Babylon

Cooper hasn't been give a chance to earn the right.

Pearson had 2 draws in 13 in the premier league, and another stretch of 2 draws in 7. Added to 2 wins in 16 games at the end of the 12/13 season in the championship. And he's not the first manager Vichai back through long periods of rubbish either. Putting aside some of the managers decisions for one moment, I'm not sure what people were actually expecting in a results sense. It's bloody hard, look at the other promoted clubs. They are scrapping for any old point just like we are. Last third of last season most people on here were expecting a struggle as we weren't exactly looking slick.

Pretty much how I saw it, I saw some nice vision etc. He tried to press (others just didn't bother). He was also playing in a new country in a ****ing monsoon.

And that player was?

I really doubt people's reading skills. I quote "I do wonder where our points are going to come from" we'd literally just got a point, and one in the previous game. None of that has anything to do with what you said, we'd just got a point, and we'd got a point the previous week. Perhaps if you meant wins you'd like to rephrase.

Other than the point we got today you mean?

Was hard to concentrate fully having my young lad with me, but that didn’t seem great. If N’didi could actually pass the ball we might have got more from the game because he got into so many useful positions and just meekly surrendered the ball. You get the feeling that Cooper is only going to grasp that you can play Mav and Fatawa and they will be a better attacking combination when he’s forced to use them because of injury. It seems so blindingly obvious, but we just want to start with an arm tied behind our back!!! It reminds me so much of Pearson, no great tactical plan and a cautiousness that can become frustrating with him seemingly ignoring the obvious at times. That doesn’t mean it can’t work, Nige is a legend for good reason. Still plenty of time and I’m happy enough to continue to give him more of it as be certainly aren’t miles away from the other teams we are playing.

But that's nonsense, you take the WHOLE into account not one small period. And the whole was him getting them up from the depths of the championship, keeping them up and not being in the bottom three even when sacked.

You've had about 4 more of those since, keep up the good work and welcome aboard.

Forest isn't here, you cannot take that into account IMO. If we don't win in the first 12-15 games he'll probably get the tin tack and rightly so.

As do I somewhat, but the reaction is WELL over the top. As for Ricardo, we don't know any of that. Managers fancy certain players, remember Rodgers picking Perez week after week. There will be disappoitment players each week no matter who is in charge.

I presume the case for the defence hasn't submitted the evidence that he kept a team up once before, wasn't in the bottom three when they sacked him and currently we're not in the bottom three? We were very likely to always be in a dangerous position no matter who was in charge.

You should probably do so a bit more then. He's never got back to the levels he showed when he probably was our best player about 5 years ago. It proved to be a career altering injury, he'd have gone for £40-£60m before now if it wasn't. Other than at a lower level has he's clearly not been anything close to being our "best player". Try and twist it however you want.

Can you read? Someone said he'd been our best player for the last 5 years, that's clearly not bloody true is it.

Well, personally I'd rather not shoe horn full backs into midfield at this level. He plays at full back or wing back.

Different manager, different roles. Not that baffling personally as managers want different things. It's on him to prove himself to his new manager and make himself undroppable when he gets the minutes inevitably.

I'd imagine some players don't have nice things to say about Pep...

I'd imagine the club are kicking themselves that they didn't plump for him!

I love Riccy, and he deserves some minutes. He'll get them as well, once he come in he just has to make himself undroppable. All managers have blind spots, blimey look at Pearson first season up and how he used Mahrez and more so Albrighton (I'm not saying it even is a blind spot, but it could be). Cooper like Pearson is one of them who wants players to go the extra mile for him, it really could be as simple as Justin showing utter dedication pre season and in training and going above and beyond. It could be nothing that Riccy has done.

1) He was a newly promoted manager, very few have a good premier league win ratio at the start of their time. Did he keep them up, yes. So his win ratio was enough. And he should be judged on what he does here, not dragging in other results from elsewhere. Going on about win ratios is a total red herring. It was a little different to Potter in his first season in the premier league from memory, and also completely ignores draws, which also get points. (1 win, 4 draws and 1 loss get more points than 2 wins and 4 losses.... but the latter has the better win ratio) 2) Wish people would make their minds up here. One minute he's bought a load of old duffers (we got two in, whilst battling PSR issues), the next minute he's got a "decent experienced team" he's not getting the best of. 3) I've not liked everything hes' done, I've made it clear what I don't like. But few managers don't try and hold on to leads, as I've said a few times Maresca did it, Pearson did it, Ranieri did it, Puel did it, Rodgers did it. I don't really like it, but to make out he's somewhat of a lone wolf in terms of wanting to hold onto leads is just way off the mark.

In his previous three premier league seasons, he managed to start what I think was a grand total of 17 games (or around that). 22/23: 453 minutes | *Whoscored Ranking: 23rd 21/22: 994 minutes | *Whoscored Ranking: 5th 20/21: 959 minutes | *Whoscored Ranking: 15th (Justin was 4th) Ricardo hasn't been the same player since 19/20, he was one of the best players in the league then. Sensational. I'm more than happy for people to want to see him play, but building him up like he's been anything close to the player pre injury is frankly just ignoring what's been in front of us. And I fail to see have someone making 5 starts a season on average could even come into the conversation about being our best player. *I don't rate who scored, but in the absence of any want or time to search out a million metrics, I've just used it here as an example.

Those poor tactics got us 2-0 away from home, didn't they? And they were a rather questionable offside and a brain fart tackle from 3 points. People have been moaning about 3 DMs constantly, and honestly I'd seen very few actually give him the benefit of doubt on that when he's explained Buonanotte had a knock, and the other chap has only just joined. Or that it worked pretty well for a good chunk of the Palace game. My attitude was "why the feck is he being so negative with 3 DM's" until someone told me about the knock Buonanotte had, at which point I can only say it's fair enough. Now, do I want him to open up a little. Yes. Do I like a weird overloads at either end of the pitch, no. But he's not the first bloke to go all defensive to hold onto a game. Meresca did it, Rodgers did it, Puel did it, Ranieri did it, Pearson did it. The reality is most manager do, I hate it, but it can't be denied that it's a regular feature of the game up and down the country. He's unlikely to ever be a tactical genius and I'm sure there are long term limitations there. But there is enough there to be able to keep us up IMO, and that's all that matters. And I really do beleive there is an over emphasis of the negative because people didn't like him from the start. I'll wait for 10 / 12 games before I make any firm judgements on him.

And Finnegan is one of them.

The Vitreol is here before we even kicked a ball; they aren't prepared to give him any time at all. At this moment it's confirmation bias, with people only wanting to search for and see the negative in everything. Do I have concerns, yes. I'm really not a fan of chuck all your strikers on to try and get an equaliser, just as I'm not a fan of chucking all your defenders on to try and not concede. The players and the manager are still learning about each other. I like our attitude, there is no shortage of graft from the team and I won't be leaving the ground moaning about effort or heart this season. A few tweaks here and there and so far I'd be quite happy.

Looks at table, scratches head.