St. Maximin

Half of Bruce’s chums in the media aren’t even subtle about it - “I like Bruce”

Maybe I'm ignorant of the risks but I really don't see why a country would not justify having 25% full stadiums in over two months time, given they are outdoors and how spread out people will be.

Without wishing to become Bruce, I think there were plenty of positives from yesterday and I quite like how the formation worked. Whatever it says about our situation, Ritchie and Murphy clearly should have had more game time in recent weeks and the positions were far more logical (Willock not starting bizarre though). Saying that I think we’ve seen Bruce (/Jones) can change a formation, get some instant success before the lack of plan becomes apparent and things stop working. He did that initially by switching to ‘Rafa tactics’ (of the highly watered down kind), before it all just got defensive and hoping ASM did something brilliant. Then he switched to a back four and we had some initial good performances, but over time the lack of plan and defensive frailties become clear. Then more recently the split strikers formation was brilliant against Everton, but once Wilson got injured no one had an idea how to threaten and it just looked bizarre. So we’ll have to see here... but maybe we’ll do enough if we play like yesterday.

He’s positive, hard-working, athletic and seems to have some footballing intelligence, so I can see why Bruce doesn’t pick him.

That’s a very good and interesting analysis of things, but Bruce is being compared to Rafa and in fairness to him (painful as it is) never should he be expected to achieve similar feats, whether we like him or not (despite all the loons claiming he was better last year). For me simply the fact we are fighting relegation with our squad isn’t really a disgrace. I’ve said it before but we really don’t have a great squad when you look at some of the players who should be getting regular game time. It’s a pretty similar level to Fulham, Brighton, Burnley, Crystal Palace and Southampton imo and I’m yet to be convinced otherwise. They all have decent players as well and are better than the squad we had in 2017/18. Outside the top 8 or so I’d say there isn’t even that much variation and recently years have seen teams like Burnley and Sheffield United finish high up and then fight/get relegation the next year. However, the way Bruce approaches just about everything is a shambles and our form over the last 20 games is not acceptable. There’s a reason Brighton are where they are also but the way they play makes them so much more tolerable. Utterly bizarre how some pundits expect us to be happy with what we see, but then again a lot of them are incredibly dense. So yeah, Bruce is still absolutely shite of course.

Can't imagine Wilder being a yes man but on the other hand he is used to working for a Saudi

100% I'd guess he is fed information from a member of the playing squad as articles always lead with a view on how the squad or members of it feel about a decision i.e. a player being allowed to travel home for recovery, a bust up or argument. When Bruce said that fights happen up and down the country I'm sure they do. We've had Andy Griffin v Laurent Robert, Andy Carroll v Steven Taylor and I'm sure there will have been more over the years! Even more recently Shelvey got an injury for breaking up a fight under Rafa and apparently Ritchie is constantly gobbing off in training. Clearly the clash with Bruce went a bit deeper than tempers fraying on the pitch though.

To be honest there wasn’t much substance to the claims last year about his argument with ASM, whether it was intentional or not. ASM went to celebrate a goal with Bruce afterwards and Carroll was joking on Instagram about their fallout. Whatever happened, it didn’t seem like the Ritchie situation, which clearly was true.

It was that piece that gone him banned if I’m right? So wouldn’t be a reaction to it. Hope might have an agenda and I think some previous stuff (like the Bruce/ASM argument last year) might have been fabricated, but not so sure here. These players, by and large, don’t come across as mercenaries to me, especially the guys who have likely fallen out with Bruce (Ritchie, Carroll, Longstaff brothers, Schar etc.).

Agreed. Dunno about a top 10 side but it shouldn't be anywhere near a relegation battle. Is it really though? Granted we have some injuries but is the team we put out similar on paper to Brighton’s yesterday? Or even Fulham’s for that matter? We have absolute dross getting game time for us. Yes ASM, Wilson and Miggy are class but take them away and there’s no depth. Brighton have more options as well as playing better far football. This isn’t a defence of Bruce because he’s terrible, but I don’t see how our squad on paper is much better than a survival candidate?

Watching Fulham now and I’d say Parker. Think he could have been a legend here.

Facundo Ferreyra

The guy is brilliant. Comedy career very much in the pipelines for when his football managerial career soon ends.

Yeah perhaps, I see it both ways. At the very least I think it’s fair for Southgate to experiment with both a back three and four as always good to have different options, and I wouldn’t say the back three is proving disastrous. It’s just a shame excellent attacking players won’t even leave the bench as a result. I at least hope the midfield has a bit more going forward - Rice and Henderson are without doubt good players, but pretty underwhelming as a CM pair.

Big squad expected due to three matches, but even then does the 10 man defence suggest Southgate is going to persist with the back three/wing-backs? I get that when you look at the underwhelming options there, but just seems wrong a team far better going forward has to sacrifice a great attacker for a mediocre defender.

While I can empathise with the hesitation to celebrate thing, I don't agree with the argument that you can't properly celebrate goals now. Most of the time you can see it's highly unlikely a goal will be overturned due to an offside or handball etc. And despite the increase in overturns, it's not like goals were never ruled out before. I have mates saying they haven't properly celebrated a goal since VAR came in, but I have to say they are so anti-VAR that their cynicism makes them think that way whenever the ball goes into the goal. They have to review and adjust VAR (it looks like they have done a shambolic job of this so far), so I'm in favour of keeping it for now as long as that happens. It shouldn't be a case of no VAR or VAR as it is currently. Technology and how it's used is always improved over time.

Didn't watch him but he scored 9 in 39 in the Championship last year as a winger, so probably better than bang average imo. No doubt he has the ability but as was mentioned before he often fails to rise to the occasion. He did look bright that last two times he came on, so would definitely start him. Also don't mind Ritchie getting some time on the wing. As well as being a leader and fighter, he's definitely got decent enough technique out wide and unlike Joelinton can strike a football properly. Surprised he hasn't played more tbh.

I don’t really care about the Sunderland thing but it’s not surprising a guy who managed both Tyne and Wear, Birmingham and Sheffield clubs has persistently showed a lack of loyalty throughout his managerial career.

To be fair he managed most of those clubs in the league below at least part of the time, so not sure they’re fair comparisons. There’s enough stats from this season we could use that would be far more effective.

He smashed that goal in against Morecambe tbh.

This is one of the best yet...

To be fair, has he even pretended he joined us a Newcastle fan? He talked about being a boyhood fan when he got the job, but I’m sure all that dedication disappeared years ago. I think it’s often thick people in the media and the like who exaggerate the connection, what with Bruce being “one of their own”. We’ve had blokes from London and Spain manage us in recent years who are more Geordie than he is, upbringing aside.

I have a mate whose wife speaks Portuguese and has got to know Joelinton and his wife a bit. Apparently getting settled here has been tough and they haven’t felt well supported by the club there. Hardly surprising really.

More than 3 and a half minutes between every pass he made. Nice.

That for a time being he actually looked nowhere near the level of rubbish that Hendrick has for us so far. Admittedly he played a lot more but clearly he had a few good moments in that first season to go with the rubbish. Hendrick has looked consistently horrific ever since that goal against West Ham. I’m genuinely not sure what he’s supposed to be good at. The absolute state of our midfield options. Regarding Matty I’m still mystified what he’s done to be not getting in the squad now, let alone on the pitch. Actually looked like a semi-competent midfielder against some of the best sides then is nowhere to be seen while idiots like Shelvey and Hendrick stink up the place.