AFCBade
UTC Legend
Thought he was just little cook
Lewis Cook
- Thread starter yesyescherry
- Start date
kirsikka
UTC Legend
It'll be there until around the end of December, at least as he can't take it off until he's made Christmas dinner for the whole squad. Then he'll be the no L Cook.
blandford_cherry
UTC Legend
Quality when he came on today. Looked a class above the rest of the team.
Druss_the_Legend
UTC Legend
and to think half the board thought he was cr4p most of last season...
Some people got accused of being Lewis Cook simply for defending him. Some people understand football and some others watch a single match and base a season on it.
Ken Baileys Ghost
Plastic
That was the bloke we signed, shame he's spent so long missing in action.
He could make our season if he keeps fit and has this attitude for the next few months.
Neil Dawson
UTC Legend
I don’t remember this. The only person I’ve ever read with a strong opinion on Lewis Cook was topfarrier. He got loads of praise and rightly so.and to think half the board thought he was cr4p most of last season...
MB1980
UTC Legend
He didn;t, at least not first few months after returning last season. People questioning what he actually offered, should be dropped, didn;t get forwards enough, not positive in possession, not imposing himself enough etc...
He then moved into the dmc role as Lerma was out for a couple of games, and attitudes changed soon after.
Neil Dawson
UTC Legend
Oh yes that’s true. I’d forgotten that period where he was played as an 8 and just didn’t get it.
SlowDownDerek
UTC Legend
He was poor in that period. This is a big season for him because he's got a lot to prove at this level. Needs to impose himself on games. Yesterday was a good start and he should have earned himself a starting spot that's his to lose.
KingKieffer
Star Player
Wasn’t his fault that he was more in that period to be fair, he was playing in an unnatural position.
NWCherries98
Fans' Favourite
and to think half the board thought he was cr4p most of last season...
To be fair, he was absolutely crap for at least half of last season. He was worse than Kilkenny by far. Then a light switched and he started showing his actual quality and finished as probably our best player.
Form is temporary, class is permanent. And temporarily, he was shite.
SlowDownDerek
UTC Legend
This "wasn't his fault he was playing in the wrong position" doesn't half excuse all manor of crimes. Lerma missing tackles and Cook missing simple passes.
Cook is a quality player but the jury is still out on him at this level in my view. He went missing too many times in the PL.
Druss_the_Legend
UTC Legend
Simply not true. His first full month back in the first team was December (he made two brief appearances in November. He was up for player of the month in February, March, April and May.
I guess its true if being out injured is the same as "absolutely crap".
AFCBmattjamr
First Team
He should
a) start every game no question
b) captain the side - he's a far better leader in the pitch than Kelly
a) start every game no question
b) captain the side - he's a far better leader in the pitch than Kelly
NWCherries98
Fans' Favourite
It’s fun to have a favourite player, but if you don’t think he was poor in the first half of HIS season, then I don’t know what to tell you lol. I’ll take back the one comment about him being crap for half a season if it makes you feel better; I guess he was probably crap for around a third. Nominated for POTM for Feb, Mar, April and May (which we had like 2 games in). Crap for December and January, that’s about a third.
And like you said, he missed the first half. I moreso meant of the games he played, the first h̶a̶l̶f̶ third of this batch he was crap. “IMO”.
As I said, form is TEMPORARY. I didn’t say it wasn’t because he was coming back from injury. But there was a legitimate discussion to be had over dropping Kilkenny for him, given how poorly Lewis was playing. It could well have just been because he was coming back from injury, but that doesn’t change the fact that he was poor.
Lewis is a deep-lying centre mid, who last season played mostly in the quarterback and a No8 type role, roles that necessitate excellent passing, ball carrying, and defensive contributions. His game’s not really about assists or goals. We can look at his stats to see how he got on, when compared to our other more defensive players:
Interceptions: Joint 4th overall, 1st amongst midfielders. So pretty great.
Tackles: Joint 4th overall again, 2nd behind Kilkenny and level with Billing. Decent.
Dribbles: Joint 7th overall, 5th behind Kilkenny, Christie, Pearson (hilariously) and Billing. Pretty poor for a player of his particular talents if we’re being honest.
Total Passes: 11th overall, 3rd behind Kilkenny and Lerma. Solid enough.
Key Passes: Joint 7th overall again, 6th behind Marcondes, Christie, Cantwell, Billing, and Lerma. Again, quite poor really overall.
Passing Accuracy: 2nd overall and amongst midfielders, behind Kilkenny. Good.
Dispossessed: 5th overall, 3rd amongst midfielders behind Billing and Christie, who play much further up the pitch generally. Not great but not awful either.
Overall: According to Whoscored, Cook was our 13th highest performing player overall in an average aggregation of “measurable stats”. Amongst midfielders, he was our 4th best performing player. **
**you can sneer at using Whoscored metrics if you want to, but for a base-level insight into these things it does it’s job well IMHO.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you that Cook was mediocre, because he wasn’t. I watched him play live and for that last month or two he really was special. But exactly as I expected, his average score for the season is pretty middling, because his first half of the season wasn’t very good and his second half was excellent.
It’s also interesting that he was outperformed across many statistics by players who played nearly twice the amount of games as him. Usually, the smaller the amount you draw an average from, the higher or lower it goes. Again, this was because it was a season of two halves.
Also, I was surprised to see just how many stats Kilkenny was better in; yet he ended up with a lower score. Interesting quirk not sure how that happens but heyho.
It was probably partly because of injury, but my original point was more in response to MB saying that it was funny that people thought he was crap for most of the season. Not MOST of it but…we thought that, because he was. The eye test applies to negativity as well as positivity; Cook dithered on the ball, was dispossessed often, didn’t control games, didn’t help stabilise the defence, and didn’t contribute to attacks. And the stats back it up. No moreso was this evident in the Boreham Wood game, where he was fucking diabolical.
And then he did all these things and he was the absolute TITS and it was a joy to watch
. None of this is meant as a dig, genuinely, I just think you say a lot about Cook without backing it up with anything, so I thought it would be interesting to actually have a look at the stats. And I love Cook and think he’s great; when he’s playing at his best in this league he’ll probably be off to a top half club.
blandford_cherry
UTC Legend
And I wonder if he would have had he not have been out for the first 2/3 months of the season last year.
Always surprised he is overlooked when Kelly is injured
Druss_the_Legend
UTC Legend
It’s fun to have a favourite player, but if you don’t think he was poor in the first half of HIS season, then I don’t know what to tell you lol. I’ll take back the one comment about him being crap for half a season if it makes you feel better; I guess he was probably crap for around a third. Nominated for POTM for Feb, Mar, April and May (which we had like 2 games in). Crap for December and January, that’s about a third.
And like you said, he missed the first half. I moreso meant of the games he played, the first h̶a̶l̶f̶ third of this batch he was crap. “IMO”.
As I said, form is TEMPORARY. I didn’t say it wasn’t because he was coming back from injury. But there was a legitimate discussion to be had over dropping Kilkenny for him, given how poorly Lewis was playing. It could well have just been because he was coming back from injury, but that doesn’t change the fact that he was poor.
Lewis is a deep-lying centre mid, who last season played mostly in the quarterback and a No8 type role, roles that necessitate excellent passing, ball carrying, and defensive contributions. His game’s not really about assists or goals. We can look at his stats to see how he got on, when compared to our other more defensive players:
Interceptions: Joint 4th overall, 1st amongst midfielders. So pretty great.
Tackles: Joint 4th overall again, 2nd behind Kilkenny and level with Billing. Decent.
Dribbles: Joint 7th overall, 5th behind Kilkenny, Christie, Pearson (hilariously) and Billing. Pretty poor for a player of his particular talents if we’re being honest.
Total Passes: 11th overall, 3rd behind Kilkenny and Lerma. Solid enough.
Key Passes: Joint 7th overall again, 6th behind Marcondes, Christie, Cantwell, Billing, and Lerma. Again, quite poor really overall.
Passing Accuracy: 2nd overall and amongst midfielders, behind Kilkenny. Good.
Dispossessed: 5th overall, 3rd amongst midfielders behind Billing and Christie, who play much further up the pitch generally. Not great but not awful either.
Overall: According to Whoscored, Cook was our 13th highest performing player overall in an average aggregation of “measurable stats”. Amongst midfielders, he was our 4th best performing player. **
**you can sneer at using Whoscored metrics if you want to, but for a base-level insight into these things it does it’s job well IMHO.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you that Cook was mediocre, because he wasn’t. I watched him play live and for that last month or two he really was special. But exactly as I expected, his average score for the season is pretty middling, because his first half of the season wasn’t very good and his second half was excellent.
It’s also interesting that he was outperformed across many statistics by players who played nearly twice the amount of games as him. Usually, the smaller the amount you draw an average from, the higher or lower it goes. Again, this was because it was a season of two halves.
Also, I was surprised to see just how many stats Kilkenny was better in; yet he ended up with a lower score. Interesting quirk not sure how that happens but heyho.
It was probably partly because of injury, but my original point was more in response to MB saying that it was funny that people thought he was crap for most of the season. Not MOST of it but…we thought that, because he was. The eye test applies to negativity as well as positivity; Cook dithered on the ball, was dispossessed often, didn’t control games, didn’t help stabilise the defence, and didn’t contribute to attacks. And the stats back it up. No moreso was this evident in the Boreham Wood game, where he was fucking diabolical.
And then he did all these things and he was the absolute TITS and it was a joy to watch
I dont back it up with whoscored or bdsm or whatever the stats are called. I back it up by watching him and giving my opnion. I did it with Ibe while 99% of people on here were telling me I was wrong and whodidntscore was stating he could actually give a toss and that his one nutmeg in the 10 mins against Brighton meant hes the next messiah. Simply watch the game and see the difference a fully fit Lewis Cook makes to the team. He could have won MoM almost every match from end of January onwards. I really dont care for the stats.
I was simply responding to what you have now admitted was a false representation of his great season in the previous post.
KingKieffer
Star Player
Cook was dreadful when deployed as an advanced midfielder, not his fault as it’s just not his game. He had no idea what to do with himself in that position. The moment he got a run of games in his actual position as a deep lying playmaker he was arguably our best player.
