Tom12345

That’s his game and why he is who he is. Agree though he has made a few errors.

Happy with the first half. This is a big step up for Cooper, using Ricardo as an inverted full back in a system Cooper has not used before. Well done to his open-mindedness. Ricardo started the move that resulted in our goal too. I said any manager that uses Ndidi as DCM does not know modern football. So now he has moved him back to AM. Nice. Although I would like to see Bilal coming in for him at some stage in the second half if we are chasing for a goal. Fatawu and Bounuette (apart from his one brain fart trying to dribble out of the box) have again been excellent. Winks is back to his best with Ricardo next to him. Justin is having a mare though - he is getting beaten time and time again on the left and it was his non-clearance that resulted in the goal against us. Maybe Kristiansen can come in for him? He is faster and stronger. Mavididi has been too lazy defensively so he needs to pick it up. Defensively we are in control with the midfield quickly recovering the ball time and time again, however, once it got into our half, there were too many lapses of concentration: Bounuette trying to dribble out; Justin getting cooked; Ndidi passing back to the opposition; to name a few examples. A good first half.

Yeah, a bit lazy defensively

Justin is getting cooked today

Mads is having a lot of practice this season after a season of mainly using just his feet.

Back in dreamland. Ricardo to Winks, Enzo way. Winks to Ndidi, with Ndidi as AM. Back to Winks and then Vardy. Very Enzo about it, but Cooper directed. Well done.

Ricardo back as inverted full ball. Ndidi played as AM and not DCM. In dreamland. We were in control and then this …

Justin!

Wow. I am dreaming!

And then be loaned out to Leicester again?

Dreaming but with Ricardo inverting to pivot in possession.

Hermansen. Ricardo Faes Okoli Justin Bounanotte Winks Fatawu. Bilal Mavididi Vardy

As a manager, I like how he has tried to mix things up and get the long balls back. First 6 games though that was awful and the long balls were just quick ways to turn the ball over and invite pressure. In the last 2 games, some passing from the back has re-emerged. It is still a bit difficult to see some proper Enzo like game plan (it doesn’t have to be the same as Enzo’s of course). Having said all of that, the thing I value the most is that the manager learns from mistakes and is willing to experiment. And of course, he needs to show that he has a good football brain in doing so. So far, I have seen enough experimentation on his part that I would give him more time (hopefully more towards the tactics/selection that I see best 🤣). I hope he is not stubborn like Rodgers was and shows us that he is better than him.

Interesting thought. Just to check, who are your usual defensive four? Would you accommodate Ricardo within this? If so, who would you drop? For me, I think we would waste Buonanotte as the most advanced player as his play making ability would be missed. He is also good with tracking back. It is a good dilemma to have, and I think the difficulty is that you would rather make the difficult choice of dropping Vardy so we can accommodate both wingers and also Wilf. We also have Bilal who is good on the ball in the mix (and for Cooper, Ayew), so it is not an easy choice.

Thanks very much once again for another great piece of analysis. I like to jump on a few things you said and make a few comments: - You mentioned dropping Kristiansen and having 2 wingers as being much better than the Cooper system given the pros and cons of each. I agree. I also agree with you that having 2 tricky wingers gives us so much more attacking threat compared to having an extra full back roaming forward. Player by player - wingers are naturally more skillful going forward; at the same time, full backs are better defensively but we can mitigate via the system. It is for the same reason (albeit in different ways) why we struggled to score goals in the second part of Rodgers’ rein with him preferring to have more defensively minded players but with less ball skills keeping the ball (still remember us just passing about at the back relying on the likes of Evans and Faes to start attacks? And with Ndidi as the pivot we could hardly get up the pitch despite having plenty of good players on the bench?). - I agree with your comment that we have a much deeper squad compared to Southampton. We have a decent squad and this is why I think we were being too negative and played as if we don’t belong and with a negative mindset. As others have pointed out, what was most pleasing was the fight and spirit the players showed in this game. We were not just content to score. We went to grab the ball from the net after scoring the first two and the players visibly wanted to score more and win. This has been missing for a long time (including last year with Maresca) where we showed no urgency in our play. - As you pointed out with the change of system and us having 5 attacking players, we created so much more. We just looked better and we put Southampton on the backfoot. What I did like about Cooper at the start of his rein was that he was trying to get the long balls back into our game again after years under Maresca and previously Brendan (remember all the passing about from the back to nowhere?). However, I think we can all agree that it was looking like we had no plan in his first 6-6.5 games. We were just hoofing it up and immediately turned over possession. This may have been what has caused some dressing room disgruntle. The worst offenders were Kristiansen (who coincidentally did not go through the Enzo School of Football last year) and Ndidi (we talked about him a lot already and suffice to say that he is a handicap to slick passing football from the back and he weights down on teammates around him - of course he is capable of the occasions good forward pass). When Kristiansen went off and Fatawu came on, we looked very different as you said. But what I want to add is that we played a lot more of the ball by passing around, with purpose! It was a joy to watch. I feel though we still didn’t get it all right (we were lucky this is Southampton and then they were down a player) and yet it remains very important that we search for the right balance as we seem to keep getting this wrong over the years. Despite all the criticisms, Cooper seems to be willing to experiment (at least when he make subs). I hope he is going to be more adventurous than he has been. In this regard, for me, as much it may be unpopular to some, I am still single minded about dropping Ndidi unless, in certain games, we need him to press high and play as a AM (but I rather have better ball players like Bilal there). - We would be so much better if we have say Ricardo as part of the double pivot together with Winks (as you said) or even Skipp. This means, the question still is, we should drop Ndidi (at least as part of the pivot). Against Southampton and then 10 men, we can tolerate him being there when we are already in attacking mode with 2 wingers. But we could be so much better. And against stronger opposition this will show much more. Imagine we had Ricardo instead of Ndidi. Or even trying it with Bounauette who seems to be quite good with tracking back. Yes, we will miss out on some of Ndidi’s personal defensive strengths, but as we have been saying for a while, if the whole team can keep the ball and play attacking football better, that is the best form of defense. This is similar to the choice you said you would make about having two tricky wingers and five attacking players up top instead of Cooper’s one roaming full back in place of one of the wingers. We can of course do better with Fatawu than Kristiansen (or Justin for that matter). It is the same with Ndidi - I am concerned Cooper has now consolidated with Ndidi as one of the pivots. Imagine we have Ricardo there with Winks/Skipp instead - they will work well together to help get the ball up without leaving it to Kristiansen or our CBs to hoof it up when Ndidi puts them under pressure (either by passing back or not presenting himself as a passing option and leaving it to Winks/Skipp to do all the work alone). It would be so much better if we can consistently move the ball up with ease and get the ball to our attacking players and play higher up the pitch. I rather that than to constantly turn the ball over and play in our half, just to see Wilf being praised for his defensive tackling (inevitably the whole team plays shxt and we leak goals notwithstanding Wilf’s tackling). - Winks being happier as you say hopefully means Cooper and him have also made up.

But as in the first half, we struggle to get any rhythm getting up the pitch. Being attacking means we need to be able to get up the pitch in the first place. Fine if he plays AM but I argue we have better attacking players to play there. Also, Southampton doesn’t press us very well. Other teams won’t let us play much.

Not sure why we still had Ndidi on the pitch in the end. We were tactically poor with Ndidi on with Skipp. Skipp struggled with Ndidi as his partner. When Fatawu came on he widened the pitch and changed the game. Once we had an extra man Ndidi’s weaknesses were overshadowed, but this game really shows that we need to: - start Winks with Skipp (and drop Ndidi please) - start Fatawu and Mavididi as wingers to stretch the pitch - have more of our attacking players on the pitch as they naturally push the game up the pitch

Fatawu nearly got into Ayew’s way! Luckily the ball still bounced into the net. We have so much attacking talent. Cooper just got to use it. This match goes to show that Cooper must play with 2 wingers instead of 1. Fatawu coming on with Mavididi on the other side (and later Ayew though with 10 men by then) changed the game.

I know I keep saying this and I apologize for the repetition, but any manager that puts Ndidi on as a DCM loses my vote. We could play ok, but without Ndidi there we could be so much better consistently. There is already 4/5 years of data on this. He is a loyal servant of the club and he has his strengths but the team is just out of balance when he plays there. It creates so much more pressure on our other players to hoof the ball up field because they can’t find an outlet. If we want some control back in our game, even if not quite Enzo level, and noting this is something even Rodgers wanted (but he never in the end realised Ndidi’s problem), we have to make the easy (but seemingly hard) choice for some to either drop Ndidi or to move him further upfield. But as Buonanotte showed us yesterday, there may be better players we have there (Bilal also). DCM is essentially the pivot in modern football. We have two in our setup. They are crucial in providing outlets to our defensive backline to move the ball through the opposition front lines (which 9/10 would be pressing us). The reason why Ricardo was so important to Enzo is because he moves up to provide an additional outlet for that purpose (next to Winks). This is also why Ndidi did not play there. We all know his weaknesses and so did Enzo. There was a play which Strider showed in his match review where Mads was holding on to the ball and waiting to pass. He had Okoli on one side, Skipp was moving around but marked, and Ndidi was as usual not interested in receiving the ball and was positioned directly in line with an opposition player intercepting (watch the clip). Some focussed on Skipp not being able to get the ball. Some focussed on the poor pass Okoli eventually made after Mads passed to him, but watch again, Mads struggled for a choice (if not to hoof it up) and once Okoli got the ball he was pressed and had no outlet for a pass whatsoever, so he just hit it long to touch and thereby turned over the ball without ever making it past the halfway line. I have no idea what the purpose of that play was other than to turn the ball over asap. The alternative would have been Mads just hoofed it up which will result also in a turnover. If we had the Enzo system with Ricardo, Mads would have had an extra choice. If we have a proper double pivot, our second pivot would have provided an extra outlet to split the lines. But instead, the Ndidi pivot was useless. Even if Ndidi would manage to receive the ball, 8/10 he would pass it back to put someone else under pressure (who would then often hoof it up which also results in a turnover). As he does have a good attacking pass in him, occasionally we see him make a good pass, but the problem is that is not a sustainable tactic. Teams have worked us out 4/5 years ago. Yet we continue to make the same mistake and deliberately unsettle the “balance” which we otherwise could have. In modern football, we play with 11 players in possession including the keeper to stretch the pitch, but why we choose to handicap ourselves at the important pivot position I can never justify (for any supposed tackling advantages). Maintaining a threat on the ball is far superior, even as a defensive tactic, than having a player who can tackle better than others. Kristiansen is currently another who hoofs it up too often. 8/10 his long balls just hand the opposition the ball back straight away. I will reserve judgement on him but I rather Justin at LB with Ricardo on the right. This is why, to the naked eye, without the depth of the above analysis, it just appears we have no plan and we can’t keep the ball. Worst, we just hoof it up to turn the ball over endlessly. Player selection is important and I agree we are far from having a balanced team selection.

Wow. If this is true, Cooper can’t last long. Having said that, I always think the club is bigger than the players and players should listen to the manager. Players doing this sort of thing to a manager so early in his tenure is also somewhat troubling.

Goes to show how far Brighton has come, overtaking us as the model club (we lost that mantra a few years ago though). Great young players bought on the cheap but with great potential. They have a lot of talented players. Look at Mitoma - an absolute gem and I am surprised no big club has come in for him yet for 50m plus. He is a special player. This bloke we have too has a very high ceiling. Someone in the other thread said he has been called up to the Argentina squad. His stock is only going to rise. No chance we can get him at the end of the season on any permanent deal.

Skipp did well today. He kept the ball moving and was always trying to get into positions to help his teammates with providing an outlet. Pity VK bombed it up too often and Ndidi was not much of a help. Disagree therefore that Ndidi was better in his DCM role - anyone who believes Ndidi is ever a good option for the DCM role needs to read and think carefully re the Ndidi threads. This topic has been well discussed. Don’t get me wrong, Ndidi is capable of the good pass every now and then, which is why him playing AM is preferred (but there are two other more attacking players in the side he is competing with, one of whom scored a spectacular goals yesterday and the other being Bilal), but him playing the DCM exposes others and weaken our ability to build from the back and pass it through midfield throughout the game. This is why we are capable of the occasional brilliance but we can otherwise be consistent pinned back.

Some here have forgotten that we got relegated with the most expensive squad that ever got relegated and we managed to retain what was still a decent PL quality squad to play one season in the Championship. We have actually improved the squad in my opinion this season on balance. Yet, those who have forgotten keeps on talking about our team/squad as if we were a team like WBA coming up with a squad that is worth 1/5 or less. We were playing in the top half of the PL not so long ago with many of these players. Yes, we lost the likes of Tielemans, Maddison, Barnes and now KDH (who are all playing with top top clubs now) but it goes to show what a great backward step our club went through if we still have a decent squad now. To me, it is all mentality. It started with Rodgers’ loser / choking mentality which I recall quite a few fans also accepted for years and thought it was ok, until we were finally (unbelievably with the team we had) relegated with the most expensive squad in history. It is a bit different in terms of the circumstances but the issues with mentality and team tactics are the same. But some reason, we still struggle with mentality issues and we still play Ndidi in DCM role. I can’t believe after all these years through Rodgers to now we still have not learnt. But I am not a Cooper out just yet. I hate to give managers no time, but I am running out of patience …

I agree with you regarding Kristiansen being poor in terms of playing through the lines. I don’t like his selection for that reason either. I rather Ricardo playing RB and Justin playing LB for that reason alone. I think Okoli is ok though. It is early days still. Our biggest problem though is when we have Ndidi in that DM role as he doesn’t give enough of an outlet to our defenders in term of playing through the lines. I see that Skipp was trying very hard to position himself to present an option for the pass, and often he helps to create a triangle with the winger to try to stretch the opposition. However, his midfield partner Ndidi rarely does it (he did it more yesterday though) and even if he does once he gets the pass he often sends it backwards putting our defenders under pressure again or he just lose it altogether. This handicap way of setting up has costed our team a lot in the past and the reason why Ndidi is only suited as an AM. This point has been well analysed before. Of course, we have better attacking players too for that AM position. So it is a choice we just have to make but for the sake of the whole team Ndidi should not play DM for us, ever. You will then see our defenders play through the lines better if he doesn’t play that role.

I am starting to see the reason. VK hardly tries to do one twos and short passing. If in doubt, VK just hoofs the ball up pitch so that we can lose the ball and be ready to defend again. This suits Cooper’s style very much. Ricardo on the other hand will try to pass our way up and do good passing combos. Not Cooper.