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The gamble of keeping Paul Cook 21:24 - Apr 20 with 6944 viewsTieDyedIn95

I have been a big supporter of Paul Cook coming here and he's had 100% of my backing since he arrived but like others (and even more moderate posters) have suggested the team morale and overall performance, shape, instruction have dipped to so many new lows since his arrival I am also getting genuinely concerned.

I understand the players have downed tools, but why aren't we trying out more of the squad? Why aren't we using a system that suits what we have, if we are just going to use what we have? What I will say is it's clear the players do not rate Cook and have taken to him as warmly as they did to Paul Hurst and that is worrying for me. I am not someone who over rates this squad by any means, but we should have enough in us to beat Rochdale, Wimbledon, Wigan, Northampton and so on. We beat the piss poor teams last season in most cases without even breaking a sweat and we were a mid-table side then. So what has happened?

So I am going to say we're in a weird position of taking a gamble of continuing on with Paul Cook next season. I know many are calling for a complete squad over haul but that approach rarely works either. If we go too radical like we did under Hurst we could end up getting relegated. Cook is trading off his reputation with Pompey and Wigan here, which is the only reason we should keep him because what we've seen from him so far is a lot of shouting, animation but a complete regression in footballing terms. Paul Lambert would have done better had he stayed on, not saying he should have, but hew knew the squad and its limitations and they were poorer than what most supporters believed they were. Cook took none of what Lambert did on board, or even Gill who was there and has pushed to adopt his own system as quickly as possible, also likely on the assumption that Lambert was the sole issue.

The idea that he's going to recruit 15 odd players in the summer from this league and lower and suddenly walk this league is not realistic. Yeah, some of the old guard have to go, some of the injury prone and that lot have to go but players like your Nydhams, Kenlocks, Bishops, Downes, Wolfies and even to some extent Edwards and even dare I say it... Judge should easily be able to manage football in this league with some good recruitment around them. All of the strikers have been bad, except Norwood when he is fit but he's a liability for the club in other ways that we can probably do better there.

I just don't know if it's just the players after this many games. We have been absolutely awful. We've been told it will be better next season so many times before when the writings been on the wall that it has to be stupid to ignore what we have seen.

Cook out? I don't know. My heart says no, but my head is telling me that maybe it is a risk to keep him on after the end of this season.

Football League First Division / Premier League Champions (1): 1961—62 - Runners-up (2): 1980—81, 1981—82 Football League Second Division / EFL Championship Champions (3): 1960—61, 1967—68, 1991—92 - Play-off winners (1): 1999—2000 Football League Third Division / EFL League One Champions (2): 1953—54, 1956—57 - Southern League Champions (1): 1936—37 FA Cup Winners (1): 1977—78 - Texaco Cup Winners (1): 1972—73 UEFA Cup / UEFA Europa League Winners (1): 1980—81
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The gamble of keeping Paul Cook on 15:47 - Apr 22 with 192 viewsPJH

The gamble of keeping Paul Cook on 15:45 - Apr 22 by chrismakin

Because I've yet to see you comment on the positive things you can actually see in the games
The volume of crosses we put in. Getting in those areas. Playing with the ball in the opponents half more. Being more direct with our play. The likes of dozzell getting into positions just outside the box. Etc etc.

Results arent great. Clearly. We havent scored. Clearly. But there are plenty of positives if you take the time to see them.


That's true.

We are losing with more style so that's alright.
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The gamble of keeping Paul Cook on 15:55 - Apr 22 with 175 viewshaynes_toe1

The gamble of keeping Paul Cook on 15:45 - Apr 22 by chrismakin

Because I've yet to see you comment on the positive things you can actually see in the games
The volume of crosses we put in. Getting in those areas. Playing with the ball in the opponents half more. Being more direct with our play. The likes of dozzell getting into positions just outside the box. Etc etc.

Results arent great. Clearly. We havent scored. Clearly. But there are plenty of positives if you take the time to see them.


There really aren't plenty of positives. Nothing you've said really is a positive.

Putting more crosses in? Yep. That's the easy part. The problem is, just putting more crosses in without numbers in the box or crossing from effective positions is just giving the ball away.

If everything you'd said about these 'positives' were true, we wouldn't be worse than we were under Lambert, with worse results.

In fact, if we were regularly putting more crosses in, getting into the right areas, putting the opponent under more pressure, playing in the final third more, getting into good positions, we'd be in the play-offs comfortably.

You're seeing things you want to see rather than what's happening.

To be honest it's probably what makes me end up posting about Cook so much. This forum is laughable sometimes where a new manager comes in and he's literally the Messiah even if all evidence points to the contrary. The abuse some people got for pointing out in Lamberts first season that he'd not even given us a fighting chance of staying up - go look back. Your sort of posts mirror those perfectly.
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