I don't think it's helping that Cole is now nearly always brought back to help defend corners and free kicks. He used to stand in the centre circle keeping 2 of their defenders away. Presumably it's to beef up our dodgy defence, but it's not helping as we can't break - if we get possession, we nearly always just hoof it up to no-one and it comes straight back to us.
We desperately need at least one new tall/strong defender in January to strengthen our back line and let Cole get back to worrying the opposition defence in the middle.