kingxlnc

4th or 5th I believe

I think because they have to be 'in the know' about football and all teams in general, they can't go into the nuances and depths of details that fans can, who only care and focus on their own team. They become a bit of a generalist and resort to stereotypes and general cliches instead of knowing the word on the street. That and also they are often in place due to their career as ex-footballers - they are not exactly blessed with intelligence or high level of education so that might be at play too

Every striker bar Drogba struggles at Chelsea man A striker like that is a beast, you play to his strengths and he will guarantee you goals. He's scored everywhere he's been. Even in the PL, at WBA and Everton. But I do get he might be Wood-esque in terms of style, whereas Howe might want the more nimble agile type of striker a la Wilson

I honestly think Bruce is exactly who Roy Keane had in mind when he was ranting to Gary Neville on the podcast about the same old managers getting jobs despite failing because they play the game and network, obviously he wouldn't call him out in public being an ex teammate but it probably frustrates the hell out of him as Keane probably could have done as good if not better job at each of his last jobs

He signed Solano and Hamann too, right?

Well Dembele a lot of Spurs players have said was key to their success and it all started to go downhill after he left. Trippier in fact said they would have won the CL final if Dembele was playing. So that all bodes well

I see what you're saying and it's a point well made but midfielders are made in different moulds. Could he be like a Jordan Henderson role for Liverpool? Or a Clarence Seedorf, he was a bit of both type of midfielder. Or even a Toni Kroos type. Not hugely attacking, nor hugely defensive either of them but very good midfielders who were integral to how their teams played. In terms of ex NUFC players is he similar to a Jenas (albeit a stronger version), someone mobile, athletic who can go from box to box without possessing huge speed or other attributes, a generalist?

Having Bruno and Joelinton as that Brazillian double pivot is as tantalising a prospect as what their initials spell

Even though we are impatient to see him start you can see the intelligence behind making him get used to the pace of the game firsr, he doesn't have as much time on the ball as he did in France so its about getting him acclimatised. Once he starts he'll stay imo

For me it's Dalglish, for what he did to Keegan's side as I used to care alot more back then. Souness also for Robson. But Carver and Bruce actively made me embarrassed to support the club, I lost interest completely. The last year to 18 months of Pardew tenure too.

Sorry the last 0 is the geordie or non geordie one - he got a 0 for talking us down constantly

Weirdly, Bruce despite being 'a local' may have even replaced him in the hatred ranks. It's helped his cause that he was first replaced by Carver, who was worse, then McClaren who got us relegated (even though not as hated and smarmy), and Bruce who is the worst of the lot. I don't know why but I created a matrix and the data fully supports it. Carver and Bruce are the worst we've had - and ironically they were both Geordies - so that myth of only wanting one of our own is nonsense. The main things to judge: Type of football played? (score out of 3, 0 terrible, 3 great) Did they have good players to work with? (0 - great players, 3 terrible) Mike Ashley compliance (3 = non compliant, 0 = extremely) Did they talk us up or down? (0 - talk down, 3 talk up) Did they get good results? (0 - terrible, 3 great) Bonus: Will also include where are they from (Geordie 1, Non-Geordie 0) Pardew - 1.5, 0, 1, 0, 2, 0 = 4.5/16 Carver - 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 1 - 4/16 McClaren - 2, 1, 1, 1.5, 0, 0 = 5.5 Benitez - 1.5, 3, 3, 3, 1.5, 0 = 12/16 Bruce - 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1 = 4/16 Howe - 2, 2, n/a, 3, 2.5, 0 = 9.5/13

For some reason I recall at the time hearing that he wanted Milner to be the new Rob Lee

Decent.

No Keegan wanted to play him centrally and build his team around him, but was lied to that he needs to sell Milner if he wants to get Bastian Schweinsteiger in. With that swap on, Keegan agreed (as anyone would) but it was a lie, Ashley offered £5m or something paltry for Schweinsteiger which was laughed off by Bayern. Keegan was fuming after that.

If anything, we should be in the position post-Howe to get the 'next' Mourinho, the highly rated guy at Sporting Lisbon instead of the past it version. Even though I do like Mourinho and he obviously has affection for Mr Robson's club. But no point even entertaining this, we are all hoping Howe is the next Keegan, survive this year then have a few title tilts in the coming years and even to win something, finally.

Well Sunderland won six in a row and still went down - so theory disproved :P

I wonder if Fraser's work rate etc can allow him to play RB, and in front of him have Almiron who's also very hard working. Basically trying to think of any and all scenarios which would enable us to NOT use Krafth

Even if he's out to the end of the season, he's still one of the signings of the season and already paid back that £12m with the two goals and culture/mentality shift instilled into the rest of the team

Perhaps we can go towards this: Schar Lascelles Burn Murphy Targett Bruno Joe Willock ASM Wood Basically 5-3-2 / 3-5-2 I know Targett is more defensive but can see that working - better than the likes of Kraft who is terrible in both a back 4 and a 5 There's no-one really else that can fit there. Manquillo would have been a great like-for-like with minimum disruption so it's sod's law both went off.

I’d defo start him as currently Villa have their own flair Brazilian in Coutinho (who is in good form too) that they want us to worry about whereas Bruno is an unknown quantity and will make their preparation on how to handle him difficult.

Temperamental French flair left-wingers are synonymous with the club (in the PL era) as much as a revered number 9 knocking them in

Any chance of him getting in Brazils World Cup squad as a midfielder or is that going too far?

Perchinho v2.0

In a way, maybe it's a good thing we missed out on the likes of Botman and Ekitike given their ages (21 and 19), with the position we're in, everyone signed is either a model professional and/or leader material, battle hardened to keep the team up. I think having this group injects some life, some winning spirit and most important some stronger mentality in what was a fragile group previously. Secondly, we've scored a decent amount of goals this season, relatively speaking (it's not been like previous seasons under Benitez, for example where we kept it tight but couldn't score many). The defence was haemorrhaging goals so it was right to focus on the back line which is much stronger now and with Bruno we have someone who can facilitate the fast counter attack with his range of passing and transitions. We have a bit of everything, Wood for the long ball target man approach, Wilson and WIllock for running onto the through balls and finishing, ASM for the magic, Almiron for the pace and tenacity, Joe to break it all up and Shelvey to distribute from a distance without needing to defend. It's a fairly balanced side now, so it was intelligent spending, as opposed to Saudi's flexing their muscles and trying to show UAE and Qatar the new kid on the block. That ego driven approach would have been the worst thing - so glad Howe had enough influence to get in what he needs between now and end of the season.