I don't even know why he signed Maguire any more. Interesting comments about Robertson too from those who went, I went on Tuesday and he doesn't look like he's fulfilling his potential either. 2 cracking young players stagnating under Bruce?
Nothing to do with Meyler yet you bring him up. The obsession continues Serioulsy?? He was ****ing awful. I dont usually have a go at refs but he was ****e. It wa sa worked move, most corners before then went deep and they won a fair few their two CB's. That was a near post corner, poorly defended.
The ref was poor - but that does not cover the inadequacies in our performance. I thought we should have had one of our midfield grafters on from the start (either Meyler or Livermore) as maybe playing Hudd and Diame together is a luxury. Also I was surprised Maloney didn't get a start today. i thought Robertson had his poorest game for us yet, whereas Clucas had his best and seems to improve with every game he plays. Quality break and move for our goal, which begs the question why don't we counter like that more often with the pace we have in the team? Sloppy defending for the equalizer. I don't care how big their centre-halves are, surely marking Rhodes was the responsibility of Davies or Dawson? Mcgregor hesitant on the goal, but redeemed himself moments later with great save. Having said all of that, Davies' miss was a shocker at the very end and summed up a below par day for him. Overall a feeling of frustration as with a bit more concentration and application of the last 7 days we could easily be at least 2 points better off than we are.
He's a good player, he just needs to toughen up. He also needs to have the confidence to take a man on. He's playing like he's been told not to get too far forward.
observations - 1. why do we soak the pitch then have our players slipping all over the place 2. why do we constantly work the ball back from the halfway line back to Macgregor for him to pump it upfield to no-one 3. why did we get rid of Rosie and Macca and then spend millions bringing in lesser players 4 why did Brucie say in his post match interview that we tried to get the ball to the forwards too quickly today and why the **** does Brucie constantly take off attackers and put on defenders and invite teams to score, again and again and again
I think Robertson maybe needs a rest or to be on the bench for a couple of games and maybe come back refreshed after the next international break. Maybe Clucas and Maloney can cover the left hand side of the pitch? Maguire was due to start the season as first choice centre half but I think he picked up an injury and Curtis Davies has been in top form (until today!) and I don't see him displacing either CD or MD.
1. No idea - although our opponents don't seem to slip up do they? 2. Lack of options for the player on the ball, lack of confidence of the player on the ball or passing backwards is the easy option? 3. Rosie didn't sign a contract when he was offered one and I don't think Macca was offered one. 4. This I don't understand. Our goal today was a great counter attack and surely with the pace we have in the team we should be doing that more often. We have pace on both flanks and down the middle, so why we can't get momentum going I don't know. And finally it's called trying to see a game out. On the one hand we have to start scoring more than 1 goal - on the other, defenders have to take responsibility and no one took responsibility to pick Rhodes up today.
We had three fantastic chances to score, Maloney, Hernandez and Davies. taken one of them and we would have won, Don't think Rhodes did much but then he scores after we gifted him his goal. Overall should be beating teams like this at home but because of some poor defending and finishing we only end up with a point. In future got to speed play up would like to see Maloney and Livermore brought in
Robertson in particular. He was bloody brilliant a year ago. Scotlands big hope for the future and arguably our best player. He was alright defensively and brilliant going forwards. Now he's not overlapping, he just tries to cross from deep and fails, and defensively he's weak. This is happening more and more with players we sign. Ince went backwards with us but then looked great again once he went to Derby.
Agree re Maloney and Livermore. I was surprised Maloney didn't start today and we have to stop playing to win 1 - 0 every game
Robertsons defending was **** last year too and his crosses have flattered to deceive they looked great but never went near anyone. Now we're all aware of it.
Completely agree with your first sentence OLM. It is not enough to look at our current position in the table. The frustration is, given the quality of our total squad, the type of football we are playing, the almost total absence of creativity, the pathetic predictability of our tactics, the poor results against lower half teams like Charlton, and today Blackburn, that we should be racking up goals (and wins) against. Everyone knows our defense is capable of neutralizing top level Premiership teams as we showed last year against Man City, Liverpool, Spurs etc. But we very seldom open up opposing teams with fast paced, quick passing attacks, Swansea style. We have arguably the best squad in depth in the Championship. Yet we look pedestrian. It must be terribly frustrating to the players, never mind our supporters. Some of the matches I've watched this year have been enough to put a spectator to sleep. Bruce is like Stonewall Jackson (an infamous defensively-minded general from the American Civil War)...he knows nothing but defense, at which he excelled as a player and now as a manager. As OLM says its time we got the best out of a great squad. Bruce is NOT that man. BRUCE OUT!!
Really, that's going to last about 5 minutes until everyone's shouting get rid of his long ball tactics! Apart from anything if SB did go then MikePhelan would step up! It's probably one of the reasons why he came to us, he quit Norwich because he didn't get the managers job.
Agree with a couple of comments saying Bruce should have gone December 2014! We were clueless and tactically inept then and still are. People need to wake up to the fact that it doesn't matter that Bruce got us promoted or kept us there or that he got us to the FA cup final, those things don't matter now, and since last Christmas we have been awful, I used to think it was the players mainly but the squad we have should be wiping the floor with the vast majority of teams in this league, and no I'm not expecting too much, that's the truth! When we were sitting in the old division 4 expectations were formed by looking at the squad we possessed, expectations now are formed by the squad we currently have, and it is been poorly utilised by Bruce. He just looks like someone who is desperately looking for a solution but can't find one. When that happens it's time for a change. As for who would replace him, there is quite a few who would leave there current club to manage us and there is a couple who are out of work that would be interested as well.
