funkyrobot

He’ll start Fatawu on the right but he’ll drop Mavididi on the left, replacing him with BDCR as he loves a lob sided set up and he’ll be hoping not many will remember the VK/Reid left hand side ‘partnershiT’ at Fulham.

Have you seen the Nike Chelsea home kit this year? 🤢

Southampton could probably bring up that one foul on their right winger that wasn’t given but other than that not sure what complaints they can have? The pulling of the shirt by Ayew didn’t have any material impact on the play, the pulling of the shirt by Fraser clearly prevented a clear goal scoring opportunity. They were diving a lot and the ref saw through it. The extra time was in part because of the delay in treating their player and because they were time wasting at every opportunity. We all know that’s standard Ramsdale practice as we’ve been on the wrong end of it before, he needs to learn - it’s not as successful when you play for a team not in the big 6!

The lad wasn’t getting anywhere near the ball when Ayew pulled his shirt. The commentator was making way more of this than it was. Shirt tugging only really gets picked up on when it directly impacts on a player on the ball or ready to make contact. If that’s given as a penalty then you’d get 5 given every match. The Fraser one was different as it very clearly denied Vardy a goal scoring opportunity. Clear penalty and a very clear red for Fraser.

Don’t know whether he was injured but he certainly didn’t have a good 1st half today. We lack any creativity with him and Ndidi playing as a double pivot. I’d prefer us to go back to a single number 6 pivot (Winks) with two number 8’s - Skipp becoming an option as a number 8 in competition with Ndidi, Buonanotte, El Khanouss. The options at number 8 would reflect the opposition although it would be difficult to drop Ndidi at the moment.

I wonder if BDCR could play there? 🤔 Can’t think of anyone else.🤪

Tbf BDCR came on and accidentally nearly got two assists - a sliced shot that curled spectacularly to give Fatawu a chance over the other side and an air shot that hit his standing leg that gave Vardy a great opportunity. 😂

Winks was outstanding, allowed to play in his best role as the single pivot and with Southampton sat back, he could play it in their half!

Hope you don’t mind my addition to your comment. 😂

Very unlucky not to score with a great effort. I thought he worked his way into the game and was looking quite useful after an anonymous start. You just get the impression with him like with the rest of them that they are having to make it up as they go along on the pitch with minimal game management by Cooper. At times it looks a mess out there as a team and that’s difficult for a new player to come into, particularly a player who has been given minimal game time.

The Daka is fast debate isn’t really relevant. What is relevant is how many goals he scores and up to now he’s simply not scored anywhere near enough goals at Championship or Premier League level to justify selection when fit. He will probably end up ahead of Edouard on the bench purely because the latter has been so poor in his first few games in a City shirt.

Would love Fatawu to start but it’ll be 1 winger for Cooper, ensuring Southampton can double up on Mavididi and minimising his effectiveness. Ayew will start on the right for his unique ability to win free kicks in and around the halfway line. This seems to be a key part of Cooperball, nullifying any attacking Leicester momentum that might be developing and allowing us to harmlessly restart play with the opposition back in a good defensive shape. Ayew will blow a gasket in the 60th minute but will play the full 90. BDCR will sub on for Mavididi in the last ten minutes with us needing a goal or two to try and gain an unlikely point. Ladies and Gentlemen, Cooperball is back!

Carsley put his best available eleven footballers in but played many of them out of position as he had 3 number 10’s playing at the same time. Cooper doesn’t play his best team despite those players easily slotting in to their actual positions.

Im clearly an outlier on this subject but I actually prefer the signing sessions for the kids how they are now organised. It does prioritise the kids that attend matches regularly but surely that’s a good thing? It makes the events more manageable from a queue size and actually stops the stress (at least for me) of potentially having to buy expensive merch to get signed like balls, shirts etc as they only sign the cards. It has also stopped adults that were previously just trying to profit by getting loads of merch signed to then flog for profit on eBay. I watched that happen at a Wes Morgan signing a few years ago.

Yeh I’ve heard bits about a poor relationship between them both too.

Very harsh assessment of Vestergaard. For actual ability on the ball, footwork and passing, he’s definitely not limited. He’s a better passer of the ball than Okali. It’s his pace that really lets him down and where Okali is better. Looking at heading, from what I’ve seen of both, neither Okali or Vesty are as good in the air as their height would suggest. The fact Vestergaard’s behind Coady in the pecking order probably hurts him the most. This must be down to off pitch personality and leadership skills as Conor is at least as slow as Vesty and visibly isn’t as good on the ball or particularly dynamic in the tackle. It’s also fair to say Cooper is less inclined to use the more possession focused deeper creative ball players like Vestergaard, Winks and Ricardo, preferring the more pragmatic attributes of Okali, Skipp or Ndidi and Christiansen. I don’t like how we now play personally and I thinks it’s been awful to watch but I guess results will dictate the future of Cooper and as such the future of Vesty.

I think the point is it’s either one or the other. Mavididi and Ayew or Fatawu and BDCR. At home, against a side like Bournemouth, play with your best attacking width and that should be BOTH Mavididi & Fatawu.

10 responses not 10 posts tbf. It’s even more strange to die on the Ayew has been great hill too. For those on that hill I’d suggest cutting down on the beers.

Where have I stated that Mavididi played well today? He didn’t. If you want my thoughts on him in this Ayew thread though, I’d say Cooper’s system doesn’t help him as he plays as the only wide winger, making it easier to mark him out of the game. I’d still select him over Cooper’s other fave left sided player (BDCR) every day of the week though.

I’ve not, I’m just responding to some of the remarkable praise he’s had on here today. He played well against Palace, but today he wasn’t outstanding, he was pretty average, didn’t look dangerous and he didn’t press well. I don’t dislike the guy, he’s miles better than BDCR for a start!!

I think there’s a very large number of Premier League footballers who would say they offer significantly more to their team than the your definition tbh 😂

Okazaki pressed and pressed, defended from the front and ran himself into the ground. Ayew does not press.

Isn’t a number 10 expected to create and have chances then? I’ve always thought that’s exactly what they should be doing-particularly at home, particularly against a team like The Cherries. I didn’t realise that the main aim of the number 10 was to win free kicks in non dangerous positions. If that’s what a number 10 does now then yeh well done Jordan!! 👍🏻

You think he pressed well then? Did he have a shot at goal playing as our second striker? I just saw a player who can look after the ball but is mainly happy to win free kicks. That’s great but we aren’t very good at doing anything with free kicks. We usually win a free kick and shuffle the ball backwards with the stoppage having let the opponents reset their cover.

I’m not pinning it all on Ayew, I was responding to the people who somehow thought Ayew was an 8/10 today. He certainly wasn’t. As a striker he offered zero threat. He won a few free kicks and at times he looked after the ball BUT he offered minimal (dialled in) press. That’s not great when the other team is dominating like Bournemouth did for the majority of the 2nd half.