| Cook’s passing remark… 00:56 - Dec 2 with 3176 views | pointofblue |
“Against Crewe it got nervy. Again it's happened tonight. We make games nervy. We give ourselves problems in games that we shouldn't give ourselves. We're not under great pressure in the game, we're not getting pinned back and clearing off the line, we're just making massive individual errors that keep costing us. Until we change the individuals then the individual errors won't change.”
That final sentence - is he suggesting another overhaul of the squad to change the individuals? Who in the squad are remnants of the pre-Cook days? Donacien and Nsiala in the ‘A’ team; Vincent-Young, Woolfenden, El Mizouni and Jackson in the ‘B’ team plus Holy and Norwood on the outside looking in.
Every other player is his signing. So we get rid of those eight, well seven as Donacien has signed a new contract, and then what? Start on Cook’s signings as he cannot set us up to reduce the individual errors, no matter who he puts out? We have one of the strongest squads in the league; out of every side in the division the last thing we should require is more churn. |  |
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| Cook’s passing remark… on 10:38 - Dec 2 with 640 views | timothyeo |
| Cook’s passing remark… on 00:59 - Dec 2 by ArnieM |
Do we have one of the strongest squads in the league though? |
Yes, comfortably.
If you're struggling to see that - take a team from the top 6 - how many of say, MK Dons players get in our first eleven? Plymouth? Rotherham at the top? Maybe 3 or 4 with Rotherham but it's not by much.
That Cook has us significantly underperforming still shouldn't detract from that. | | | |
| Cook’s passing remark… on 11:37 - Dec 2 with 603 views | ArnieM |
| Cook’s passing remark… on 10:38 - Dec 2 by timothyeo |
Yes, comfortably.
If you're struggling to see that - take a team from the top 6 - how many of say, MK Dons players get in our first eleven? Plymouth? Rotherham at the top? Maybe 3 or 4 with Rotherham but it's not by much.
That Cook has us significantly underperforming still shouldn't detract from that. |
So given that our squad is “comfortably better than most of the clubs” placed 3rd-6th in the table , and yet we are 7 points adrift of them.
I come back to the first 7 games of the season where this squad was trying to find its feet , and
“ dropped” something like 15 points. Although we don’t like the fact we couldn’t hold onto winning positions, I’d say it’s acceptable as a part of that settling in period. However, What isn’t acceptable is our ongoing inability to hold onto winning positions or impose ourselves games, (We did it again last night vs Arsenal U21’s)
But in the league and with the recognised first team, we are still playing catch up from those initial 7 games ….perhaps had we had this squad last season, and it was settled for the start of this season, I suspect we’d be in that top 6 now, and these threads wouldn’t be appearing on the forum.
However, what we do continue to do is struggle every season against the top teams… ( this continually happens under various managers )…..this season so far it’s Rotherham, Sunderland, Oxford. Of those three games, I’d say we were the better side in all except the Rotherham game, but failed again, to impose ourselves in any of these games. So is that a sign of a “ comfortably better team”? It’s not just down to the Cook, because it happens under previous managers too. I don’t know what it is …. But something’s not right with seemingly good players that join us , then fail to deliver. It happened under Hurst, Lambert and now Cook. |  |
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| Cook’s passing remark… on 11:45 - Dec 2 with 572 views | N2_Blue |
| Cook’s passing remark… on 06:57 - Dec 2 by BondiBlue |
He hasn't addressed it? You what? He signed two marauding left backs and didn't figure he needed a right-back because he had KVY.
Problem is KVY and Penney have both been found out as crap defenders and Coulson is injured. Donacien's more than fine but needs a traditional right-footed winger in front of him because overlapping isn't his forte, but Burns is injured. We have no traditional left-footed wingers so a lot is being asked of clements to provide width on the left.
FWIW i'm surprised at the level of meltdown on here since rotherham. I get that there is a lot of frustration that has built up over the years but this season as a standalone thing hasn't been that bad. And it's nowhere near over yet. |
'Not that bad' - Jesus f Christ.
I'm glad you are happy being a middling L1 team.
The season has been a shocker. It's worse than Lambert in terms of points and position. That says it all.
No wonder this club sleeps its way into obscurity with fans having an outlook like this. |  |
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| Cook’s passing remark… on 12:10 - Dec 2 with 536 views | Eireannach_gorm |
| Cook’s passing remark… on 11:37 - Dec 2 by ArnieM |
So given that our squad is “comfortably better than most of the clubs” placed 3rd-6th in the table , and yet we are 7 points adrift of them.
I come back to the first 7 games of the season where this squad was trying to find its feet , and
“ dropped” something like 15 points. Although we don’t like the fact we couldn’t hold onto winning positions, I’d say it’s acceptable as a part of that settling in period. However, What isn’t acceptable is our ongoing inability to hold onto winning positions or impose ourselves games, (We did it again last night vs Arsenal U21’s)
But in the league and with the recognised first team, we are still playing catch up from those initial 7 games ….perhaps had we had this squad last season, and it was settled for the start of this season, I suspect we’d be in that top 6 now, and these threads wouldn’t be appearing on the forum.
However, what we do continue to do is struggle every season against the top teams… ( this continually happens under various managers )…..this season so far it’s Rotherham, Sunderland, Oxford. Of those three games, I’d say we were the better side in all except the Rotherham game, but failed again, to impose ourselves in any of these games. So is that a sign of a “ comfortably better team”? It’s not just down to the Cook, because it happens under previous managers too. I don’t know what it is …. But something’s not right with seemingly good players that join us , then fail to deliver. It happened under Hurst, Lambert and now Cook. |
Our problem is converting a comfortably better squad into a comfortably better team. |  | | |
| Cook’s passing remark… on 12:25 - Dec 2 with 514 views | BlueandTruesince82 |
I think he's saying we need to teach the individuals not to make mistakes, help them cut them out. |  |
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| Cook’s passing remark… on 12:27 - Dec 2 with 506 views | Wallingford_Boy |
| Cook’s passing remark… on 01:00 - Dec 2 by pointofblue |
Which one’s would have said are stronger, on paper? Once we signed Walton, Morsy and Celina what was your expectation of the season? |
Rotherham, Oxford, Sheff Weds, Sunderland.... |  |
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| Cook’s passing remark… on 12:30 - Dec 2 with 478 views | Pinewoodblue |
| Cook’s passing remark… on 12:25 - Dec 2 by BlueandTruesince82 |
I think he's saying we need to teach the individuals not to make mistakes, help them cut them out. |
Do you think he is admitting we have a coaching problem.? |  |
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| Cook’s passing remark… on 12:34 - Dec 2 with 458 views | pointofblue |
| Cook’s passing remark… on 12:27 - Dec 2 by Wallingford_Boy |
Rotherham, Oxford, Sheff Weds, Sunderland.... |
Man for man you’d swap each of their squads for ours? | |
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| Cook’s passing remark… on 12:48 - Dec 2 with 431 views | Herbivore |
| Cook’s passing remark… on 12:27 - Dec 2 by Wallingford_Boy |
Rotherham, Oxford, Sheff Weds, Sunderland.... |
None of those have stronger squads than us, imo. We have players on our bench most weeks that would be regulars for those sides. Our poor performance this season is not down to the quality of the players we've signed. |  |
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| Cook’s passing remark… on 13:01 - Dec 2 with 405 views | clive_baker |
| Cook’s passing remark… on 08:12 - Dec 2 by Yallop |
On your penultimate point I have seen glimpses that tell me we can be onto something good. You have to be fair and write off August but since then I have seen us dominate and dictate games that we hadn't seen under recent regimes.
But don't get me wrong Cook isn't some sort of god in my eyes, he's made big mistakes for me the biggest was breaking up Chaplin/Bonne partnership in the middle of a hot streak. There's obviously others but I still believe a bit of loyalty to Cook will reap us greater rewards than another reset. [Post edited 2 Dec 2021 8:13]
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Right now I'm on the fence.
Put it this way, if we learned this afternoon that Cook had been sacked then I couldn't help but feel it would be a little premature. That's not to say I'm happy with the 9 months he's had here, far from it. And the counter argument is that if he does go soon, it gives a new manager a few weeks to asses what he's got ahead of Jan, and enough time (potentially) to save the season. That said, when we're good we do look good. That's the difference now, unlike Lambert when we were consistently pedestrian. We've shown glimpses, and I would personally give Cook these POPR games and Christmas schedule and make a call after Lincoln (H). That's 6 league games and an FA Cup. If we're within 4 or 5 points of the p/offs then Cook is given the Jan window and the season, if not then perhaps we make the change.
It's hard to know, but as I say if he left today I would feel a little sense of regret and what if. With Hurst and Lambert it wasn't a day too soon. |  |
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| Cook’s passing remark… on 14:45 - Dec 2 with 336 views | backwaywhen |
| Cook’s passing remark… on 00:59 - Dec 2 by ArnieM |
Do we have one of the strongest squads in the league though? |
Probably, they are just not coached and drilled correctly IMHO something badly wrong with our coaching set up . | | | |
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