Definitely isn't coming. Bruce hates defenders who can pass. Is he any good at shouting and doing fistpumps?
And yet the players seem to love him. ASM credited him massively with his settling in and performances for instance. He got loads out of him and Almiron which played a big part in keeping us up, with subtle little tactical changes getting the best from them. Truly though if we want to progress, we need to move into 2020 and get a more progressive manager. We've had 12 years of archaic managers under Ashley. Most of them playing defensive counter attack boring us. We need to move on from managers who were well known in the 90's/ early 2000's. Football moves on and the likes of Bruce and Rafa are old hat. There are plenty of young coaches but Ashley will see it as a risk. He can just sit on the likes of Bruce or Rafa just doing enough.
I can only go off what information is available. The players speak really well of him. I haven't seen anything negative. There doesn't seem to be an undercurrent of unhappiness with players out of the team etc. I think fans mix up their feelings on managers at times, and try to impose that on players. It becomes very clear when players are against the manager, the press soon get wind these days. All we can say for certain is the players aren't seeing Bruce that way because there hasn't been any rumblings.
I judge a manager each season in isolation. I don't really buy into the whole "this season is the true test". bollocks for me. He did well last season and deserves full credit. If he has a bad one this season he'll deserve full criticism.. No excuses either way. Unless they are there for 5 years plus which you could argue is the time to judge them less harshly on individual seasons. But so many managers stay for 2 seasons now or less, building towards a plan is no existent. So you might as well judge them the same way. Bruce had a good season last season. Slate is clean again so we will see how he goes. If I had to predict, I think he'll end up in that 12-16 band in terms of placing. That's largely what we are. A very good season could see 9-11th but a bad one could see a relegation battle. Same old really.
Well then you're very short sighted What a manager inherits comes into my judgement... Funny that managers want and get instant credit if things go well at first, but if it goes badly they say they need time,so whuch is it? I say it's the time
Again that's your opinion. I judge managers objectively and I'm not interested in reputations etc. Obviously there has to be an element if a manager stays that you judge his work, his project. Certainly you can judge what a manager inherits. But then our fans only want to do that subjectively to suit an axe they have to grind. The current manager is a superb example of this, and shows why fans look at things very basically, when they tend to be much more complicated. Our fans are very quick to say Bruce's work this season is down to Rafa, how the defenders and defensive set up he inherited was the reason. Yet they choose to ignore that following Benitez is incredibly difficult because he has a very unique style. He signs some obscure players who perform to a superb level in his unique style, but are ill suited to any other. They ignore the deficiencies he left Bruce with as a result of his style. We had a squad that could play one way and one way only. Bruce has inherited his own type of player or style, so his ability to adapt some of Rafa's and meld it with his own requirements should be commended. So there are a lot of factors to consider. I've named one negative quite easily, but there are countless. Just as there are countless upsides. Then consider that what you inherit is only one small part of the overall judgement. And all said and done, once the dust settles, it truly is down to the man in charge. Any credit for any particular season should lie with those whose head is on the line. Managers certainly need time but there is little point in talking about a commodity which has gone out the game. Bruce doesn't seem to crave credit to be fare to him. He just seems to get his head and do the best he can. Last season that was good enough. This year? Who knows. There is enough in the squad to stay up so he can't have any excuses. Same as last year.
