kicked a ball yet in the league, we play like we have in pre season and he will be gone in 5 games, but I also believe we would get battered under Enzo and think he won’t last the season at Chelsea. But I don’t see the point in comparing the two when we had absolutely no idea who was going to replace Enzo.

Enzo was bemoaned for completely legitimate reasons and Chelsea have been a bomb scare defensively in pre season, a large portion of Chelsea fans are massively worried, regardless of what Cooper does with us, we would very likely have gone down with a manager like Enzo who needed massive scale investment and would refuse to change if it wasn't going to work, plus the fact he got offered the job of one of the richest teams in world football. Cooper so far has been massively disappointing, but that has nothing to do with "gotcha" points about Enzo. Cooper needs to pull this team together or he will be gone within 5-10 games, we've been absolutely awful.

Now this is a player I like, needs to check his attitude from what I’ve heard but if cooper can get his best out we have a very good player here.

Any bargains to be found? This is absolutely ridiculous.

4-0... 2 goals in 2 minutes, absolutely awful Chelsea.

He's learned nothing. Man City have overloaded the midfield and Enzoball collapsed which is essentially what 95% of teams did against us playing in a deep block with no space for Winks to move. Hopefully the second half will be more entertaining.

As of right now I think we might go down, but that’s based on the fact we have this potential deduction looming and still don’t know how much it is, and the fact we’ve had a pretty poor window. If we have £30m to splash on a player like Soule, then that suggests we must be atleast able to spend £50m or so, with that we need a minimum of 3 permanent signings + a few loans. If we can sign a few half decent players though I would likely change my prediction to scraping survival.

Not really our loss to be honest, £30m was way too much for him in my opinion. To be honest I’m just happy to learn we have that sort of money to spend on another player, then again we probably have Rudkin starting up the casino again to be forking out 30m for him.

Did we ever find out if we had a Hall of Fame? I think if we don’t it’s time we had one.

He needs something in the memorial garden. He was a key part of the revival of our club and helped take us right to the very top of the game.

Massive part of our history, will be remembered fondly. Rest in peace, Shakey.

Regarding Soumare I’d be fine with Cooper giving him a chance. Was quality in Ligue 1 and then joined us under a massively declining Rodgers and then was quite good in multiple games under a firefighter attempt from Dean Smith. If Cooper sees something in him I’m willing to give him a proper chance just as I said we should with Ndidi under Enzo. Soumare has been disappointing so far, but he joined a club in Freefall, everyone was declining in the 18+ months prior to relegation.

Steve Coopers tactics will be completely irrelevant if we go into this season with Danny Ward as our goalkeeper. If we do sell Mads and we don't sign a goalkeeper to replace him and we go into the first game of the season with Ward in goal, I'll very likely be Cooper out from match 1. I really hope Ward is getting game time purely because he needs the fitness to be available to loan or Sell, please Steve, my anxiety is hurting already.

Hargreaves and Savage 👍

Fantastic diplomat and he’s a great person, left us in a far better position than he inherited, Southgate is the sort of person you’d want representing your country, but ultimately I don’t think the team suited his style and he wasn’t able to adapt his style to play attacking, aggressive football that many of our players are used to. If it’s got to be English, then Howe is the only name we should be going for. Potter would be a sideways step to a manager who simply wouldn’t suit the players at his disposal. If they are open to foreign managers then throw the wallet at Klopp, and if he turns it down Poch would be the next logical step. Tuchel is still a top manager but again not sure he’s attacking enough for my liking on the international stage. I want to be excited by England again.