HaydnNUFC

He's pretty much unsackable isn't he. Our own Steve Kean. Under Ashley, he's sacked Allardyce, Hughton and McClaren. Allardyce was before it all truly went to shit, it got a bit toxic at times and he wasn't even Ashley's choice. Hughton was for no fucking reason. McClaren was when it was too late, but his last game, at SJP, was rancid in terms of performance and atmosphere. Would an atmosphere and performance a la McClaren v Bournemouth make them sack this fat fucking fraud? Even then they didn't do it until the following Friday after they knew for certain that Benitez was going to take the job. And it was in March. What a shite club.

He's been licking the hoops of the hierarchy for paying for a transfer in the same way every single fucking club pays for a transfer. He can fuck off.

Kamara would be a brilliant signing, which why it won't happen.

As was Benitez. Without wanting to sound like the delewdid jawdee but what bigger, better club in the PL would look at him? Arsenal supporters would turn their noses up at him, can't think of any other club who despise their manager.

The way the club handles young players is fucking tragic. Loan them out to Scotland, League 2, League 1, probably the Championship every now and then ad infinitum until they reach about 24 and sell them for an absolute pittance before a few of them end up being decent players. Give them chances here in cup matches; Burnley was a perfect opportunity to play Anderson, have a blend of younger players with senior ones if we get a shit side in the FA Cup. I'd be far more intrigued and supportive of the side on the pitch if it had the likes of Anderson, Kell Watts, Adam Wilson, Rosaire Longelo or Stan Flaherty in it than Krafth, Hendrick, et al. These lads never get a chance at a decent level so we'll never find out if they're good enough at said decent level. Ah whey. Fuck it all.

Could register 3 GKs instead of 4 tbf.

A 23 year old lad at Leicester City can't be on that much. Fuck me.

Bruce has been after since his first summer at the club hasn't he? So bizarre when there's better options out there. We should've been all over Kamara/Cajuste and we should be all over Maitland-Niles too.

Urgh.

Be unreal if he walks. Get Howe in.

Fair enough, but also as you say given our injury record under Bruce compared to what it was under Benitez then a new, better manager would also be able to improve that side of things. At this point I'd tear your hand off for Howe.

A lot of 2019-20 was unsustainable. Shelvey and our defenders were scoring almost all of our goals, Dubravka tended to have blinders but pre-COVID we were fairly solid defensively and that to fall back on. Especially at SJP. After lockdown and the restart of football we've been mostly a mess at the back. Since football restarted in June 2020, we've kept 3 clean sheets at home. Over 23 home games. That's absolutely rancid. Last season our goalscoring improved; we scored 38 goals in 2019-20, 46 last season which is our highest total since 2011-12. But defensively we're a mess, yet Bruce continues to play defensive/more conservative football in spite of conceding goals. We've played 3 centre halves with wing backs in our first 3 games this season and conceded 8 goals. A decent manager would be able to improve this, I'm convinced. If we can score 46 goals last season yet still be as shit as we were for large parts of it, then surely someone who does 'do tactics' and can set the team up correctly with the right players in the right positions we'd improve at the back, look fitter and be a few points and places better off. But that won't change until Bruce and his staff get the bullet and fuck knows when that's going to happen.

You could say, "if you take out their best players they wouldn't be as good" about any team in world football though. The cover is shit, but when he has those players at his disposal we should be doing far better. Can't think of many players at Southampton I would take. Ward-Prowse, Armstrong perhaps? Even still he doesn't get ahead of Wilson. Redmond? He played well when he came on on Saturday but is he not a sideways step from the like of Fraser who we have yet to see much of? Wolves, granted, you'd have Jimenez, Neves, Traore maybe, Coady, possibly a few others. Brighton? Bissouma and that's it for me. The more we stand still in the transfer market the more those sides will get better than us however. Wilson started 23 games last season, but he played against Brighton at home. Away to Sheffield United, Brentford, Leeds, plenty of shockers where he was having the ball hoofed up to his neck due to backward and outrageous tactics and formations. We're probably lucky to get 25+ starts out of ASM, granted. But 12th isn't an overachievement for this lot, its probably par for the course but it papered over the gaping cracks such as 2 wins in 22 or whatever it was. And that was down to Bruce.

ASM's numbers in terms of the stats are poor. Think he's only got around, 4 goals and 3 assists in each of his seasons here so far? But he's integral to this side. Rondon and Perez were always on the same wavelength, and Perez afaik was never injured. No idea if Perez needed someone like Rondon to play with either, given how Leicester fans think of him.

100%. I'd take us being winless until Spurs if it meant Bruce was jettisoned and Howe brought in. This squad is capable getting ~48 points a season imo, under the right manager.

Unfortunately won't be able to come to this one this year, apologies lads. Shame as I really like the craic. Hopefully I'll be able to come to red v blue in April or May, whenever that's staged.

Is that Bruce v Benitez or us this season v 2020-21 and 2019-20?

Wilson had 12 goals and 5 assists in 23 starts last season. Rondon had 11 goals and 7 assists in 30 starts in 18-19. Enormous if but if Wilson had stayed fit or started the same amount of games as Rondon his output is greater imo. Anyway, for me 18-19 is probably very similar to now tbh, definitely not a better first team and squad. It's more or less the same, swap Rondon for Wilson and Perez for ASM. Ki for Willock and Diame for, well, nee one. Its more or less the same side. But that side had Benitez, he made those players far more than the sum of their parts. Bruce is the antithesis of that.

Using Hendrick as a sole argument as to why the squad is 'awful' is incredibly shortsighted imo. There's a nucleus of a alright PL side there iyam. Needs a few tweaks but a whole new manager and coaching set up. The prick holds every team that he manages back with the exception of Hull. Not many players have been with us for 5 years as the only additions for a decent wedge were made after Benitez left. That's no fault of theirs. The players here for 5 years were signed for the Championship and have yet to be flogged due to neglect by the ownership. Hence why they're still here. Wilson, ASM, Almiron when used properly, Willock, Schär, Lewis once he receives decent coaching, Fraser at a stretch plus the likes of Murphy, Manquillo, Hayden and perhaps the Longstaffs as squad players is the basis of a midtable PL, non relegation worrying side. Bruce brings them back down to being perennial strugglers. Ashley's neglect of the playing staff stemming back to January 2017 is a gargantuan part of why so many players from 2016-17 are still prominently featuring now. But I'll die on the hill that the options we have are canny for this level and the manager is holding them back tenfold. Someone like Howe would get far more out of this group.

Anywhere between 3 and 7-0. Gonna be the first game since West Ham away in 2019-20 (which we won and went 0-3 up in ) I'm deliberately choosing not to watch.

Don't agree that it's an awful squad. There's a nucleus of a decent side in there, they're just being used utterly terribly, in the wrong positions and with tactics and a formation which is pure self harm. IMO its our best squad since 2013-14 and it should be in midtable with no worries of a relegation battle. It just underlines how shit Bruce is and how much of a cunt Ashley is. With a decent couple of additions under a decent manager who knows what he's doing, we're well clear of any flirtation with relegation. Bruce would probably have Leicester, Villa and West Ham's current squads struggling and fighting with relegation. It's just how utterly shit the bloke is.

Fucking hell. The Platinum Club looks like it hasn't changed since its launch in 1993.

My self imposed exile didn’t last long need to vent about how shit it all is. The only benchmark I’m going to be comparing Bruce and his band of merry bell ends on the coaching staff to for the most part is his first season; 2019-20, as I’m a firm believer that football with full grounds in and lockdown football are two completely different sports. Other teams have stepped up in intensity and speed in moving the ball and in their press. We haven’t. We’ve seen yesterday’s performance all the time last season, from just the top of my head, Brighton (h), Man Utd (h), Chelsea (h), Fulham (h), Leeds (h), Arsenal (h). All home games where we looked petrified of leaving our own third against sides that didn’t even deserve that kind of respect, so the only outlet is hoofing it straight back to the opposition and they were the performances that would have seen the reaction from the crowd yesterday. This 5-3-1-1 that we’re playing is fucking terrible. It’s got wingers playing as wing backs in a system that always enables a numerical advantage to the opposition in wide areas via an overlapping full back which allows any team playing 4 at the back with attackers out wide crossing opportunities almost at will. In turn, our wing backs can’t get forward to create width of our own because they’re always back defending due to there being no outlet whatsoever other than punts up to ASM or Wilson so turnovers of possession happen almost all the time when we get the ball back. It’s got a number 10 with a slight frame who can’t defend playing in centre midfield and a very good winger playing almost like a fucking target man due to long balls being the only out ball, so our 18 yard line is always under pressure. The 3 man midfield almost as deep as the back 5 so there are absolutely zero options in the middle going forward. The formation is pretty much self fucking harm. In 2019-20 we played a back 5 all season other than away at Leicester (went down to 10 men and lost 5-0) and the last 3 games before the first lockdown; Burnley (h) which was a 0-0 draw, 2-3 win at West Brom in the FA Cup and 0-1 win at Southampton. Still we were defensively solid in 2019-20 pre COVID, especially at home. I’ve wondered whether that was defensive tendencies instilled by Benitez were yet to wear off or simply the formation played. We played 5-2-3 or 5-4-1 with ASM and Almiron out wide; that meant the numerical advantage the opposition can get in wide areas didn’t exist then as they came back and helped Manquillo and Dummett/Ritchie with the overlapping full backs of the opposition, plus because of ASM and Almiron wide with wing backs we had an out ball. Now that’s gone. We can easily go 4-2-3-1; Woodman, Manquillo, Lascelles/Fernandez, Schar, Lewis, Willock, Hayden/Shelvey, Murphy/Fraser, Almiron, ASM, Wilson. Players in their actual positions. Options going forward and (relative) protection for full backs and the centre halves. Almiron in his position which has seen his best games for us; West Brom away in the cup, Southampton at home last season. Another thing I have to say about us under Bruce is his game management is absolutely shocking. Taking the lead in the 90th minute and not winning is absolutely scandalous. Even games in the past; Leicester away, we were 0-4 up with 10 minutes left, he takes Willock and ASM off and it stripped us of our engine and pacy outlet and we end up pretty much fucking hanging on. West Brom away in the cup, Almiron gets 2 goals and plays a key part in our 3rd, Bruce takes him off, West Brom score 2 and we’re hanging on at the end again! West Ham, 2-0 up at HT, them down to 10 and guess what? We let them fucking equalise before Willock bailed us out. Absolutely shit. Then he’ll go like ‘ah it wouldn’t be Newcastle if it wasn’t dramatic’ or ‘this job should come with a health warning’. No, Steve. It’s your own tactical ineptitude you gormless cunt. He has to change things again as he’s still playing lockdown football and he won’t last this whole season whilst trying to do so imo. Admittedly probably when it’s too late, but still.