funkyrobot

Surely an easy fix for this would’ve been for Cooper to be more flexible and allow Faes to continue to play in the position that he did successfully last season, with Vesty on the left hand side. Cooper has created some of these issues because of his stubborn approach. This has annoyed Faes. Ricardo, Mavididi, Cannon and the fans and hasn’t helped us on the pitch. The recruitment has been poor too but the playing side is Cooper’s fault.

Yeh agreed. He’s got Ayew who can operate in that role, hold the ball up and be nuisance at centre forward. Against Villa he should do that - start with Vardy and replace when he’s knackered with Ayew. Then play Mavididi on the left from the beginning. He’ll contribute way more than Reid who was only an occasional LW and more much frequently a rotation RW option at Fulham.

Jota loves an elbow, gave one to Thomas in the same cup match that Ricardo got his leg broken.

Where has this myth come from? He’s far less effective at defending than Mavididi is!! I agree with the Ayew comment though. Personally I just don’t think Cooper likes Mavididi. Don’t forget he was trying to bring Zaha in as a LW.

Tbf he was sub in half of those games and subbed off in the other half. He completed 90 minutes only once all season. He also played significantly more as a RW than a LW. So we have bought a squad player from a mid table team and then we are playing him in his less effective position ahead of one of our best, most productive players whose best position is LW. Cooper hasn’t helped himself with this selection. It makes no sense.

Reid’s been predictable but he’s been anything but safe! It’s remarkable that he started after having a stinker against Spurs, if he starts against Villa after being a liability v Fulham then Cooper will put himself and Reid under massive pressure with the fans.

I didn’t see any significant attempts to help defensively other than shuffling back positionally. He didn’t create any problems for Traore or help VK. No tackles no interceptions.

No stats are needed to say that during preseason and these first two games BDCR has not contributed and shouldn’t be in the starting 11. His continual presence must be creating issues within the squad. There’s absolutely no way Mavididi will be happy with the way he’s being treated at the moment. Not saying Mavs alone is the answer but at the moment it must be as baffling for him as it is for some of us that he’s being benched for Reid.

The player reviews will tell u loud and clear who the worst performers were. 😬

Thank god for that. As we’ve all seen from his time at the club, Patson is very much our saviour in waiting. Can’t wait for him to be back.

It would be nice to see the guys that aren’t going to play in the prem get some game time against Tranmere. Up and coming lads that can’t usually expect to start considering the sheer quality ahead of them in their respective positions. Of those, there’s a lad called Ricardo Pereira and another one called Stephy Mavididi that are worth checking out. Hopefully Cooper will start them or maybe give them 10 minutes when the game is done/gone.

JJ is getting a good portion of the blame for that 1st goal because he was out of position and was soft as fcuk, trying to play for winning an obstruction rather than actually trying to stop the goal.

What’s happened to the player ratings page? Desperate to give a few 10/10’s.

Tbh I don’t think you can pinpoint blame on Vestergaard or Faes for today.

Mavididi offers way more grit than BDCR.

There’s nothing in the first two games that would suggest BDCR would be anything other than an absolute liability coming on to the pitch with 20/30 mins to go.

Being back up to Daka would’ve quickly resulted in becoming the starter as it did in The Championship because a fit Daka is not as good as an unfit Vardy past his best.

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.