Ricey

I admire your optimism, but I don't share it.

"Club sources maintain they did not have anyone lined up when they decided to sack Steve Cooper, which makes the timing after the first game following an international break unusual." Not unusual when you've been following anything the club has done over the last few years. Absolute shambles.

Maresca was appointed at Chelsea on the 4th June, so that's over 10 weeks before the start of the season. Don't feel sorry for the club.

Who's Max and why is he in Bobby De Cordova-Reid?

I thought that when we sacked Rodgers but it we then proceeded to flirt with Marsch, Benitez and then Smith. This is a reactive football club.

I'd be shocked if it isn't Potter. He was close before, even with a points deduction hanging over us and the possibility that England might come calling. The fact he's been on the media trail recently suggests he's perhaps not flooded with offers.

I don't get the clamour for RVN. A year at PSV and then a handle of matches as caretaker at United is not enough to go off. He couldn't really lose at United, but he wore a turtle-neck well and all of sudden he's being linked with jobs left, right and centre.

It's a relief but I find it hard to be happy about this. A competent club sacks him before the international break. A well run club doesn't hire him at all.

Good on the ball today but we are so much weaker defensively because he's a second behind play all the time. It's too easy for players to peel away from him.

It’s the kind of performance that normally results in a battering. Didn’t even get close to testing them. Just get him gone and give ourselves a fighting chance.

It does feel very similar, but at least Southgate still had a knack of finding a way to get results and he dealt with things like the media very well. Cooper doesn’t feel like he has a lot going for him other than seemingly being a nice guy.

He’s just not up to it I’m afraid, we are being tactically handicapped by him. Ndidi as a 10, Soumare starting, Fatawu on the wrong side…he’s just throwing something together each match and hoping enough sticks. We are in the bottom three in all the key metrics and that’s including the fact that we’ve played a decent chunk of time this season against 10 men and have yet to play any of the top 3. In a couple of matches we’ll be in the actual bottom three and deservedly so. I’ve never felt so disengaged with the club. Even if Cooper gets sacked tomorrow (he won’t) it won’t rekindle much excitement for me. The issues lie far too deep within.

Picking Soumare is such weak management. One good cameo against st 10 men and he’s given in to the clamour. Against United in the cup he was a large part of the reason we struggled so much on the transition.

Cracks papered again due to a sending off, prior to that there was only one team in it. We are getting a fair amount of luck at the minute.

Alarming that at 3-1 there was an injury break and not one player went over to him for instructions, nor did he try and gather them together. I just don’t think he’s up to it. It’s obvious where this ends.

Our press is pathetic. The one team you need to press high against and he picks this team.

Why does he seem to go more attacking away and more defensive at home? I’d have actually picked Ndidi as a 10 and Ayew today due to how Southampton play out from the back.

Decent first half, until the goal killed all of our attacking intent, and a big win…but we didn’t deserve it. We got very lucky. Let’s hope it’s a springboard but I’m hugely sceptical about Cooper’s in-game management.

We need something inbetween. Maresca would have been a disaster for us this season, let's not let life under Steve Cooper cloud the realities of what would have happened had Maresca had stayed. We would have tried to play a style of play that we simply wouldn't have had the players for and it would have failed, in the same way it has failed for Burnley and Southampton. We need a manager with a stronger footballing identity, but it needs to be one that balances idealism and pragmatism.

By my reckoning Arsenal’s xG today is the 6th highest ever recorded in the Premier League. Still, gave them a scare…

Plays Ayew against Everton at home and Buonanotte against Arsenal away 🤷🏻‍♂️

We would absolutely hire Dyche if he was available. It's exactly the sort of unimaginative, short-term solution that the board would love. There has been a clamour for Dyche in the past from some fans, but if you don't like Cooper, you would detest Dyche.

We should have expanded instead of building Seagrave.

Faes is terrible for this. His positional play is so bad.

He probably tried to sign Ashley Young in the summer.