Ric Flair

Would they suddenly start changing their principles if they were? Rhetoric question as they've never been relegated but it's still a brave policy they stick with, which you could argue in a results based profession might change. My club vision would be that if we are relegation battlers for the foreseeable then we do that whilst developing academy players. If the manager has a problem with that, tell him to get on with it.

No but equally, our survival that season happens probably 1 in a 100, possibly even more. Whilst anything can happen, with a potential 4-8 point penalty hanging over us. This is even more precarious, but at the same time that shouldn't be the causation to accept our fate as I do think this squad now has the ability to stay up. My focus is on the manager. Whilst it's only 3 games and pre-season, it's unusual for us to have a manager start badly. Sousa was the last. Was it too early to have concerned about him back then and then was it too early to bin him a few games later? I think we'll get a good feel in the next 2 games and the 1 or 2 after Arsenal. If we're still incapable of winning a game or two then enoughs enough.

Absolutely spot on

Yes, I'm glad we've got players out on loan, that seems to be the best solution short term. Alves needed to go on loan, but we'll see. If Cooper doesn't use him between now and January then there'll be no defending him, I'm willing to wait and see as he said he was deciding what best to do with him. I think it's the uncertainty in the early decision making from Cooper that's blowing this up. Josh Holland's article in the Mercury last week was very good. At the very least I hope the club are acutely aware.

Such a lazy and short sighted view. Bottom line is this club does not reach its ambitions without developing and bringing through top class academy players. We have done in the past, this isn't a criticism we're crap at it, more we've either employed a manager who goes against what should and has been a priority of ours or he's moved the goalposts in what he said he'll do. Take that £120m we generated on Chilwell, Barnes and KDH away and we'd have gone bust in the last few years. We have ongoing financial issues and whilst producing and developing academy players purely to sell to solve our financial mismanagement is depressing but I don't see much evidence we've learnt our lessons much and that's a thing of the past. But anyway, having a club value and priority that places academy development in to the 1st team as a non negotiable requirement, regardless of the expectations and pressures of survival is not a good enough reason not to do it. You can't be the buyer and the seller here. Some clubs decide that's their blue print. You have to be brave to do it. Wonder what Cooper's views are on how Atletico Bilbao operate.

Difficult one to call on whether he'd have got fast tracked from U18s in to our 1st team last season, I suspect he'd have had a chance under Enzo but under Cooper? Come off it. That's the risk at the minute. I'm fascinated by what we do with Monga. The club by all accounts are still reeling from Nyoni leaving and I don't blame us for what happened there. However if our 1st team manager won't provide a pathway to the 1st team in the short term for the likes of Alves and that filters down then we'll lose more. The last decade we've worked extremely hard to identify and produce players that will put us up there with the very best academies. The only way we compete with those for not nicking our players if we can be extremely good at bringing them through. I don't think that happens under Cooper.

Been on the bench a chunk of times, come on once or twice within a year of going there. The year prior with us, I think he'd played about 4 U21 games, let alone got near the 1st team training or matchday squads. He'd feel vindicated in his decision in that regard.

I think it's easy to look at Nyoni for example. He's in and around Liverpool's 1st team aged 16. Would he have been with us? Possibly under Enzo in the Championship, under Cooper in the Prem? Absolutely not.

I just think we as a fan base but more importantly the club need to be quick to realise the situation we're in and we've very little margin for error. I accept any notion of getting rid of him currently is premature even though I stand by my reasons. But how long do we give him? The next 6 games, 5 of them are against our relegation threatened rivals. With a potential points deduction hanging over us, Cooper's track record in this league, I don't think we can afford to let him carry on through that critical period if he's masterminding a pillocks of it. If we don't win 1 of the next 2, he's got to be under the spotlight, especially if his decision making continues to baffle. I think 2 wins from the next 4 otherwise bounce him before it's too late. I hope we look back on this and I can be criticised for being too impatient.

As long as we can have no regrets as to why they left though. If it was swayed because they don't see the pathway here, and ironically see a better pathway at a bigger club (Liverpool) than that's galling.

Bounanotte who played there the 1st two league games? What's not talked about more is he picked these same 3 DCMs in the home cup game to a league two outfit 😂😂😂😂😂😂

Justin's role isn't a full length of the pitch full back either. He's being asked to sit a lot of the time and it's Kristiansen that is up and down. I could understand Cooper's decision a bit more if he was deploying tactics that would require Ricardo to defend and attack relentlessly.

Don't mate, you'll be accused of trying to be trendy by being negative. The warning signs are there for many of us to see, against a backdrop of many of us being utterly perplexed he was the choice in the first place. For all our faults as a club, we don't usually have managers start poorly here. In the last 15 years only Sousa struggled and quickly paid the price. Sven, Pearson, Ranieri, Shakespeare, Puel, Rodgers and Maresca all started extremely well and very few made baffling decisions until they got their feet under the table. I'm not afraid to say it that I view managers very simplistically. My default approach is most are ineffective, certainly past a season and if they don't even start well in the short term then get rid. I appreciate you have to rationally adjust this for a fair chance but you weigh that up against peculiar decision making and make a call. He's got to go. He should never have been appointed. He should have been read the riot act in pre-season and he should be on his last warning after Saturdays team selection. Let's see if anything changes come a week on Saturday. Wouldn't surprise me if we lose again, as his away form in this division defies science. The next half a dozen games really are crucial to our survival, we can't afford to be patient. 35 games left, likely to be hit with a points deduction and yet this manager over 58 PL games averages 35 points a season which won't be good enough. Anyway, time to enjoy the international break. A welcome relief.

As weird as this sounds, I keep forgetting we're in the Prem again and to pay attention to what's going on around us. Not watched a single MOTD yet, nor have I looked at any other result bar a brief scan when we're playing. I think it's time I found something else to do, I call myself a fan of football but I'm not so sure I am anymore.

Exceptional shot stopper. Saddens me his distribution is not going to be utilised anywhere near enough under Cooper but that's the least of our problems. Absolutely love watching him.

Justin is very good 1 v 1 but positionally we know he's vulnerable and Ricardo's strength is those last ditch tackles, plus his obvious prowess at passing and ball retention. It's a contentious one. It's hard to accept given Justin has struggled massively to regain the sort of form he showed before that horrible injury in late January 2021, where as last season albeit in a different position Ricardo just looked so good and Justin steady. Cooper's PL teams average almost 2 goals against in 58 games as a manager and an inability to keep hold of the ball. Decisions like this perpetuate and facilitate it.

Justin hasn't been that active though. He has defensively but he's by no means up and down like a modern full back is. He's being asked to sit, which Ricardo can do very well. One of his best assets is his last ditch defending too but more importantly he is one of the players in this squad who know how to retain possession when the opposition are coming after us wave after wave. I think we could employ 50 different managers and less than 5% of them would be doing this to Ricardo.

I tend to agree with almost every one of your posts but this part makes no sense. And then what? He suddenly makes logical decisions in the 2nd season or we sack him and upgrade him, in which case we might as well do that now. My preference is he quickly learns, my 2nd preference if he's unable to do that and his track record suggests he might struggle is we bounce him out of here pronto whilst we still have a chance of being amongst it. Got a nice 2 week break not to have to get pissed off by his team selections and then hope when we return he's worked on some stuff and we get at least 1 win vs Palace or Everton. If not then action needs to be taken.

El Khannouss is a far better presser than Wilfred Ndidi. Hopefully we see that in this system, even against the top sides as there's no place in the game for deploying 3 DCMs, but deploying one as an ACM.

My captors are very decent men and are treating me well.

Doesn't take up striking positions, there's a reason he barely scores and it's not because he's an abysmal finisher. He simply doesn't attack the box with consistency, is often behind the play even when deployed through the middle.

Ayew has strength though that can be equally as problematic for tiring defences to deal with. Reid at this stage seems to be the one I'm not sure where he fits in. El Khannouss and Bounanotte are the creative outlets, Fatawu the maverick. Hmmmm

Fenerbache surely will have a sniff

I'm struggling with Steve Cooper massively. On one hand I'm enjoying certain elements of our football, but it seems to only come when games turn in to chaos and we revel in it. I don't mind that to a degree but we can't be only playing when we've gone 1 or more goals behind as it leaves us too much to do. The team selections are appalling. His usage of Mavididi surely has to change after his recent contributions. His stance with Ricardo is just madness and seldom does a manager come out well when he marginalises his best player. This single decision makes me question everything but there's plenty else to critique him on too and ponder if he's the right fit for us. I think we've put together a half decent squad for PL survival. El Khannouss and Edouard are two key players we were missing but will he put the right starting XI together regularly enough to take 40-45 points from 35 games? We've not yet been slapped silly by a team, which I think we feared vs Spurs and possibly yesterday. It could have gone that way in the 1st half of all 3 of the league games but it didn't and we actually played very well 2nd half vs Spurs and Villa. Fulham was probably the worst we've played and that was a theme of Cooper's Forest side that away from home he was completely unable to tease out enough performances or results. Let's hope that's not the case here. We cannot be deploying a midfield trio of Winks, Skipp and Ndidi. It doesn't even make us defensively sound either, just ill suited to creating much going forward and then leaving ourselves too much to do when we build momentum later on in games. Cooper needs to regroup during this international break. Be braver and see if he can build something here. If he doesn't then I hope the club acts quickly in the next month or two before it's too late and we go the way many seem to be ready to accept this season.

Harrowing. Rest in peace big Sol