Conjo

He's not really a talent anymore. At 22 he should be an established 1st team player. If he has any sense about him he should leave asap to try and salvage his career if he has any aspirations of f.ex winning something or getting capped by England.

Think it's more an issue of not being able to offload the players that shouldn't be anywhere near the top level of the Irish leagues rather than hanging on to them. Who in their right mind would want to sign and match the current wages of players like Cack or Saivet?

The irony in using "context is irrelevant" in a sarcastic manner to defend Bruce

Meh. His contract is up in the summer anyway. He has known for a long time that he's better off financially seeing out his contract here and then stepping down to championship/league 1 level contract afterwards than taking a pay cut earlier in his contract duration to get regular football.

Let him stay and give the match going fans what they want and what Ashley deserves. Even better, keep the "promotion specialist" on in the championship and see how Ashley reacts when instant promotion fails for the first time.

Less rotation of attacking players. Last season Rondon was the 6th most used player in Rafas squad with 270 minutes played. This season under Bruce Joelinton (344 mins) was 4th most used player and Almiron (333 mins) 5th. If ASM hadn't already been injured, he would have been in the christmas period now.

Poetic return of his celebration. Every idiot going to the match thoroughly deserved it.

Perfect move for him. So glad he didn't go to Man Utd.

ZzzzzzzZZzzz

Shelvey had purple patches under Rafa too. Bruce deserves credit if he can get consistent performances out of him without slumps that lasts months.

0-1. Schar to foul Zaha inside the box. Milivojević to convert the pelanty.

Glad that Deanas two nephews are spared the agony, and that Deana didn't get to give Mike Ashley money to work against the clubs best interests. Deana needs to get her head checked. Disgusting.

Triple captain for double game week gents, unless you got something riding on being top of a league within first half of the season.

Bruce already taking us to new levels breaking records that literally cannot be beaten.

What was his reaction Same as it was on the pitch not fussed. The man is dead inside. He kicked his glove or something. Scenes.

Could be This isn't where I read it, but confirms what I thought I remembered: https://www.coachesvoice.com/robbie-elliott-sir-bobby-robson-newcastle-england-barcelona/

The British managers lunch club will have been massively triggered from watching Rafa show then what tactics are all about last night. Can’t wait for the backlash on TalkSport, twitter and Facebook etc trying to justify themselves. Probably a few doing it on here too. One of my recent favourite clips is when Mourinho does the same in studio, leaving everyone speechless, and Souness pipes in, "... it's really not that complicated." Symbolized his entire time here, taking over from Sir Bobby. Sir Bobby was actually one of the most astute tacticians with an English background, but then he had a CV which showed experience all around the world, and in some of the top leagues at that. A genius. If memory serves me right, granted I can't remember where I read it, and I can't remember if/how it translated onto the pitch, but SBR had an obsession with how to retain possession after throw-ins. It's details like that and what Rafa was talking about on Sky (pentalties stats, teaching players to understand why etc) that separates the great coaches from the bad.

He's pissing his paying customers off and pissing the pick and choose customers off (the one's that went to the Man U and Arsenal matches.) He's also publicly devaluing the brand. Yup. Evil cycle starts when giving out free tickets. Look what happend at Sunderland. Let's hope it continues so nobody dares buy tickets anymore in fear of losing out on freebies.

It's fucking poetry in motion. I hope the fuckers are frothing at the mouth. its honestly the best ever. They must be buzzing they stuck around

Stopped watching once I'd seen the first. That's one of his top 5 goals? Fucking hell. Adding a bit of context to the first one, that it was his debut match, against Dortmund, makes it a bit more special imo.

How does that change the fact that he's played an injured player twice? ASM could have made it through the match without getting further injured and it still would have been a stupid risk to take.

Interesting, particularly as Lascelles is out injured until January....Were you planning on playing Matt Ritchie as well? When did an injured player stop Bruce from playing him? Did it twice with ASM already. They'll run it off I'm sure, especially for the proper British players that doesn't go into a coma when a finger nail breaks.

Awful awful round personally. Mount, Pulisic, Abraham, Sterling and KDB not delivering. Mane not playing. Seriously thinking about getting rid of KDB or Sterling and one of the Chelsea players. None of them are performing at the moment. This upcoming round is looking good for all of them on paper though……...

Let's beat them at their own game: --------------Blob---------------- Kraft--Lascelles--Clarke--Dummett Longstaff-Hayden-Shelvey-Ritchie -----------Carroll--Gayle-----------

It's frustrating to watch him run at 60/70% and then realize a second or two later that he needs to run faster only to be a bit too late or get caught. Didn't watch the Southampton match, but noticed it in a lot of his earlier games. Even against Sheffield United when he came on after 72 minutes. No excuse to conserve energy when you've only got 20 minutes to play. Just lazy.