Key phrase 'its the team not the tactics', this year its the tactics not the team. Apparently Bruce shouted '"what the **** is going on" when Willems, In a state of confusion took up the CM spot on coming on. I know Brucie's pretending to be a fan but he needs to remember he's meant to be the manager. No use shouting about his own inability to give tactical instructions. I do thanks mate. Hope you find something in your life that doesn't give you the time to sift through my posts from a year ago
Manqillo was our best player Dummy played reasonably well Joelinton looks good but needs 2 around him Willems will come good and looked good looking up with ASM Problem is we shouldn't be playing a back 5 and a central 3 midfield. One or the other
It was a weird hybrid wasn't it. If it was 343 but 541 when defending I get it. However we were 3 at the back, then Manquillo playing more full back, Ritchie on the other side playing wing back, Hayden slotted in on right midfield. I am not entirely sure what was going on to be honest. Tactically it was one of the most backward things I've had to watch in a while. I think it best to put it down to late appointment of manager, late acquisitions, etc. Hopefully we will sort ourselves out soon!
you're responding on this account now? Unsure how I've been exposed Pouch, if anything it has backed up my point. I didn't moan about the tactics last season, I'm moaning about them this season. Case closed. I saw Ritchie and Willems attempt to play CM roles on Saturday, I don't believe either are capable.
I agree entirely and then to make matters worse bruce made removed 2 cm players for a left back and an attacker. Its already clear bruce will have us playing direct ... justing booting it up to joelinton with his back to goal all season soon. I dont think people realise just how good rondon was last season.. he was absolutely class.
The case is still open mate, sorry. It really does highlight the issue we have with how fans view one manager to another. With one we claim its the players, with the others we claim its the manager. It is nearly always a mixture of both in football. Reality is that our tactics in the early part of last season played a big part in our poor run. To suggest otherwise would take an incredible amount of manager bias from fans (hence the manager changed tactics afterall). Eventually the manager found a solution last season, hopefully this one will do likewise. It is of course a different question as to whether you think the current manager has the skillset.
Uh, fine but I'm only repeating myself. To close the case, I watched players run around like headless chickens yesterday and the only thing that stopped a drubbing was Arsenal being so ****. You can think Rafa's tactics were boring, and fair enough, but atleast he had some. Bruce had no tactics yesterday, as evidenced by the confusion with Willems, Ritchie playing CM, bringing no midfielders on his bench despite starting 3, leaving Joelinton on, not using all subs, etc. To go back to the original argument, the above is to do with Bruce. Not Rafa, not the players. Unsure where bias applies here really, are you saying Rafa didn't have tactics?
It took us until sometime in November to actually mount an attack last season so I think it might be a little early to judge.
The Willem sub didn't tell us anything about tactics. All it told us is Willems English is so bad he couldn't follow instructions. It can of course be argued that it was ill thought out putting him in, just not that it was a tactical problem. It is also unfair (some would say mischievously so) to suggest there were no tactics at all yesterday. For instance we clearly had been told that we were to press far higher up the field than last season at home when Arsenal have possession. It was one of the nice changes to see. We had a tactical set up at the outset, one which served us well for 45mins. What was of course a concern was the tactical change we made in the 2nd half which was nothing short of stupid. To leave us with no centre midfield meant the ball went long when we'd been playing proper football from the off. It meant we were disjointed, could hold no possession and essentially gave up any hope of getting back into the game. As I say the view of Bruce is clearly set in stone before he has started. "Oh Bruce doesn't do tactics, he said so, hence we had none" - its a myth and a bit of lazy dig. Of course Bruce had a bad day. Rafa had many bad days early on last season, but rather than criticising him and his tactics, his cock washers found someone else to blame.
Not true we were unlucky 1st game vs tottenham and had a very tough start ... unlike you im looking at the full 12 years and bruces full managerial track record . Ignored