Now then Got an advantage here as I'm staying in the travelodge so get my stuff in first. To all you Bruce admirers I say get to a game because you cannot see the off ball movement, players body language through a stream or sky and believe me it's crap. Iv'e hiked up from York yesterday and with tickets for my son and grandson, accommodation & sundries have spent the best part of £300 to watch that shambles. What we have here in the words of cool hand luke, are players belittled of any tactical management, very skilful but lacking that thump. A manager that seems to be a marks and spencer model for size 16+ on the touchline watching a different game to the fans. Make no mistake, Chelsea bossed from beginning to end and they were not that good. To cap it all the man takes off our best by far player Cattermole to bring Whickham on. Time to go Mr Bruce and switch your ****ing light on..
Sorry you had to see that. Is it possible to have a more lifeless performance? Sleepwalking would have been an improvement.
Well said Joe. I thought Brown did well too mind. But like you say Bruce had Chelsea down for the win pre-match and set up for that.
Agree with EVERY SINGLE WORD of that article, Joe. Bruce looks a desperate clueless mess on the sidelines. Completely devoid of any inspiration, be it tactical or any other form. Chelsea weren't anything special at all, but we were just shocking. Shocking, shocking, shocking. I honestly do not know what we're going to do between now and january, especially with this man in charge. Lets not allow the goal and the fact we're playing Chelsea paper over the massive **** off cracks. Does anyone think we'll get anything off Stoke playing like that?
The worst thing for me is that Chelsea were piss poor. The Terry goal was IDENTICAL to the one he scored last season, why were lessons not learned? A CB gets 2 bite on the edge of the 6 yrad box after defending a free-kick, shambolic. That said, Bendtner and Seb should both have scored first half, and Brown was superb, sadly, he was doing the work of 3 men as the rest of the back line had no shape whatsoever. Colback was completely anonymous. We are in the ****, make no mistake.
Agree with this mate 100% The problems over our left side have not been addressed and Bruce has had two years to do it. Midfield completely one paced and lifeless. No apparent goal threat from the strikers. A Relegation scrap beckons, no doubt in my mind
Yep, agree with every individual point you've made here, BB. Glad i'm not the only one who realises Colback just isn't offering anything. Terrible against Swansea, terrible again today. maybe he's be ok if he was played as a defensive midfielder, and the only defensive midfielder. Gardner, likewise, IMO, was very, very poor. Anonymous desribes his performance as well as Colbacks. Cattermole got plenty of tackles in, but his distribution left a lot to be desribed and we HAVE to take that into account. I'm sure his distribution would improve dramatically if he were the only defensive midfielder however, instead of being 1 of 3! THREE defensive midfielders and ONE striker? How does Bruce explain that? As i've said few times already, we'd have lost to any team today. This game was nothing about Chelsea being good, because they really weren't.
Was the lad i watched the game with, he said to me before the game 'watch Colback, he does **** all...'. I watched him like a hawk as a result of this, and he did do one thing, a Catts-like lunge that he was booked for, and could easily have seen red.
Catts usually tries to win the ball, Colback should have went for that tackle straight through the player both feet.
So it wasn't Catts breaking up the play in midfield with very little help? Only Catts and Brown could hold their heads up after that game.
I kinda agree with this , Catts was piss poor. I say kinda, because only Brown was any better. One plus, Bendtner had a few tidy touches, offset by him missing a header i could have scored with my penis.
TBF BB the delivery to him was woeful, apart from the header (early doors caught in two minds?) and Colbacks cross to him very little got to him in the danger areas.
Well, i'm just not impressed with Colback, that's why he's never in my starting line-ups. I can't think of an attribute he has which is anything more than average. This is the PL, for ****'s sake. People really need to understand what it takes at this level before they start lauding players. And your quite right, that lunge was horrendous and just completely unnecessary. WHY lunge in like that in that situation? Could have been red carded, easily. Also, Bardsley may get retrospective punishment for the stamp on Mata. Fully intentional and well worthy of a 3 game ban. The players are losing their heads due to major frustration. We have to look at Sessegnon today, too. There's no excuse for that kind of performance. I couldn't give him 1 out of 10. Maybe he's another that wants out. Tbh, would you blame the lads for wanting out? Brown, O'Shea...they deserve MUCH better. Bruces route 1 footy is hurting me.
We need something to happen now, maybe, and it's a big ****ing maybe, the only way Asa can justify effectively putting his career on hold, is if he went through frustration at the way a good squad of players is repeatedly wasted by the way the manager sets them up. I think the crux is, to sack Bruce, Ellis will effectively be sacking Quinn as well, IMO. I'm convinced this is the ONLY reason Bruce remains.
