I still think Bruce is going to take us down but it is not him I blame in all honesty. Look I hope we don’t.
But from what I have seen so far this season, and it’s early days, I see no improvement on last season but I am happy to remain open minded.
I think Bruce is on a hiding to nothing personally and honestly he has balls taking it on. I just think it’s a poisened chalice.
Not stubborn. More pessimism. Until I’m convinced we are playing better then that won’t change for me. But I’m used to let downs.Now you're just being stubborn man.
If we had 0 points under Rafa Benitez right now I doubt anyone would be arsed to be honest. We have 3 from 3 and played really well against one of the best sides in Europe. If we lose against Watford I'll be furious, but from the three games we have played I honestly can only see truly cynical people thinking we look like common relegation trash.
Now you're just being stubborn man.
If we had 0 points under Rafa Benitez right now I doubt anyone would be arsed to be honest. We have 3 from 3 and played really well against one of the best sides in Europe. If we lose against Watford I'll be furious, but from the three games we have played I honestly can only see truly cynical people thinking we look like common relegation trash.
Rafa had 2 seasons of hitting targets in the bank though, had to count for something. Definitely cynical under Bruce. I did say at the start of the season if he can utilise the defence left we would be okay but I dont rate him tactically at all.
My bemusement comes from this 'rafa's football was boring, Bruce is attacking' theory. I've seen no evidence of this assumption over his entire managerial career. We won with 20 % possession on Sunday, that's a Rafa performance if I ever did see one.
Watford will be interesting either way. The last season we went down we beat Spurs twice, beat and drew with Liverpool and drew with manure, Chelsea and City. Need to see how we can cope with teams more in and around us, especially at home
You have to love our fans. Absolutely hilarious. End of the world stuff after two games without their precious Rafa. No tactics, can't do a warm up, players don't know what they are doing etc etc. Then we give a terrific away performance to one of the best sides in Europe. The comments? I've read all sorts from our lot, and many have lumped themselves in with the mackem Davey Jones on Sky. His first comment following some fantastic tactical work and organisation was "was this not down to two years under Rafa Benitez". So hang on let me get this right. We lose two games and they are in no way down to the previous manager, but when we win one it is down to the previous manager? Interesting way of looking at things...
You now have comments from our lot like "he just went back to using Rafa's system" or "he got lucky we only had 20% possession" etc etc. To be honest I'm losing all respect for these people as supporters. They talk ****. They are just blinkered Rafa Benitez disciples who should go and watch the non descript Chinese club he went to manage for a truck load of cash.
Then you have those who just want to do Rafa down. We played really defensive on Sunday, so lets not pretend we were a great watch. I enjoyed watching our discipline but the football played was simply good defensive counter attack football no better than what we were served under Rafa. Tactically different but essentially the same kind of thing. I have no problem with that, because needs must and we badly needed an organised performance for the players and manager. The thing he did better than maybe a Rafa performance, is we continued to offer a threat throughout. It must be said our tactics on Saturday didn't resemble Rafa's so those clinging to that little shred, shows how much they actually pay attention to tactics. I thought it was interesting that Bruce really thought about how to stop Tottenham. He obviously decided to shut down the middle of the pitch to stop the ball getting to Kane. Simple but effective. We stayed compact and allowing them to run into wide areas, slowly fanning out to defend from there. An age old tactic used by most managers but one which was well used on this occasion.
This is going to be the main challenge for Bruce. Overcoming the fans and to be honest I don't think he has any hope. His best bet is to try to do a solid job before the fans force the owner to get rid. Personally I'm not convinced with Bruce, I'd just prefer if he is to be sacked, it will be because he's done a poor job rather than simply picking up a poisoned chalice.
All said and done, we have 3 points after 3 games. Everyone went on about the tough start, this year is equally as tough. So to be on the points we took 10 games to get last year is a positive. Unless you are just outright stubborn and unwilling to accept Bruce regardless.
Last Year:
Spurs (H)
Cardiff (A)
Chelsea (H)
Man C (A)
Arsenal (H)
Palace (A)
Leicester (H)
Man U (A)
Brighton (H)
Southampton (A)
Arsenal (H)
Norwich (A)
Spurs (A)
Watford (H)
Liverpool (A)
Brighton (H)
Leicester (A)
Man U (H)
Chelsea (A)
Wolves (H)
You have to love our fans. Absolutely hilarious. End of the world stuff after two games without their precious Rafa. No tactics, can't do a warm up, players don't know what they are doing etc etc. Then we give a terrific away performance to one of the best sides in Europe. The comments? I've read all sorts from our lot, and many have lumped themselves in with the mackem Davey Jones on Sky. His first comment following some fantastic tactical work and organisation was "was this not down to two years under Rafa Benitez". So hang on let me get this right. We lose two games and they are in no way down to the previous manager, but when we win one it is down to the previous manager? Interesting way of looking at things...
You now have comments from our lot like "he just went back to using Rafa's system" or "he got lucky we only had 20% possession" etc etc. To be honest I'm losing all respect for these people as supporters. They talk ****. They are just blinkered Rafa Benitez disciples who should go and watch the non descript Chinese club he went to manage for a truck load of cash.
Then you have those who just want to do Rafa down. We played really defensive on Sunday, so lets not pretend we were a great watch. I enjoyed watching our discipline but the football played was simply good defensive counter attack football no better than what we were served under Rafa. Tactically different but essentially the same kind of thing. I have no problem with that, because needs must and we badly needed an organised performance for the players and manager. The thing he did better than maybe a Rafa performance, is we continued to offer a threat throughout. It must be said our tactics on Saturday didn't resemble Rafa's so those clinging to that little shred, shows how much they actually pay attention to tactics. I thought it was interesting that Bruce really thought about how to stop Tottenham. He obviously decided to shut down the middle of the pitch to stop the ball getting to Kane. Simple but effective. We stayed compact and allowing them to run into wide areas, slowly fanning out to defend from there. An age old tactic used by most managers but one which was well used on this occasion.
This is going to be the main challenge for Bruce. Overcoming the fans and to be honest I don't think he has any hope. His best bet is to try to do a solid job before the fans force the owner to get rid. Personally I'm not convinced with Bruce, I'd just prefer if he is to be sacked, it will be because he's done a poor job rather than simply picking up a poisoned chalice.
All said and done, we have 3 points after 3 games. Everyone went on about the tough start, this year is equally as tough. So to be on the points we took 10 games to get last year is a positive. Unless you are just outright stubborn and unwilling to accept Bruce regardless.
Last Year:
Spurs (H)
Cardiff (A)
Chelsea (H)
Man C (A)
Arsenal (H)
Palace (A)
Leicester (H)
Man U (A)
Brighton (H)
Southampton (A)
Arsenal (H)
Norwich (A)
Spurs (A)
Watford (H)
Liverpool (A)
Brighton (H)
Leicester (A)
Man U (H)
Chelsea (A)
Wolves (H)
Haven't bothered looking at fixtures. That's arguably a harder start this year.
You'd identify Cardiff, Palace, Brighton and Southampton as winnable last year.
Only Norwich (they've done well to be fair), Watford and Brighton this year.
I reckon we'll have at least 10 points after 10 games and with a harder start
I wouldn't have included watford at the start of the seasonHaven't bothered looking at fixtures. That's arguably a harder start this year.
You'd identify Cardiff, Palace, Brighton and Southampton as winnable last year.
Only Norwich (they've done well to be fair), Watford and Brighton this year.
I reckon we'll have at least 10 points after 10 games and with a harder start
I wouldn't have included watford at the start of the season