Better to vent any frustration on here than going to a game and moaning and groaning or worse booing !! The posts on here that some see as negative, I see as people being frustrated and knowing we are and should be better. Hope this helps
You make some good points but I disagree with the essence of this. In February 2015 Bruce made public how he thought Phelan had come in and made a difference, his involvement and input was responsible for a turnaround in our form; he also made it clear he thought Phelan was the secret ingredient to us staving off relegation. This isn't my opinion, this was recorded at that time. The end result was relegation, a relegation many of us were shocked and disappointed at; not just the end product, but the nature of it. The Phelan Effect was a damp squib, or has someone another version of events? Our season in the Championsip has been a real mixed bag; it has been one of exciting football, that has captivated the crowd (and viewers) and promised more, only then lunging into nonsensical tactics and team selections, random, baffling substitutions and the abject failure to take what should have been safe probable wins. The manager has publicly stated that he had no idea was was wrong, he has been bereft of a fix, he is currently managing a very poor run of form from a squad that has a quality he has praised. Steve Bruce has an assistant manager, Mike Phelan, his role is to offer ideas, come up with tactical options, give input that changes form - just as he was praised for doing in February 2015. It's not happening, is it, or am I missing something? If that is so, is it not reasonable to reckon that Phelan is not giving us what we need from an assistant manager and that we can be critical of his input?
When Phelan arrived I recall the players coming out and saying how much more intense training had been and how they were enjoying training and what he was asking them to do. I feel now there seems to be a total mistrust between the players and management, too many are seemingly being asked to play in unnatural positions. There's a huge amount at stake for these players, for some, this will be the last opportunity to play again at the highest level, let alone the finical implications for them. Thats why IMO there is huge dressing room problem, not necessarily 'lost the dressing room'. The players may come out and say they're behind the manager and his tactics, but, at the risk of repeating myself, when Robertson says we need a Plan A, B, and C, that smacks of lack of leadership, lack of direction, lack of ideas.
One of the pundits on Sky the other week made quite a telling comment that with us and Middlesborough we don't have a back up game-plan when things aren't working. Fingers crossed Bruce has been putting his tactical helmet on in the last few weeks and has worked out some much needed variation in tactics for things like when the opposition come to the KC and set up camp, we have the players to counter this and it is a good example of why some fans get frustrated and vent on places like here when the players or management can't figure out how to deal with it
All the above is guesswork. The 'huge dressing room problem' is quite simple. The ball is not hitting the back of the net as frequent as the team/players and management would like. The shot that bounces back off the post, the shot that is deflected past our keeper, both of which have happened in recent games and cost us points, could have gone either way, we could have been another five points better off and everything in the garden would be rosy. That's not a 'huge dressing room problem' It's football.
A very fair assessment of the situation. As for being bereft of a fix, have Bruce/Phelan got short term memory problems. Maguire's contributions in skilfully playing the ball out of defence and also attacking in the opposite box were significant when he was in the team and he should be brought back.
The club definitely do, the media don't much (they mainly rely on Twitter), neither feed anything from here back to the team obviously.
I know the club watch these boards and it would be naïve to think the media don't. I wasn't saying that stuff from messages boards is 'fed back to the team'. My point is that any negative stuff on fans forums is picked up and can be used in all sorts of ways. Have you read Sam Allardyce's autobiography ? He took no notice of fans forums and the stuff on them but his family did and it caused him no end of problems. I wouldn't say Big Sam is any different to other people in football.
How would the the forum work then.everything is fizzing marvelous,Bruce is doing so well with his squad. That was good what shall we talk about now
I agree.no one should boo their own team.its like booing your own family.however nowt wrong with voicing your opinion on a message board.its therapy during a boring international week
Whether Steve Bruce stays as our manager will depend upon his relationship with Ehab. As long as they are both happy Steve Bruce will remain our manager. We got to the top of the Championship without Andre Gray and we can get automatic promotion without him. We have an outside chance of winning the league despite our recent results. We have the second best goal difference in the championship. Our team looks like they care and are playing for each other. A couple of victories is all it will take to lift the mood. Given our manager and our players that is more likely than a string of defeats. I don't really see what the problem is.
I couldn't give a **** how the forum does or doesn't work, tbh Just get tired of all the bipolar armchair managers spitting their dummies out every time Maguire is not played up top alongside Hernandez. It's embarrassing and laughable. Forums eh? - It's all about opinions.
Running out of matches is a major problem. Turning round a points gap is going to be immensely difficult with so few games left as those above us are not likely to drop too many points and we need to be winning nearly all ours.
