LET’S MASH THE SPUDS! (A match thread)

I'm not excusing recruitment, BTW. We've managed to spend a ton of money to have significantly worse keepers than we had in the Championship, never mind last year, and it's inexcusable that we're so dependent on one injury prone striker worthy of the job title in the top flight.

Nothing much to add. We huffed and puffed a lot and showed we were playing for the manager. But it wasn’t enough. I think Cooper has had it now. The players seem to rate him, the fans love him (I for one will be desperately sad to see him go) but that isn’t enough, given the players and time that Marinakis has given him. So long Steve and thanks for everything.

Yes and it's not impossible to see we could've scored.

And if the dickhead in goal could kick and/or save subsequent shot at 1-0 we'd have had more of a go.

But sadly on run of 1 win in 13 you don't get a free pass on any game.

I'm an unashamed Cooper fanboy and will also be very sorry to see his tenure come to an end, but found myself agreeing with something Michael Temple said on the new Matt Davies podcast earlier this week.

His point was that this season was supposed to be about developing the playing style and progressing on that front with a higher calibre of player. We definitely saw some signs of that earlier in the season before hitting this rough patch, and Cooper's responded by dropping all the technicians and replacing them with last season's more industrial options and tactics.

To some extent, it's understandable because the Fulham performance was so hideous and you perhaps can't blame the coach in going back to what he knows when his job is at stake, but Temple's contention was that it leaves us in a slightly strange position in terms of where it goes from here. There seem to be few signs it's going to get better unfortunately, especially looking at the fixtures coming up.

I'd be minded to give him more time to figure it out because I'd still back him to do that, but I'm increasingly of the opinion that he's probably run his race, which is really sad. In all honesty, I think few managers (and none with his relative lack of experience) could have overseen the insane pace of change of the past two seasons.

I'd there another prem team without a striker?

That's the biggest reason for the issues and the progression now going backwards for me.

15 shots, 1 on target.

This is bang on for me.

We miss Taiwo massivley. Elanga and CHO are miles off Brennans level. I'll cut Elanga some slack when he's playing up front centrally but out wide he has to offer more. His crossing is poor, and he makes a lot of poor decisions. Wood and Origi are obviously not at the required level.

MGW needs to take some blame as well..Gifted footballer but he could do with kicking the ball in the net a bit more often. He had a few sights at goal tonight but I never feel he's going to score.

That piece of narrative from Fletch should have been badged up as paid placement.

Should have quoted Russ there

There’s definitely been some briefing against Cooper recently.
I just don’t see anyone getting much more about this current crop and fear relegation more if we twist, rather than stick.
25 signings last summer was hatstand.
The plan was for 5 or 6 of real quality this summer, we ended up with 13. That is not on Cooper.
Progress would have been building on last season. Instead we’ve started again and just repeated the previous season. Complete rebuild and expect Cooper to perform another miracle.

Completely agree with Ingo.

The exact same thing was said about Hughton.

We battled. We pressed. We played hard. We managed to nullify Son. We had chances. This was a performance. We lack quality but I would say the spuds knew they were in a fight. Neco was excellent. So was toff’s (who again was unlucky not to score). We had chances but the quality was lacking. Yates was fantastic. I don’t care what anybody says. He was an absolutely pain in the arse who also drive the ball upfield. Our crossing and set pieces are pants. There was chaos and commitment but fuck me we make mistakes. Turner (still better than Vlad) absolutely clusterfucked. Aaaaaargh. The goal at the end of the first half between two defenders…. Aaaaaargh.

Neco hit the post. Boly should have got on target. Toff’s so unlucky not to score. Yet! And this is the kicker. They went down to 10 and our press died.

We need quality up front for certain we also need luck. We also need to cut out the fucking mistakes!!!

Big ask!

I totally saw what coop’s was doing . Undogu (is that how you spell the name?) and Perro out of position and caught out a lot. Neco brilliant at getting the ball out quickly and up the line. We had a good game plan just could not deliver.

Bournemouth are good at pressing. Turner will probably fuck up in that game too. I think we need luck. Our pressing might be the way forward….

Fuck the fancy Dan technicians if they cannot fight. That is what we need right now. I cannot see anyone doing better than coops with the lads we have. We don’t have a natural goal scorer available unless Chris wood can actually get the ball in the box.

I thought this was a million times better than foolham. We had a chance. We were beaten by a better class of forward.

I want cooper to get a shot for the next game. I still think he might still be our best hope at the moment.

I think the Austrian fellow is a similar character so we replace a welsh man with a nazi and the same tactics. What would be the point?

Chicago: Still in the fight.

We are at an odd point when anything remotely positive being said about the owner is some sort of club led conspiracy.

It’s become a bit of an unhealthy obsession with Steve Cooper now and he will take us down. Will anyone other manager save us? Who knows but it will have to be tried.

I’d probably give him the Bournemouth game, they will comfortably beat us but the more realistic fan will then realise it’s not working.

For any premier league team, the next three are opportunities for points - that they feel so daunting now is a worrying sign. Marinakis has been laudably patient, despite his reputation, but I can’t see him living with the current situation much longer.

On strikers, Everton didn’t have one for last seasons run in, after Calvert Lewin got injured, and still found a way to get results.

I think that's more your sides framing of the matter. Personally I'm happy to keep EM and SSC.

Strategic?