Lillehamring

Yes - BDCR would be the 5% that we didn't retain - ie. an attacking midfielder - if he does start he'll effectively be the replacement for KDH - I don't see any of the other first XI from last year being dropped for an academy player

Really? But for a woeful final five games they could easily have been pushing for the 'best of the rest title' - Notwithstanding, 11th in th BL is a hell of a step up from Millwall. They had some really fast dynamic players, and were strong and organised. Dismissing them as poor seems unfair on them and us. Otherwise - I think i agree with all your other points. (BDCR, like ndidi against palermo, seems like a 'placeholder' - clearly that's the spot he's referring to when he says 'bringing in a starter'.)

I thought today Ausburg transitioned very quickly and with great dynamism but i didn't feel that they really caused us a great deal of trouble - our work rate was first class, front to back. It's not entirely impossible to believe that right now, we've gone back into that mode of being so wary of conceding chances it's made us super risk averse going forward, which is perhaps why we're not playing those cross field balls or throwing bodies into the box as we have got used to in the championship. I think fans are expecting us to be both solid defensively and thrilling going forward, but survival is our priority and so we have to be pleased that we're defending relatively well - i don't think we've conceded more than one goal from open play (correct me if i'm wrong). Something that seems to be overlooked because of the less than dynamic attacking we're producing right now. The three teams that went down last year were horrendous defensively - as dull as it may seem, i'd be happy for us to be like everton scoring just 40 but conceding the 4th fewest goals in the league.

I think the point he's making is that we are getting into shooting positions, and we are getting possession in the box, but we're not making those positions count. There'll be a misplaced pass or a blocked shot or fatawu hoofing it into space. I think what Cooper sees is the potential and resultant outcome - and is frustrated that they don't align. And really, to get into these positions (cue the grumblers suggesting that we don't get into these positions) suggests that tactically our build up play is sound, it's our final ball that is failing us - and this has been an issue under previous managers, too.

How do you know the players aren't happy? This is where the hard work is done - right now they're focussed on anything but dancing and skipping. But just because they're not laughing and mucking about on the pitch doesn't mean they're not enjoying being out there, and i'm sure there's an element of frustration in knowing that they're not playing as well as they are capable - but, again, that doesn't mean they're unhappy. Too many posters on here putting words into the mouths of the players and the club.

I can't imagine any manager coming in would take what is 95% a title winning squad and drop players to bring in teenagers with no first team experience just as an exercise in 'promoting youth' - it's clear that there's potential in these players but you can't gamble an entire season by starting with players who may or may not be capable at this level - and no amount of pre-season friendly experience is going to change that.

I'm not sure i agree with this, or at least that he was worse than anyone else. Ndidi as an attacking option is a dead loss, he gives away far too much possession with his heavy touches and poor passing - at least VK put some crosses in and, yes he did tuen back a fair bit, but at least he kept possession. I also found Fatwu incredibly frustrating - he's like mahrez without the end product - by which i mean he runs in to dead ends and loses possession and his shooting is naive, wasteful and, frankly, atrocious. I can see Cooper getting very frustrated with him and i'm not surprised we've been looking at players in that position. For what it's worth, from a tactical standpoint, we've played a couple of decent teams that are both very solid defensively - i'd argue that of the few teams we'll play this year that sit deep, none will be as good at it as Ausberg and Palermo; the majority of teams we'll play will probably offer us space for us to counter into (which we did decently in the first pre-season game. I get people's frustration at the lack of end product but the foundation of our build up play i think is really sound, comparable in quality to last year but with a bit more urgency.

Well this time last year we had a melt down about how the club sent us to play in a monsoon, so it's probably safe to say this is John Rudkin's fault.

The general consensus is split: 1. We haven't seen enough to know what he's going to do, it's all a bit strange. 2. He's sh!t, he hasn't got a clue, he has no tactics, forget about a plan B , he doesn't even have a plan A.

Funnily enough, in the two games we've seen so far - that's exactly what we've seen - one game of each. Unfortunately, the 'attacking style' didn't result in much in the way of final ball/end product - but it was clear that he has options to play different ways - although in this case i think it was more a result of the qualities/style of play of the opponents, than the players he has available.

Did you read the Rob Tanner article? If there's one thing that can be said about him and that's that he.... Oh, wait, you were just making a Rudkin joke - you're so cool.

I'd guess it comes down to the quality of the collection - if you have anything valuable you'd be best selling those online/discogs. if it's just an ordinary sort of collection and you just want rid of, i'm guessing you'd be best to sell it as a job lot to a record store?

True, but there's still no indication at this time that he is frustrated about not getting any signings. I'm sure he'd rather be patient and get the best player available than rush someone in who doesn't work....

I think his brief is first and foremost to keep us up, and the rest dependent on how well we play - it would be nice to think that it's all good and we end up trying to push for a top half finish or that we could start giving time to some younger players, but realistically 100% staying up. How he goes about it, i'm not sure if it's quite as black and white as you say - The interest in Soule for example would have been the key investment of the summer - a relatively young untested player, whilst at the same timing filling the squad with the DCR's of this world - so maybe they're trying to get some balance of youth and experience.

Well, of course, because there really is a great need - he hasn't denied that and every man and his dog can see it. I was questioning the OPs suggestion that he was 'clearly frustrated' by the lack of signings. There's a difference between 'keen' or even 'impatient' and 'frustrated'. What is clear from his comments is that he knows the club are working hard to resolve the situation.

Don't forget that the enzo tactics thread was basically people moaning about rodgers' tactics for the first 3 months!

I didn't sense that at all - as seems to be the keyword with cooper, he seems to very pragmatic about it:

I'd say Ndidi won't play that advanced role. I think JJ will be predominantly used on the right, competing with ricardo, dependant on the opposition - i hope so, because he's a different player on the right. Thomas won't be playing at RCB, maybe not even LCB, probably competing with VK for the left wing back spot. Fatawu on the left seems more likely to be another case of 'players having to play out of position' rather than where he's destined to be, thus why he was back on the right against palermo.

Yeah, i think he'll show ( as he has done so far) common sense with the young players - i can't see any academy players starting early on in the season, it's too much of an unknown quantity and too much pressure on players with practically no first team experience. But I'm sure we'll see a few cameos late in games and in the cup. For some people though, they expect magic - like for Alves to come in and be our Jude Bellingham or Saka or something and make the team of the season...

For me - and this is based on two games, i feel that he has at least a couple of ideas what he wants to do - i don't think it's helped that we've played two very different games and that he's used players for the sakes of using players rather than in a way to get the best performance. - Against shrewsbury, we faced a side that were keen to attack and found ourselves having to defend; he opted to play with a system that felt, to me, like a variation on enzo's system, but with the wingers coming inside into the #8 roles, and with wing backs pushing into the wide roles, and with a fixed double pivot rather than an inverting FB. (from what i can gather from the first training game in evian, we played something along these lines, and showed that we'll probably see a lot more counter attacking (this is where the goals came from) - Against palermo, we faced a side that were happy to play with a deep block and, actually, not much else; he opted to play a more expansive attack, moving the wingers out wide and pressing high with a roaming midfielder (Ndidi). Both formations had a mix of positives and negatives. We've not been great in the final third, especially when we had to break palermo down, though we did create numerous decent chances. We've looked solid defensively, conceding two OGs and a goal from a, let's be kind, a pre-season level error. I think we have to give him credit for having some idea of how to manage a football team, obviously more games and games with a more settled squad will show us what the reality is, but i've seen enough to believe that he is not just going to be a one trick pony.

They only way i can rationalise it is that palermo played very deep and ndidi was there to (as he did under maresca) get into them and turn over possession high up the field - in this respect he did a great job, the problem is that what he offers in breaking up play he lacks in touch or passing range.

Sadly, too many of our fans now are so stuck in a pattern of hate, anger and complaint that they'll find any excuse to criticise and moan.

Thomas was playing more as a RCB in a three, and wasn't too bad, he played some nice progressive balls. But the reason he was played out of position was to give him, justin, ricardo and VK some game time - better to pay out of position than not at all. Just because you don't rate him doesn't mean he's not in Cooper's plans - we have such limited funds, we can't afford to replace everyone, we need to have some squad depth that doesn't involve spending any money.

He hinted at this being the case (not naming names, but it seems the most likely area) - we seem to be looking at players who can play forward, so it's likely ndidi will start next to winks and we'll either set up with a tight front three (mav/daka/fatawu - as against shrewsbury) or a more spread attacking 4 (mav/daka/CAM/fatawu - as against palermo)