Holmesy

As much as I can’t stand Steve Bruce, he was genuinely unlucky tonight - injuries to key players ruined us and changed the balance of the game. Doesn’t excuse 18 months of shite though.

If Jamie Reuben really is advising Ashley to protect both of their investments, surely it’s a no-brainier to say ‘sack Bruce now and hire someone decent’. If his advice is keep Bruce but bring in a decent coach, it’s a proper head scratcher.

But he’s tall for a fullback though.

Then it'll be the players aren't good enough. 'He just simply hasn't had the backing from the club needed'. 'We'll leave it there Gary. Coming up next on Monday Night Football, is Joelinton at a whopping £45M the biggest Premier League flop ever. Thoughts from Jamie and Gary coming up' "The manager can only do so much. Once the whistle blows it's the players who have got to go out and DO it!" Not to give the simpleton an inch here but that’s actually a valid point... We’ve so much dross in the side, we all always up against it. Standards are so low, meaning consistency is never there. Once in 20 or so games we put something together that resembles a performance. Always up against it relying on Krath, Lewis, and Shelvey, Joe to somehow get a 5/10, in the blind hope they put in a 8+ performance. Like Almiron running free, and Joe loafing nowhere near him. Clark far post header back across goal, Joe stood in the D of the box. You can’t legislate for such pure incompetence. Krath too square and being nutmegged by Rahford, then in his brain dead panick to atone gets done inside when only way he should be shown is 4 yards to by line. The players go onto the pitch having been prepared for the game by the coaches, with a game plan put together by the manager. If the manager has analysed the opposition properly, identified weaknesses and drilled the players in the run up to the game and then they don’t follow their instructions, the players are to blame. If the manager is too lazy and incompetent to do his job properly and sends the players out completely ill-prepared, you can’t blame the players.

Fucking criminal mismanagement of a football club this. Absolutely fucking scandalous incompetence

Just a matter of time

What does this fat pleb have to do to get sacked?!

Anyone fancy doing a bit of fucking defending lads!!?

It is possible to be a good man manager and a good tactician at the same time - Brendan Rodgers, Klopp, Guardiola, Potter, even Dyche all seem to manage it. Modern football requires you to be more than a good laugh around the training ground, hence why we’ve had to bring in someone qualified to do the actual foot all side of things. Should be Embarrassing as fuck for Bruce.

Of course it’s him. We had 18 months of Bruceball and it was like chalk and cheese compared to this. His only role now is motivation, he clearly has fuck all to do with coaching, tactics etc.

Especially when we know how easily avoidable it is. One or two sensible decisions and we're comfortably mid table every year, without increasing our meagre budgets

And that he had no end product

What the fuck is Joelinton on?! He’s not just shit, he’s thick as mince as well. Might as well have set fire to £40m

Good to see Joelinton is still a bag of shit

That was actually quite an entertaining half of football. Feels very strange

I wonder who put that together for you Steve....?

Sleeve wanker!

Dust wanker!

It was his interpretation of Rafa, which was stick 11 men behind the ball and do fuck all else. He wasn't intelligent enough to understand there was far more to Rafa's set up than that.

Yes is the answer Rafa is 100% football focused, gets results but nobody likes him Martinez doesn't believe in footballers having kids Bruce is the best of the lot, always asking how the kids are. I don't think any of us doubt that the players like Bruce. By all accounts he's a nice fella, but he is by every measure available a shit football manager and contrary to what Kirkland says, his CV backs that up. Being a nice guy used to be enough but it isn't now, when every top manager is slicing and dicing the game and opposition to find a competitive advantage. Just sending on a bunch of ill-prepared players out with nothing more than 'do it for your kids' is going to get you beaten 9 times our of ten. Keepers are the worst players to ask anyway - regardless of who the manager is their role barely changes.

Bruce’s face is brilliant!

His inability to separate experience from talent is laughable! “I’ve been around a long time. 500 games etc.” We know Steve, you’ve been stinking up the PL making everyone else look good for 500 games.

Hopefully that’s the case but even it is (on paper) him still running the show, the players are naturally going to gravitate towards Jones and listen to him because he’s the only one of the four who knows what he’s doing. Bruce will be forced into the background even if his title is still Manager.

The way Bruce will play it when pressed is that as a manager you listen to your coaches. Graeme had some ideas and I decided to try them out. That’s why I brought him here, because he’s a top coach and gives us something different. The media will lap it up and we’ll be back to where we were

The role Miggy was in today might suit him. Could see him as one of the strikers pulling into the wide areas he tends to prefer. Think Miggy's movement and ability to thread a ball will make that central role his. He was awesome there today. If Jones can identify Miggy’s best role after 2 days and get a performance like that from him, there’s every chance he can do similar for Joelinton. Be good to see what a confident well-coached big Joe looks like