This is so wrong you could be Steve Bruce; the strikers were not the problem, Steve Bruce was the problem. His mass substitutions were simply ****ing stupid and Phelan should have told him so. He totally destroyed whatever shape the team had, he made it a training ground melee and threw away any team discipline or strategy. There was no need to make those substitutions, other than to try and correct his equally ****ing stupid team selection. Luck played a big part as we hit woodwork, etc., which. on another day could have seen us win 2 or 3-1; but **** luck, don't rely on luck, rely on shape and players doing the jobs that suit their skills. This was a cluster-**** of management and I am really angry about it; we should have used width and passing to draw them out and let N'Doye and Jelly work them centrally - a bit of space would have made their goal all the more vulnerable. N'Doye out wide is a breath-taking mistake and worthy of a resignation. I hope we got the D for that bloody banner!!
We had championship grafters on, when we need premier league quality. We grafted but didn't have the guile. It's wasn't a lack of caring. Lots of people are mixing the two up.
Agree again it really is baffling what he sees at times. Your head just goes in your hands with disbelief He really doesn't have a plan B
In relation to this. The 3-5-2 makes the strikers absolutely vital. It worked with Jelavic and Long. We were good with them two up front. Take one of them out and we're ****e. You need two proper centre forwards and a bit of pace. I know people take the piss out of him but if we'd signed Vardy instead of Hernandez we'd be miles better off now. His directness causes problems. What was said about the players and by whom? Did Bruce say they'd actually all refused or did he prevent it? I don't disagree, but the strikers have been a huge problem all season.
Only because we haven't had them through injury, but when we have (albeit Jelly not 100%) Bruce doesn't know how to play them. It's not the players, it's the manager; the players were good enough to win that the manager panicked and lost his bottle - any knowledgeable owner would get shot asap.
Again I agree with most of that, but the fact we rely on Jelavic so much is the problem. If we had other capable strikers to fall back on we'd be fine. I said in the Autumn that we'd be really ****ed if Jelavic got injured.
N'Doye is capable. Hernandez looks like he could be capable if we played a way that suited him and got the ball behind the defence or cut back from the byline. Even Aluko would be more capable of he wasn't stuck at the half way line with his back to goal scrapping over catapults. Jelavic can work within Bruce's dire system, to a lesser extent so can N'Doye, as did long. What bruce tries to do is the equivalent of taking a Ferrari Enzo on a rally course.
Aluko could be useful on the wing, but the striker experiment has been persisted with far too much. N'Doye is indeed capable but it's too little, too late. Hernandez is just ****. He'll never make it in England. He'll go back abroad and score a few goals, wear hair extensions and consider himself a success. Good luck to him, but he cost us £11m. Eleven. It's an unbelievably poor signing. We should have started the season with four strikers. Sagbo doesn't count since Bruce obviously doesn't want him here, so we started the season with two, and one was a massive gamble which backfired spectacularly.
I don't think Hernandez is ****, and I think he could have a career in England. He has looked **** though by and large. He's not a hussle and tussle player but Bruce seems to think he'll play like Jelavic. We saw against Everton just how good he can be when you get the ball to him properly, but his service 99% of the time has been a bouncing bomb and his support, well, there hasn't been any. If Bruce stays we should get rid but a more savvy manager, and by that I mean anyone who's ever managed a professional game, might be able to utilise him in a more effective way and he just might live up to his price tag. Look at it this way, if Messi was up front in our 5-3-2, he would probably have been about as effective as Hernandez over the course of the season.
After that there should be some strong words being had, with a few punches thrown. Maybe Quinn sticking the nut of hudd. Hope there's been no **** apologies on Twitter.
I didn't think we'd win today and we didn't, so no shock there then. The manner of the defeat stings, because from second 1 we didn't look bothered at all. But this is what happened last season, we got to March and went into free fall. This year round we don't have an FA Cup final to blame it on and we've been found out, big time. 3-5-2 is a **** formation, even if we do manage to scrape a few wins here and there, it's not the most difficult formation to work out and most PL managers know exactly how to stop it. With Bournemouth, Watford and AN Other coming up, we wouldn't have gone down next season (although on today's showing I'm not so sure) and then would've been set up for a pay day the season after. If we go down, we need to bounce back straight away (no ****) and it'll mean some investment. We need to poach the best players from that league to get us back to the top division again. I think we're capable of keeping most of the squad, provided we change the tactics we use. We'll never be shot of Alex Bruce now, either. Cocks.
Hatty, you need to see a shrink! Hernandez isn't a "Strikers @rsehole" and the only career he will be successful at in England will be as a substitute Tea Lady. To say that if we had had Messi up front he would have been 'as effective as Hernandez' is an insult to one of the worlds finest football players. Messi is a genius who can turn a game on it's ear by finding the empty space, bamboozling defenders and either scores himself or lays it on for a fellow team-mate. I know it was a 'tongue-in-cheek' remark but you could have done better. This has been the worst season in our short Premier League history. We would have had to have been the unluckiest side in the history of the game. If only we had played against 10 men, got two penalties, two deflections and 6 points from the last two games like Sunderland did. Unbelievable!
What a bloody stupid post. Who would want to keep some of those ****s. I'd rather Alex Bruce had played CM with Meyler than Hudd and Jake. Alex Bruce ability 5/10 what he does with that ability through effort and hard work 7/10 Tom Huddlestone ability 9/10. What he does with that ability 4/10 I'll drive him to Watford or Norwich myself. Same with Livermore the posturing posing tart.
It really was baffling, this selection would have tried harder and been more of a goal threat: Harper Rosey chester dawson brady Elmo meyler quinny robbo Jelavic ndoye
I'm sure there'll be a HDM article this week with a player saying we know we're in a relegation battle now but we'll get out of it etc etc. Oh and Diame is a doubt for the weekend but should be fit the week after.
