Christ, is that the time.....bloody work and meetings and lap tops extending the working day grrrr.......... Just popped on here to see if everyone has the champagne on ice..... Another fantastic result, and I have to hold my hands up, Brucie is turning it around. I think he is finally getting a formation they all seem comfortable with (and sorry Tom, keep that bench warm!) Well done especially to the large numbers that seemed to travel down, just seen the goals on Sky .... although on reflection I bet they were all Chelsea fans wanting to watch a decent team in London for a change. Will be interesting to see the attendance on Saturday, anyone any ideas on how ticket sales are going (Boro have sold out). (For info, I won't be there, but lets not discuss that on this thread, its boring now). Come on you Tigers!!!!!!
We may not all agree with the comments made here, but in early September I think they were perfectly justified. Great to see that at present Bruce and the team are proving these doubters wrong.
No, he isn't proving them wrong; not all at least. Bruce was poor back then, that part was right. Bruce was always going to get something better out of the squad he had assembled, but Livermore coming back has been massive, as a made Bruce think again about Hudds. Once promoted we will not have a PL manager, as we will keep Bruce. So no, he is proving no one wrong who voted back then, he is simply doing what he should have been doing for almost two years - playing attacking football without losing a defensive mentality - the one thing he has proven is that it was always possible.
Someone actually holding their hands up and admitting they were wrong? What a breath of fresh air. Good man.
I agree, he's not proving no one wrong. He's proving everyone wrong. He should still be sent on his way though.
I've said all along, we wouldn't have half the quality of squad if it wasn't for SB! He's the one they've signed for! And maybe he hasn't set the world alight with his selections & tactics! But as a manager for city I couldn't pick another!
That's as relevant now as when I wrote it - what do you disagree with. When the window closed, five league games in I also wrote that usually I would give ten games before making a hard judgment, but I gave fifteen for him to shape his squad. Last night was the point and we have a strong championship team that has suffered from some strange and negative management decision, but it got there, didn't it? It has taken him a very long time though and can we suffer that again in the PL? But never mind, you don't discuss football do you, as you prefer to use it as a means to shout your mouth off and abuse folk. Nowt changes, Chazz.
I've backed SB for a long time, I was a bit dubious in the summer, but while he was here I figured he should get the chance to try & take us back. I admit I did have a slight worry after the Blackburn game & I could see the point of view of the whingers. However I wasn't watching the games, I saw the Sheff Wed game & thought we did alright, then there was Ipswich which I was at, it seems we have found that form & tenacity we were looking for. It's frustrating having to rely on SSN & reviews on line & message boards to get information on how we played, I should really stick with my instincts not to go OTT when everyone's claiming we're abysmal!
I'd hate to have to pick a manager from the 15,000 - 20,000 candidates on here and at the game. It's a good job Brucey didn't have to cope with a fire sale at the start of the season.
The only thing that I wanted was Thudd either leaving out of the starting eleven or be moved further forward to reduce the incessant passing in our own half. It appears that I got that when Jake became available again, and it's plain to see how much more energy has been brought to the team. It was a stroke of good fortune, and not undeserved, that Jake found himself playing football again so soon, and it will certainly make a huge difference to our season. As the old adage goes it's better to be lucky than good.
We have the strongest squad in the league (on paper). Unfortunately for Bruce, that means anything below being top of the league is an underachievement. He's also unlikely to be given significant credit for getting us out of the division because of the players he has at his disposal in comparison with the other teams. It's fantastic that we have now won 5 consecutive games on the trot, and seem to have an expectation that we should be winning away games as well as home games. But with only 1 point now separating the top 5 teams, Bruce has got to keep this going for the rest of the season. The return of Snodgrass and Diomande from injury should help with this but it will also cement peoples expectation that anything below automatic promotion would be a under-performance from Bruce himself.
I agree with much of what you say, although I think a manager can easily mismanage a very good squad, so if he starts off doing that and then changes his approach and gets them winning regularly and convincingly then he deserves all of the plaudits available and I am sure we will all give them to Steve Bruce when that time arrives. We might have had a little distance, between us and the pack, if SB had of not been so negative in his approach in the first 8-10 games, but that's done and dusted, but I am sure it will frustrate him as much as (some of) us. I think it is good to see McGregor getting the plaudits at the moment; I think I was a lone voice describing his daft mistake against Wolves as a one-off mental aberration - I don't know if he will eventually make a PL Keeper, but some of the stuff posted about him was just daft - Bruce has persevered with him and good on him for that. I think Bruce will see anything other than automatic promotion a failure of his own expectations, don't you?
Livermore coming back and Huddlestone getting benched has turned things around, so there's a case to be made that we are where we are more by luck than judgement. Livermore wasn't in the equation when this thread was active. As it stands we have so much improvement to come that I think Bruce will need a miracle to cock things up .
