Bruce nailed it vs Leicester

Bruce has taken a hell of a lot of criticism over the past 18 months, and rightly so in some instances, but tonight he totally outsmarted Ranieri in every way.

This was the first time for a long time that we have gone out with the intent to play possession football, and it worked absolutely perfectly. The Leicester midfield was completely outmatched in every way - strength, vision, aggression etc. This is the exact way we need to set up if Bruce wants to see the best from Huddlestone on a regular basis. He was great tonight, he was so well protected by the tenacity of Hayden and Maloney that he had the time he needed to pick out a great pass, time and time again. His touch was incredible and he got the whole midfield involved.

Diamé on the wing looks like a real option, for the first hour he was just taking it around his full back like he wasn't even there, often drawing 2 or 3 defenders to open up space in the middle. He looked leggy after an hour, but I think that's because he's not used to bombing up and down a wing. I'd personally love to see him in the middle, but on current form you couldn't drop Meyler or Livermore. Hayden and Maloney also looked great, very tidy on the ball, and they both have a great touch and really good close control.

Bruce always had an answer to Ranieri's changes. When the lumbering Kramaric was taken off for the more dynamic Vardy and Mahrez, Bruce pretty quickly changed our whole game plan from a possession-based style to a more direct style. This was key, as it allowed us to sit much deeper and play balls over the top for the pace of the substituted Akpom and Hernandez. This almost completely nullified the pace of Vardy, which Ranieri was clearly hoping would get the better of Dawson and Maguire, who are not known for their pace. Akpom was very impressive to me, he has so much energy and he's not the typical Arsenal player - he harassed the backline, chased every ball and was always willing to do the dirty work in midfield.

In short, I think Bruce deserves a lot of praise for the performance tonight. He set us up perfectly to minimise the the threat Leicester posed, while also getting the best out of our most talented midfielders.

EDIT: Forgot about Taylor! I though he was great in the central midfield, so so so much better than at full back, he has really decent vision and awareness.

 

Leicester posed zero threat until they made substitutions so I think we could have pushed forward a bit more for the first 3 quarters of normal time. Once Leicester did go forward more with the subs on it opened the game up more, also tiredness probably created more space.

The best thing for me was fighting back after going a goal down. But if we'd got the first goal it could have been over a bit earlier.

 

I think we got forward enough tonight to be honest, but a lot of our fans are incredibly impatient with anything that's not a ball over the top (there were a few guys booing every backward pass near me). For the first hour our centre halves were pretty much camped on the halfway line.

 

Da

Dawson must have pushed him close for MOM

 

EDIT: Forgot about Taylor! I though he was great in the central midfield, so so so much better than at full back, he has really decent vision and awareness.[/QUOTE]

Well that's a thought. Another would be that he was slightly less crap and dangerous because he was further away from our goal, and shouldn't even be allowed in the reserves.

 

The subs were all 100% as well. Not only is the team in form, Bruce is as well.

 

Not sure how you can say that if you watched the game tonight, he literally didn't put a foot wrong defensively with some great slide tackles, and he set up a few attacks with incisive passes.

 

I did, all the way until he was substituted. Agree to disagree.

 

Bruce Out.

 

Shock horror, Steve Bruce seasoned campaigner as a successful manager at several football clubs and a ex-captain of a title winning Manchester United side knows more then people posting on a fans forum.

 

By the way where are the Bruce Out Brigade tonight?

 

Except that what he's doing now is the very thing he was being criticised for not doing.

 

Probably blaming Jakupovic for letting in 4 penalties.

Jak out, Watson in.

 

You'll never hear me say Bruce out, I think he's the best manager we've ever had.

 

I did joke pre-match, but I wonder if we would be tempted to do a LVG and bring him on in the 120th.

 

He saved a penalty, but I think few want him starting for us in the league, and most probably wouldn't want him starting against a top team in the next round.

 

I like Jak, but I wouldn't go as far as dropping Mags for him in the league. If McGregor picked up an injury I wouldn't have an issue with Jakupovic deputising. I don't think it's the big teams that phase him; he's played against Man U and Spurs and done really well, it's against ****ty little teams he seems to cock up.

I'm pretty sure he's saved at least one penalty in each of the shootouts he's been in.

 

He does quite well with penalties, hard to know how good McGregor is as he doesn't do so many cup games.

 

He saved three penalties out of three in the PL.

 

Hasn't he saved all 3 or 4 that he's faced in PL games for us though?