Sunbury Fox

Exactly. Cooper has to prioritise the Ipswich game as it is massive. I don't think anyone would have envisaged Man U deploying their first team in a game like this.

Genuinely astonished how strong they've gone.

This could get really messy, given that apart from the keeper they're fielding a first XI.

What are you thinking? A Soumaré hat-trick and a late wonder goal from Edouard?

Villa - after we sh@t the bed against them in the semi despite the fact we had a massively superior team at the time.

You’re wilfully missing the point that there is more to being a manager than picking the team. Tactics and in-game management are crucial at the top level where margins are so tight - and the fact is that Cooper failed to respond when Nuno tweaked their formation at half time to counteract the unexpected way we started the game. As a result, we were totally hopeless in the second half. It’s way too simplistic to deduce from that those calling for that starting XI are wrong as a result of what played out in the second half.

Given the team we'll field, this could get messy.

Not sure why people are now convinced Wolves are certs to stay up on the back of one miraculous comeback to get a draw. They've got 1 win and 7 points in their last 19 PL games.

He looked decent for Hull, I thought. Assumed he wasn’t fully fit today, as opposed to dropped, but either way he has 5 goals already.

Liam Delap is some player; he'll cause us big trouble, I fear. Missed out on a good one there. Should have invested the El Khannouss money on him.

Ipswich getting a taste of their own medicine.

Fair enough but even at the start of the game our fans just didn’t seem up for it on the whole. Where we sit in SK4, the only thing that seems to elicit any kind of passion or reaction from fans is a bad refereeing performance. Agree with others that our song book is really thin at the moment. We don’t even have a chant for most of the first XI, for example. All that said, we can be decent away, like at Southampton last week, but at home matches the lack of atmosphere is a major issue, even when we’re winning and playing well.

For a derby, on a Friday night after 2 consecutive wins, the atmosphere was nothing short of appalling from our fans last night. Just never got going at all. Fair play to that lot, their end was very good, reflecting that they are enjoying their best top flight form for over 30 years.

AEK, Grasshoppers, Köln and Malmo would be seen as an easy run in even the Conference League!

Aside from leaving us vulnerable defensively, I don’t see how Cooper’s lopsided formation helps in attack. Would you rather have Fatawu providing the width on the right or James Justin? And does having two No 10s standing on each other’s toes really benefit us in stretching the play? The lack of width on the right also allows opponents to double up on Mav on the LW, making it harder for him to have an impact. The whole system doesn’t work or get the most out of our best players.

Not watching the game but according to the stats Atalanta have missed 7 (seven!!) big chances!!

Don’t think many despise him as such. Rather, they’re just confused, rightly in my view, by his team selections and preferred tactical set up. I think many of us would be more behind him if he dropped this daft lopsided formation, which leaves us vulnerable defensively and stunted in attack, and switched to a basic 4231, with Ricky at RB, Fats and Mav on the wings, and Facundo in the 10. It’s not rocket science.

Yeah, he had to be sacrificed to save us from further punishment by the EPL. Sad really as that move to Chelsea was definitely not the right one for his career. He needs to escape from there ASAP.

This 1000%. It’s so obvious it’s painful.

I’m not sure most of Cooper’s critics are saying we should be going gung ho, but they are concerned, quite reasonably in my view, about the following issues: The ridiculous lop-sided formation that often leaves us with no RB when defending, no RW when attacking and two players falling over each other in the 10. Team selections that leave out 2 of our most effective players from last season in favour of inferior players. His generally appalling in-game management eg at Palace, Bournemouth (H) second half and Everton at home when he was the only person in the stadium who couldn’t see that we needed Fatawu to come on to attack the geriatric Ashley Young. I suspect we’d have seen similar results to yesterday if he had.

What a performance from the lad today. Was brilliant throughout. We need to get a chant for him.

Think that’s a bit harsh. He was good against Spurs in the second half (got an assist) and did alright at Fulham. His one bad game was against Villa, after which he was dropped and until today given hardly any minutes to show what he could do.

Stop playing this sh1t lopsided formation with no RW and a RB left out of position constantly, FFS. Just play 4231 with Mav and Fats on the wings and Facundo in the 10. It's not rocket science.

We have enough weapons on the transition, the issue is our esteemed manager won't play them and we will have to suffer another 90 minutes of Ayew hobbling around and occasionally falling over.

Sadly, it would be a huge surprise if Cooper doesn’t start him, assuming he’s fit.