The Doctor

Almost like there's a balance between going "gung ho attack" and the current ultra defensive set up... No-one is asking for us to play like Keegans newcastle, but anyone denying that Coopers tendency to go ultra negative is a problem for us is, tbqh, demonstrating a severe lack of understanding of the tactical side of football. We blew a 2-0 lead v Palace, but for a disallowed goal we'd have blown a lead at home to bournemouth. The reason why is because Coopers response to any sort of lead is "just defend it lads". Problem is, you can't "just defend it" - if you show no intent to stretch the game, to pose a counter threat, then teams can pour forward without any concern, and so you concede a hell of a lot of shot volume (only brentford are allowing more shots per game, and they've already played man city, Spurs, Liverpool and man utd away), and territory (so the shots are from better positions, only spurs average shot faced distance is shorter than ours, and they've allowed half as many shots as we have), which tends to lead to a very leaky defence. Now, in fairness, we've conceded less than 6 otther teams, but our xGA is the worst in the division, and it's a combination of Hermansen being a top keeper and some questionable finishing from opposing forwards thats stopped that being reflected in the actual numbers. Coopers steadfast refusal to attack is going to result in dropped points, not just in failure to get back into games but also in failure to see out leads, because the best way to defend a lead is to pose enough of an attacking threat that the opponents are too wary to go "gung-ho".

looks, unsurprisingly, like a talented kid adjusting to a new country and league after only a month and a bit here. there's talent in there, we're seeing glimpses, but he needs time to get up and running. problem is, how do you give it him, in any sensible lineup the wingers would be Fatawu and Mavididi, and Buonnoatte is absolute mustard.

he's a negative and Uber defensive manager who'll never acknowledge that the reason we threw away the game v Palace, the reason we came so close to throwing it away v Bournemouth is because you can't just defend with 10 in your own half for 45 minutes and expect it to work

I mean that's the argument the ref made but like he gets fairly close to Hermansen, very fair to think he challenges for that ball if Ayew isn't holding him. got away with one there, if it were the other end and Okoli was being pulled like that with no penalty, this thread would be full of people accusing the PGMOL of trying to apply a points deduction on us.

as corky has said, double jeopardy is for genuine attempts to win the ball. it's a case of a penalty is enough punishment if you try a tackle and just get the timing wrong. So, that's why Raya isn't sent off for Arsenal yesterday for pulling down Evanilson. He's dived at the feet of the attacker intending to claim the ball and just got the timing wrong. Fraser is a professional foul, there's no attempt to play the ball, he just grabs Vardy to stop him getting to it. as such, double jeopardy doesn't apply

there's only one of him? so it's wood, not woods

not really, and it doesn't mean that we've only played good football under Puel, Rodgers and Maresca. Good football means a clear strategy and approach and executing it with at least reasonable competence. Ranieri was good football, it was a highly tactical catenaccio derivative. Conversely, Sousa wasn't good football because there was no understanding of what the strategy was, nor an appropriate set up to pull it off, despite trying for more possession based approach there's been a meme template going round on football twitter and Reddit of Sean Dyche looking unimpressed and declaring [X] to be "woke nonsense", where [X] is just the world not being the 1980s anymore: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sean-dyche-utter-woke-nonsense

leeds were awful for 80 minutes. they sang at kick off, then were silent until their equaliser. fair play, they were then really good once the game swung their way but it was purely a reaction to a mad 10 minutes. that's really what football is like most places now though, can't remember the last set of fans I saw that make much noise without being triggered by something on the pitch

JJ is gonna get the blame for both for letting the crosses come in too easily but on the second, what the hell is VK doing? Faes has come across to address JJ being beaten, Okoli has followed Archer to cover that run and VK just stands watching Aribo get the freedom of Hampshire to slot in.

look, you can just say you don't like football as a chess match rather than going full "Sean Dyche woke nonsense meme" in response to possession football. Enzos team last season played good football, whether it was enjoyable to watch is a matter of perspective, but technically it was streets ahead of Cooperball

barely scraping survival each season, then being replaced by a manager who actually plays football? can we skip to that second part.

the football under cooper is not even a shadow of the football we played under Enzo. The football we're playing is, to but it bluntly, hideous and shit

Don't fall in love with a loan player, don't fall in love with a loan player... This lad is mustard and already looks a lock for PoTS.

His one goal of the season. Just a shame that that goal will see him back in for Friday and Abdul will be on the bench again.

won despite his best efforts. Like **** me, how can you supposedly have watched our games last season, see Southamptons very obvious weaknesses and get it so badly wrong. Sure, his subs did change the game, but they were necessary because he put us in that position with dogmuck tactics and benching Fatawu for no explainable reason. Get him gone still.

of all people. he won't score again all season mind

fatawu hitting the bar then having one cleared off the line. thank **** we didn't start him, might have actually played with some attacking intent

no, not ****ing Ayew!

get this twat sacked FFS, pathetic. down the right again

get this gimp sacked at half time

So, Abdul absolutely shredded them last season... doesn't start. Watched all of our games did you Cooper? Sure you ****ing did, twat.

Honestly that should be a sackable offence in and of itself, it was the most obvious weakness any team will ever have and he actively avoided pressuring it.

Abdul was an obligation to buy. If you want to talk about spending money well in excess of Coberan, well then Ayew and even to an extent De-Cordova Reid (free agent means decent singing on bonus) are right there.

Because we've looked shit, the tactics are atrocious and the squad is far better than he's making it look?

It's both tbh. Rudkin as DoF will have final sign off on negotiations and approval of signings, but the head coach (with the recruitment team) will identify players they want and the head coach picks the team. Cooper and Glover came up with the idea of signing someone eligible for their AXA parker pen, and about as prone to just falling over as that would suggest, and Cooper is the one picking said pensioner over one of the brightest young talents we've ever seen, and Rudkin is the one who didn't veto the deal for making no financial sense