Hammo

Buonanotte and Fatawu keep giving the ball away but at least they are trying to make things happen. The rest seem happy just to circulate the ball impotently without risk. No shots on target in 45 minutes against a League Two team is a disgrace.

We’re back to the Rodgers situation. Is it sabotage? Or is he just plain stupid?

‘Fitness’ and ‘value’ are two words you don’t readily associate with Soumare.

Dream on

My brain can’t quite work out whether to laugh at those words (like Justin himself appears to be doing in the pic) or just shake my head in utter disbelief. If it’s supposed to be motivational, which presumably is the case (because it’s hardly biographical), then it clearly isn’t working. Is there one for Cooper? I’d love to see that. Or maybe we fans could make up our own. Any suggestions?

And rightly so.

The bleedin’ obvious substitution was Fatawu for Ayew, who was knackered long before the end. Yet he stays on and Cooper takes off a fit and fully firing Mavididi instead, putting Abdul on the wrong wing with barely any time to get into the game. Go figure…

A laughably inadequate manager at this level. His record of 18 successive Premier League games without a win - if that’s the correct number - speaks for itself. And in the first five of those with us he has barely done anything right - but many things wrong. What are the club thinking of trying to stay up with this serial loser in charge? It will all end in tears, we all know it will. Act now or pay later.

One thing is for sure. The Cooper apologists will not have a leg to stand on if he continues with his scaredy-cat tactics, selections and substitutions at home to the team at the bottom of the table and fails to beat them.

It’s only a ‘normal thing’ if your default strategy is caution and cowardice, Steve. Or your name is Gareth Southgate. He’s not taking any blame, is he? Which reinforces the very worrying view that he would do exactly the same again.

This is the only time you will ever read ‘Who dares wins’ and ‘Steve Cooper’ in the same sentence.

Well said. My worry for the season overall is that Cooper is so naturally inclined towards caution that given the same circumstances in another game he would do exactly the same thing again… …and, more than likely, pay the same costly price in terms of surrendering precious Premier League points.

It is easy to see why this manager has such a terrible away record in the Premier League. You can’t invite constant pressure like that and hope to survive. It’s needless and dumb. But above all it just shows that he is a natural born coward.

Cooper the coward. Inevitable.

Guesswork, sabotage or just plain incompetence

What is it about our recent managers and their stubbornness bordering on stupidity? To persist with Ndidi alongside two other dms is insane.

No more or less than expected, but the manager’s cowardly selections and tactics do not bode well. I just hope he has the guts to acknowledge and learn from his mistakes and avoids the stubbornness/arrogance of his two predecessors. If he doesn’t, we are in big big trouble.

I mean it’s not as if Justin is keeping him out with quality performances, is it?🤷🏻

He’s not a 10, nor an 8. Never has been. He’s a 6 (like it says on his shirt) - a defensive midfielder - and nothing else. In his prime he was one of the great tacklers but his ball control and passing have always been inadequate at Premier League level. Any manager that thinks otherwise is - to put it nicely - barking up the wrong tree.

Playing Ndidi - a player with little footballing technique and even less creativity - as a 10 in the Premier League is a mistake that Cooper must never make again. It defies all logic and reason. I know Maresca tried it too but it is unsustainable and I reckon it cost us at least one point today. Justin instead of Ricardo is another weird one.

One last raucous, round-the-whole-ground rendition of “Marc Albrighton” please on Saturday to send him happily on his way.

On what evidence other than wishful thinking?

Play crap. Get beaten. Simple. Burgled a point v Spurs. Got what we deserved here. Manager has to be braver and cleverer. Players have to be better. Otherwise we will sink like a stone. Kristiansen, de Cordova-Reid and Vardy particularly poor. Winks and Justin not much better. At least we have a decent keeper.

It’s his effort and enthusiasm as much as his natural talent that makes him so lovable. I don’t think the Premier League will faze him one little bit. He’s going to be a star.

Very upsetting. His achievements at the club - not least as a fantastic stand-in manager in the spring of 2017 - make him a genuine LCFC legend. RIP Craig.