CONFIMRED - Cooper to wall

[From Despair To Where?]

Precisely, none of the evidence suggests Stam's sitting there, struggling with team selection and wishing he had muskrat's phone number.

The question has never been whether Cooper is good enough to establish himself as a Championship centre back, it has always been about whether he is technically good enough to play Stam's system.

[Jack Celliers]

It's not just a style of football thing, though. Much as we all wanted him to succeed, there was a massive mistake every game under Brian, and things still seemed the seem under Stam and even in the odd Millwall telly game I saw. Good luck to him and everything, but the other centre halves we have just seem better.

[SCIAG]

The question has never been whether Cooper is good enough to establish himself as a Championship centre back, it has always been about whether he is technically good enough to play Stam's system.

There have never been any doubts that Cooper is technically good enough to play in Stam's system. He's very comfortable on the ball and has basically been playing in the same system for the last ten years. He's certainly better technically than some of the defenders Stam has used.

The big concern about Cooper is concentration. He has plenty of mistakes in him. He's better than he was but this time last year he was still making one crucial mistake a match.

There's a potential Premier League player in there, but only if he can eliminate those mistakes, and at this point it's not worth us sticking with him. Moore and Ilori are clearly better and aren't much older, and then there's Blackett behind them and McShane is theoretically still around. League One is probably Cooper's level.

I wish we'd shown the same faith in Dom Hyam, who can actually defend. Give him 50 games and I reckon he'd have gone for more than Hector.

(Without going on a huge tangent, I think "technically great but too many mistakes" is probably a good summary of most of the young players we let go or lost this summer, while less gifted but more reliable players like Watson, Rimonhota and Richards have found favour. Hyam and Stacey the exceptions.)

[From Despair To Where?]

Technique is probably the wrong word, there's a certain skill set that you need to play a patient possession game and the ability to maintain concentration is pretty fundamental.

[Longhorn1970]

He was very ordinary today and that's being kind :/

Think Blackett is an outstanding CB personally

LB not so sure though...

[CountryRoyal]

He was very ordinary today and that's being kind :/

Think Blackett is an outstanding CB personally

LB not so sure though...

As he does 90% of the time he plays at LB.