It's rough if you're Mitch Cooper to be overlooked for the role to kanta. I personally would rather see him given another chance, Kanta makes more sense in the mids but as you said, given the chance to push forward a bit more would be the more ideal option in my mindOriginally Posted by scarfy96
Kanta was infinitely better pushing forward than Cooper. Thought he was fantastic in the second half.
I don't think there would be a coach / manager in the universe that would play Cooper ahead of Kanta. Cooper has agility on his side but in every other aspect he's a few steps behind Kanta.
We play a very controlled game these days and Control isn't a word I'd associate with Coopers style. He doesn't hold the ball well and his passing game is very much a work in progress.
From the bench though Mitch Cooper is someone I'd rather have playing for us than against us late in a game. That's how I'd be using him - especially if we are chasing a game - then I think he's a great choice.
While I fully agree with you's on that one, I more look at it from the perspective of kanta will not be playing attacking mid once Leo is healthy, but Coops will. Also, that means that Cam wi be starting and I rate Cooper over Cam overall
kanta did In 45 minutes what cooper hasn't been able to do for seasons now
I used to rate cooper highly, thought he had so much potential however the more I watch him now the more frustrating it is
Man we judge these dudes so differently.
Bloke has a good game and the "yeah but" posse is straight on him.
Prob also need to praise Miller for seeing the problem (cooper not shitting anyone down) and making the Kanta/Watson thing work.
Why wouldn't Leo be playing Attacking Mid if Leo is healthy? Cooper isn't in the starting squad if Leo is healthy... Kanta, Poljak, Enver, Leo, Carney, Milos. Where does Cooper play Attacking Mid?
I realise that was poorly explained now that you point it out haha, hopefully I can explain it better now
For me, Kanta makes more sense as a mid, who can help out in attack, not a straight attacking mid. Cooper, however will always be an attacking mid and therefore could use the game time a lot more in that position to improve. A lot of guys have improved under Miller and I think Cooper could be one of them if given the time to get used to the style. Hopefully that made sense this time
Ah, gotcha. Kanta will still be a mid though... Watson won't start.
If it's a discussion on bench options... I think Watson probably still pips Cooper. Maybe they both make the bench but I would have thought Jackson (central and left), Cowburn (right, central), Pavicevic up front/wide and then one to cover the midfield. Or are we likely to have two covering midfield so they both get a spot and one of Jackson/Cowburn miss out?
So I'm not taking a shot, I'm genuinely interested, in what you did or didn't see in that 40min performance last week that makes you think Kanta won't be good there all the time?
Hahaha, it came up the first time but I manually corrected it.
Prob says a lot about the level of my vocab that my phone is determined to over rule me.
Cause we have Leo, what sense is there in making Kanta play there permanently when he can act as more of a box to box mid. Kanta there permanently forces Leo to the bench, or if you play him wide Enver or carney to the bench and puts Watson on the field. If we didn't have Leo, had a better mid then Watson and Kanta had a few more games at attacking mid to prove he can kill it there I would love to see him play there, but he's spent so long as a defender that I see no reason not to allow him to be a box to box mid that lets him better use some of his attacking help along with using his defensive help. Personal opinion on that one though
Well see that's the thing, Cowburn and Jackson both play CB or right/left, and rarely are you benching both of those positions. I feel like it makes more sense to have BK, Cowburn, Cam, Cooper and Pav on our bench to in my opinion completely cover us in all areas.
Sorry, I was approaching it as Kanta v Cooper.
I assumed we all agree Leo is #1.
Is he back this week? Thought he was still out that why I wondered.
The more i watch Coops the more i am convinced he is in that gap between being a star at state league level and just too inconsistent to be at HAL level.
Oh my bad, I thought we were talking full stop making Kanta attacking mid haha
Well I forget who posted it but it said Leo was in doubt for this weeks game, and Kanta will slot in. Again, I'm looking at it from a perspective of I feel it makes more sense to let Cooper do it since he won't be holding the full workload if Kanta is given liberties to push a bit more, may make it easier on him and he has potential to be a star, he just needs game time and a good coach, we have the good coach and can give him game time. If Kanta starts at attacking mid that's fine, he did great last week and Watson won't ruin it. To me it all comes down to who you prefer on the pitch, Watson or Cooper and for me, I prefer Coops
So he's like James Virgili?
Yeah this is the exact way to look at it as a whole.
I thought Kantas pressing starved Mooy of the ball and made Watsons job easier.
Watson had 95% pass accuracy on the weekend too. It was a far cry from the pervious weeks where he struggled to hit a player wearing the same strip.
I think we may be starting to come with a crossroads with Cooper. He's yet to play 90 minutes for us in 25 appearances, of which he started 13. He's shown glimpses but hasn't ever really provided a match winning moment or even be attributed with an assist.
Oh and a WTF moment - Kanta is only 23 according to the paper!?!
The Championship Chronicles - The Jetstream's review of the 2007/08 season. www.newcastlefootball.net/chronicles
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