I was going to write an article after the Everton game and decided against it, but after last night I think we need to address the elephant in the room.
Steve Cooper is hopelessly out of his depth, and practically everyone already knows it. This is the earliest I have ever called for a manager to be sacked, but he really does need to go as soon as possible. He has taken everything we were good at last season and just completely destroyed it. We look an absolute shadow of the team we were under Maresca. I know that there was a lot of frustration around about Enzo, especially in the last third of the season, and I was one who was concerned about his tactical rigidness. But at least he had an idea, even if it was only the one - this guy has no idea whatsoever about how to set up and win a game of football at this level.
Steve Cooper is Gary Megson for the Tiktok generation. He somehow manages to combine all the worst traits of previous managers - Megson's dour football mixed with Micky Adams' recruitment, Martin Allen's general 'out of his depth' vibe, Brendan Rodgers' pig-headedness, Claude Puel's lack of connection with the fans. A manager with a 20% win record (it is now lower than this) and no wins in almost half of a season should be nowhere near a Premier League job.
No doubt some neutrals (the same people who said we should keep Rodgers) will point to us having points on the board and not being in the bottom 3 as a reason to 'give him more time'. We don't need to give him time - we can see with our own eyes where this is heading. There is no plan, no idea, no philosophy, no signs of improvement. We are just a shallow puddle of nothingness with no direction whilst he shoehorns the likes of Ayew and Reid into the team at the expense of better players, just to justify his decisions over recruitment and the desire for 'experience'.
I would ask how we were stupid enough to hire him in the first place, but by now I think we know that Top and Rudkin are just as hopeless and out of their depth as Cooper is. It was an astonishing decision to hire him and now we will have to stumble on like a shot horse waiting to die whilst that pair decide when to admit their error and sack him. If we wait beyond January, we will be relegated and it will again be because they lacked the guts to get rid early.
There are some rare glimpses of quality - some of the players are good enough for this level, I genuinely believe we could stay up with a different manager. But under Cooper, we are heading one way and that is down.
I am pleased that the fans showed their discontent last night, but this needs to be repeated ad-nauseum until the board finally take the hint. Cooper is not wanted here, he is not needed here, and he needs to go ASAP. We were given a reprieve with the points penalty but now is the time for the club to act like a Premier League club. A second relegation in three years would be catastrophic.
Cooper - Hopelessly out of his depth
posted on 25/9/24
No doubt some neutrals (the same people who said we should keep Rodgers) will point to us having points on the board and not being in the bottom 3 as a reason to 'give him more time'. We don't need to give him time - we can see with our own eyes where this is heading. There is no plan, no idea, no philosophy, no signs of improvement. We are just a shallow puddle of nothingness with no direction.
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As a neutral, I have to take your word for that. Football fans always know what's best for their club.
Seven games of excuses (split by an international break) and it's still crap. Ta-ra Stevie.
posted on 25/9/24
The problem is that the whole club from top to bottom(no pun intended) is being run by people who are all out of their depth, yet seem to think that they are actually doing a good job,when in fact they are the problem not the solution.
This is not going to end well,the fans have never felt so disenchanted as they are now.
posted on 25/9/24
It’s 3 from 4 - Southampton stand no chance in my opinion. The you have Everton, Leicester and Ipswich.
I reckon only Ipswich are happy with their manager at the moment.
I will take your word on Cooper - but will say from where I am sitting he is fighting with one arm tied behind his back, I think most managers would struggle to get more than 4th from bottom out of that squad
posted on 25/9/24
Yeah I mean I completely agree with everything said in this article and the comments from Thorney as well.
I was initially ok with the Cooper appointment because Pottet had turned us down and I felt like the club was coming to the understanding that we needed a more pragmatic approach as Marescas tactics would have seen us get destroyed in this division
What’s happened though is we’ve gone from one extreme to the other. The extent of Coopers negativity is ridiculous. His team selections are ridiculous. He doesn’t have a clear identity other than to sign jouneymen and try and hit a ball over the top to Vardy.
He’s clearly out of his depth and unfortunately so are the board. It surely must be apparent even to Mersey that they’re not fit to run this club any longer. They can’t financially keep us stable and within the rules (which will be breached this season or the next season) and they can’t put out the fires they started 3 years ago
Until the fans finally turn on Top - it’s going to get a whole lot worse
posted on 25/9/24
comment by Striketeam7 - staying humble (U18109)
posted 43 minutes ago
It’s 3 from 4 - Southampton stand no chance in my opinion. The you have Everton, Leicester and Ipswich.
I reckon only Ipswich are happy with their manager at the moment.
I will take your word on Cooper - but will say from where I am sitting he is fighting with one arm tied behind his back, I think most managers would struggle to get more than 4th from bottom out of that squad
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I do agree that this squad isn’t quite as good as some fans are thinking. There’s PL experience - but these are the same players who got us relegated 2 years ago by putting in consistently terrible performances (Ndidi)
I think Cooper however has made the situation worse by adding poor quality to that squad. Skipp, BCR and Ayew are poor signings. They stink of relegation
I think another manager is going to face huge problems. But I think there could be enough there (just about) to finish above the promoted teams and one other. Not under Cooper tho
posted on 25/9/24
comment by Striketeam7 - staying humble (U18109)
posted 2 hours, 51 minutes ago
It’s 3 from 4 - Southampton stand no chance in my opinion. The you have Everton, Leicester and Ipswich.
I reckon only Ipswich are happy with their manager at the moment.
I will take your word on Cooper - but will say from where I am sitting he is fighting with one arm tied behind his back, I think most managers would struggle to get more than 4th from bottom out of that squad
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I'm really worried that Mystic Mug hasn't tipped Wolves to go down. Rarely gets anything right this clown. 🤣
posted on 25/9/24
I don't think I've seen enough of the team yet to come to be quite as certain that we'll get relegated as some who have posted. I'm not claiming that he's the second coming or anything like by the way, and the optics don't look good at the moment.
We have however managed to garner more points than I expected and somehow kept in games - I suspect this will change on Saturday when we get hammered at the Emirates.
Hopefully the owners and management will take stock after 10 games and act appropriately - given who we're playing in the 4 games following the Gunners we need to harvest a reasonable number of points or we'll be in trouble.
In terms of what Cooper is doing at the moment, or rather, not doing, it beggars belief that Ricky hasn't had a chance yet given we need to be scoring goals to survive.
posted on 26/9/24
Reports suggesting that the new Everton owners would like to appoint Maurizio Sarri as manager. Dyche might be just what we need!
posted on 26/9/24
It’s got so bad I wouldn’t say no to Dyche. Not something I would have ever said before - because in many ways he’s a slightly better version of Cooper BUT he might be enough to keep us up because he gets good performances out of players and he at least has a plan