BBC gives it after 4 mins.. that Amos is our weakest link Ever since we lost Bo, we have really struggled to find a decent keeper.
Cooper and Chester in the same team is something most managers at this level will try to avoid happening unless they have no choice, especially while we've got Koren, Evans, and Quinn in midfield. Defending set pieces would be a nightmare. He'd probably have more chance of playing games for us if we were in the PL (with the same squad we've got now) than he does in the Championship.
Cooper's perfectly capable. That's why he's here. He's just inexperienced at this level but that doesn't mean he's no good at defending set pieces or any other area of his game. I'd much rather we blood a promising youngster as cover rather than give places to headless chickens. Arsenal and Man Utd do the same all the time. Granted with better youngsters and at higher levels, but they put faith in their young players and use them as cover. It gives them the game time they need and they usually put a great shift in. We don't have good youngsters to cover all positions but we have two or three which I think would and should be our covering players. Cairney had to wait a while for his first prem game and then was one of the first on the team sheet for a while. If they're not on loan give them a run to cover injuries and show faith in them. I'd love us to adopt this approach. We'd attract better youngsters as well.
Not really, with our current midfield if we had Faye, Chester, and Cooper at centre back then out of our back 8 only Faye and Elmo would be over 5'10". Not really great in the Championship. Not great at any level, but you could probably get away with it in the PL a lot more often. You obviously wouldn't want to do it against Stoke...
Getting our arse kicked here. Lets get to half time only 1-0 down. Getting outmuscled by the sound of it. Meyler and Oli on?
Correct, his inexperience isn't the problem, the fact he's 4 inches or more shorter and about 2 or 3 stone lighter than his opponents is what causes problems at set pieces, he can't do the slyly nudging them off the ball when they go for a header that other players can (see one of West Ham's goals at the back end of last season). Chester is also pretty crap when opponents put their big lump of a striker up against him and just use them as a head on a stick. Watford last season being the prime example got both their goals at the KC that way, and then at Vicarage Road dominated us with 10 men once they decided to reverse the bizarre decision to leave Iwelumo on the bench. Chester will play, and in the absence of height/weight elsewhere in the team that means playing Cooper is almost impossible without giving us a massive weakness to be targetted.
Looks like an off day for City. Not good to do this in a big game. Get to half time 1-0 down and Bruce can lay into them. Might be one of them games where we play poorly but snatch something. Or another Boro (hope not). Wasn't it around this time last season, where we were 2-0 up to Burnley and lost 3-2 at the KC?
Anyone know anything about thie David Meyler kid on the bench? I read his bio and all I got was he's in from Scumberland .....
Looking at next season's opponents, Arsenal have pissed away a 2 goal lead at home against Fulham. That's been quite a first half there.
Thats fair enough really! I didn't realise Cooper was that small. Either way I'd much rather have a Chester, Cooper combo than anything where McShambles gets involved.
