They've appeared to be pretty disastrous in the last couple of games, let's hope that changes quickly. And I wouldn't mind Livermore being given a 'rest'.
Yep, this. I didn't get to see the game, but Maguire coming on instead of Huddlestone was a very strange one.
The substitutions were terrible, that's two games running, I have no idea what Bruce was thinking last night, or on Saturday, on both occasions there was a lot of 'what the ****'s he doing' going on in the stands. We have loads of attacking players now, yet when we go ahead, we stop using them and fill the pitch with defenders who get in each others way, last night you could see us throwing it away, when Maguire came on we started heading for the exit.
His ideas on subs are puzzling, it's a fact. Never mind, it'll have to be two trips to Wembley again, not just the one.
Yep I was dozing through the game with the Sky Sports Score Centre telling me whenever there was a goal courtesy of Kammy, and when I saw Maguire subbed on I just rolled over and put the laptop away.
We ended up with six playing in defence and four strikers/attacking midfielders wondering what the **** they were supposed to be doing, we had all the shape of a dropped jelly.
When we played Stoke he made subs and I think it was Meyler who was put on then Boyd and Meyler went over to to bench to ask where was playing They seem to be in 2 minds when they come on
The worst thing was the thick idiot (Bruce) didn't even tell Maguire where he was supposed to be playing! Maguire came on and started running around in midfield! He's built us a good squad now we really need to **** him off before good players get disgruntled and they all want out while fat thicky the thicko has a mare and gets himself the sack anyway. By which point everyone wants out and a new managers left with a divided squad like what happened at Birmingham, Wigan, Sunderland etc....
Unfortunately of late he's appeared to be one of those managers who almost gets scared when in the lead with ~10 minutes to go and thinks it's vital to take an attacker off, bring a defender on and hold what we have. In reality it's been disrupting a settled defence, changing our shape in a negative way and removing our pressure and passing options up the pitch. Rather than making us stronger it's been inviting pressure on ourselves and letting opposition have chances. Against Newcastle we lost our shape when he put Meyler on and sat us too deep, we couldn't get the ball back up front, and last night was just baffling as we were in control until then. Meyler had to come off but flippin heck... just stick Huddlestone in Meyler's spot for a few minutes and don't mess up a system that's working! Huddlestone even jumped off the bench when Meyler was being taken off and started getting ready but was then told to sit down, even he knew he was the only central midfielder available. It's a bit odd, as the first half of last season Bruce wasn't afraid - he attacked, he kept our shape, we got points. Was it a case of him just giving it a go early on as he expected us to go down anyway and since then he's become more defensive trying to keep us in the league? (lots of 352 play, defensive substitutions etc.) I hope it isn't a trend that continues, but many managers do the same. It's almost a signal to the other team that you think they're better though, seems to spur them on.
In the last 2 games the only one SB has got wrong IMO was not bringing on Rosenoir @ Newcastle when we were 2-0 up.
