Tom12345

That is true. Changing shape to counter opposition is all well and good, but not if you are simply changing shape and putting defenders on without regard to opposition tactics and simply trying to defend a lead.

We definitely should not have Ndidi back to being part of any double pivot role. We would struggle to get the ball up otherwise. I think it has to be a choice now of either having him as a no 10 (but also dropping back to help out in defense in the middle) or we play one of the other two. Or they can play instead of Ayew. We have tried and failed for years with Ndidi playing as part of any pivot - unfortunately he just does not have the attributes required for that role in the modern game. The costs clearly outweigh the risks.

By the way, as you said, why is this not offside? We were never shown how the line was drawn! From this angle, Justin with his leg was still quite far back!

When we were winning 2-1, I thought we looked more likely to score again and also thought that: - given Cooper started Mavididi, maybe it was time to bring Ricardo on for Justin on the other side - we should push on by replacing Ndidi with one of the other attackers we have - Mavididi was looking a bit jaded late in the game and so he could make way for one of the other attackers we have Instead, we got 2 defenders on. First, Hamza was a very poor sub as I can’t remember him doing anything of note and he is also not the attacking player I thought we should introduced. We instantly lost all attacking momentum or indeed any threat at all. We were just giving the ball straight back from this point. Then when Coady came on, I thought Cooper is a loser, even though I was pleased (before the penalty) to see Coady get some minutes. Our tactics was not only piss poor but it was demonstrably League One. It was like we were a League One side that got lucky with the lead against a Premier League side and we were just throwing everyone behind the ball because we can’t play football. This is the most disheartening - I thought Cooper is better than League One.

Excellent work again. Agree with everything you say. At the end of the day, attack (or just playing our football) is the best form of defense, instead of just sitting back and inviting pressure (and be nervous). I don’t know why our managers (Rodgers and now Cooper) keep failing in this department. It is also bad for confidence if we don’t trust our own football to win games, especially if it got us to a winning position in the first place (as you say, we were doing well for 2/3 of the game!).

I didn’t watch the first half. But from all accounts Ndidi did well. Please read my posts. I said playing him as a DM is a mistake and handicaps the team - Cooper had Skipp and Winks there. I said however I can have Ndidi play AM.

Palace had no attacking rhythm until we had 9 defenders on and we couldn’t string a passes together. Hamza is so crap at this level he should really not play anymore. Did nothing. Then after Coady came on, Palace was attacking us left right and center. Coady giving away the penalty is just a symptom of very poor tactically mindset. Defend 20 mins with 8/9 defenders is never going to work. Palace had nothing other than the one goal before that. Very poor subs and very poor mindset. This is all on Cooper.

Clueless.

What a waste of a possession, Justin!

We asked for it. Bloody Cooper. Clueless.

He has done nothing

Geeze. Having 9 defenders on is really inviting pressure.

Is Buonanotte that much better than Alves? Why not give our own home grown player of the same age a chance instead of grooming another team’s player on loan to us?

Just as a separate note - appreciate for a moment the club and the owners did lose millions year after year. Can’t really blame the owners for not putting money in because they have.

But if he didn’t choke CL qualification for 2 seasons running and if he didn’t allow the downfall the two seasons thereafter, despite the squad being so much better than the one now and despite having the most expensive squad to ever be relegated in EPL history, we could have also avoided PSR issues. Or maybe not. In any event, no club would wish to be relegated and go into a downward spiral, just to avoid PSR issues. The downward spiral could multiple PSR issues tenfold. The PSR are designed to keep you down and stamp upon you while you are down. Look at the likes of the clubs that have gone before us - relegated, financial trouble, PSR rules means you are further penalised and so create more financial and performance issues, which in turn create further PSR penalties … until you go bankrupt. I think if you get relegated and are in financial troubles, naturally you would need to cut back etc and you don’t need to be penalized further.

Part of this may be: - whether Cooper prefers Fatawu as the flying winger or Mavididi - if Cooper prefers Fatawu, it may mean that he prefers the right back to stay behind and mainly defend, in which case he has preferred JJ - if Cooper prefers Mavididi, then it may be that he could prefer JJ as LB which means that he would need a RB that goes up and down, which is where Ricardo would excel At the moment, Coopers seems to prefer the Fatawu/JJ combination on the right and Kristiansen on the left all by himself. I guess the debate is that for some fans, this selection leaves the better player amongst them, ie. Ricardo, on the bench while we have an average player in Kristiansen flying on the left all by himself. The question, is this better? It seems Coopers prefer to supplement through having a creative player around Kristiansen, but I am not sure Kristiansen is a good enough passer to make that work. With Ricardo on the other side, he is not only great at dribbling and roaming forward, he is also a good passer of the ball especially in tight spaces often doing one-twos with other creative passers.

Rather than hate the bloke and generate more bad vibe, I actually hope he has a really good talking to by Coopers to calm his head. This will be better than having a player ostracized and create bad mood in the dressing room. He can improve if he can cut out his rashness and more importantly accept responsibility for mistakes. If he can’t see his mistakes, it is difficult for him to learn from them.

I have a sense Faes is a bad apple in the dressing room. He moans too much and keeps blaming others on the pitch when he makes mistakes. Like last week when he blamed Mads for his ridiculous back heel. Happens every single time. Winks is a team player. He keeps emphasizing how we have a good dressing room etc. He must hate what Faes is doing in this regard.

No thank you. He is such a handicap to the team if he plays next to Winks. It makes Winks and others around him struggle as well. Teammates are supposed to make you better. If we move him away from the AM role, it has to be to the bench.

For the reasons set out in quite a few Ndidi related posts now, Ndidi should not be any understudy for Winks now. This is worst. Strider also made some really good videos showing why. Playing in such role will kill our game as that role in the modern game requires a really good ball handler who can connect defence with midfield and who can help teammates with options when we have possession. The cost is far too great - we won’t able to have much fluency in our transition and would find it hard to get up the pitch. In effect, the cost is that we will lack much creativity in our plays. See the few seasons before we got relegated as an example. Ndidi’s best role now is actually up top if Cooper wants to press high to help steal the ball back higher up the pitch and then hope one of his better ball handling attacking teammates there can take advantage. Lower down the pitch - we have defenders there and they are far from the opposition goal. But I would be happy to see our new no. 11 starts there instead.

I hope gradually this will become Cooper’s first team: GK: Mads Defenders: (Right to Left) Ricardo/Justin Okoli Coady/Faes Justin/Kristiansen Defensive pivots: Winks Skipp Attacking Midfield: Buonanotte/Fatawu El Khannouss/Buonanotte/Ndidi Mavididi/Ayew Forward: Vardy Notes re Ricardo: If Fatawu plays on the right, Ricardo can draft inside often. If Buonanotte plays on the right, Ricardo can stay out wide more as a winger. Either way, Ricardo should start what Justin or Kristiansen playing on the left.

I don’t want to go to this extreme in terms of Cooper, but it is not only disappointing but worrying that Cooper fails to see Ricardo’s qualities especially as a RB (which is a position that prior to being used as an inverted RB Ricardo is clearly one of the best in the league). However with the way Cooper selects him team, and with new players just joined, it is hard to see him start for a while. But what I don’t understand is, as you say, when Fatawu came off on the right and we needed more creativity, we should have Ricardo on for Justin who was not doing anything attacking wise. Justin at best got to about a third into the half without contribution or losing the ball. If we had Ricardo on, he could have made his trademark runs and link up with Buonanotte who clearly is not much of a winger. Buonanotte kept coming inside (he was playing more as an attacking midfielder last week), and we would have benefited with Ricardo bombing down the right. But he kept Justin on. Alternatively he could have replaced Kristiansen and Justin to go to the left (a position where Justin can play as well). Kristiansen played ok, and I don’t want to criticise him, but apart from having a bag of air to run up and down all game, he didn’t really offer much in terms of creativity. So in short, in terms of creativity, Ricardo is clearly the best out of the three. Defensively, Ricardo is good too (admittedly he used to be fantastic and indestructible but following his injury I feel he has taken a step back from hurting himself as much).

And also Khannouss. The three of them added quite a bit of mobility and speed.

At least Cooper is better than Rodgers. He didn’t keep Ndidi in DCM for long. Rodgers would have kept Ndidi in his problematic DCM position and ended up the game with 6 defenders chasing the game by passing about at the back. Having said that, I still don’t know what Cooper’s style is.

To be honest, I am more forgiving towards Cooper. If it was Rodgers, we should still have 6 defenders on the pitch at the end. Cooper didn’t, so that is a tick for me. He started Ndidi at AM which means he sees a bit what we see, so I am pleased. However, he changed him back to DCM after Skipp left, so that is still worrying. When Khannouss and Buonanotte came on, they instantly gave our midfield so much more mobility. The fact Cooper didn’t that was encouraging. Yet, he still have Ricardo on the bench so that is worrying in terms of what he sees. He has to start either in place of Justin or Kristiansen. Not starting Mavididi is also strange. He changed the game. But in fairness, Ayew was not too bad at all today. There is some issue though still with our game plan. We didn’t provide much to Vardy until the 3 subs came on. Overall, this second half is encouraging. It is only 3 games. Let’s observe more first. Give the team a proper chance to gel.