MancFox24

I'm trying to defend Cooper as much as possible but I'm really struggling to see why you'd leave Mavididi out of a side when your only chance is on the counter and play Soumare in a game where you're gonna need energy in midfield

Don't see how we carry on with 4-3-3 with Fatawu's injury. Would be tempted to go to a back 3 and get your width from wing backs rather than sticking Ayew or Buonanotte out there

I think the game just sums up where we are at the minute. We play some ok stuff at times, look competitive for most of it, but lack quality in both boxes. I've got no enthusiasm for Cooper but I'm still not as convinced as others that we'd be much better off with anybody else we could realistically get

Sad to see that KDH can't even make the Chelsea bench. He'll end up losing at least a season out of his career when he should be just about reaching his prime

Went into the season worrying where the goals were going to come from but it's the other end of the pitch which is a bigger concern at the minute. As well as individual errors, we're lacking bite in the midfield. Winks and Skipp are similar profile players- nice footballers but way too easy to get through

Skipp is a nice footballer but he seems to lose every 50/50 challenge which ain't great for a midfielder

Right, get this half out the way with minimal damage and focus on Ipswich

No point wetting the bed like some on here, but when you're struggling to win fans over, I don't think putting a midfield of skipp and soumare away at man utd is the most sensible thing to do

Fair point, lots on here have already made their mind up about Cooper so a scrappy win at home against Bournemouth ain't changing that

Played some nice stuff first half, could definitely see some patterns of play. Second half wasn't good but hopefully that first win will give everyone some belief. Faes was immense today

Short of coming out and saying 'please sack me', you could interpret anything he said as being 'please don't sack me'. Or anything any other manager has ever said in any press conference. I get people don't like him but it gets to the point where people start picking up on anything just to get at him. I thought he came across OK in this press conference, much better than the week before.

Don't buy into this stuff. You can be a 'vibes' man but it will only get you so far. Wouldn't say Pep, Arteta, Slot, Maresca, Ten Haag have too many of these qualities either

I'm somewhere in between really. I think man for man it's probably one of the 3 worst squads in the league so 17th would be a good result this year. But I'm not thrilled with what Cooper's doing. I'm just willing to give him a bit more of a chance than most others on here. And I'm not convinced that a Maresca style team would be doing any better.

Yeah, a win would have been good. They would be thinking the same thing as well. Draw isn't the end of the world

Or I'm just more realistic about where the club is at than you. We're playing for 17th this year and based on the squad we've got that would be a good result. Of course the football isn't great but before a ball was kicked this season I was expecting some big defeats early on so I'm pleased that we've been competitive in all the games

Yes and yes

Much better second half. Mavididi was good, Kristiansen has improved, Okoli looks a beast, Ndidi put in a shift but just lacks a bit of quality at the end. There's encouraging things there. It's not nearly as bad as this forum would have you think it is

Possibly, I just think you need the buy in of the fans first before you start with the siege mentality stuff. To me, it looks more like a self preservation thing. I'd much prefer him trying to create a positive atmosphere around the place because I think there have been things to be encouraged by in the first 4 games

I think the point is that there would have been more in the media either way if it had been one of the big clubs. I honestly don't know whether it was onside or not but it was interesting what Mike Dean said about Selhurst Park being a difficult ground to get VAR decisions correct

Of course it would have been all over the media if that VAR decision happened to one of the big clubs, but I don't see the point in spending over half of your pre match press conference for the next game talking about it. Yeah he asked about it but he was also asked a couple of times about Edouard and he seemed far more comfortable going on a rant about VAR than he did about talking up the qualities of Edouard.

I wasn't a fan of Cooper's appointment and I really can't stand his constant blathering on about refereeing decisions. But 4 games in and I actually give us a better chance of survival now than before the season began (not just because of the point deduction decision). The football hasn't been great but we've been competitive in all the games and have scored in every one, despite the defensive set up. I imagine the target given to Cooper at the start of the year was 17th and while that's still a realistic possibility, I can't see them getting rid of him any time soon.

More encouraging performance today and hopefully the international break will give time for the new players to settle in. Still not really sure why we spent £20 million on Skipp who seems to do the same things as Winks. Surely that money should have gone on a striker

I can see why he's going for this midfield against a champions league team, and I don't think he'll play them all against weaker teams. But I think at home we need to be more adventurous against all but the very best. Skipp and Winks are doing pretty much the same job (Skipp better than Winks in that first half)

Their xg was about the same as ours by the end of the game. Their chances mainly came from balls into the box and winning the first header. There's going to be lots of games this year where we have to sit in, soak up pressure and play in moments so you're going to be in for a long season if you're so down about that performance tonight

Good from Cooper at half time, made some tactical changes which turned the game. Have to get more aggressive in our defending from crosses into the box both from set pieces and open play. It's been a problem for a long time which no manager seems to be able to fix