WoodsyGreen":evwfhcxp said:
It's not an excellent question because it's been made pretty clear by many posters that the issue with young Cooper isn't that he's making mistakes. If he was chucking goals in then he'd already be out of the side.
It's the other side of his game that is clearly lacking: the vocal and physical dominance of his box that separates a good keeper from an adequate one. There is another thread where I gave examples of these inadequacies in the Oxford game.
He is part of a defence that is leaking goals and should share the same criticism that is being aimed at our centre-backs.
I do agree that I was disappointed that Palmer was not returning to us this season. He was outstanding last season and I was expecting him to return to play in Div 1.
Things would not be quite so bad as they are now, but the defence would still be suffering, and we would still be losing games, which, as new boys, we must expect to be doing.
However, Lowe made the decision that Cooper was going to be our no 1 keeper for this season, and no 1 keeper he is. Yes, Cooper is not up to Palmer's standards, but he has to start somewhere and he has to get experience with the first team.
You could say that Lowe could be criticised for this decision, but the decision has been made and we have to go with it. The boy has to become a man and he will not improve without playing games for the Club. He hasn't made any howlers, and with a better defence in front of him, we would be in a better position I am sure.
DON'T make him a scapegoat for the poor defence in front of him. He is not to blame for the goals against.