Not really, we have a decent manager for this level, change it if we aren't near the play-offs come Christmas
My point of view with Bruce is that I'd like to have seen him resign as he looks ill but seeing as he hasn't we need to regroup behind him. If we go back up or don't perform well enough then get rid but changing the manager now will set us back at least a season if not more
I agree with that but seeing as the manager hasn't gone then maybe still calling for his head when he is in his position and the season hasn't even started isn't helpful
Do people really think we won't be able to challenge for promotion under Bruce? I don't understand it given we already went up under him and have a super strong squad already for the league? Let him take us back up then get a different manager for the Premier League
does anyone else see the problem with keeping SB in the BPL? He is a Chumpionship manager. Admittedly, he is a top chumpionship manager, but that is as far as his talents take him.
I think one of the worries for me is that the way we play is just so poor that it's going to continue in the Championship. There's no versatility at all and it's not like the formation we use is a surprise like it was back in 2012/13. On paper we have a great side to challenge, but then Fulham and Wigan said the same things and look what happened there. I'm just concerned that we will continue playing 352 and have that attitude that we had against Burnley of turning up and winning.
I reckon Bruce is the best quick fix to get us back up rather than changing the set-up as it's more than likely a new manager will need a bit of time to bed in, maybe a few seasons, whereas Bruce doesn't, that's why maybe better to keep him despite all the misgivings tactically and so on. Problem with that is come Christmas if we aren't challenging then we might aswell have changed the manager now. Whatever happens us City fans will be telling each other 'I told you so' come Christmas for better or worse, either way it goes!
"Take early retirement,you fat bastard. Leave the job to someone that knows what they are doing" Maybe we can coax SAF out of retirement!
something that strikes me is the addition of Mike Phelan to throw some different views at Bruce, alternating to plan B and even C if needed. For me the position we`re in we are not going to know the strength of our squad until such time as the transfer merry go round has concluded. We have a squad good enough to compete at this level but if we lose some important players for us then things will depend on who we get in. I for one still have faith in Bruce to deliver the goods, but I can understand the opposite views.
The thing is if we don't go up it wouldn't bother me if we gave it a really good go every game. If we played with two strikers and attacked the opposition. To many times last year we worried about what the opposition would do and it felt like we would surrender. If we go back up playing the same dull football I don't think I would enjoy this season much like I didn't enjoy last season. I think Bruce is the best man to get us up at all costs. However I think he will grind his way to promotion which is not exactly great to watch. Last year we had 1 maybe 2 games that where good to watch. Why not go for a new attacking style of football? Now is the best time to do that as we will have a fairly clean slate with a lot of players leaving. Do I think Bruce will change our style of play? No. Do I think we will continue to rely heavily on our wing backs as our only form of attack? Yes. That is the issue. We saw by January the way we played wasn't working. Did we change it? No, and that is very poor management. If he stays, I will back him. I just really hope he uses this chance to rebuild the team and start attacking teams and making them worry about us.
Beat Qpr. Good to watch. Nailbiting stuff holding on. Drew with Stoke. Nearly held on with 10 men. Riveting. Drew with Wham. Great game and great goals. Drew with Ncastle. Nearly held on. Great goals played well didnt hold on. Lost man City. 2-4. Did well against a great team. Good game to watch. Beat palace 2-0 comfortably. Enjoyed it. Drew Arsenal 2-2. Nearly held on. Great game,looked like we would get ullered then took the lead and nearly held on. Drew Lpool. Great result and performance. Lost 1-2 Spurs. Coulda been our best game, Played really well, stupid sending off and nearly held on. Drew Everton 1-1. Good result played well. Won Sunland away. Good performance and result. Beat Everton. Great game all over them. Drew man City. Terrific performance. Beat Villa in a real nail biter. Great game to watch. Beat QPR in a real nail biter. Great game to watch Lost to Chelsea. Weak as piss then gave them a real game. Thoroughly enjoyable game. Beat Palace. Amazing performance. Beat Lpool. Great game to watch. I think you're wrong. .
My point wasn't put across as well as I wanted. However out of them I would still say very few of them did we actually play a good style of football, and attacked the opposition. Even so, why didn't we play that same brand of football for all 38? Why didn't we go down with a fight? My point as a whole was why did we often worry more about the opposition more than about how we played. Newcastle game was 2 dropped, Hammers 2 dropped, Stoke 2 dropped. Why? Because we didn't finish the game off. We went negative, which in my eyes is hardly good to watch. Even the Palace win early on, to say it was great to watch is really going over the top. We where pretty poor for large parts of the game in my eyes. I stand by what I said. When we look back at this season in ten years time there are very few games that I will remember as stand out performances. The one stand out performance, ironically you missed.
Although there were a few highlights and good games there were far too many poor performances. Swansea at home 0 - 1, lost to a deflected Shelby goal but never looked like getting back into the game Burnley away 0 - 1, The start of the rot? Poor performance and typically we lost to a team who hadn't won a game up to that point. WBA home 0 - 0 Another fairly aimless performance with too many sideways and backwards passes. Southampton at home 0 - 1, Lost to an early Wanyama goal and again never looked like troubling their goal Leicester at home 0 - 1, Another inept performance against a team who hadn't won for 10 games Newcastle home 0 - 3 Disgraceful performance - capped by their 3rd goal when their guy just walked through our defence as if it wasn't there Stoke away 0 - 1 Went for a draw and once we went behind couldn't change it around West Brom away 0 - 1 (as above) Leicester away 0 - 0 Had a great opportunity for 3 points and blew it Sunderland at home 1 -1 - All over them and then hit by the sucker punch for an equaliser Burnley at home 0 - 1 - As poor a performance as any of the above (except Newcastle) and we lost a must win game So although there were some good performances, they were too few and far between and overall we can have no complaints about getting relegated. We just were not consistent enough to get the points to stay up.
The first point I agree on, particularly playing that way against teams we definitely had a chance of beating. The other point though needs refining. When we say wing backs we really mean Elmo, he's the one that gets the supply, that gets the pass from Huddlestone. Results and goals scored clearly show this doesn't work. I don't care how many crosses Elmo put in, it means nothing if it doesn't result in goals. The problem tends to be one of several things, the crosses aren't good enough the players aren't in the box or aren't in the position to attack where the ball goes the opposition have been planning all week for Elmo's crosses and are fully prepared.
I think there's a few on here that are being far too critical. In the Champ Elmo runs riot, it may not work to the same level against quick PL full backs, but it's a completely different ball game in the Championship. I also think that he's a far better player now, as is Brady. There's a massive difference between the Champ and the PL and it's seems to be something that has been forgotten. Let's just see who leaves and who comes in before judging the squad
the biggest issue for me is how are we going to score anywhere near enough goals to get out of The Championship Look how many goals the 3 teams who went up scored Bournemouth-: 98 Watford-: 91 Norwich-: 88 The Jelavic/N'Doye partnership would have scored a load of goals but Jelavic is off, Hernandez & N'Doye will also go That leaves Aluko as our only striker & he's an attacking midfielder who plays in the hole So Bruce needs to buy 4 strikers between now & August 9th. His record of buying strikers is not exactly great
If we lose 3 why do we need 4? I don't think we'll lose all 3, I have a hunch we won't be able to shift N'Doye.