Chelsea - Nottingham Forest

[zicorice]

Also:

Dean Henderson on BBC Sport:

“I’ve never seen a team so united”

“Everyone loves the gaffer, he’s a great man, a great guy and wants the best for each and every player”

Make no mistake Steve Cooper is firmly in the elite bracket regarding man management.

Cooper with an assistant with PL experience and tactical nous along side him would be the dream ticket.

Just wish that everyone including Marinakis and Cooper himself could see that.

Out of interest, what’s wrong with the current setup?

Most believe that we aren't as tactically astute as we could be and that some of the coaching doesn't seem to be working (see set piece goals conceded)

I'd have to question that Most believe that in full. Cooper hit nail on the head when he said we concede too many fouls giving away set pieces which is the fundamental reason we concede too many goals from them. Some of them (v Liverpool and Brentford recently spring to mind) were very avoidable and soft free kicks.  I think also it has to be acknowledged some of the coaching has been outstanding. Development of Jonno, but especially the massive amount of time put in to improve Taiwo with his hold up play. 

Tactically,  I think with the benefit of hindsight there are some decisions and subs/timing of subs He might change, but still got more right than wrong. 

The only time an experienced asst manager may have had a word to good effect is the first part of season pre Villa home, when we tried to attack teams that in all honesty had better players and obviously much more settled teams. We lucked out v West Ham home, but got outgunned v Fulham.and Bournemouth -despite taking leads in both. Since being more pragmatic (which in itself brought out lots of whingers over time) we have accumulated points at a rate which over a whole season keeps you up easily. That horrible run recently was not tactics it was injuries and individual errors.

I maintain  IF we stay up  Steve Cooper has performed a minor miracle, ably assisted by Marinakis investment to try and bridge a 23 year wide chasm (even bigger chasm than I and most others expected and we knew it would be big). Cooper now has Premier league experience, so for me that ship has sailed now in terms of bringing in experienced assistant. (Harry Redknapp-really? Rather appoint Rosie his dog)If these tactically astute geniuses are out there, why are they not in jobs already?

2 games left and it's in our own hands-everyone would have taken that in August surely?