Yankee_Jack
Key Player
The way this is going we will be a Championship club or lower for the foreseeable future.
My previously posted analogy in other threads to the Sousa season has sadly just gotten stronger. Out goes McB and James, out goes 26 (22+4) league goals plus assists yielding a net goal difference of -23 (+3 - 26) .... as did Scotland/Gomez/Bodde 35 goals (20+11+7), net goal difference -22 (+13 - 35).
A budgeted goal difference of less than -20 has a very high probability of relegation unless mitigating action is taken to offset this loss of goals and therefore point generating power. For example, new players arrive, existing players pump up their goal production, goals conceded drops dramatically. HJ treated Sousa shabbily in terms of new players. We had a catastrophe at #9 that season ... Pintado, Beattie (sick note), Kuqi ... all were subpar and substandard.
Sousa lowered our goals against to 37 from 50, while our goals for dropped from 63 to 40 as a result of the players lost, not replaced, and nobody stepping it up. We ended up with a miracle goal difference of +3 and missed the playoffs on goal difference, a point better than the previous season. A piece of magical defensive coaching as there ever has been. And that bastard Monk had the nerve to criticize Sousa and demean his efforts in his piece of shit book.
All of this brings me to Cooper as history is poised to repeat. Is Cooper capable of producing a Sousa-esque coaching performance. Cooper’s model is about attack not defense. If we don’t get the defensive part of the game rock solid then we are going to be fucked because we are hoarding cash to offset an apparent cash deficit with no regard to the resulting goal deficit it is producing in the squad. We also have the risk that Ayew and Borja may still yet walk out the door, with Ayew yet to see the squad preseason .... has he even trained. And, our only sure to stay forward CBR has seen minimal game time preseason. The loss of Oli now means Borja is our starting #9 ... what would have been the bookie’s odds on that back in May. No where near as piss poor as Pintado/Beattie/Kuqi .... Borja can’t play if he doesn’t stay.
We all now need to kneel and join hands in prayer: “Please Ivor and Mel, thou art in heaven, spirit the ball into their goal as often as you possibly can and keep it away from our end. Amen”. We need a divine act or Cooper needs to start walking on water offensively or at least produces defensive magic like Sousa. Anything less and we are going to get hammered and we are seriously at risk of being relegated.
My previously posted analogy in other threads to the Sousa season has sadly just gotten stronger. Out goes McB and James, out goes 26 (22+4) league goals plus assists yielding a net goal difference of -23 (+3 - 26) .... as did Scotland/Gomez/Bodde 35 goals (20+11+7), net goal difference -22 (+13 - 35).
A budgeted goal difference of less than -20 has a very high probability of relegation unless mitigating action is taken to offset this loss of goals and therefore point generating power. For example, new players arrive, existing players pump up their goal production, goals conceded drops dramatically. HJ treated Sousa shabbily in terms of new players. We had a catastrophe at #9 that season ... Pintado, Beattie (sick note), Kuqi ... all were subpar and substandard.
Sousa lowered our goals against to 37 from 50, while our goals for dropped from 63 to 40 as a result of the players lost, not replaced, and nobody stepping it up. We ended up with a miracle goal difference of +3 and missed the playoffs on goal difference, a point better than the previous season. A piece of magical defensive coaching as there ever has been. And that bastard Monk had the nerve to criticize Sousa and demean his efforts in his piece of shit book.
All of this brings me to Cooper as history is poised to repeat. Is Cooper capable of producing a Sousa-esque coaching performance. Cooper’s model is about attack not defense. If we don’t get the defensive part of the game rock solid then we are going to be fucked because we are hoarding cash to offset an apparent cash deficit with no regard to the resulting goal deficit it is producing in the squad. We also have the risk that Ayew and Borja may still yet walk out the door, with Ayew yet to see the squad preseason .... has he even trained. And, our only sure to stay forward CBR has seen minimal game time preseason. The loss of Oli now means Borja is our starting #9 ... what would have been the bookie’s odds on that back in May. No where near as piss poor as Pintado/Beattie/Kuqi .... Borja can’t play if he doesn’t stay.
We all now need to kneel and join hands in prayer: “Please Ivor and Mel, thou art in heaven, spirit the ball into their goal as often as you possibly can and keep it away from our end. Amen”. We need a divine act or Cooper needs to start walking on water offensively or at least produces defensive magic like Sousa. Anything less and we are going to get hammered and we are seriously at risk of being relegated.
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I was so busy enthusing about his other qualities I forgot to mention it!