foxfan92

He's just sitting there. Completely static on the bench! Disgraceful.

Inevitable. It's okay because the next goal will be scored by ... er ... actually Ipswich look most likely to score another.

Neither scenario is a good one. Either the players are following Cooper's plan blindly and Cooper is failing to react to what's happening on the pitch, or the players don't have trust in what Cooper is trying to achieve and we need someone else in that the players will listen to.

We will probably still see Soumare and Ayew at some point though.

Oh well ...

Regardless of result at end of the game that's got to do wonders for the lad's confidence going forwards which has to be a good thing. Great finish.

Doh.

Not sure about this bit. I don't think the squad is poor. It's far from great, but on paper at least I think we should come somewhere in the bottom half of the table, but far above enough teams to avoid relegation. We lack depth upfront, and things aren't clicking in other areas, but given the right tactics and personal, our starting 11 could be strong, and theoretically we have a number of players of reasonable quality to deputy most if not all positions in midfield and (to a lesser extent) defence. I too am just hoping for survival this season, (like most of us I suspect)and hopefully this will give us a platform to build on next season. I am seriously worried about the direction the club seems to have been heading for a while now, particularly on the back of so much achievement recently. It's upsetting to think about the highs of this last decade, then realise right here and now we're not even the top team in the East Midlands (that hurt to write). Last night hurt me a lot. These local derbies should matter. We should see the passion because the manager should be reminding the players we need to find that extra gear for these games. They (the players) may not hold any fierce rivalry with Forest, Derby, Notts County and the mighty Mansfield (etc.) but they will of course understand how much local rivalry means to fans and need to step up for these games. If they can't be bothered, or even appear that way, the manager isn't doing his job properly. Players should seem up to it every game. It's 90 mins. But there should be no doubt you bust a gut in these games. I remember players collapsing to the floor at the end of the match after running their socks off for the whole match. I'd argue Buonanotte ran like the game meant something to him last night. Not everything he did worked out, it wasn't his best game, but he at least looked like it mattered. And he doesn't have any long term investment in the club (unfortunately). Mads looked amazing again, and it's horrifying to think what the scores in some games this season might be if we had a less able keeper in goal again. So why can't the rest of the team seemingly bust a gut to put in a decent performance for the full 90 minutes??? We MUST see a positive reaction from all the players in the two up coming games against Man Utd and more crucially against Ipswich, which is a game we should be bossing for the full 90 minutes. No excuses!

I'm not sure it's as simple as that. Today a lot of us got a team similar to the one we want, and it didn't click. But then 1 shot on target isn't any worse than some of the games at the start of the season when we played the game with only one wide winger and one inside like Cooper had us playing before now. The fact we've not been great either way, some of that blame has to land on the players, but some has to go to the manager too. We don't have the best first team in the league, no matter which team we play, so its unrealistic to expect us to win or even draw every game. But we don't have an awful team either, and we should be creating more chances than we have been. Formation and players are one aspect of the complex jigsaw, but the tactics we train on during the week, the mentality the manager should be installing, the pattern of play, the positioning, the urgency, the (to quote Puel) - intensity, all these are things the manager can be doing with the team to ensure we aren't looking so clueless. When we get into the opposition's third we seem devoid of ideas on how to create meaningful chances (not all the time - we have bits of each game when we come to life) but can you name one game this season wheb we've played well for the full 90 minutes? Can you name one game when we played well in both halves? The second half against The Saints, the fact Cooper seems to be trying more attacking minded personal in the starting 11, these things are positive as far as I am concerned, but let's not overlook the negatives. Poor subs, (Southampton match excluded) negative tactics at times (trying to see matches out for long periods of time and inviting pressure) ... the list goes on. We've also been fortunate with some of the scorelines (even when we've lost, because Mads has been worldclass). I'll get behind him for now, but I hope he continues to evolve his way of thinking and does it quickly, because football is about fine margins,, and we'll get punished if things don't improve.

Just said to my wife (she wasn't interested) we need to make sure we don't concede a sloppy goal when the second half starts ... Would be Wood too wouldn't it?

Not quite clicking yet, but there are signs this might work out in long run. With this team / formation comparisons with last season will be inevitable, and I think we've looked more creative than in a number of first halves this season, but I don't understand why we keep going so narrow, trying to play it through the middles, when we've finally got decent options out wide on both flank.

Why though? It's really quite sad if Forest fans have to go back half a century to justify them as ever being "good". Even sadder if we do. Few will remember their achievements firsthand. Our glory days are still fresh in the memory.

I hate Forest as much as the next Foxes fan, but we can't belittle their historic achievements. You can only beat who you're drawn against, and those teams who progressed to the later stages of the - what was then called "The European Cup" - got there on merit. I think we can all agree (relegation the season before last aside) recent history has seen us as the more successful East Midlands club. Fans of teams like Forest and Leeds etc can live off past glories, it has very little bearing on the here and now (minor reputation boost perhaps...). What I'm more concerned about is the here and now. So let's just beat the %£#=ers tomorrow!

Which is a shame because the following season would be amazing!!!

Wonder what your thoughts would be on Ayew being placed more centrally? I'm far from convinced by him on the wing, but can't help but feel like he may have a place in the team if played correctly. I don't mean in place of Buonano, maybe as a better Vardy alternative than Edouard??? I've been thinking about a back 3 since the game ended. Not sure how exposed we'd be on the wings against a better opposition though...

They're playing Palace... Is it at all possible to find a scenario where both teams lose when playing each other???

Really looking forward to your take on today's game. It certainly was interesting going to a back 3 and having Mav, Fatawu, Buonano and El-Khanouss all playing at the same time.

Me too after him scoring today.

This is all true, and things I've pointed out in the past (especially to those with blue tinted Pearson specs - guy did a lot of good - but he got a lot of stick on here from many at the time too). I really hope by the end of the season people are asking "Why were so many of us asking for his head early on in the campaign?" I strongly feel he does need to tweak his tactics to play to our strengths though. Hoping he'll at least try Mads and Fatawu in a starting line up against Forest now. And I'm yet to be convinced VK and JJ are better options than RP.

I'm still in the "very much yet to be convinced" camp, but we have won the last 2 games, and while Fatawu clearly should have started anyway, Cooper did bring him on with enough time to impact the game this time. So maybe there is still hope?

I'm expecting - particularly after scoring - for Ayew to replace Mav for Forest - and us to set up like we did for the first few games.

you know this means it'll be Abdul and Ayew against Forest now???

Problem is I can see us starting Fatawu after this performance - but dropping Mav on the other wing - like we did at the start of the season. We seem incapable of starting both.

I think only playing one of them at a time doesn't help matters - as they are then easier to mark out the game. We play both together and we look a lot better because we stretch the game and have creative, attacking options on both wings.

The impact he's having is playing some of the players EVERYONE else said he should start with anyway...