Sack cocu

[RamNut]

for me there are four shirts up for grabs.

whittaker might compete for 11 or 9. Long term he looks like a no9. We need a left winger and we’ve needed one or ages. We put too much responsibility on Byrne and Buchanan to attack. Anything they produce should be a bonus rather than a necessity.

Waghorn is only other viable no9 at present. At best best he is strong. At his worse he is clumsy, with a heavy first touch, and a tendency to run offside. he cannot play on the right.

Four decent attacking midfielders, and a mobile no9 who can hold it, might transform us.

At the back....

clarke is the natural fit for LCB but isn’t our player. Ultimately we need to replace him.

for RCB it’s a choice between Davies, Evans, wisdom, te wierik, and now....Bielik. There’s not much to choose and maybe none of them are good enough? Bielik could have done more to stop the shot v barnsley. Not sure he’s a centre back. My preference is probably Evans. He gets a bad press on here, but he is comfortable on the ball and throws his body in the way of shots. Davies (too old?), wisdom (too quiet?, too inconsistent?), and te wierik (too accident prone) probably aren’t the long term answer. 

 

 

[Carnero]

1 minute ago, RamNut said:

for me there are four shirts up for grabs.

whittaker might compete for 11 or 9. Long term he looks like a no9. We need a left winger and we’ve needed one or ages. We put too much responsibility on Byrne and Buchanan to attack. Anything they produce should be a bonus rather than a necessity.

Waghorn is only other viable no9 at present. At best best he is strong. At his worse he is clumsy, with a heavy first touch, and a tendency to run offside. he cannot play on the right.

Fiur decent attacking midfielders, and a mobile no9 who can hold it, might transform us.

At the back....

clarke is the natural fit for LCB but isn’t our player. Ultimately we need to replace him.

for RCB it’s a choice between Davies, Evans, wisdom, te wierik, and now....Bielik. There’s not much to choose and maybe none of them are good enough? Bielik could have done more to stop the shot v barnsley. Not sure he’s a centre back. My preference is probably Evans. He gets a bad press on here, but he is comfortable on the ball and throws his body in the way of shots. Davies (too old?), wisdom (too quiet?, too inconsistent?), and te wierik (too accident prone) probably aren’t the long term answer. 

 

 

Surely Bielik is ahead of Bird/Shinnie for the No.6 role. That's why he was bought to the club.

[Jimbo Ram]

2 minutes ago, RamNut said:

for me there are four shirts up for grabs.

whittaker might compete for 11 or 9. Long term he looks like a no9. We need a left winger and we’ve needed one or ages. We put too much responsibility on Byrne and Buchanan to attack. Anything they produce should be a bonus rather than a necessity.

Waghorn is only other viable no9 at present. At best best he is strong. At his worse he is clumsy, with a heavy first touch, and a tendency to run offside. he cannot play on the right.

Fiur decent attacking midfielders, and a mobile no9 who can hold it, might transform us.

At the back....

clarke is the natural fit for LCB but isn’t our player. Ultimately we need to replace him.

for RCB it’s a choice between Davies, Evans, wisdom, te wierik, and now....Bielik. There’s not much to choose and maybe none of them are good enough? Bielik could have done more to stop the shot v barnsley. Not sure he’s a centre back. My preference is probably Evans. He gets a bad press on here, but he is comfortable on the ball and throws his body in the way of shots. Davies (too old?), wisdom (too quiet?, too inconsistent?), and te wierik (too accident prone) probably aren’t the long term answer. 

 

 

Bielik and Ibe?

[RamNut]

7 minutes ago, Jimbo Ram said:

Bielik and Ibe?

 

10 minutes ago, Carnero said:

Surely Bielik is ahead of Bird/Shinnie for the No.6 role. That's why he was bought to the club.

He’s another option there. 

[Topram]

Anyone saying Rooney surely must no hes part of this coaching team and playing and he’s making absolutely no change no influence, he won’t be able to dig us out of this trouble

[brady1993]

29 minutes ago, RamNut said:

for me there are four shirts up for grabs.

whittaker might compete for 11 or 9. Long term he looks like a no9. We need a left winger and we’ve needed one or ages. We put too much responsibility on Byrne and Buchanan to attack. Anything they produce should be a bonus rather than a necessity.

Waghorn is only other viable no9 at present. At best best he is strong. At his worse he is clumsy, with a heavy first touch, and a tendency to run offside. he cannot play on the right.

Four decent attacking midfielders, and a mobile no9 who can hold it, might transform us.

At the back....

clarke is the natural fit for LCB but isn’t our player. Ultimately we need to replace him.

for RCB it’s a choice between Davies, Evans, wisdom, te wierik, and now....Bielik. There’s not much to choose and maybe none of them are good enough? Bielik could have done more to stop the shot v barnsley. Not sure he’s a centre back. My preference is probably Evans. He gets a bad press on here, but he is comfortable on the ball and throws his body in the way of shots. Davies (too old?), wisdom (too quiet?, too inconsistent?), and te wierik (too accident prone) probably aren’t the long term answer. 

 

 

Broadly agree with your overall asssement.

Right now for me:

On the left: Lawrence or Ibe (possibly swapping Ibe goes on the right with Jozwiak here). I know you dislike inverted wingers but ideally they drive in field to panic the defence, looking to shoot or play someone in whilst Byrne and Buchanan stretch the width.

Up front: Waghorn with Stretton and JHI lurking to take over. Waghorn when fit and firing should help create others space to exploit like he did against Millwall when Sibley scored his hattrick.

LCB: Has to be Clarke. One of the few nailed on starters. It's a fair point that we should be looking to sort it out permanently though.

RCB: Feels like a pick your poison. 

Davies - Most experienced. Most reliable. Best positional sense. Also very slow making a high line difficult and is clumsy on the ball.

Wisdom - Was in excellent form here last season but hasn't looked right since coming back. Quick and strong but not the best in the air.

Evans - Comfortable in possession and positionally ok. Is a very passive player though, tends to be deliberate and cautious on the ball and lacks a bit of agression of it.

Te Wierik - Has made a few mistakes under the long ball but hasn't had much game time here either. Difficult to really judge with him whether it's a case of needing time or not be suited for the league. But has most recently been playing at a higher level.

Bielik - After the other day, I'm fairly convinced we need him somewhere in the side. One of few players to accurately pass with pace and purpose. Physically dominant as well. Didn't think he could have done much else with the goal, the defence was scrambling and it was a good goal. Occasionally rash and needs to work on positioning but name one defender to not make a mistake for us this season.

For me I'd go with Bielik. There is a debate whether he should play midfield or defence but personally I'm happier with our options at DM than I am at RCB right now. His physicality means we can win the ball back earlier, higher up and his aggresive passing means we can better maintain pressure. I think he has the highest potential out of the options.

 

[Rab a dab doo]

I sorry to say (because really thought we were moving forward at one point last season) that every defeat is hastening Mr Ccu depart from the club. 

[Nuwtfly]

Actually a little surprised we haven't seen the corner flag yet...

Certainly feels to me now that, should Cocu and Co be relieved of their duties, it will be by the new ownership, and not by the outgoing one...

[BathRam72]

2 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

Actually a little surprised we haven't seen the corner flag yet...

Certainly feels to me now that, should Cocu and Co be relieved of their duties, it will be by the new ownership, and not by the outgoing one...

It gets Mel out of his predicament doesn't it

[MK-Ram]

5 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

Actually a little surprised we haven't seen the corner flag yet...

Certainly feels to me now that, should Cocu and Co be relieved of their duties, it will be by the new ownership, and not by the outgoing one...

We need that corner flag now, whether it's to announce the sale or to announce Cocu's departure.

Surely the players are expecting this? Best to move on to give them the time to adjust to a caretaker and then the new gaffer as soon as possible.  Drawing this out is just causing more damage.

[Tyler Durden]

9 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

Actually a little surprised we haven't seen the corner flag yet...

Certainly feels to me now that, should Cocu and Co be relieved of their duties, it will be by the new ownership, and not by the outgoing one...

I agree with this. I would apportion a certain amount of cowardice to the decision being deferred to the new owners with a shrug of the shoulders and a it's in your hands now. 

[tomsdubs]

I think it's a combination of us not wanting to give up on Cocu and the fact we are being bought by a new owner. I think Mel really believed in Cocu and held out hope he'd turn it around so we haven't spoken to anyone, there aren't really many options out there right now you'd be jumping for joy if we got in are there lets be real.

[Gaspode]

16 minutes ago, Tyler Durden said:

I agree with this. I would apportion a certain amount of cowardice to the decision being deferred to the new owners with a shrug of the shoulders and a it's in your hands now. 

So you think Mel should sack Cocu asap to avoid looking like a coward (in your eyes)? What's the point in Mel:

1. Sacking a manager when he knows within days the managers position won't be his concern

2. Paying the compensation due to Cocu out of his own pocket and effectivlely reducing the return he gets from the sale

It will soon (hopefully) be the Sheikh's decision to make and at this stage we don't know what his views on Cocu (or any other prospective manager) are. As the sale is imminent it would be ridiculous (and irresponsible) for Mel to leave the ship rudderless by sacking the manager simply to pacify a load of impatient numpties on a message board. The one thing that gives me hope regarding the club is that most of the folk on here don't have any say in what the club does.....

[Bubbles]

Cocu won't leave this week. Takeover will probably happen friday(?) and then Cocu sacked day or two after.

[BBG83]

1 hour ago, tomsdubs said:

I think it's a combination of us not wanting to give up on Cocu and the fact we are being bought by a new owner. I think Mel really believed in Cocu and held out hope he'd turn it around so we haven't spoken to anyone, there aren't really many options out there right now you'd be jumping for joy if we got in are there lets be real.

I think Mel is protecting Cocu and limping him through to Jan when he knows there's money to spend (bet they both expected a takeover to be done a lot sooner). Felt like that since looking at the transfers. Its as close to a clean slate as he'll get and almost like he was told 'don't waste money on players you don't want now because there's money to spend in Jan on the players you do want'.

[TomTom92]

There’s just a bad vibe surrounding the club at the moment. The only way to stop this rot is to either win matches or for the takeover to be announced and to have a new manager to get behind. I can’t see us winning a match any time soon so effectively we’re all slowly sinking waiting for it the announcement. Hurry up please Sheikhy baby.

[sonofmidnight]

We need a manager who is able to galvanise these players. I believe that as a group they have not bought into Cocu's style of football and this shows in their demeanour on the pitch. Some of the players need a kick up the backside, some are low in confidence and we need an experienced championship manager.It does concern me that talented youngsters like Sibley who aren't used as much as they could be could well be wanting out and move on in January.  

[sonofmidnight]

I ought to have added that those who are short of confidence should be nurtured and encouraged. An experienced manager would know what makes each of his players tick and treat them accordingly.

[tomsdubs]

45 minutes ago, CocuCrazyCocuMad said:

I think Mel is protecting Cocu and limping him through to Jan when he knows there's money to spend (bet they both expected a takeover to be done a lot sooner). Felt like that since looking at the transfers. Its as close to a clean slate as he'll get and almost like he was told 'don't waste money on players you don't want now because there's money to spend in Jan on the players you do want'.

Could be too late by then, we could be well adrift.

[rynny]

Wonder how bad the meltdown will be when Cocu isn't sacked after the take over.