I agree. A “cop out†is avoiding or failing to do something you SHOULD do.
There’s no way anyone SHOULD have kept this ramshackle squad in the EPL. It was holed below the waterline before it even set sail.
The facts are - the players are not good enough. Nowhere near good enough.
The evidence is there, plain as day, with well over a year of results and performances under two different coaches in two different divisions. What more exactly do we need to see to prove it?
We can spend hours talking about tactics, selections and the rest - but no amount of re-steering this ship would ever have stopped it from sinking.
Not. Good. Enough.
Nobody has said he *should* have kept us up - just that was what he was hired to do and he's failed. When Sam took the job at no point did he said there was no chance of keeping us in the Prem, it was all about how we had a good quality in the squad to give us a chance. All this "nobody would have kept us up" is just revisionsim - when he took the job the aim was very clearly to keep us up. If he thought 1.24 points per game was impossible with this squad then maybe he should have given the job to somebody who thought it was possible. So either he thought we could do it, and he's failed, or he knew we couldn't and took the job anyway because he wanted to get paid.
Anyway, it's not so much the results, it's the performances and the mindset. It's setting out to get draws against relegation rivals, it's sitting on the edge of your own 18 yard box for most of the match, it's averaging around 30% possession game after game, it's conceding 3+ goals in several games running, it's picking Kanu, it's getting a poor defence to spend 70% of the game defending, it's moaning about the fixture list but not using all your subs, it's watching your goal difference get hammered, it's refusing to play Diangana, it's having a must win game against your rivals and starting with 5 defenders on the pitch and dropping the player who was the catalyst for the few good results.
These aren't unlucky things, or factors of a poor squad, it's the mindset of a manager who still thinks you can defend the edge of your box for 80 mins and nick a goal. A few good results and performances and suddenly it's like the rest of his tenure didn't happen. Let's face it, he was forced into the change against Chelsea and we lucked out, we followed that up against Southampton, and then he's very quickly reverted back to "must. defend. goal." even in games where we HAVE to win.
In a must win match, against our local rivals, he starts with 5 defenders on the pitch, and 3 midfielders who are all known to be better defensively. The only attacking intent on the pitch was Pierera and Diagne. In a must win match. I genuinely wouldn't have criticised him if he'd have gone for it and we lost - because we have to go for it. Likewise I didn't blame him for the team he picked against Leicester.