Simon Cox...What is he?

[blues exile]

The short answer is he is overrated and over the hill. Won us a point last season v Pompey. The last points before that was Gillingham away over a year ago. That's along time and 5 mangers ago and now we rarely see a shot on target or any of those sharp turns and a disguised passes for assists etc.

I was in the ground earlier, so had the chance to watch the warm up. As TSNB says Cox looked slimmer in his pink drill top, which made me think that's a good sign as even Mr Disruptive has bought into the new regime....How wrong I was.

Andrew Cole was doing a shooting drill in front of the east with full size goals. About 8 Players lined up and each would roll a ball into Cole, he would lay off a pass for a shot from 18/20 yds. Players were clearly under instruction to sweep it on the floor. They went through both feet, then Cole bounced a few to give a deliberate bobble but players still hat to keep it along the grass......As it turned out, just what Oxford did to score for their 4 goals.

When it came to Cox, on the first one he tried to hit it with the outside of his boot for a top corner finish.....It went 3 feet over the bar. On his second one he hit it about 5 or 6 feet in the air , which went in as Bish couldn't be bother to dive as the drill was also for him to save down low.

Then Cox nonchalantly strolls off to chat to someone and leaves the rest to do work on the left foot or the bouncing ball drill. Maybe Cox doesn't rate Andrew Cole as a coach, maybe he thinks he doesn't need to practice.

What makes it worse was when a chance came his way in the first half, right hand side of the box.....He could have hit it low first time for the far corner but he had two extra touches and the defender just blocked him.

I'm sure many of you work and mange in some sort of team job......What would you do with attitude like that?......We all know how destructive that can be. For our team, it says. If we won't even buy into the warm up drill, then how we going to buy into team tactics. Pass all the way back from your own KO and f*** about until your 1-0 down. To blind hoofing and no football in your own half......I doubt Simon is on board

OK Mr Cox you din't like Bond but we ended up with him because you didn't like CP.....PB had to put you in the stand because you take your spats out onto the pitch.
Is it now Sol you don't like or just the fact you don't want to be here?

The one game with Duncan in charge you made a point of not saying a word to Acquah. A fellow forward and making his debut, with defenders shirt pulling etc.

No one will buy you in January but one solution could be swap with Theo. After all he cant be here whilst you are and you don't want to be here....Problem solved.

Obviously I don't have your inside knowledge but what you write rings true with my impressions from a distance. To me, he gives the impression of a big time Charlie (not remotely justified given his mediocre record in higher leagues and some internationals for Ireland way back) who is doing a club like Southend a favour by gracing us with his presence. If his constant mouthing at officials on the pitch and negative body language is matched by a similarly disruptive manner off it, you don't have to look very far to put your finger on one of the main reasons for the club's current malaise. I could be entirely wrong of course and no doubt many will leap to his defence, but Brown, Bond, Waddock and now Campbell all seem to have suffered in one way or another from dressing room discord.

 

[AndyT]

We play too deep to bring Cox into the game.

He is and has always been better playing closer to fellow strikers and attacking midfielders. Linking one-twos around the penalty box.

Completely wasted until we revert to 4-4-2 and play on the front foot.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

I've always been one of Coxy's biggest supporters, but I think the lack of a pre season this year has basically finished him off. He looks a pale shadow of his former self and has lost another yard of pace. I'd suggest persisting with Hopper and Goodship for the time being and trying to get them to form a partnership.

It actually came to mind on Saturday that we've essentially lost two of our most important players. With Demetriou's knees giving up and Cox's body giving up, they may as well have left us in the summer, so that's a huge blow just to add to all of our other problems.

I'd suggest he looked like this first couple of months of last season as well and turned it around.

How much of that was down to us changing how we play after Hopper's injury is an interesting question. Prior to Hopper's injury, the way the team was played was focused around Hopper - him holding it up and then putting crosses in for him. That injury meant we had to adapt how we played.

We play too deep to bring Cox into the game.

He is and has always been better playing closer to fellow strikers and attacking midfielders. Linking one-twos around the penalty box.

Completely wasted until we revert to 4-4-2 and play on the front foot.

Has he?

Of his 17 goals he scored last season just 4 were with Hopper in the side and 2 were with Humphrys playing.

To put that into context he scored three in an hour playing up front alone against Pompey!

And the player he might have scored most whilst playing "alongside" might even be Theo and I don't think they had a great relationship nor understanding.

 

[onceknownasrab]

If Cox were able to concentrate on his own role, and not cover every position on the pitch, I think he would still get goals/assists. He works hard but is so often nowhere near where he needs to be. Maybe he isn't following instructions and maybe he is desperately trying to pick up the slack from others.

I know nothing of his off field antics or his suggested poor attitude. If true then there needs to be a decision made. Do we work out why he is unhappy, maybe justified, or do we just bin him? If he can't respond, to the arm around the shoulder, then take him to London Stobartsville and have him dropped from an airplane, minus parachute, over Roots Hall. At least he will do the pitch some good.

Personally, I think he still has a major role to play and the option of working out why he is allegedly unhappy, should be the preferred one.

 

[wildheart]

The short answer is he is overrated and over the hill. Won us a point last season v Pompey. The last points before that was Gillingham away over a year ago. That's along time and 5 mangers ago and now we rarely see a shot on target or any of those sharp turns and a disguised passes for assists etc.

I was in the ground earlier, so had the chance to watch the warm up. As TSNB says Cox looked slimmer in his pink drill top, which made me think that's a good sign as even Mr Disruptive has bought into the new regime....How wrong I was.

Andrew Cole was doing a shooting drill in front of the east with full size goals. About 8 Players lined up and each would roll a ball into Cole, he would lay off a pass for a shot from 18/20 yds. Players were clearly under instruction to sweep it on the floor. They went through both feet, then Cole bounced a few to give a deliberate bobble but players still hat to keep it along the grass......As it turned out, just what Oxford did to score for their 4 goals.

When it came to Cox, on the first one he tried to hit it with the outside of his boot for a top corner finish.....It went 3 feet over the bar. On his second one he hit it about 5 or 6 feet in the air , which went in as Bish couldn't be bother to dive as the drill was also for him to save down low.

Then Cox nonchalantly strolls off to chat to someone and leaves the rest to do work on the left foot or the bouncing ball drill. Maybe Cox doesn't rate Andrew Cole as a coach, maybe he thinks he doesn't need to practice.

What makes it worse was when a chance came his way in the first half, right hand side of the box.....He could have hit it low first time for the far corner but he had two extra touches and the defender just blocked him.

I'm sure many of you work and mange in some sort of team job......What would you do with attitude like that?......We all know how destructive that can be. For our team, it says. If we won't even buy into the warm up drill, then how we going to buy into team tactics. Pass all the way back from your own KO and f*** about until your 1-0 down. To blind hoofing and no football in your own half......I doubt Simon is on board

OK Mr Cox you din't like Bond but we ended up with him because you didn't like CP.....PB had to put you in the stand because you take your spats out onto the pitch.
Is it now Sol you don't like or just the fact you don't want to be here?

The one game with Duncan in charge you made a point of not saying a word to Acquah. A fellow forward and making his debut, with defenders shirt pulling etc.

No one will buy you in January but one solution could be swap with Theo. After all he cant be here whilst you are and you don't want to be here....Problem solved.

I watched that warm up as well. Though I did see some very good shooting from others not by Cox unfortunately. Funny how you can tell so much from the warm ups. I was surprised that Sol was not out there too? Paul Brush was a hard task master in the past, they used to take Fred aside to get him firing on his own sometimes. Cox will be gone come January I'm sure, we need to start building the future now!

 

[jaffa1]

He went on a coaching course in Scotland in the summer, on astro turf, pulled a calf muscle (IIRC?) and therefore missed pre-season. Crucial at his age.

 

[rigsby]

He went on a coaching course in Scotland in the summer, on astro turf, pulled a calf muscle (IIRC?) and therefore missed pre-season. Crucial at his age.

Another version was he did it in Dubai doing a pre, pre season

 

[SheldonW65]

The short answer is he is overrated and over the hill. Won us a point last season v Pompey. The last points before that was Gillingham away over a year ago. That's along time and 5 mangers ago and now we rarely see a shot on target or any of those sharp turns and a disguised passes for assists etc.

I was in the ground earlier, so had the chance to watch the warm up. As TSNB says Cox looked slimmer in his pink drill top, which made me think that's a good sign as even Mr Disruptive has bought into the new regime....How wrong I was.

Andrew Cole was doing a shooting drill in front of the east with full size goals. About 8 Players lined up and each would roll a ball into Cole, he would lay off a pass for a shot from 18/20 yds. Players were clearly under instruction to sweep it on the floor. They went through both feet, then Cole bounced a few to give a deliberate bobble but players still hat to keep it along the grass......As it turned out, just what Oxford did to score for their 4 goals.

When it came to Cox, on the first one he tried to hit it with the outside of his boot for a top corner finish.....It went 3 feet over the bar. On his second one he hit it about 5 or 6 feet in the air , which went in as Bish couldn't be bother to dive as the drill was also for him to save down low.

Then Cox nonchalantly strolls off to chat to someone and leaves the rest to do work on the left foot or the bouncing ball drill. Maybe Cox doesn't rate Andrew Cole as a coach, maybe he thinks he doesn't need to practice.

What makes it worse was when a chance came his way in the first half, right hand side of the box.....He could have hit it low first time for the far corner but he had two extra touches and the defender just blocked him.

I'm sure many of you work and mange in some sort of team job......What would you do with attitude like that?......We all know how destructive that can be. For our team, it says. If we won't even buy into the warm up drill, then how we going to buy into team tactics. Pass all the way back from your own KO and f*** about until your 1-0 down. To blind hoofing and no football in your own half......I doubt Simon is on board

OK Mr Cox you din't like Bond but we ended up with him because you didn't like CP.....PB had to put you in the stand because you take your spats out onto the pitch.
Is it now Sol you don't like or just the fact you don't want to be here?

The one game with Duncan in charge you made a point of not saying a word to Acquah. A fellow forward and making his debut, with defenders shirt pulling etc.

No one will buy you in January but one solution could be swap with Theo. After all he cant be here whilst you are and you don't want to be here....Problem solved.

Interesting but I always feel like I want to scream FFS spit it out man when I read your innuendo laden posts LOL

 

[AndyT]

Has he?

Of his 17 goals he scored last season just 4 were with Hopper in the side and 2 were with Humphrys playing.

To put that into context he scored three in an hour playing up front alone against Pompey!

And the player he might have scored most whilst playing "alongside" might even be Theo and I don't think they had a great relationship nor understanding.

Ah, top work YB.

If you don't mind breaking down the other 11 goals for me, that would be splendid. If you can include if they were inside or outside the box, penalties and the like and maybe even the state of the match at the time the goal was scored, that would be handy?

Additionally, can you provide the details of assists as well?

Thanks a bunch. I'll pop back later, as I've work to do on another thread.

 

[Kris]

The short answer is he is overrated and over the hill. Won us a point last season v Pompey. The last points before that was Gillingham away over a year ago. That's along time and 5 mangers ago and now we rarely see a shot on target or any of those sharp turns and a disguised passes for assists etc.

I was in the ground earlier, so had the chance to watch the warm up. As TSNB says Cox looked slimmer in his pink drill top, which made me think that's a good sign as even Mr Disruptive has bought into the new regime....How wrong I was.

Andrew Cole was doing a shooting drill in front of the east with full size goals. About 8 Players lined up and each would roll a ball into Cole, he would lay off a pass for a shot from 18/20 yds. Players were clearly under instruction to sweep it on the floor. They went through both feet, then Cole bounced a few to give a deliberate bobble but players still hat to keep it along the grass......As it turned out, just what Oxford did to score for their 4 goals.

When it came to Cox, on the first one he tried to hit it with the outside of his boot for a top corner finish.....It went 3 feet over the bar. On his second one he hit it about 5 or 6 feet in the air , which went in as Bish couldn't be bother to dive as the drill was also for him to save down low.

Then Cox nonchalantly strolls off to chat to someone and leaves the rest to do work on the left foot or the bouncing ball drill. Maybe Cox doesn't rate Andrew Cole as a coach, maybe he thinks he doesn't need to practice.

What makes it worse was when a chance came his way in the first half, right hand side of the box.....He could have hit it low first time for the far corner but he had two extra touches and the defender just blocked him.

I'm sure many of you work and mange in some sort of team job......What would you do with attitude like that?......We all know how destructive that can be. For our team, it says. If we won't even buy into the warm up drill, then how we going to buy into team tactics. Pass all the way back from your own KO and f*** about until your 1-0 down. To blind hoofing and no football in your own half......I doubt Simon is on board

OK Mr Cox you din't like Bond but we ended up with him because you didn't like CP.....PB had to put you in the stand because you take your spats out onto the pitch.
Is it now Sol you don't like or just the fact you don't want to be here?

The one game with Duncan in charge you made a point of not saying a word to Acquah. A fellow forward and making his debut, with defenders shirt pulling etc.

No one will buy you in January but one solution could be swap with Theo. After all he cant be here whilst you are and you don't want to be here....Problem solved.

Er, did we not survive relegation on goal difference last season? Quite an important point then?

In a team bereft of quality - which ironically is moaned about constantly (with good reason to be fair) - Cox remains our best player and the large majority of our positive play on Saturday (not that there was much) came through him. How and why he's being singled out I've no idea.

For what it's worth I don't think he should be a guaranteed starter - I'd be interested to see whether Hutch could be an option for the number 10 role as an alternative, for example - but to dismiss/get rid of a player of his quality who has worked his socks off for the team this season, and his overall contribution to the team over the past few seasons is harsh, ludicrous and frankly disrespectful.

Regarding all his moaning on the pitch, it might be irritating to some - and I played alongside someone similar at school, who was way above anyone else and was on the fringe of Leicester City's first team before being crippled by injury - I'd rather that than him bouncing around and high-fiving his teammates or the opposition. Moaning is proof that he cares. The legendary Barry Corr was the same in fact.

Theo as a replacement? Come on mate, you're better than that.

 

[rigsby]

Interesting but I always feel like I want to scream FFS spit it out man when I read your innuendo laden posts LOL

I think my opinion is quite clear on SC. As others have said its not the (diminishing) ability....Its the superiority complex and 'tude that is doing the damage.

 

[SheldonW65]

I think my opinion is quite clear on SC. As others have said its not the (diminishing) ability....Its the superiority complex and 'tude that is doing the damage.

Yeah I get that but what exactly was the bust up with Theo about ?

 

[Ricky Otto]

Yeah I get that but what exactly was the bust up with Theo about ?

Has Rigsby had a bust up with Theo? Bet it was about politics

 

[rigsby]

Yeah I get that but what exactly was the bust up with Theo about ?

Who knows....Maybe its because we win more points with Theo on the pitch than with Cox.

It doesn't matter how it started, Cox took it onto the pitch and wouldn't pass to Theo. When we played Blackpool first game Theo was by now not passing to Cox.

Cox never got with Ranger...Never says a word Acquah or to Humphrys. Not in his first game back in the mask v Wycombe last year. Not when Hump got deliberately elbowed v Blackpool....Funny how Cox never said a word to the ref when that happened. We had no one going for the ball up top for 20 minutes after that.

Still at least he seems to like Hopper. Which means he will get chances other forwards never do when Cox is in the team.

 

[SheldonW65]

Who knows....Maybe its because we win more points with Theo on the pitch than with Cox.

It doesn't matter how it started, Cox took it onto the pitch and wouldn't pass to Theo. When we played Blackpool first game Theo was by now not passing to Cox.

Cox never got with Ranger...Never says a word Acquah or to Humphrys. Not in his first game back in the mask v Wycombe last year. Not when Hump got deliberately elbowed v Blackpool....Funny how Cox never said a word to the ref when that happened. We had no one going for the ball up top for 20 minutes after that.

Still at least he seems to like Hopper. Which means he will get chances other forwards never do when Cox is in the team.

I certainly noticed it at Wycombe and it might explain Humphrys reaction when he scored, it was like a huge **** you I thought to Bond but maybe it went deeper.

 

[norman the baker]

I certainly noticed it at Wycombe and it might explain Humphrys reaction when he scored, it was like a huge **** you I thought to Bond but maybe it went deeper.

I certainly noticed it at Wycombe and it might explain Humphrys reaction when he scored, it was like a huge **** you I thought to Bond but maybe it went deeper.[/QUO

 

[Sandbach Shrimper]

He also headed straight down the tunnel at the final whistle. His goals kept us up last season but he's not the same player. Another one who just seems to have given up.

 

[Mad Cyril]

I can't understand why our players wouldn't try.

With the exception of maybe Cox none are going to be set for life and surely have the ambition to play at a higher level.

 

[GNH]

I can't understand why our players wouldn't try.

With the exception of maybe Cox none are going to be set for life and surely have the ambition to play at a higher level.

This must happen in most work places, if you feel like you are in a terrible place with people you don't get on with would you be pulling up trees every week while you're there?

Probably not

 

[Mad Cyril]

This must happen in most work places, if you feel like you are in a terrible place with people you don't get on with would you be pulling up trees every week while you're there?

Probably not

If I wanted another job then yes.