Brucey could have dropped any of the players after the Derby debacle; that said Curtis has played relatively well over recent matches, and to drop him for what was basically one mistake I also believe was wrong. Other players have made huge errors this season , yet retained their places? If you want to dent a players confidence further after a single mistake, drop him! Curtis seems to have been made the 'Derby scapegoat'.
Phil Brown could maybe give the squad some "mentality". The person who is in the best position to motivate the team is the one who picks the eleven though.
Bruce has changed every single player and position over this season in the league and it's still not right. Fans scream for changes every week but the one obvious thing gets ignored. Over a season(that's important) it's looking more and more like we simply never had enough quality and composure at the club,certainly not for that top two finish many fans expected. Whatever happens this season,Bruce in my book has failed to get the best out of this squad again because as some of witnessed,when we were on song we looked streets ahead of most of what this division offered.
I don't know whether you would agree or not Hatty but I believe that a Premier League Manager has to have something extra. Not only does he need some good financial backing, he also has to have that 'charismatic' personality that can instill belief and motivation as well as being able to convince those players that he wants to join him at his Club. I don't believe that Steve Bruce or Phil Brown have those sort of qualities.
Admittedly going off reports but I was getting live updates and we were seemingly creating a lot early days. It sounded to me that going forward the 3-5-2 worked, but the defence was all over the place due to Bruce and Maguire both being brought in. Is that an incorrect assessment?
Isn't that what most of these "star" players signed for us for? Because of Steve Bruce? The failure has been a lack of luck, which has resulted in a lack of goals. The games we've lost that I've seen have been dominated by us, hitting posts, keepers having their day & that's been a theme throughout the season! Would Gray have made that difference? IMO definitely! Most others too, but it's all irrelevant, the buck stops somewhere & failure will be at SB's door!
I can't follow your logic Bruce as we have a long unenviable list of "Blank-Firing" (so-called) Strikers. We are and have been (as they say in France) "absolument maison de merde" up front and that is where the fault lies. Bruce has wanted better quality players but has been unable to secure their signatures. I do understand that in many cases Mr Allam has refused to open his wallet or the Club's finances are such that we could not bring them in which has contributed to our (and Steve Bruce's) demise.
You do understand…? .. is that because the Allams said, hang on you've already spent £50 million now you want more..
Apart from Ayew I can't really think of many players we've targeted who personally have turned us down? I know some clubs have said no (Rhodes is the main one that comes to mind) but not many players where we've had bids accepted?
Yeah that's what I meant, clubs have rejected our bids - the main ones being Long and Rhodes though we later got Long - but Ayew is the only player that comes to mind that personally said no to coming after a bid was accepted? So suggesting that plenty of players have said no to coming (as Roo has suggested) seems off.
Gaston Ramirez = 6 goals in 11 on loan games for Middlesborer Could have done with someone of that impact Rhodes can't match that, but these two were signed in the window after we outclassed them whereas we seem to think we didn't need much, just a minor tweak and a bit of cover......
Phil brown isn't going to leave a managers job to come had help brucey out as a number 2. If he comes back he'd want to be gaffer. Aithough he'd be a cheap option I carnt see him coming back......unless duffers Chinese mates take us over then maybe
We were **** all over the park in the first half, I'm afraid your updates didn't accurately reflect what happened on the pitch.
Bite their hand off now and pay someone who can the £2 million as a bonus to get us trough the play offs..
I think SB could learn a thing or two from Claudio Ranieri's style of man management, was watching him being interviewed before today's PL game, like a breath of fresh air! He was asked what elements of his management style he has changed between Chelsea and Leicester Manager, the example he gave was how he deals with players who make mistakes in games, watch and learn SB!
