Chelmofox

From my perspective, he's not ever convincing any of his he's any solution to anything. But it's probably an unpopular opinion, but i think he keeps us up this season and i think he does it a little more comfortably than many of us currently think. I really want him to unleash the best attacking team we have, but it pains me to agree that he is right playing Ayew, and being difficult to beat isn't a bad thing right now. We've been largely dog turd but competitive, and after 7 games i think being competitive and sitting 15th isn't a bad thing. I have to remember the absolute drubbings we took in the relegation season, and think we are currently sitting better than then. I would like to think the trajectory is survival this season, replace Cooper next season with some good recruitment and some of our youth coming through, and we start competing for mid table again. I don't see Cooper ever getting us mid table.

Lets hope that shot from Abdul knocks some sense into him (which from where i was sat was going top left bins). Not looking great this one. At all.

Bloody excellent today. Hes definitely stepping up.

I mean seriously? It's pretty nailed on that Ayew starts right? No way he starts Abdul and Mavi. The simple thought of it must make his sphincter twitch.

This is huge. Everyone should be up for it. Instead, i deep down want Cooper gone and would secretly be happy with a nasty loss. Sure i will change my mind in an hour or so.

Agree. No point of even dreaming about Riccy until JJ is crocked. Again, no chance he plays 2 attacking wingers at the same time. One will have to be Ayew or Bobby. Because Mavi is playing well that means that Abdul will be benched. Ridiculous but true. I presume Ndidi get the nod over Skipp, so unless he plays the dynamic threesome (Winks, Skipp and Ndidi), Skipp is benched. I will basically spend the whole game dreaming how we would be performing if we played the following: Hermansen Ricardo Okoli Faes VK Skip. Winks Fatawu. Buonanotte. Mavididi Vardy

Doubt it.

Nah. It will go to form and we will have an abhorrent first half but keep it down to losing 0-1. Then 2nd half we start competing and get an equaliser. Either we hold on or Bournemouth get a narrow win, but because the 2nd half is better Cooper stays put. The end will only come when the players properly down tools, and I don’t think we are there yet.

This gets said every week, and although i despise Cooper, we seem to somehow compete. I don't think we lose heavily. This likely ends up a draw or a narrow loss. I just don't see where we get a win from.

The best get caught out. Every manager who plays this talks about risk/reward. Mads is top notch with his feet and shows little fear in difficult situations or when he gets it’s wrong. In a possession heavy PL side, he will be the absolute nuts.

We are the dross mate.

Actually - i would argue the 'shit' kids are really well catered for. Our local club has a huge range of abilities covered and they let the kids just play, be social and get exercise - certainly something that wasn't there when i was a kid. The upper tier is very well catered for albeit very over competitive and i've seen a lot of quite aggressive coaching in a certain style that doesn't sit well with me. Its probably the tier of kid who hasn't hit their potential yet that would benefit from not being over coached and just playing that isn't well catered for.

Did the Harbs park run this morning. First bit of outdoor running in ages and did 24.44 which I am over the moon with. Started at the back so the first 1k was bunched up and slow although that stopped me going out too hard. All ankles and knees ok I’m feeling proud of myself!

JJ plays till he gets injured

Go to your room.

Argue that’s the Cooper thing to do.

I can't remember if it was the Spurs or Villa game (sure it was the latter) but when an opposing player was down injured Cooper signalled over to Winks to send a message to Vardy. When Winks spoke to Vardy, Vard waved his arms in the air and looked visibly pissed off, and then went to argue with the ref. Felt clear to me that the message was to give some needle to the official and Vardy didn't really want to do it. Agree - the body language is way off. Even Coady, who is full to the brim with leadership quality, has his head down with slumped shoulders. Something is way, way off from where it should be in that squad.

Is he? This is a myth that keeps getting pushed out there with very little to back it up. He got Forest into the playoffs, and some dodgy referring helped them through. That's it. Other than that there is little to provide any credence that he is any good coaching at this level. His PL time at Forest was a sh1tshow, especially when you consider the resources given to him. The excuses for this still niggle me (too many players, hard to find the right balance), but the reality is that he wasn't good enough to get a tune out of that team. Their away form (worryingly) stank, his PL record is about as good as Dot Cotton could manage. Apparently he has some sort of youth coach credential, but there is nothing to back up that he has the skills to promote youth to the first team. The Walsall game is another cracking example of this, with out hottest prospect sidelined by players who barely want to be here. The 'nice bloke' line gets used a lot, not that it really means anything, nor has anyone dealt with him to know if its true. My Forest supporting mate used to tell me there was a rumour that he would tell players they were out of the squad via Whatsapp. I've nothing to tangibly back it up, but like the player revolt rumour, sometimes there is no smoke without fire, and if its true, it will highlight he is a poor man manager as well.

Absolutely no chance we go there and have a go. Not a chance. Damage limitation all the way.

I think thats the worst game of ours i've sat through. I'm sure there were worse games and worse results, but from an effort/application/approach level, i thought that was pretty damning. Setting up not to lose against Walsall.

Do the big 6 get to play at home and avoid each other again? Liverpool away. For sure. To be honest, don't want to be tempted with a home tie that contains Ward / Thomas and Soumare.

Benched Alves. Cooper really getting on my nerves now.

@StriderHiryu - can't wait for your analysis on how we beat these

Another 90 mins for Ayew though, so not all bad.

Without delving into tactics, it all feels so disjointed. Very little of what we do seems to amount to anything and its very difficult to watch. Players on the whole don't look happy. Lots of arm flapping and bickering when moves amount to nothing. Its not a happy camp although i do feel the players are putting a shift in, just not entirely how they would like to. At the start found his interviews alright, but now they really frustrate me. Just coming across very insincere an waffling around subjects. Taking Mavi off because he had 'run his race' on 90 minutes and then repeating the statement many times in the interview - just strange. Really don't know where we go from here. Its like at work when you realise 2 months in that you picked the wrong candidate for a job who may have appeared more qualified than he was. Only here there is no probationary period. But the fact is we are hard to beat and the points from these draws do add up.