funkyrobot

He’s been comfortably our worst player in the opening two games and at the same time he’s keeping one of most creative and dangerous players in Mavididi on the bench. That’s why he’s getting so much criticism. If he gets dropped or his starts actually justifying his place in on the pitch, the criticism will die down!!

Except against Fulham?

There wasn’t any obviously successful defensive work from Bobby.

Are you telling me that they didn’t dominate our left hand side? They had all the territory and chances and were able to overload that side because in part BDCR offered nothing from an attacking perspective. It was this containment and domination of our left that directly resulted in the first goal. All our players were drawn to where we were getting dominated on the left and that allowed Fulham to quickly switch it to the right where JJ was facing a 2 on 1.

‘Justin very strong’ except for when both Fulham goals were scored.

Big mistake playing BDCR today. Allowed Fulham to really pressurise our left as they knew there was no real threat from an attacking perspective with him playing.

I didn’t think it was that bad. Fulham are a good settled side and we have a new manager trying to mould a new team. We lost by the odd goal. I thought JJ wasn’t great for either goal and I thought BDCR had a shocker. I guess any criticism for Cooper could be pointed at those two areas. Right back with the old Ricardo mystery and left wing where we appear to be relying on a very slight, not particularly fast, not particularly skilful winger in BDCR who wasn’t effective attacking or supporting defensively in either game. For me Mavididi has to start on the left but clearly Cooper doesn’t like him or Ricardo judging by their treatment pre season and now. Play your best players in their best position where possible surely?

BDCR had a great shot in the first half but not sure he did much else. He’s not been great on one on ones attacking or defending.

It is nice to have a left footer at left back tbf. Switching JJ to the left invariably means the ball is shuffled inside and backwards most of the time.

Need to see way more from BDCR today. I expect he’ll be up for it being back at Fulham.

Teams are now announced 1 hour 15 minutes before kick off.

Did u see the state of winksy’s free kicks pre-season and Monday?😬

Damn it, Notts Forest have actually signed a good player.

Nketiah is going to be on a massive wage presumably? Big money for a tap-in merchant.

Surprised by the levels of credit BDCR got for yesterday. I thought he was our worst player on the pitch of those who started the game. He got better in the second half but he was still levels below the performance that we’d expect from Mavididi. Hes perhaps a bit more disciplined defensively than Mavs but got he’s quite a lot to do for me if he wants to stay in the team.

KDH talked in at least two preseasons about trying to get more goals. I don’t think many will agree with you about his former role. Yes he might’ve been given more leeway to stay forward under Enzo and as a result he got more goals and assists but he was never a pivot. A box to box midfielder certainly but not a pivot who will play deep and centrally. Until Winks we didn’t really play with that role. More a CDM in Ndidi with Tielemans and particularly KDH more advanced,

That doesn’t show KDH in a pivot role. He played ahead of Ndidi & Tielemans. Always on the left.

No way was KDH the pivot. He’s always played that inside left attacking number 8 position.

Enzo takes some responsibility. He also negotiated the Vesty 3 year extension. Don’t know why you are desperate to exonerate him for leaving a long term project after 1 year at its most critical point. The board take major responsibility for this situation we are in but Enzo doesn’t need apologists. He stripped the club of all the coaches, ensured our friendly opportunities were brief, gave 3 years to an older player specific to his style of play and took our best player at a comparatively cheap place. He didn’t even have the guts to leave a comment to the fanbase when he left.

The point still stands. Enzo stripped the coaching team and left with all of the replacements and when he left took our best player for £5m more than Oliver Skipp. Credit for getting us promoted but he left with the entire coaching team, all in one go and our best player. He also cancelled the US tour before he left the building. For a good period of early pre season we operated with back up coaches early. That’s partly why we are even less well prepared for the new season than we usually are!

He gave us longer than 1 season too.

Mike Stowell was our Gk Coach from 2007 to 2023. Enzo got rid of him, replaced him and then took his replacement less than 12 months later. Adam Sadler was at the club from 2014, same thing happened to him. He dismantled the coaching team and then took all the replacements away too. He took out star player. It’s not the norm for a manager to leave and then take his best player to his next club. Probably the last time was when O’Neill took a few back in the day but even he left Izzet!

Taking the entire coaching team and the star player is certainly working towards dismantling tbf.

He won’t be playing all three if he also wants a number 10 tho

That’s just not true. He came on as sub in the cup 2 years ago, I was there. Did a couple of tricks which the fans loved and Rodgers told him off about (unfairly) if he’s good enough he needs to play. We wasted 2 years or more of KDH at LCFC by leaving him in the reserves for too long. The best way to improve talent is by giving them game time. There are never going to be perfect benign conditions. Yes we are in a relegation battle, what’s wrong with him being involved in that? It’s real football! For me it at least made every sense to let the lad have way more minutes in pre season. We were short in the specific role he plays in. He’s a professional footballer and there’s no point being overly protective. Look at Liverpool, they gave our former player Nyoni significant game time pre season and he’s younger than Alves. I’ve not at any point said the signing of Buonanotte is a negative signing btw. For the club, at least for this season, it’s a welcome addition of creativity into a squad distinctly lacking in that area. The difference is this lad was more trusted by his club at a younger age than Alves has been here prior to the injury he suffered (ironically via a deliberate assault in a youth match.) Because of this, Brighton have a player that’s good and mature enough that he’s trusted to be loaned to another premier league club - a club who are in a relegation battle!!