Bruce

[Slim999]

Now I feel I understand better why SB has never managed at the sharp end.

Miggy was razor sharp when he first arrived with a blizzard of assists. But no goals....

Then the no goals criticism started to tell and his form dipped.

Then the goals came- Goals and assists. Back to his best - and in my view our best player on a week to week basis.

So new season starts - and SB leaves him out vs hammers ( "because we needed more physicality ")

Then he leaves him out home to Brighton (??)

I don't understand how somebody with a supposed knowledge of football could make that decision..

Very strange

[Colly]

Miggy was wonderfully hardworking when he arrived but razor sharp feels a massive stretch. Good player but still needs to up the productivity and while he nabbed a couple post lockdown he certainly isn't undroppable. The tactics worked against West Ham and clearly didn't against Brighton, but I really don't think leaving out Almiron was the biggest issue.

[bodacious benny]

Yeah, no way was he razor sharp when he arrived.

Always works hard, can't fault him at all for that. End product still needs work, but talent is there.

As for Bruce, this will without doubt be his last PL job. Unless whenever he's no longer our manager that he gets a Championship job and gets them promoted. But the PL has moved away from giving the old school manages such as Bruce, Hughes, Pardew, Pulis etc. managerial jobs as football has changed and they're a product of the past.

I do think Bruce did very well last season under very difficult circumstances (following Rafa, fans underwhelmed and angry) and to keep us up by 10 points far exceeded what I expected of him. But he's never going to do anything innovative or really help develop players. He'll have one or two variations on how to set the team up and tactics, but it's never really going to stray from that. Too many teams with better coaches can figure it out and play against us with ease, as Brighton did last week. They said on Sunday that Brighton tracked Potter for 5 years before appointing him, our leadership doesn't even think 5 minutes ahead. Look at how Brighton have developed their training ground etc. too to think about the future. We're miles off that infrastructure.

I think we'll stay up this season but it won't be pretty. We'll get the odd good win but other wins will be grinding out 1-0s (as we did a lot with Rafa) and lots of draws, and lots of thumpings too.

[krully]

He's clueless and inept, following a few sticky notes Rafa left behind

[biggeordiedave]

Miggy was razor sharp when he first arrived with a blizzard of assists. But no goals....

No assists either. I might be wrong, but his first assist in the league was in the 2-2 against City.

Edit: I'm not wrong.

[bodacious benny]

So the blizzard was less blizzard, more storm in a tea cup

[ALF]

Miggy is too good for most of the players around him at the moment. You see when he's come on in each of the games that he goes looking for the ball, picks up some really good pockets of space between the lines and when he gets the ball everyone is just static and looking at him.

[Cal]

I thought Bruce was just trying a bit of rotation - two mostly different 11s while we have two games a week. The cup team is a bit weaker, but still (hopefully...) has enough quality players to cause damage, as Almíron did.

[Don Sholeone]

Lets be real we are playing games every 3 days near enough, if Bruce wasn't rotating the team he would be getting slaughtered. Yes he has his faults but it just feels like a damned if he does, damned if he doesn't situation.

[bodacious benny]

I’m lost, who says we shouldn’t be rotating for cup games?

[Sanchino]

Yeah, no way was he razor sharp when he arrived.

Always works hard, can't fault him at all for that. End product still needs work, but talent is there.

As for Bruce, this will without doubt be his last PL job. Unless whenever he's no longer our manager that he gets a Championship job and gets them promoted. But the PL has moved away from giving the old school manages such as Bruce, Hughes, Pardew, Pulis etc. managerial jobs as football has changed and they're a product of the past.

I do think Bruce did very well last season under very difficult circumstances (following Rafa, fans underwhelmed and angry) and to keep us up by 10 points far exceeded what I expected of him. But he's never going to do anything innovative or really help develop players. He'll have one or two variations on how to set the team up and tactics, but it's never really going to stray from that. Too many teams with better coaches can figure it out and play against us with ease, as Brighton did last week. They said on Sunday that Brighton tracked Potter for 5 years before appointing him, our leadership doesn't even think 5 minutes ahead. Look at how Brighton have developed their training ground etc. too to think about the future. We're miles off that infrastructure.

I think we'll stay up this season but it won't be pretty. We'll get the odd good win but other wins will be grinding out 1-0s (as we did a lot with Rafa) and lots of draws, and lots of thumpings too.

Sums up my feelings perfectly.

Next manager has to be someone new, fresh, innovative, good at developing the youth, not scared to try different tactics/formations, expansive / attractive style of football, attacking, good man management, continental and relatively experienced but doesn't have to be. Would anyone take Eddie Howe? I mean Pochetineo would be perfect for us but he definitely isn't coming anytime soon.. imagine him working under Ashley

[biggeordiedave]

So the blizzard was less blizzard, more storm in a tea cup

Light drizzle. I think he only actually has 4 assists for us in total which is quite s*** for a player in his position . Thankfully he adds a lot to the team going forward.

[biggeordiedave]

Almiron has just got an assist

[Colly]

So the blizzard was less blizzard, more storm in a tea cup

Light drizzle. I think he only actually has 4 assists for us in total which is quite s*** for a player in his position . Thankfully he adds a lot to the team going forward.

And backwards.

[beatski]

Light drizzle. I think he only actually has 4 assists for us in total which is quite s*** for a player in his position . Thankfully he adds a lot to the team going forward.

And backwards.

The club was already great at going backwards without him tbf.