Guest

He's not as dominant as you'd expect someone his size to be but he's still our best CB aerially. If you're picking Okoli or Coady over him it's not because they're better in the air.

People are citing a number of stats, including but by no means limited to our xG and xGA, that demonstrate we are playing badly and suggesting if we continue to play badly over the course of the season we will probably finish in a bad position. Our current league position and points per game are not hyper-efficient predictors of the future either.

I just don't get why he appears to have so little faith in his players

Obviously pleased we've got a win - I don't see how we pick up too many more if we're going to keep approaching games like this. There is a difference between grinding out wins through resilience and completely handing your opponent the initiative while hoping they're sufficiently profligate for us to get away with it. With every game that passes I become more convinced that the squad is good enough for this level and the manager isn't. Hopefully we use the next three league games to generate some momentum.

Yeah the first couple of trailers were not great but it looks a bit better with every new look at it they give. My only experience with the series is a few hours of Inquisition but I'm intrigued to see how this does, partly because I like fantasy RPGs but moreso because I want to know how worried I should be about the new Mass Effect

All well-taken goals but the finishes for his second and fourth are fantastic on what is nominally his weaker foot. If I remember correctly he usually played in a front two for Preston and it looks like this was his first time doing so for Stoke with Gallagher starting alongside him.

I really appreciate the 20xx in Music threads as a way to keep up with new stuff and although we've got all sorts of threads for specific games/genres/platforms, I feel like they tend to get a bit lost amidst the broader remit of the Entertainment Forum. I thought we could perhaps do with a similar topic dedicated to discussing and highlighting new games. My thinking is to do a post at the start of each month (if I remember) mentioning a handful of notable upcoming releases and stuff I'm personally looking forward to, and then if there's anything you're interested in that's slipped under my radar - I don't really keep up with anything Nintendo for instance - you can chuck it into the mix. Without further ado, here is some of what's coming up in October. 8th - Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred (PC/PS/Xbox) - first expansion for the base game with a new questline, region and class. I've not touched it since around launch but apparently stuff like loot, crafting and the endgame have seen pretty comprehensive changes since then so this could be a good time to jump back in. 8th - Silent Hill 2 (PC/PS5) - remake of what I understand to be one of the best horror games ever made despite not having played it, partly because I was a young child when it came out and partly because I am a coward who hates being scared. The recent Resident Evil remakes seemed generally well-received and this looks a similar sort of deal with the modernised camera and fancy graphics. 11th - Metaphor: ReFantazio (PC/PS/Xbox) - Persona but with modern Japan and anime schoolgirls replaced with medieval fantasy and anime elves. If that sounds like your sort of thing, or it really doesn't and you are looking to punish yourself for something, there is a demo available now that covers roughly the first five hours with your save carrying over to the full game. 11th - Undisputed (PC/PS/Xbox) - a new boxing game for anyone still mourning the loss of Fight Night. Made by a British team I believe and has been on Steam Early Access for a while so maybe some of our PC users can shed some light on how it's shaping up. 25th - Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (PC/PS/Xbox) - you probably know what to expect from this by now. I played the beta which was OK but if you are tired of the franchise I can't imagine this is going to do anything to change that. 31st - Dragon Age: The Veilguard (PC/PS5/XSXS) - it is quite a long time since BioWare made a good game and yet I find myself cautiously optimistic about this. I don't think the combat looks like anything to shout about and I don't expect a return to anything like the glory days but I reckon we can probably expect a slightly naff but broadly enjoyable 7/10, which would represent a sizeable improvement on the likes of Andromeda and Anthem. If you're interested/profoundly disinterested in any of those or indeed any game coming up over the next month, have at it.

Project Keep It Tight off to a flier. Looking forward to seeing what sort of scorelines we can rack up in the second half of the season when Hermansen goes to Chelsea on deadline day and we make a late move for Wayne Hennessey

Yeah definitely. I think we are all sadly well accustomed to clubs being run as businesses first and foremost but we don't even do that particularly well and stuff like this you can't put down to greed, more spite. I can't see how it changes.

**** this club and the people who run it so hard. Making dodgy football and football-adjacent decisions is one thing but the absolute contempt they have for us is genuinely remarkable at this point. Showing support for mental health causes and one of their foremost fan groups at presumably little to no cost should be an absolute tap-in for them I would have thought and yet they seem totally committed to turning the relationship between them and their community into an adversarial one.

I would just love to see a compelling argument for keeping HIM. Not an argument for why getting rid of a manager early is bad, which is what most defences of him seem to boil down to - I want to know why Steve Cooper specifically should be our manager rather than someone else.

Those people will detest any manager who instructs our players to pass the ball along the ground so possibly not the group to be consulting on potential appointments

I also thought he would be a good deal more useful than he is. He's like a less skilful Perez and though Ayew is also very underwhelming he looks electric by comparison.

Yeah exactly. Games like this are free hits until you fail to beat relegation rivals at home or convert 2-0 leads against mid-table dross like Palace into wins, at which point they become games you need to get something from like any other

The good thing about us being so shit is he's going to get ample opportunity to demonstrate how good he is at making saves as well as playing out. He is going to go far.

He can't win no you're absolutely right about that

Maybe you're right but if that is the case, what is going to change with time? The squad isn't going to be any different until January and possibly not even then, and if the problem is that the players aren't up to standard then surely you would want to get a better coach than Steve Cooper to get them playing above their level.

That is part of what makes it so annoying. I would genuinely love him to do well here because after Rodgers the egomaniac and Enzo who I really liked but was clearly a proper football pervert, he does just seem like a pretty normal, decent guy doing his best, and also it would obviously be very funny for him to get binned by Forest and then take us back above them. It's just a shame he's not very good.

I would have no real issue with that style if I thought it was the best use of our players. Pragmatism is not inherently about being cautious and defensive, it means doing what makes the most sense with the tools you have at your disposal. We have ended up with what is arguably quite a top-heavy squad with a lot of creative, skilful players and even most of our better defensive players - Ricardo, Vestergaard, Winks, Hermansen etc. - are probably better with the ball than without. He's setting up like we've got a Dyche-esque squad of hard-running cloggers like Ryan Yates but despite our best attempts to build him one with the likes of Ayew and Skipp (harsh on the latter maybe) I can't see that we do, and the result is we look properly toothless without really looking solid enough defensively to make it worthwhile.

Just needs more time though doesn't he? After all, the longer he spends with these players the more impressive we look. Ideally he gets at least another window so we can bring in some more experienced, Premier League proven bargains. You've got to give him time because time is the magic ingredient that unfailingly turns shit managers into good ones. You can't sack him now, give him time!

It's fair enough to think he's shit but get behind him when he's actually playing for us, isn't it?

Personally if I were Top I'd have a competent director of football and ideally also some sort of succession plan in place to help me make that decision

Charisma in terms of giving funny soundbites in press conferences and showing PASHUN on the touchline I personally don't care about at all, but they need sufficient force of personality to convince players to buy into their ideas and maintain authority over the squad. I don't think it's fair to judge whether or not Cooper is capable of that based on what he says in interviews or his demeanour on the touchline, much less his appearance.

Per FBref we are 19th for xG, shots, touches in the attacking third and touches in the box. 18th for shots on target and passes into the box. Dead last for carries into the box and the highest average shot distance in the league.

Oh I completely see the point. If there does come a time where Alves is playing regularly for us, it will almost certainly be long after Cooper has left and after an at best underwhelming start he could do without us getting embarrassed. I'm just more keen for our brightest young talents to get real opportunities where it makes sense - particularly if they're not going to go out on loan - than I am for Cooper to buy himself what, another week if that? Losing would obviously not help his case but if we go another five winless in the league then nobody is going to be saying no you can't sack him because he's guided us to the third round of the Carabo Cup. I've said this elsewhere so apologies for repeating myself but there is always going to be a reason not to give youth a chance, always something important we're competing for that we need to prioritise instead. If we can't risk starting him in this game then I have to assume the same is going to apply for every league and cup game. We then get to the end of the season and unless he gets a loan in January he'll have spent it watching our games from the stands and playing with/against academy kids he's outgrown, having already had his development interrupted by that Wolves thug. It just seems like a waste to me. When I say we don't give a shit, I mean the club are plainly going to have their priorities this season and I'm assuming it goes staying up, then a huge gaping chasm to the FA Cup, then another chasm to the Carabao. If/when he gets the sack it's going to be because we're in serious danger of getting relegated, not because our reserves lost to Walsall. You mention the narrative he isn't right for the job but one of the few supposed plus points behind his appointment was his previous work with young players - if he'd rather give cup minutes to Ayew and Choudhury than Alves then his pros column is looking extraordinarily bare. Besides which, I'm pretty sure the decision makers at the club couldn't care much less about our opinions on anything, especially not something as important as binning a manager.