Stevie Cooper

[Reds73]

People say he's a brilliant coach etc yet seem to want to ignore his away record thos season which is frankly up there (down there) with your Houghtons and the worst managers in our history.

Yes the away form has been horrible, not just the results, but the way in which we have tried to achieve the results. 

We have shown very little bravery with the ball, and have given pretty much every team in the league their easiest 3 points of the season.

That will be Coops biggest regret if we go down.

[Forest1970]

I think the biggest problem Cooper has is that his assistant is not very tactically astute and not able to tell SC he is using the wrong formation especially away from home. I would of thought away from home you'd use a deep sitting fast counter attacking tactic especially as we do have fast front players but what do I know.

[oh no]

I would of thought away from home you'd use a deep sitting fast counter attacking tactic especially as we do have fast front players but what do I know.

This is exactly what we do use, we have the deepest average position for our defense in the league, with MGW and Brennan kept high to counter. Surely you arent thinking we're trying to play possession football having watched us play away from home.

The issue is no one in our defense wants to bring the ball out and our midfield plays it too safe by basically playing as a second set of CB's, so theyre not there to progress the ball either. Last year we had Garner moving the ball quickly or Spence bringing it out, but theres no one who can do either this season.

I mean just look at how deep our team was vs Leeds, Freuler and Mangala both about 2m infront of the CB's!

[inside right]

What would our league position be now if Emery had come to Forest instead of taking over at Villa ?

[Forest1970]

I would of thought away from home you'd use a deep sitting fast counter attacking tactic especially as we do have fast front players but what do I know.

This is exactly what we do use, we have the deepest average position for our defense in the league, with MGW and Brennan kept high to counter. [b]Surely you arent thinking we're trying to play possession football having watched us play away from home.

The issue is no one in our defense wants to bring the ball out and our midfield plays it too safe by basically playing as a second set of CB's, so theyre not there to progress the ball either. Last year we had Garner moving the ball quickly or Spence bringing it out, but theres no one who can do either this season.

I mean just look at how deep our team was vs Leeds, Freuler and Mangala both about 2m infront of the CB's!

Good god no way. The great Cloughie must be turning in his grave watching our pathetic effort of trying to pass to our own players lately well to be honest in all our defending and attacking play.

[Salvatore Matrecano]

I would of thought away from home you'd use a deep sitting fast counter attacking tactic especially as we do have fast front players but what do I know.

This is exactly what we do use, we have the deepest average position for our defense in the league, with MGW and Brennan kept high to counter. Surely you arent thinking we're trying to play possession football having watched us play away from home. 

The issue is no one in our defense wants to bring the ball out and our midfield plays it too safe by basically playing as a second set of CB's, so theyre not there to progress the ball either. Last year we had Garner moving the ball quickly or Spence bringing it out, but theres no one who can do either this season.

I mean just look at how deep our team was vs Leeds, Freuler and Mangala both about 2m infront of the CB's!

Thanks. Thats a useful way to look at it. The way I see it there are 3 possibilities for the above:

1. The Central midfielders we have are poor and can’t pass for toffee and we are therefore not progressing the ball out of defence whatever instructions/tactics they may receive.

2. The central midfield is OK and could play further forwards but the defence is poor and Cooper’s tactic is for the midfield to help them out otherwise we would leak a hatful of goals.

3. The defence is fine, the midfield is fine, the tactics are wrong. If we played further forward we would be winning more games.

Which is it? 
My opinion its probably a combination of 1 and 2.
Evidence from early in the season is we tried No.3 and got spanked every time.

[nffc93]

What would our league position be now if Emery had come to Forest instead of taking over at Villa ?

We'd never know because he'd never touch us in a month of Sundays.

Cooper has proven he is fantastic at gelling a group of players and getting the best out of them. Under 21s, Swansea and us.

Either some of the players aren't up for the fight, gelling 40 odd players together proved more difficult, unfathomable levels of injuries,or he's found it harder than he thought.

I think he could have done with someone more experienced in the dug out than Andy Reid personally.

The Lingard experiment proved to be a disaster, the club should take some blame for that one

Hopefully the club learn from its experience back in the top fight and have a plan in place to bounce back and stay up.

I won't be sad to see a number of players leave I know that much.

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

What would our league position be now if Emery had come to Forest instead of taking over at Villa ?

Just to answer your question not for any other reason I would imagine we would already be safe.

[wassy04]

What would our league position be now if Emery had come to Forest instead of taking over at Villa ?

Just to answer your question not for any other reason I would imagine we would already be safe.

Personally think we'd be in a similar position to where we are now assuming we had the same injuries.

[Ciscokid]

What would our league position be now if Emery had come to Forest instead of taking over at Villa ?

Just to answer your question not for any other reason I would imagine we would already be safe.

It's hard to disagree with those thoughts. What Emery has achieved with a similar level of players to our own has proved what superior coaching and leadership can do. You could argue maybe that in Ollie Watkins he inherited really what's made the difference but the performances of those around him have driven Villa to a position that they could only dream of last year. He cost £28m reportedly. I've always believed that the true test of a manager is how much he can improve the talent at his disposal both individually and collectively. Sorry to say that we have done poorly in that sense this year. Only Johnson and Yates to me have improved significantly.

[ozzyten10]

Same level of player- come off it! Villa also struggled to stay up first season too and won 4/6 of their last games to do it.

[Salvatore Matrecano]

What would our league position be now if Emery had come to Forest instead of taking over at Villa ?

Just to answer your question not for any other reason I would imagine we would already be safe.

It's hard to disagree with those thoughts. What Emery has achieved with a similar level of players to our own has proved what superior coaching and leadership can do. You could argue maybe that in Ollie Watkins he inherited really what's made the difference but the performances of those around him have driven Villa to a position that they could only dream of last year. He cost £28m reportedly. I've always believed that the true test of a manager is how much he can improve the talent at his disposal both individually and collectively. Sorry to say that we have done poorly in that sense this year. Only Johnson and Yates to me have improved significantly.

Really?.

So not MGW playing in his first PL season who people were discussing getting into the Engald squad a few weeks ago.

Then there is Aurier previously written off as a Premier League player 
Henderson looking like a top 6 club keeper
Awoniyi despite injuries looking the part, we will struggle to hold on to him if we go down
Lodi first PL  season and now looking the part
Williams and Mangala both struggled with the step up but both are improving well.

The ones who haven’t improved are the ones who in all honesty aren’t at the level we need. Then there are one or two who have previously played at this level but for whatever reason are not producing. 
Add in the injuries and there you have it.

By the way plucky little Aston Villa have spent a fortune on their squad, at least double what we have.