Sooper Steve's shin

One of the great unknowns is what Enzo would have done with us. We can moan about the Board for the last two managerial appointments since Maresca, but we should give them some credit for appointing him - by no means a nailed on success when we brought him in. Rather than “building his team around” those players you mention, he dealt the hand that was played and made a pretty good job of it. You can’t deny his system worked well for the first half or two-thirds of the season before our wobble. We had a team still getting used to it and players still adapting all through last season really, but they all enjoyed it. With a full pre-season and a few signings aligned to his vision, I don’t seriously think we’d have gone into this season with Ndidi as a PL central midfielder in the same role we were forced to play him. We certainly wouldn’t have been forking out for Ayew or Decordova-Reid. I imagine he’d have made much better use of his contacts to get good youngsters and loans than Ruud (who made a big thing of that). And we were miles better at playing our system than Southampton.

It all falls apart as soon as the Board follows point 1 and refuses to pay a star player over the cap. Fans would go mad. Same for most of the points, really - good in theory but not rooted in the reality of a competitive business.

We are clearly loathe to sack him because we’ve obviously written ourselves into a corner in the contract. You’d think having just got rid of Cooper after 15 games or whatever that we might have tried to cover ourselves. I guess he’s holding out to get paid, but Ruud is not doing himself any favours in terms of his personal reputation by holding on. Have some dignity and walk - in reality, he should take some/a lot of blame for our situation but at this point we don’t care. Blame the board, the players or whatever but just go. Otherwise he’s just going to be losing more games until the end of the season and making his record even more abysmal.

Should be club captain next season with Vardy gone.

I don’t agree with this. It’s the same thinking that says Ranieri just copied what Pearson did. Completely wrong. When we went down two years ago, we lost Maddison, Barnes, Tielemans, Castagne, Perez and a host of others. We brought in a relatively untried manager, changed the style of play and had to rebuild quite extensively - new keeper, RB in a different role, on loan LB, CB brought back in from two years of being frozen out, new CM plus Ndidi in a completely different role, new wingers both sides (and both brought in from abroad). Our only continuity was Vardy and KDH. It’s complete BS when people say we steamrollered the Championship with a Premier League team (and this season has shown that it wasn’t a PL team). What we need is exactly what Maresca gave us - someone who can come in with the courage of their convictions to bring in players to suit a system and be ruthless with those who don’t. Cooper was a dreadful decision because he didn’t have the strength of character to build his own team or identity; RVN just seems like he has not been bothered or has no clue what to do. We are not doomed to years in the wilderness or nailed on to go up, but it’s in our hands with the new managerial decision.

Ruud is so far away from being a football manager it’s untrue. Cooper was at least a poor football manager.

Sh1t appointment of a sh1t manager in the summer. Cooper was a negative choice from the start, he was a complete departure from what had been a successful system that the players enjoyed. He then either didn’t have the balls or the backing to properly strengthen in the summer (or, if he thought he did, then his skills in the market are as bad as his tactics). He wasn’t strong enough to totally get his ideas across and the team clearly did not take to his style of play. No issues when we sacked him, I think we were not showing signs of potential improvement and the Board was pretty decisive after learning the lessons of Rodgers. However, we made another mistake in the appointment of RVN - the Board seemed to be of the view that a bigger name could just sort the team out. I didn’t see that Ruud had any particular credentials apart from doing OK in the Dutch league and giving MU a short term boost. He’s now showing that the Premier League needs more than a big name. He may have had more respect from the squad on day one than Cooper, but he’s frankly been woeful as a manager and arguably worse than Cooper. The players are not blameless, but I think they have enough about them to be doing better if coached properly. The ones that obviously don’t - Faes, Justin, Ward - shouldn’t be picked and probably should have gone in the summer. Getting rid of Ruud will be costly in terms of both finance and our reputation. We would become a particularly unattractive proposition so it would be dangerous - I cannot see who we could feasibly get in, so I think we probably end up having to take the hit of relegation and hope that either Ruud considers himself above the Championship (he’s not) or he walks because we didn’t back him. If we avoid a big payout on his contract, that seems like about the best we could get at this moment. Go back to the Maresca blueprint of a hungry, intelligent manager and try again.

The Clock Tower would get into our first XI at this point…

We don’t have the squad to play our own style!

Agree with this. BUT, if he does, I reckon Sean Dyche could name his price.

Belgian international with a highlight reel that can include the weekend’s goal. Maybe don’t include that Liverpool game though! Would love us to get rid this month, it would be a good show of authority from Ruud. Faes adds nothing for me, I’d rather Okoli as backup if we are going with Coady and Vesty. JJ or Ndidi to slot back if we are in dire need, but hopefully we get someone in at CB.

Unfortunately, in our predicament, we don’t really have the luxury of giving youngsters too many minutes. I said at the time (and it’s been proven right) that I thought one of the few good moves that Cooper made was in bringing a couple of experienced PL guys like Ayew and BDCR, who may not set the world alight but you’d back them to come on and be in the right place to nick the odd crucial goal. It’s far more likely that we benefit from that kind of sub towards the end of most games than throwing on a youngster that we hope might set the game alight. Unless you have world class youth talent, you only really want to bring them on if you’re coasting otherwise it’s potentially harming them and not helping the team. We are not going to find ourselves coasting very often. With the size of the subs benches these days, we can take a youngster just in case but more often than not they won’t be the ones we turn to. It’s unfortunate for Alves as we’ve all seen the clips and would love him to be a local hero - he probably has a better chance of starting if, say, Bilal got injured. At least you then have experience to turn to if it’s not working for him in a game.

Unlikely to happen in two days. It’s a critical position for the club and a significant investment, so even if they had a shortlist and even if they sounded out one or two in advance, you would think they’d invite those people to present their vision for the club. They probably deliberate on that, a few more rounds of discussion and then negotiate terms. With the best will in the world, a deal like that is not done in two days with all the moving parts in play. Media silence is probably a good sign - I would expect clubs that our scrabbling around would be advertising the post and using journalists to drum up interest. I’d expect we are talking to more than one candidate and eyeing something quick but feels unlikely that it would be done and dusted before the weekend.

I think that is probably true and would be a more reasonable assessment than someone arguing RVN is a better choice because he’s a bigger name and can attract better players. Both are hypotheticals, but with Corberan there’s at least a basis of evidence in the job he’s done so far.

Sorry, I don’t agree. Being a good coach and a good manager of people requires much more than knowing how a good dressing room feels. Great players don’t always have great tactical nous, they’ve generally been the best and that probably more often counters a lack of normal tactical awareness. It’s a generalization, but I think it’s a more valid one than suggesting they are all tactical geniuses (or capable of transferring any of their genius to other people).

100%. In that sense, anyone is a “gamble” - but you can de-risk based on obvious factors. Success in the PL is one - who is more likely to be successful, Guardiola or an unknown/untested manager from the French third division? Doesn’t mean the latter could not be a success or even become more successful than Guardiola. Other factors must surely include having a clear coaching style that will work with our squad (as we’ve changed mid-season), experience of managing clubs in a similar situation (fighting for scraps at the bottom not swanning along at the top), ability to inspire the team/fans etc. Personally, I don’t see any obvious pull factors for Van Nistelrooy over the likes of Potter, Moyes or even Corberan or Carrick other than he was a world class player. Frank Lampard is another great from that era, pretty intelligent and by all accounts interviews exceptionally well - but I wouldn’t want him as he has no track record of converting all that into management.

Probably wrong thread, but the sign was clearly held up by a woman - presumably a hostess at the club. I am guessing you ask them to put a message up, someone did that for a laugh (in a club in Copenhagen). Really not a big deal, the players would obviously miss someone who took them to a title and this was obviously an in-joke at or by one person (“I” miss you, not “we all” miss you).

Corberan has the benefit of a clear coaching pedigree and has implemented something fairly remarkable at West Brom. Better credentials than Maresca when we took him on, albeit we are now asking for a step up to PL (which Maresca seems to have managed just fine).

No. Can’t see the fuss apart from him being a decent player and more photogenic than Cooper. One reasonable management stint in an iffy league, apparently fell out with players and/or leadership. Not considered for management at the club where he was a legend. But he is a big foreign name.

I think one of the reasons they jet off somewhere like Copenhagen is to have a bit of normal fun on a night out with less chance of being spotted/exposed than if they did it in Leicester or London. I don’t see too much wrong here - group of young lads, it’s clearly towards the end of the night and someone puts this up as a joke. It’s not saying “we all miss you and hate Cooper”. It says one player misses him, so either aimed at someone or written by one person who thinks he’s funny. We’ve come off the back of a season where we steamrollered a league for the most part and now we are struggling, so why the hell wouldn’t someone miss that. It’s not undermining Cooper, it was not meant to be a public thing - they probably say much worse together - and it’s not that deep. Let’s move on.

I don’t necessarily see this as being too late. International break isn’t a great time to come in, lots of players away so not a massive help. I also don’t think it was so much the result at Chelsea as the limp performance that was the last straw. It feels like the club have been decisive - not let things drag and fester like with Brendan, but not so quick it was kneejerk. I assume they must have realized over the break that all was not well despite the reasonable league position, so I think the Board comes out of this well. He seemed a decent guy, trying to make it work and an honest bloke - just a bit out of his depth as a top flight manager and miles away from both Maresca and Rodgers (and even Puel and Ranieri) in terms of tactical sophistication. I think fans and, in particular, the players noticed this - it seemed to me like Vardy was having a go at Cooper when he was subbed off, and you don’t last long if the Goat wants you gone.

Our decision was a bit of an outlier and only turned on us changing our accounting date and getting relegated. Man City and Everton don’t have that to rely on, but this may cause a wobble with the PL realising they don’t have absolute power. I’d be expecting City and Everton’s lawyers to be making a massive push for an “out of court” settlement right now (with a financial penalty rather than points deduction). The PL could be rattled enough to accept.

The decision and the PL’s statement reveal some serious concerns about the PL. They talk about having these rules for fairness and sanctity of the competition, but hunt us down to try and pin a sanction on us even though we got ABSOLUTELY NOTHING out of apparently breaching the rules. We were relegated FFS. To have a regulatory body come out and say that they are “disappointed” that they can’t apply a penalty to us is scandalous - they don’t even know whether we breached because we didn’t give them final accounts. If that - and Chelsea’s ludicrous hoovering up of players and dodgy academy deals - doesn’t show that the PSR system is a farce, hopefully the fact that they’ve so obviously ballsed up writing their own rules will make them think again.

Clear plan so far has been to start solid and use game changers/finishers - and it has worked, to a degree. We have finished both home games stronger. I like how Mavididi has played when he’s come on, but I don’t know if he would be doing that from the off if he started. He works well against a tired full back, but he may get frustrated and found out if he started (and arguably that is happening to Fatuwu a bit at the moment). It’s fairly pragmatic management from Cooper that is not necessarily setting pulses racing but could work out better for us in the longer term than going too gung-ho and getting smashed. Spurs (especially) and Villa would have battered us on the counter if we started too aggressively and we could have had two heavy defeats. Southampton’s game this weekend showed the naivety of trying to play the same way as in the Championship. The international break has come at a good time to take stock and hopefully tweak things to come out stronger. We have much more attacking options than a few weeks ago and some of those will have to play a role as impact players. Hopefully, there can be an adjustment to bring a little more creativity from the outset - Buonanotte (or another attack minded midfielder) in for Ndidi from this weekend’s starting lineup seems to make sense, Wilf was a bit lost with Winks and Skipp controlling the centre and we know he doesn’t have the skills at this level to be a 10. I think one of Mav or Fats in the starting XI is fine with a more disciplined player on the other side. We can mix it up, but Mavididi probably deserves a run at starting. Edouard or Ayew could be reasonable starting options up front with Vardy coming on late for impact/nuisance value. I think Ayew has looked decent enough and could also fill in wide or behind - he has the experience and a bit of PL knowledge that we lack otherwise. I would be happy to give Okoli more time. He wasn’t standout today but largely fine and offers more pace and a natural left sided CB that we don’t otherwise have. In order of preference as partner, I would say Coady then Vestergaard and then Faes. The latter is too prone to mistakes, not disciplined enough for the PL. I though Vestergaard did well first two games and he would be fine but Coady gives a little extra comfort and leadership. At full-back, I’d probably go with Ricky and JJ - Kristiansen has been fine and could come in for either of them (with the other switching to the right). Couple of other positives to finish: first, how Cooper speaks after games. Very clear, no blame and no hiding. It’s quite refreshing, especially compared to BS Brendan. The other thing is mixing it up - the obvious comparison here is Maresca, who would only ever switch like for like with subs. Against Villa, Cooper brought on Buonanotte, El Khannous, Mavididi, McAteer and Decordova-Reid while taking off the likes of Skipp, Ndid and Okoli. Five attacking subs and Vardy played the whole game! It didn’t work out in the end but it wasn’t for want of trying.

Picked up the new third “Ice Kings” shirt. Much nicer in reality than the photographs - I think they’ve shot themselves in the foot a bit with the pics that have been published. It’s not white, it is an actually a very subtle ice blue (the collar has white bits for contrast). Navy on the sleeve stripes and badge sets it off nicely. Good to see the old logo although the multiple repeat of it is probably not the best use.