Steve Cooper - New Manager

[blue army 1988]

1 minute ago, Lionator said:

It’s just another manager that is complaining about the board and their transfer dealings. Each one that passes by makes it less likely that they can be replaced by a quality manager.

I kond of get Rogers complaining. Know one really knew and maybe he was sold a dream that never paid off.

 

I'm baffled by Cooper complaining. Surely he knew this when applying for the job. Any Leicester fan, or even football fan, could have told him this.

[Lcfc-1992]

Hope he plays 4231 now we have Buonanotte and not 433 pushing on a centre mid. There’s no link between midfield and attack, Daka has been so isolated.

Edited 11 August 2024 by Lcfc-1992

[funkyrobot]

20 minutes ago, trooky said:

Cooper's getting so much grief for a situation he's inherited and been stupid enough to accept by taking the job.

 

Given the players we have available who would you play instead of Wilf or Hamza? 

 

We don't have anyone else, only Soumare or McAteer and he obviously doesn't see Ricky as a starting midfielder, maybe some politics there.

 

Alves is not ready for this even in preseason.

 

He's a very promising player but throwing in him with this shower of shit and expecting him to be the major creative force is asking a miracle and could set his whole career back.

 

We've got to support and judge him at Xmas when hopefully the club has recruited 4-5 players in midfield and attack who can actually pass forward and score.

 

 

You can only play either Ndidi or Hamza alongside Winks, otherwise you are effectively setting up with a deep pivot and 2 CDM’s. There’s no creativity. Cooper wants a number 10 to replace the creative number 8 that we lost when KDH went. He could’ve played Alves, Golding or a utility player like Reid in that role or accepted that he can’t really fit an out and out 10 with our current squad set up and revert back to the very successful two number 8’s with an inverted Ricardo! Alves and Golding may not be quite ready but in a pre season situation that’s surely fine, the more they play, the more ready they’ll be. Cooper’s interest in developing youth has proven to be a fallacy during this pre season. His reputation with developing youth comes from his spell with England youth when he had no choice. Now he has a choice of playing younger players in their position or playing older players out of position, he’s steadfastly stuck to the latter. 

[lcfcbluearmy]

13 hours ago, UniFox21 said:

Not digging you out here, but this is revisionism here. Swarms of people posting we'd be bottom or near bottom and being defensively ripped to shreds under the Enzo system 

Lots were I and many others were not though and were quite positive about are chances under Enzo in the prem and warned people to be careful what they wished for.

 

I think we would have on the end of some big deletes with Enzo's style but also plenty of big wins as well and would have finished comfortably 13- 16th 

 

Under Cooper it looks like some of the players have never kicked a ball before

[surrifox]

The Rodgers defence . I can’t get the players I want . We’re fooked 

[lcfcbluearmy]

13 hours ago, GingerrrFox said:

Honestly you couldn’t make it up with our fan base. This club was in the pits of hell in footballing terms when Maresca came in. We’d gone from being a side pushing for Top 4 and winning the FA cup to being relegated within a season. The majority of our best players had left and Maresca came in and changed the vibe around the club instantly. All through pre-season there were signs that what he wanted to do excited the players and they bought into it. 
 

He then wins the league in arguably the most competitive Championship this country has seen in decades and gets lambasted by footballing dinosaurs because “possession football is boring” and “anyone would have got that squad up”.

 

Fast forward 3 months and those that couldn’t wait to see the back of Maresca are now making excuses for this shithouse that we now have in charge by trying to make out the squad he’s inherited, that “anyone would have got up” is now dog shit and was always doomed for relegation. 
 

 

Post of the season so far 100 % agree

[trooky]

1 hour ago, Allenho11 said:

If he’s gone into this not knowing the situation the club is in when it was plain for all to see that’s just really poor on his part.

 

One look at that midfield starting lineup yesterday before a ball was kicked, it was a throwback to Rodgers and you knew what was coming.

 

How do we know Alves, Goulding, Baybrooke aren’t ready? We’ve seen nothing of them in creative positions in the first 11. Ricardo has to play in the midfield. These players are available and if the manager picks that midfield we saw yesterday against spurs he needs to go.

If Alves and Baybrooke were ready they would have played last year, you don't just chuck you best prospects into midfield for a premier league relegation dogfight with an impending points deduction. 

 

The Premier league is the toughest in the world and the gap between the championship is huge.

 

I'm not a Cooper fan but he's our manager and I think we should cut him some slack untill at least he has the players he needs before we start slating him.

Edited 11 August 2024 by trooky

[moore_94]

10 hours ago, Ian Nacho said:

When I watch us I can't work out what we're trying to do. Even at points last season where we looked a bit dodgy, I could at least see what we were trying to do. 

Even when we lost 4-0 to Liverpool in pre-season last summer you could still see how we wanted to play and actually looked like we would get chances to score

 

Now it just seems to be smash it long, not even aim into the channels or anything, and hope something works out

Edited 11 August 2024 by moore_94

[Nolucklcfc]

10 hours ago, The Doctor said:

on the flip side, having a competition winner as a manager also won't help things. the point is that there needs to be a plan to make a go at staying up that isn't "a congenital heart condition has felled the entire forest, Everton and Southampton sides just before they could step onto the pitch"

Agreed but let’s see what happens , not just call for his head before the season starts. 

[Nolucklcfc]

4 hours ago, volpeazzurro said:

That would sound ok until today's performance whereupon you'd expect to be fielding a team vaguely similar to what you'd start in your first match, together with some coherent tactics or aim. Whilst the result doesn't matter the performance does and that and tactics were way off the mark. That's down to the manager. 

I agree but that doesn’t warrant calling for his sacking yet! 

[trooky]

1 hour ago, blue army 1988 said:

I kond of get Rogers complaining. Know one really knew and maybe he was sold a dream that never paid off.

 

I'm baffled by Cooper complaining. Surely he knew this when applying for the job. Any Leicester fan, or even football fan, could have told him this.

He obviously thinks we have some money after the sale of KDH, bidding for Soule and being able to waste money on another centre back.

[Ric Flair]

12 minutes ago, trooky said:

If Alves and Baybrooke were ready they would have played last year, you don't just chuck you best prospects into midfield for a premier league relegation dogfight with an impending points deduction. 

 

The Premier league is the toughest in the world and the gap between the championship is huge.

 

I'm not a Cooper fan but he's our manager and I think we should cut him some slack untill at least he has the players he needs before we start slating him.

It was nothing to do with them not being ready, it was injuries. Alves was set to play a few times and he then got another niggle. 

 

It might be Cooper is wary that they might still be too delicate but given his complete disregard to others I'm not so sure. He'll barely use Nelson either, despite him looking superior to Okoli so far.

[DJ Barry Hammond]

2 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

 

He's looking such a poor fit for us, he hasn't got a clue what our identity or his identity as a manager in this situation is.

 

He has to go, just hold your hands up Top and act now.

Part of me wonders if some of the issue here is Cooper being between two stools in terms of footballing identity.

 

That he’s been hired to continue playing in an identity that was forged under Maresca last season… but that identity is too far from his own that you end up in a nothingness middle ground.

 

My hope for Spurs right now is that perhaps, we see something completely different - possibly 3 at the back - and maybe with Fawatu playing on the left (Ricardo on the right). 
 

We can all see that personality wise / coaching wise, Cooper is very different to Enzo, so it is completely foolish to think we can play the same way - especially when we’ve lost a crucial piece to why the way we played was so effective last season.

 

Anyway - first international break is vs 1st September, second one 6th October, third 10th November. Cooper has his work cut out to survive all 3 as it stands.

[ozvaldo]

1 hour ago, trooky said:

Cooper's getting so much grief for a situation he's inherited and been stupid enough to accept by taking the job.

 

Given the players we have available who would you play instead of Wilf or Hamza? 

 

We don't have anyone else, only Soumare or McAteer and he obviously doesn't see Ricky as a starting midfielder, maybe some politics there.

 

Alves is not ready for this even in preseason.

 

He's a very promising player but throwing in him with this shower of shit and expecting him to be the major creative force is asking a miracle and could set his whole career back.

 

We've got to support and judge him at Xmas when hopefully the club has recruited 4-5 players in midfield and attack who can actually pass forward and score.

 

 

How Cooper can say he’s watched all our games last year and then choose not only to drop Ricardo, but refuse to play him as the inverted fullback is beyond me. 
He’s the only one with a bit of quality to bounce off of Winks. 
 

So for me, I play Ricardo in the role he dominated last season, allowing Winks to pull the strings. 
 

And then I’d be looking at one of the young lads who are comfortable with the ball to step in over Hamza. How does anyone know Alves, Goulding or Sammy B couldn’t do it?  We’ve got to give one of them a chance. Christ - we’ve given Hamza enough in that position. 
 

What this really boils down to is Cooper’s depth. He’s well out of it. 
 

A team that played with such competency and a well drilled system last season (only a few months ago), looks completely lost now. 
 

Unfortunately Cooper is incredibly basic and he’s already undone all the great work that Enzo did last year. People might not like Enzo anymore, myself included, but **** me he knew what he was doing with this group.  There was a confidence and clever style of play. 

[Rossiter]

1 hour ago, Happy Fox said:

He’s at least competent at this level, And would command the players respect? Cooper is out of his depth.

Maybe. We will find out I guess. Anyone who got Forest up after 20 years or so  must have something about them no?

[DezFox]

I said it when he came and I stick by it. Steve copper is the absolute pits. People will think it’s an over reaction and only pre season but if he got sacked today I would be ecstatic.
 

If we lost 5 nil but I could see what he was trying do I would be much be ok, instead I see nothing at all, literally nothing.  I see a manager who is already making excuses in pre season and has some how neutralised our 2 wingers and only creative threats. 5 games into the season, everyone will want him gone. I want it now. He was always the completely wrong choice for what we needed. (Sorry not very productive but rant over 😂)

Edited 11 August 2024 by DezFox

[Sly]

53 minutes ago, lcfcbluearmy said:

Post of the season so far 100 % agree

I quite liked Maresca and u destroy the football. I don’t like Cooper. 

[Fox1norfolk]

11 hours ago, Ian Nacho said:

When I watch us I can't work out what we're trying to do. Even at points last season where we looked a bit dodgy, I could at least see what we were trying to do. 

From a team that at times played excellent slick passing football last season, Cooper has destroyed all that style. The players are confused, arguing with each other, the manager has no idea whatsoever. His excuse he is playing players out of position, why only one key player has left KDH ? Most of the rest are still there surely is best to stick with players playing where they should. The idea is to win matches not experiment with stupid logic.

[FoxFossil]

Think Coopers done well, considering he's clearly never seen us play, has no idea what player are good at, and picked the team using a tombola drum. 

Wonder if Rudkin is advising on picking the team.

Edited 11 August 2024 by FoxFossil

[DennisNedry]

I liked Cooper's post-Lens interview.

 

Very honest, told it like it is, i.e. we were poor in many areas and need to improve drastically.

 

It makes a change from Rogers and Enzo at least in that those two would always say we played well, deserved more etc. 

Edited 11 August 2024 by DennisNedry

[trooky]

13 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

It was nothing to do with them not being ready, it was injuries. Alves was set to play a few times and he then got another niggle. 

 

It might be Cooper is wary that they might still be too delicate but given his complete disregard to others I'm not so sure. He'll barely use Nelson either, despite him looking superior to Okoli so far.

Okoli looks shocking, Nelson should definitely start over him.

 

Cooper obviously doesn't plan to start Alves or Baybrooke in the early months of the premier league which is why they've got no game time in pre season.

 

 

[westernpark]

I think the best centre back we have is Ben Nelson. Play him every game this season and then at least we have a decent asset to sell when we’re relegated.  I’m not calling for Cooper out yet because I think he’s trying to force the board with signings. I also think he’s being very, very honest and this will put more spotlight on the failings higher up. But I’ll furious if Ricardo isn’t starting against Spurs.

Edited 11 August 2024 by westernpark
Info- Cooper Honesty

[trooky]

12 minutes ago, ozvaldo said:

How Cooper can say he’s watched all our games last year and then choose not only to drop Ricardo, but refuse to play him as the inverted fullback is beyond me. 
He’s the only one with a bit of quality to bounce off of Winks. 
 

So for me, I play Ricardo in the role he dominated last season, allowing Winks to pull the strings. 
 

And then I’d be looking at one of the young lads who are comfortable with the ball to step in over Hamza. How does anyone know Alves, Goulding or Sammy B couldn’t do it?  We’ve got to give one of them a chance. Christ - we’ve given Hamza enough in that position. 
 

What this really boils down to is Cooper’s depth. He’s well out of it. 
 

A team that played with such competency and a well drilled system last season (only a few months ago), looks completely lost now. 
 

Unfortunately Cooper is incredibly basic and he’s already undone all the great work that Enzo did last year. People might not like Enzo anymore, myself included, but **** me he knew what he was doing with this group.  There was a confidence and clever style of play. 

Maybe Cooper doesn't know how to coach the inverted full back role, have any of his teams played that way before?

[Ric Flair]

Just now, trooky said:

Okoli looks shocking, Nelson should definitely start over him.

 

Cooper obviously doesn't plan to start Alves or Baybrooke in the early months of the premier league which is why they've got no game time in pre season.

 

 

It's just bizarre though. With absolutely no creative midfielders, this pre-season was the perfect opportunity to test Alves with the players around him and get him used to playing in this team in whatever the development plan for his career is. Even if he's going on loan or we're waiting for 6 months before introducing him to a settled PL team, it's pathetic what Cooper has done this pre-season.

 

So many academy players get momentum from being given a chance in pre-season.

 

Don't even get me started on what he's done with Ricardo.

[jbflcfc]

I honestly just hope that yesterdays game was either a statement to say we need players, or he was seeing if that particular formation worked which quite frankly, it didn’t.

 

The guy does look fed up already & I can’t blame him, there was a shrug of the shoulders when asked about new players coming in, that speaks volumes that already he is having issues with the DOF.

 

I just think the club is in a rut at the moment, until JR leaves, we will continue to run the same boring transfer policy as always.