Wow, a lot to read through on this thread, some interesting opinions on the Manager, the Club and life it seems!
I think the aspect of the Football Club deserves its own thread. Some very interesting comments.
As for life, I don't know, I'm still trying to figure all that out!
Finally that leaves me with Paul Cook. Firstly, I don't see the players day in, day out like he does. Secondly, I don't have the coaching credentials that he or his staff do. I'll just be drawing on what experience I do have.
The Stoke City match was something of a false dawn - looking back at it, Stoke were in skme kind of relegation induced PTSD and we were on a high from promotion. Everyone was fit and we nailed them. Since then, we've been up and down but since the Preston match we've had a real downturn in form and we are staring down the barrel of the gun here. Paul Cook is falling into the trap of losing sight of what brought you to the dance - he's screaming at players, they're switching off, because berating someone will only work so many times before the inevitable thoughts of "Here we go again" and an eye-roll. He's abandoned the 4-2-3-1 and gone with a straightforward 4-4-2, then a deeper and more defensive minded 4-4-1-1. We're playing percentages football, looking for scraps and plodding through games. The body language of the players is such that they're not enjoying it. These are warning signs, clear for us all to see.
My fear is that in spite of players returning, this long ball game, which we are not suited to, is going to be ingrained into the mindset of the players. Shelling it in and hoping for the best won't work with our squad. It just won't. Little balls around the corner and Grigg making intelligent runs with and without the ball coming his way will. Byrne, Windass, Gibson, Connolly, Garner and Vaughan have been very, very poor. Powell is still more fragile than a Faberge egg. Robinson is our only specialist left back, hence Naismith giving it a good go, but not on his level and a very gun shy Dan Burn trotting his way through matches.
However, there is hope. Kipre has been classy and commanding at the back at times. Reece James is a revelation. Evans and Morsy have combined brilliantly together, as we all knew they would. Roberts has pulled out some decent performances. We have a six point gap between us and relegation. Players are returning to fitness; Massey, Dunkley et al have been big misses for us.
My feeling is that McManaman and Mcdonald need to be in that 18. What made Leicester so good when they won the league was players like Leonardo Ulloa and Shinzi Okazaki, the latter running his socks off for an hour, softening up teams before others came on in his place. I feel Cook uses McManaman the wrong way round - do damage first, take him off and bring on a player to get at them. In this sense, I'd like to see Lang back, rather than throwing out other young players in just yet.
I wouldn't sack Cook, no without a more talented manager to go to as a replacement, however the board and the recruitment team need a good look at themselves, because the depth, or lack thereof is what worries me more than anything. There's 14 players I have faith in I'd say, the rest I struggle with.
