Lillehamring

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)

Not sure what this has to do with tactics but.... Nelson, Alves, braybooke and golding have practically no first team experience - nelson is by far the most experienced with just a couple of hundred minutes in the championship. We're talking about the PL with a likely points deduction, having lost our top player and having to adjust to a new manager - these players are more likely to be loaned out than to even make the bench this season. Cooper has a lot to work out and a squad of regular first team players to get to match fitness, now is not the time to be 'bringing youth through'. The amount we've seen so far is healthy: he's having a look at the young lads, getting them involved, giving them some confidence and experience - i'm not sure what the problem is?

Bear in mind that you're commenting on a post that is screaming 'doom' based on two pre-season games. There's nothing of much substance to take away from anything yet - problem here is that fans are obsessed with this belief that everything has gone to sh!t and we're doomed to end up in administration or non-league.

I don't know how the highlights came across, but the majority of the game was basically attack (us) v defence (them), so tactically it was fairly limited (as we discovered last season) - the game plan was actually sound, the issue was really application in the final third.

I don't think it was wrong for Cooper to give Ndidi a go in that position, at this stage of the season, despite it not looking great (Certain members of the media though Ndidi was great!). I guess he went for experience over youth. But, I would have pulled him at half time, or dropped him back took off soumare and gave Alves a run, or even tried swapping ndidi and soumare. It was a bit of a strange call. If what he said means we're likely to end up with a 15/20M pound player in that spot, it's all a bit moot. I don't see him starting the season with Alves or Golding in the first XI (for the above reason, but also because it's such a huge gamble it could prove distracting) and i hope that he won't need to play Ndidi there.

I get that, but it's an adjustment that a player at this level should be able to cope with - it's not such a huge difference that it should turn a player from great to poor/mediocre. FWIW, i thought he did as much in the shrewsbury game as he did in the palermo game.

I think that's unfair - unless by 'competing' you mean a top half finish. It wasn't great in the final third today, but a couple of new players in key positions should make us competitive up to mid-table.

To be honest, other than some rather sturdy, deep lying defending, they really didn't do anything - i don't think they were a better team going forward than shrewsbury were. It feels like it was a game set up as a test to practice breaking this sort of team down - of which, as Cooper said post-game, we did half a job - we got through them, but had no end product.

The key thing from the post match interview was (again) (i paraphrase) "we're trying some things with players until we get other players in" - so we can only hope that we'll get a creative AM and ndidi can go back to the double pivot spot. Personally i'd rather have seen soumare there tonight. And you only use Daka in games where it's more open and end to end - in these games, he's useless - i think Cannon would have caused them more problems in those tight areas.

probably why he went straight into the starting line-up, eh?