HaydnNUFC

I think you may be surprised. We have no semblence of any plan or identity either going forward or defensively. We sit off teams in spite of clearly not being coached well enough defensively and our attacking plan is pass the ball to Saint-Maximin and hope he runs past 3 or 4 defenders before assisting Wilson. A new manager will change that because Bruce is just that bad, Villa is a prime example. Look at the mess they were under Bruce, they bring in Dean Smith from Brentford and he completely turns them around. Fonseca can do that imo.

Leeds, Man Utd and Spurs aside it's been fairly even this season tbf. So 5/8. Still not great. Thing is though, players like Schar, the right choices in midfield and attack would help with this despite not being played by Bruce. Agree it'll take time to change our style and will take at least 2 windows before we see huge change. Rodgers was able to change Leicester from a counter attacking orientated side to a possession based one in 1 window, though he had far better players than us to originally work with.

Regarding Fonseca, found this. Love owt like these videos, fascinated by in depth tactical stuff personally.

We have good attackers, in spite of having no clear attacking plan or identity we have outscored quite a few sides in the league.

Yep. First few crumbs of misery doubt.

Video's now out.

Wish @Ando7 would say a tad more like, comes on, gives us a nugget of hope then disappears back over the River Styx for a few weeks before the next nugget.

Any idea when it'll be official?

How this wanker conducts himself with days off whilst we're so shit and unfit is fucking insulting iyam.

That's fair. Howe was backed with a decent wedge at times but I think the size of Bournemouth may have meant that they'd have had to fork out extra cash for the players they could get. Just a theory though. I think you're right that Howe's next role will define him, a bit like Rodgers' role at Leicester when he left Celtic which was always going to define him. Now he's seen as one of the best managers in the league and rightly so. I also agree with leaning towards Fonseca and Favre rather than Howe but that's just because the unknown excites me.

It doesn't diminish the overall achievement at Bournemouth though. I'm of the opinion of it being far too simplistic to look at it as 'well they went down, so why is he seen as so good?' That's another huge part at the 'look at the outcome, forget the context' thing in this country I was going on about. For example, take our beloved Rafa Benitez. Before the Valencia job, he was sacked by Real Valladolid and Osasuna for poor runs, took Extremadura up to La Liga but went down following season before going up with Tenerife. Valencia, who had been in 2 Champions League finals running offered him the job. In his first interview after becoming Valencia manager he talks about him believing he has the tools to make Valencia improve. Now think if that happened in this country. "hahahaha he got sacked twice last two times in La Liga, has been relegated, now he's coming into one of the biggest clubs in the league saying he's going to improve them?" That would be the mantra from fans, pundits, journalists alike. That is why Europe produces better managers than us more regularly, because this sort of thing is accepted. And it's similar sort of thing with Howe, 'he got relegated in his last season at Bournemouth now he thinks he's going to keep Newcastle up?' I'm annoyed at our owners for not sacking Bruce yet, but if the owners are able to identify a quality coaching job when they see one, which Howe at Bournemouth was, without looking at the results and back him, I'd be very pleased. In spite of Howe not being my first choice.

Aye. Bournemouth were always going to go down eventually given the size of the club, a bit like Huddersfield were. To keep them in the league for 5 seasons whilst on the whole playing nice stuff is a hell of an achievement, because the last season went poorly due to injuries et cetera doesn't change that.

I think the issue with those turning their noses up at Howe is that in this country fans and pundits alike evaluate and label managers on the final outcomes rather than looking at the context as a whole; same reason why people outside of Newcastle think that Bruce has 'done a good job' because we haven't been relegated yet whilst he's been in charge. People don't want to dig deeper as fully look at a manager's job as a whole. People see Brendan Rodgers as a bottler because of the 2014 title at Liverpool, losing out on top 4 with Leicester two years running, they see Pochettino as naff because he's never won any silverware and see Howe as poor because Bournemouth eventually got relegated. Bournemouth from administration to League 1 under Howe in his first spell iirc, then from League 1 to the Premier League in 3 seasons. In the Premier League they played nice stuff, and stayed there for 5 seasons which included a top half finish in 2016/17. Their relegation season they suffered from quite a few injuries, a number of which was unprecedented given their injury record in previous seasons. I think he's a really good coach and fits the ethos of club like us. I'd rather take a chance on Howe than a has been, but the has been's like Bruce, Allardyce, Pardew, Hughes, Pulis et cetera are a dying breed. Only Mike Ashley would continue to appoint these cunts. Even in the Championship, Thomas Frank at Brentford to now, Valérien Ismaël at Barnsley and West Brom, the young, progressive coaches are the way forward in the modern game now Howe was one of the first of them. He'd be a good appointment albeit not the most exciting we could make. And that's just because me personally gets excited by the unknown, Fonseca would excite me more as probably would Favre. But Howe would be a solid choice.

He's a living, breathing meme but he's absolutely bang on.

On Bruce, out of curiosity, because we were relatively solid pre COVID in 2019-20 I've just been watching the last game before COVID hit where we beat Southampton away 0-1. Looking at our shape, we were playing a 4-2-3-1; Dubravka, Manquillo, Lascelles, Fernandez, Rose, Hayden, Shelvey, Ritchie, Almiron, Saint-Maximin, Gayle. Players in their correct positions, formation suits the team, and before Southampton's red card we were by far the better side and should've been winning. Beggar's belief on why he seems unable to do the same, with a better pool of players to pick from too.

Just posted in the other thread, Howe is far from my first choice but I'd take him all day ahead of Gerrard, Lampard and Martinez.

Howe might not be bad short term tbh. He's behind the likes of Conte (if we could even get him), Fonseca and Favre for me but ahead of Gerrard, Martinez and Lampard.

It's not though and should be called out as being not so. If we can get a worldie like Conte then it wouldn't matter if Bruce is there or not. Bruce is actively hindering our chances of points against beatable sides, removing him may remove that hindrance as Jones might not give the players 3 or 4 days off a week in the lead up to winnable games.

Aye. Watched that montage Sky played a few times to that Sam Fender tune again a few minutes ago, almost got emotional but remembered that we're managed by a dickhead who hasn't a clue.

No manager is so clearly the better option than that sorry excuse of a cunt. If they can't see that before Palace, I'll worry. Worrying already tbh. Another alright fixture tossed off so they can make some more shortlists, fuck off man.

I can't enjoy it again until Bruce is gone. Loved from the day it went through up until it was confirmed he was taking the Spurs game. Now I'm back in anger mode until he's gone. Sack him and/or get someone else in and I'll be hyped for Palace and Chelsea.

The 'future' is edging towards the fucking Championship and another 2 or 3 years set back from where we want to be. They should be shot with shite if this wanker isn't sacked.

They're all just guessing and it doesn't matter while Bruce is still here. On that rumour alone, Conte is more realistic than Simeone and Conte is almost a dream for us.