Injuries And Suspensions

[wassy04]

Crititise me all you want but Cooper's dedication to Brennan has come at a huge cost this season imo. I accept that Brennan is a huge talent but the patience he's been shown has had a detrimental effect on the others players in the squad, Dennis being the primary one. Had Dennis been given the game time Brennan has this season then we'd have a serious player on our hands now. Maybe the same with Surridge. We see flashes from Dennis to demonstrate that he has talent, but that's all he's been allowed to show. And we're so geared up as a team to feed Brennan that a decent prem player like Wood has come in and the side is completely unable to change the way it plays to accommodate his skill set.

So we play Dennis instead and then Brennan doesn’t develop into an established PL striker. Not sure what the answer is. Thing is Dennis was meant to be PL ready and he has never looked up to it apart from a few flashes. His discipline with and without the ball we know often drives Cooper to distraction.
Surridge I agree with I dont see why we brought in two ageing lumps when we had him available.

I agree Dennis needs to up his game and demonstrate that he's up to the level but my point is we've seen many many games, particularly away games where's Brennan's influence has been such that it looks like we're playing with 10 men. Had Dennis had half as much investment that Brennan's had then he might be better placed now to come into the side and influence games. He's clearly talented. He just needs games.

Except if Taiwo stays fit like in the first half of the year then Dennis is even less necessary. Not forgetting Lingard has also been largely used out on the left side.

I can't get behind this though, you can't criticise Cooper for playing our best attacking player over Dennis, surely that logic doesn't make sense?!

I agree it's an opinion that's not entirely logical but my point is that Cooper's thrown all his eggs in one basket in Brennan when there have been lengthy spells of poor/ineffective performances from the lad. Had similar time been invested in other players then we might be stronger on balance at this time as a whole.

I vaguely get your point, pretty speculative though. Plus if you don't play Brennan he doesn't reach the level he reached pre injury which was a big part in victories against Southampton, Leicester and Leeds. Would Dennis really have reached the same level to offset that? Seems unlikely to me