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Cook: We're a Soft Touch That Gives Goals Away
Tuesday, 14th Sep 2021 23:10

Town boss Paul Cook admitted his still winless side are currently a soft touch following their 2-1 Papa John’s Trophy defeat to West Ham’s U21s.

Armstrong Okoflex’s 89th-minute penalty saw the young Irons to victory over a strong Town side, despite Cook having changed everyone aside from Kane Vincent-Young from Saturday’s defeat.

“We made 10 changes, Kane played after coming off on Saturday, we picked a team, no different to the Newport game at home, that we felt was strong enough to win,” Cook said.

“The brutal reality of it, is it bad luck at the minute? I’m not so sure it is bad luck, is there a softness about us that none of us in the stadium? One hundred per cent that’s true, and it’s something that we’ve got to eradicate.

“Newport got one goal [in the 1-0 Carabao Cup defeat], every other team that’s come here this year’s got two and Bolton got five.

“The reality at the minute is that we’re a soft touch that just gives goals away. We take the lead, we look OK and then we self-harm, and that’s something that’s got to stop, and it’s got to stop quickly.”

Asked how bothered he was about losing in the competition, a tournament he said previously is his lowest priority, Cook said: “I think by the team picked, we haven’t created any winning mentality or culture at the club as we speak. And we need to do it quickly.

“One hundred per cent, in our list of priorities, and we spoke at the EGM etc, this was bottom of our list, but the team we had tonight probably epitomises where we are as a club.

“That team should be winning that football match and unfortunately it hasn’t, and that’s a big disappointment for us all.”

Inevitably with the Blues having failed to win any of their first eight matches in all competitions, fans are becoming restless with some already calling for a change of boss.

“Pressure builds, that’s absolutely natural in football,” Cook said. “I’ve been around football long enough to know.

“Like I’ve just said to the players in the dressing room, I don’t mind telling you, ‘How long does the newness of us last?’


“It does last, whether you like it or not, it does last. Certainly doesn’t last much longer, that’s for sure, does it? It doesn’t last forever.”

The Blues manager expected better from the first eight matches: “One hundred per cent, without a shadow of a doubt. I’m as disappointed as the supporters. I watched the game at the sidelines. I don’t enjoy watching us play.

“Again, if you’re making changes, where will you get that consistency from? I get that. As a supporter shouted at me, ‘Stop changing the team’.

“But at the minute we’re probably searching for our best team, so until we find that formula the reality is Saturday’s team with injuries, lads coming back, one or two lads available, Bersant Celina’s available for Saturday.

“The reality is we’re an evolving team but none of us like the way we’re evolving, that’s for sure.”

Did he consider sticking with a similar team to one which he fielded at the weekend “There are all those debates. What you’ve got, and I don’t mind saying to you, a lot of these lads, [George] Edmundson’s been out for four or five weeks, would three games in a week be good for him? Would he break down? These are all the debates.

“And you get beat like we have done tonight, all your questions are valid, 100 per cent they’re valid. If we win the game tonight, everyone’s happy, we’ve got our first win and we move on.

“We’re all desperately disappointed, none more so than myself and the staff and we’ll just go away and work harder.”

Cook gave Samy Morsy his debut as skipper in midfield and young centre-half Albie Armin his senior debut.

“Samy Morsy’s had his debut tonight, which was great to familiarise himself with the stadium,” the Town manager continued.

“We’ve got to be better as a group of players. The time for us now, the newness is wearing thin, the reality is that our supporters have left the stadium again tonight for the sixth time this season really, really disappointed.

“As a manager, I hold my hand up, it’s not good enough and I’m not happy with what’s going on myself.”

Asked further about the fan who spoke to him on the way off, he said: “He didn’t want me changing the teams. And again, if you look at the teams picked and all the stuff that we’re doing, we’re trying our best to get minutes into players, we’re trying our best to get up to speed and I’d suggest to everyone, if you get beat 5-2 at home on Saturday, what is our best team?

“We were giving lads an opportunity to say ‘I should be playing’ as Ipswich fans go home tonight, how many of that XI have staked that claim? I’m not too sure too many have.”

The softness of the team was recurring theme in his post-match press conferences towards the end of last season and would have been something Cook was hoping would change given all the switches of personnel.

“I think we’ve just got to be a little bit careful when we’ve had the likes of Christian Walton’s debut Saturday, George Edmundson’s debut Saturday, Hayden Coulson’s been out for a long time with Covid. We have had issues around that,” Cook said.

“I think defensively we’ve got to give these lads a couple or three more games to get up and running but we are all aware that we must get up and running, we’re not stupid people.”

It was Tomas Holy’s error which led to West Ham’s winner but Cook wasn’t pointing any fingers.

“Just keep going, it’s football,” he said. “I’ll never come out and blame keepers and this, that and the other.

“Every goalie that’s been in goal this year has conceded goals at Portman Road for us, so it’s Tomas Holy conceding goals, Christian Walton has and so has Vas [Vaclav Hladky]. So around that we’ve all got to tidy up, every single one of us.”

Kayden Jackson limped off with what looked like an ankle injury in the second half but Cook didn’t know the extent of the problem following the match.

“I don’t know yet,” he said. “He just got a knock and he looked quite sharp and lively, to be fair to the kid, so that’s a disappointment for Kayden.”

West Ham U21s coach Dimitri Halajko was delighted with his team's display, particularly defensively.

“It was a really good performance,” he told hos club's official website. “I didn’t think we were at our best on the ball today, we felt we turned it over a bit.

“But when you’re not having the best day on the ball, what you’ve got to show is really good defensive determination and lots of grit to stay in the game and then chances will come your way.

“I think we did that brilliantly, the character we showed to stay in the game and to defend well, not give away any easy goals after the first two minutes.

“At the end, they get that little bit of luck and their reward for all the hard work they showed. It was a really mature performance in that sense.”


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bedsitfc added 06:14 - Sep 15
He has never used any system other than 4231 in his years of management at all 7 clubs.
One tick pony
One hit wonder
3

phillev231069 added 06:28 - Sep 15
I am sick to death with the same garbage after every game from whoever is in charge. I know we may not win every game but just one would be nice. WE DESERVE BETTER! Jog on Cook!
6

spanishblue added 06:34 - Sep 15
Wonder how many more games he'll get before the axe falls or will we miraculously find the winning formula,looking dodgy at the minute
3

spanishblue added 06:37 - Sep 15
And on a side note there's information coming out about 20 30 year contracting pericarditis after having both vaccine shots this does come from America let's hope that Bersant is over it and not a crock, we are in need of some Devine intervention
0

martin587 added 06:43 - Sep 15
PC you must have some idea by now what your best eleven players are.Don't keep making excuses.Watching last night it appears we play better with two up front.Stick to that system please we have enough strikers.It's not rocket science as watching us at the moment is destroying my love for this club.
5

Saxonblue74 added 06:43 - Sep 15
PC still has my support for now, but what was the point of tonight? What momentum would a win have taken into the league given few (if any) of this line up will be starting against Lincoln? Norwood was the only positive, looked keen and worked hard at both ends of the pitch.
5

BlueRuin69 added 07:02 - Sep 15
The life has been sucked out of me.........we will lose saturday because we are so soft and easy to beat and there is no improvement, in fact we are getting worse by the game as confidence plummetts. Holy is a very poor keeper. Tactics are awful. We are simply the laughing stock of football.....actually no we are not, l think we are so bad that others pity us. COOK OUT
3

MickMillsTash added 07:09 - Sep 15
This was a no win game for COOK
And he lost it
2

atty added 07:16 - Sep 15
Depressing, all the optimism and positivity ebbing away. Just two points. Why are these players who came here because of Cook not performing.? Why do we look unfit, with the much hyped new sports science/performance in place?
9

Europablue added 07:20 - Sep 15
JewellintheTown The problem is that any Cook side seems to have that soft underbelly of not being able to hold onto a lead and have a habit of losing.
1

ringwoodblue added 07:28 - Sep 15
JewellintheTown - don't worry whilst you bury your head in the sand, the rest of us have our eyes wide open and can see exactly how poor we are in every department on the pitch. Even if we went 3-0 up in a game, we would conspire to throw it away. If something doesn't change soon, we will be following Southend.
2

Leeco84 added 07:46 - Sep 15
Cooks inability to identify the issues at hand is a major issue. Opposition has identified the towns weakness and a gaining from each game. Sorry but he has no clue when he keeps sticking to the same system everyone else has worked out.
3

Leeco84 added 07:49 - Sep 15
Last seasons old guard also failed miserably when he took over. Major failings there and his bull sh1t "I'm not going to blame the players" is an attempt to pull the wool over town fans eyes. Bottom line he is a poor choice of manager.
3

BecclesBlue500 added 08:37 - Sep 15
Starting to dawn on me that perhaps the problem last year was that the existing players who, according to Cook were so dreadful, were actually just responding to him/his style - thinking to themselves "geez - who is this guy??" and downing their tools - and not Cooks story of not trying/being good enough.

Lambert is starting to look/feel a bit like Wenger at Arsenal; towards the end everyone thinks that his achievements whilst he was in the job were average NB in Wengers case towards the end) whereas whoever follows actually realises its harder than it looks.

Perhaps its time for another Paul but this time one who didn't play for or manage Norwich?
0

PulhamBlue added 09:00 - Sep 15
Well Mr Cook, why not try buttoning your lips for a whole game, and let the players express themseves...
0

barrystedmunds added 09:37 - Sep 15
Think back to close season, almost everyday another signing, almost everyday on these pages talk of smashing this league. Bring it on, standby the Championship, we're gunning for you. There were some who warned of caution, indeed some suggested a “bedding” in season before we got this right. Bringing 19 players in was always a huge risk because statistics will tell you only a small proportion of those will make it, think back to all those brought to the club over the last 15 years who were abject failures. I'm as disappointed as the next Town fan, embarrassed actually when I think of some of the dreadful results and lows we've managed to accumulate just recently but my biggest worry is that Cook doesn't appear to know how to sort it. Worrying times.
6

RobITFC added 09:40 - Sep 15
STOP PLAYING 4.2.3.1 - IT DOES NOT WORK!!
3

Bert added 09:47 - Sep 15
Telling almost the entire squad in May that they can go or are not wanted was a huge risk. Did Cook not understand the consequences of that ? Did he forget in his understandable quest to play an attacking style that he needed proper full backs who can defend when we already have the flanks sorted ? The club needed a change in culture, new owners, a new CEO and a new manager but was Cook really their man ? Our club needed and still needs big shoes to fill what has become a poisoned chalice of a job but a manager who has the intelligence and skill to know that you have to blend players into the best of what we had, not get rid of the lot in one go. Therein lies the problem and I fear we are stuck with it unless Cook admits to himself that he has to change his strategy or be sacked by mid October to save our season and our club.
5

BobbyBell added 10:01 - Sep 15
18 goals conceded in 8 games. I think 99% of us know where the problem is so why can't you, a professional coach, sort it out? A coach is there to sort out issues and make improvements whether it's a golfers swing, a tennis players back hand or a football teams defence. That's why coaches are paid big money. If only we could have a defensive coach like, say Terry Butcher? Oh no of course we got rid of him didn't we? We now have just one man running the team with no assistant and things are steadily getting worse. I'm not for constant change but let's get some additional coaching staff with specific tasks behind Cook.
2

Orraman added 10:23 - Sep 15
He sure is the ‘Demolition Man'. Started off by demolishing a fairly decent side on the edge of the play off positions instead of gradulally making the necessary improvements. Demolished the confidence of the squad by telling them after 2/3 games that they could all go thereby demolishing any thoughts of loyalty for the remainder of the season.
Worst of all he has demolished the new found feelgood factor around ITFC. Mark Ashton has done so much in a short time to make us all so optimistic starting with the acquisition of some, but not all, good new players as well as making Portman Road a more inviting place to be. Wonderful crowds of around 20,000 will soon be demolished to nearer 15,000 if this continues. The only thing he has not demolished is his own ego. Perhaps that might come with his sacking.
4

ChrisR added 10:26 - Sep 15
So far this season have lost to or failed to beat 8 different sides , most of which finished below ITFC last season , and many having the same big turn over of players . Yet they have managed to GEL somehow , and most have looked fitter , keener and better organised than us. There is something horribly wrong here , and the new signings must be regretting their choice!
3

Cheshire_Blue added 10:49 - Sep 15
This man's earlier success has been propped up by his No.2 who now manages Wigan. The writing was on the wall the day he decided not to join Cook at Ipswich. This man needs to go quickly before it is too late to enable the new owners to get their own man in.
2

Cheshire_Blue added 10:51 - Sep 15
JewellintheTown : Sadly this attitude goes back to the Mick McCarthy era and is why we are in this mess now.
2

Billysherlockblue added 11:14 - Sep 15
Come on guys last years team gave up .downed tools did not want to play for us! Fact. Cook did the right thing and tried to change the culture. Fact. Now we have a new team fact we have to bed in. Fact. Not every player that we buy will turn out successful. Fact. However ill say it again. Cook gets to xmas for me but im so peed off with this 4231. We cant play it and every team and their mothers know this. Space everywhere behind our full backs and no cover from our sitting midfield. Ffs go to 442 or 433 and press from the front. The players have to hold their hands up too not just cook. Oh and cook needs a no 2 ive said this after the 1st game. Come on paul try something different! Im so peed off! Super blues forever 💙
1

junglerog added 12:02 - Sep 15
Totally agree with Jewellinthetown. We have pulled together a completely new squad. Some still haven't played together. Captain has not yet played a league game. Key to a defence is two good central defenders ie Burgess and Edmundson. They have only played together once. I'm not expecting to see the real team performance until mid October. We are a million times better than last year. Bookies giving 9/4 on top 6 finish. What a steal.
0


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