funkyrobot

Coady definitely won’t play as he’s injured but why would you play him anyway? I don’t see him with any other attributes other than being a good talker that puts him ahead of Faes or Vesty.

Hermansen Ricardo Faes Vestergaard Justin Winks Ndidi Buonanotte Fatawu Mavididi Zaha (or Cannon if/or more likely when he doesn’t sign.)

Cooper has to take a lot of blame for that performance today. No obvious press, no clear tactics on or off the ball. Minimal effort at times, endless hoof ball. Better players benched. That was all on him.

Vestergaard is our best footballing centre half. If we want to play out from the back (he was attempting to do that today against Lens) then he needs to play as the others can’t do it to the same extent. I would’ve expected Okoli to have been signed as a faster version but it’s been clear in his first few games that he’s not a ball playing centre back. I’m not sure why he was signed tbh.

Why did he bench Ricardo, Mavididi and Verstergaard and play less able players in their roles instead then?

I think it’s entirely reasonable to say that the signings of VK and Cannon have been unsuccessful for both the team and the players themselves irrespective of their age. VK was signed to help us stave off relegation and that failed, he then was deemed surplus to requirements last season in The Championship. Cannon wasn’t trusted in The Championship even when Daka was stinking the place up and that’s continued into this Cooper era.

I get the lack of recruitment but Cooper could at least play his better players in their favoured positions. He had better players on the bench than in his starting 11. Mavididi is better at LW than Reid. Ricardo is our best full back but it also better playing next to Winks than Hamza. Verstergaard is our best footballing centre back, Alves was the best creative number 8 available today. Golding didn’t even travel. He picks a weaker starting 11 and then gives them no structure to play.

‘We actually looked ok’

We have a weaker squad than the team that got us promoted definitely, the loss of the creativity of KDH, as well as the quality squad depth of Nacho, Praet and Akgun has gone BUT Cooper isn’t even picking the best players. He's benching some of them! If you’ve got a weaker squad but you are actively selecting a weaker starting 11 out of that weaker squad and even then playing some of this starting 11 in less effective roles, then the outcome that we’ve seen is inevitable!

I assumed Golding was injured and that’s why he wasn’t involved against Lens, now I’m hearing he was fine and with the U21’s?? What’s the point of signing him for that amount of money and then not giving him proper time pre season?? I thought Cooper was keen to develop youth and yet he’s shown the exact opposite since he’s been here. Braybrooke, given no opportunity and Alves and Golding just a token few minutes.

Let’s just not have a striker and go full Cooperball. Cooper could bring in another midfield water carrier to go alongside Hamza and Ndidi. Maybe Raikhy can step in to add a further lack of creativity in the middle.

Only Vardy is a loss. Daka is a liability and Coady is brilliant off the pitch but not great on the pitch, having the same lack of pace as Vesty but not the same level of ability on the ball as the big dane.

Early days but today he looked like he couldn’t trap a bag of cement or pass a ball to anyone in a blue shirt.

If you are aiming to lose then yes. Playing a player out of position is one of the best ways to achieve that aim.

Cooper unfortunately would also rather play Mavididi out of position than Mavididi in position. I don’t think anything Cooper does at the moment should be used to justify a point. He’s currently making bizarre anti-football decisions all over the pitch.

2 shots, both off target.

There’s been no evidence in the past two years that backs that up. Daka plays like a competition winner who hasn’t ever played football before.

That description still makes him an improvement on Patson

When at the end of the game Cooper bemoans the lack of signings, I hope the interviewer points out that he started with some of his better creative players sat on the bench. Ricardo, Mavididi, Alves, our best footballing centre back Vestergaard, our best available striker in Cannon - all sat twiddling their thumbs until we have been out to the sword.

Agreed. I’d go as far as to say this is the worst set of performances by a LCFC team since the Ian Holloway era.

Cooper makes crazy selection decisions. Vestergaard makes us a much better team in possession. He’s head and shoulders our best footballing centre back and he’s clearly now well down the pecking order. Ricardo is our best fullback and ditto, Daka is our worst striker, Hamza, Ndidi and Winks is an awful combination. Mavididi is more creative than Bobby Reid. Alves should’ve had significant minutes during this month and he hasn’t. Cooper makes crazy decisions all across the pitch. At least Rodgers’ just lost the plot with his keeper choice.

This long ball into the mixer from Mads with our attacking options is Cooperball genius.

Loving the lack of subs. When you are 3-0 down, don’t change a thing. That’ll definitely work.

The only clear message Cooper is currently sending us and the board is. ‘I don’t have a clue about how to set up this team to press collectively, to defend as a unit, to attack as a unit & retain possession. I don’t want to try and give an opportunity to my young players from the development squad . I don’t want to play with any creativity, with any obvious game plan or style of play.’ Not sure how this is likely to help him influence those running the club. Seems counterintuitive to me.

Loving the 1 man press as well. Hamza’s been told to press like an absolute crazed man, everyone else has been told to stand off walk around and basically let Lens play through them. Loving Cooperball.