Promotion?????

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Very unlikely I know but it CAN still be done as Villa proved last season. I was reading that as at 2nd March 2019 they were 13th in the table on 45 points and 8 points off the top 6. Yet they went on to finish in 5th place on 76 points and beat Derby County in the play-off Final.

Compare our situation. We are 9th on 52 points just 4 points from 6th place, far better placed than Villa were. Of course we all know that with a bit of luck and some decent referees with no apparent hidden agendas, we easily could be in a play-off spot right now! But it is what it is. A play-off spot is still up for grabs, and any of the teams that go on a good run now, stand a good chance of getting there. I hope that Cooper and the lads will play every game from now on in as though it were a Cup Final because if they do that we might be cheering our heads off come the season's end. Hammering WBA would be a great start and do our confidence a world of good. :)
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
I remember well a Welsh rugby team in the World Cup Finals that played to manager's orders and it just wasn't happening but, when the chips were down in a critical game, they tore up his game plan and played what was in front of them as they saw fit. They won the game and progressed to the next stage. Now, with luck, the players will be well aware of the situation, so hopefully, they'll step up and run the game themselves if Cooper's tactics aren't working. Long shot I know; we can but hope. :rolleyes:
 

Victoria Swan

Key Player
Whatever we do, let's play to the ninety minutes and stop sitting back to let the opponent score in added time! For all your railing against Cooper this is as much or more the players fault. We are lacking a proper captain who will yell at the players and get them organized on the field for the last ten minutes of a game. Grimes just doesn't cut it, neither does Ayew. What happened at Hull, at Blackburn, at Fulham, etc would never have happened when Ashley Williams was our captain. Say what you like about him, he commanded the other players when the chips were down for us.
 

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
Actually, I think this can be pinned on Andy Pandy. It is not the players’ fault. They can only do what they've been directed to do; coached to do; or left to do on their own devices - what their natural instinct tells them to do.

Andy Pandy has to know his players by now. He has to realize their first instinct. He has to command from the sidelines to get players into a different posture. He can make substitutions to put players on the field that will naturally play further up the field, and have the speed and stamina to chase and close down further up the field. He has to dictate how the game goes, how we will play the game out.

Against Rovers, Andy Pandy took off Garrick and replaced him with Roberts ... when he could have replaced him with Kalulu who is like greased lighting and told him to hunt and destroy. And then to compound the felony, he took off Gallagher and replaced him with Wilmot. Two players who naturally play higher up, who naturally will close down defenders, were replaced by two natural defenders, with no direction of who goes where and who does what. Roberts and Wilmot could / should have been positioned in front of Grimes to act as a destructive pair in midfield ... but that's not what happened. Instead they just occupied space where they naturally play.

Both of these changes, naturally took us deeper into our own half and naturally brought Rovers forward. We just collapsed into our box with no purpose and organization.

Sousa could have pulled this off because he would have coached concentration defense Italian style from the beginning of the season and had the players super organized. Andy Pandy ... not a prayer. He may have the theory rattling around in his puppet skull like a melting ice cube, but in practice not a chance in hell of it being implemented on the field without direction. And ... there was no direction.

AP lost us the game ... not the players. They did the best they could with what the coach did to them from the sidelines.
 
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Jackflash

Midfield General
Staff member
Whatever we do, let's play to the ninety minutes and stop sitting back to let the opponent score in added time! For all your railing against Cooper this is as much or more the players fault. We are lacking a proper captain who will yell at the players and get them organized on the field for the last ten minutes of a game. Grimes just doesn't cut it, neither does Ayew. What happened at Hull, at Blackburn, at Fulham, etc would never have happened when Ashley Williams was our captain. Say what you like about him, he commanded the other players when the chips were down for us.
It might not be such a bad idea if Cooper took his hands out of his pockets and started yelling from the sidelines himself. If we are winning, losing or drawing he doesn't show any kind of reaction. It would seem his half time talk consists of," If we're winning with minutes to go park the bus".
 

Jackflash

Midfield General
Staff member
As the thread title says 'Promotion'. Just watched a replay of our Championship playoff against Reading at Wembley. on Sky Sport this afternoon, giving us the richest prize in football and promotion to that promised land, the Premiership. Almost a nail biter watching a replay, 0-3 up at halftime game looks over,Reading came back at us 2-3 then hit the upright, then Sinclair completed his hat-trick with a late penalty. What a day, what a game that was.
 
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