pompeyrug - 2/9/2016 16:10
Doesn't he have a plan though and is sticking to it?
I think that is crux of our problems. We're now a season and a bit into the Cook Era, for want of a better phrase. He has cleared out all the players he was left to work with (minus Chaplin, Whatmough, any more?), and is now working with what he can call his own team.
Last season was a bit of a wake up call for him. Other managers and fans in League 2 said we would steamroll our way to promotion, but as experienced Pompey fans we knew it wouldn't be that easy.
He HAD a plan, and last season he stuck with it. In stages it worked great - we started well, and had a period through March/April where we not only went on a great run, but played well. But the underlying point that I'm trying to make remains; we never had it all our own way.
We went through long stages last season where we couldn't break teams down. Whether at home or on the road, teams set out their stall against us and we tried playing our patient 'football' but got caught out. We lost a lot of points either by not killing games off and conceding late, or by going for the jugular early and finding ourselves a goal or two down.
This is our second season under Cook, and he has been very vocal about our system after our 'indifferent' start (I use the word indifferent because I agree with Rug that even though we didn't see results in out first 3 games, there was still noticeable improvements).
Cook HAD a plan, he HAD this plan last season, and now in post match interviews and pretty much admitted that this plan needs re-evaluating.
Crawley will be a big game tomorrow. Regardless of the result, we will find out if he stubbornly sticks to his plan, or is willing to work on another plan to play our way out through teams who come to Fratton looking for a point.
Let me clarify, I am not one of the anti-Cook brigade. I fully support whatever team he puts out, and as a Cook fan I am very interested to see whether he sticks with his 'plan', or works his way around it. In my opinion, a good manager would consider the latter, at least for a few games.
The last 2 games we stuck with our plan, it didn't work. He tried Plan B and we got late winners, for 6 points that could prove crucial come May.
I strongly believe we will get promoted this year and Cook will be the one to guide us there, but we can't always rely on Plan B to salvage us a late win. When Plan B works better than Plan A, the obvious thing to do is start with Plan B.
That is why Crawley is a massive match. If we do come out tomorrow with an attacking feel and pepper their goal through the first half, we know we have a manager who we can trust to adapt under the circumstances. If he tries the patient approach that we had to endure for last season, I fear each week more and more fans will turn on him, and it will be very difficult to find another manager who will work with 'Cook's Team'.
That's my rant over with, and I didn't mention 'divine right' once!
For anyone who couldn't be arsed reading these ramblings (I don't blame you) - Trust in Cookie, he is the only one who can steer us right.