Abra Dubravka

It was his interpretation of Rafa, which was stick 11 men behind the ball and do f*** all else. He wasn't intelligent enough to understand there was far more to Rafa's set up than that. Yeah totally agree. He all but admitted he was going with the flow for the best part of 18months in the post match on BBC the other day. Basically he's come in, wanted to do 442 - hasn't worked, and senior players have pushed for 541 set up that was working with Rafa. He's gone for that against the big sides, and it's become the standard approach this year - and it's not uncommon for him to play wing backs anyhow. Problem is he hasn't a clue how to coach a 541 low block, that's actually defensively solid, compact and can transition and get bodies forward. That being said, a fair share of blame still has to be at the players for playing like braindead cowards for the best part of a year. The squad last season suited a 541, but replacing Rondon with Jokelinton was a killer. Think Jones' arrival has actually cemented his 'do it my way' approach, and I'm open-minded as I can be that we won't see shut turd dished out each week as we have up to that second half against Leeds recently - and things could improve. I don't think we'll go down, and see Bruce as a glorified caretaker, but what boils my p*ss is why it's taken so long. Change it end of last year going into this season, that's what pre-season/mini-pre-season after Covid break would have been for. Even taking so long into this season after it was clear we were on a downward slope (even when results were coming, it was obvious it wasn't sustainable) to change it, do it his way, bring in a Jones is unforgivable. Blokes a total fraud, and embarrassment to PL/top-half Champ level management.

He doesn’t understand quotes like ‘little bit samey’ are direct reflections on him. He’s been in charge over a one and half seasons now, signed in enough players, and had enough opportunity to promote in anyone from youth team to carry his direction. We’ve seen Anderson for 20mins, totally frightening he hasn’t given at least a couple of lads serious game time as a shake up and message to rest of squad he wants things doing his way. Guy is a joke. Happy for 18months to let players do what they wanted, which was Rafa. Unfortunately with no direction or coaching, Rafa’s approach which squad loved turns in to this shitshow we saw against Sheff U and pretty much every game for last year.

Sheff U was clearly signs of him being so frustrated with the rest of the morons he was playing allowing themselves to be suffocated by Bruceball - giving the ball away constantly and having no balls to run forward.

CL has already become a defacto Super League anyway, hasn't it? The level of competition in the group stages within recent years has been fairly minimal thinking off the top of my head. Been quite groups done and dusted early on, dead rubbers, and the usual bigger groups making their way through. The same names always seem to feature in the Quarters, certainly the Semis over the last 5 or so years, What I can take seriously, and angers me the most is the temerity of clubs like Manchester United, and likely Arsenal if they publicly start pushing for it. Man United didn't make it through into the knockouts this year, and haven't been far from a mainstay in the competition let alone the latter stages for 10 years or so now. Their far from a European giant in a sporting sense any longer. It's sad that your seeing football just being bypassed as a sporting entity. Champions League in principle is a competition for the best and 'elite' of Europe, to get to compete at that level you have to prove your good enough through league performance. That's what Man United should be most worried about; and once there, show your worth and not drop out at first hurdle. The money the English clubs have available to them against many teams we've seen to get to the latter stages recently is vast. Mid 2000's to early 10's English clubs dominated and were always featuring in finals/semis, but since the huge deals have been injected into the PL and finances have rocketed, English clubs have really failed to pack a punch at all - and you have to question what on earth have they been doing with their money.

Your posts are full of hate in this thread He'd finally be able to give himself that England cap he never got. Give himself 20mins at the end to boot some San Marino accountant up in the air. Have to find a shirt big enough mind

Load of s****. It’s all the ‘biggest’ and greediest clubs throughout the leagues, all wanting to protect and grow their future income at the expense of the alleged smaller clubs. https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/liverpool-man-utd-face-grilling-23440473 My point is more the likes of Barca and Real in Spain, and Bayern or Juve in Germany and Italy don't have to kick up so much of a fuss for a European League - those teams are always going to be finishing in qualifying places. They'll obviously go for it, as it makes perfect sense on a corporate level. England, we have more teams that could feel vulnerable to being squeezed out. Arsenal spent years playing in CL, now struggling to even get in Europe. Man United, years finishing top few positions, now CL isn't guaranteed. Man City have come along, Spurs improved, now teams like Leicester and Everton posing a threat - English clubs are the ones with the stance of entitlement pushing harder for a Super League. Man U and Liverpool are owned by Americans that can't get their head around the European make up of having to be continually competitive to be at the top table - not just a rite of passage you can pay for like a franchise model. Juve, Real, PSG, Barca, Bayern, even Atletico and Dortmund don't have the same fear of missing out.

It's only English clubs that have any beef over not being in Europe, and will be kicking up a fuss to EUFA or pushing for a European league. Rest of Europe seems fairly content with the basis of you have to perform in the league to get into the Champions League. But now with the added money in the PL, there's increased competition on the top places, you can bet Chelsea, Spurs, Man U, Arsenal are worried - worried they'll be missing out on the CL cash cow, not worries about not being competitive or improving. Intitled wankers. If the likes of Arsenal are missing out on the Champions League there's only one answer - get better, and stop being mid-table.

Not much of a hot take that, plenty of teams are reliant on one or two players getting the goals, and it's not like either of those sides have actually won anything anyway. Constant analysis and punditry on Spurs bores me to death, they haven't won anything for years, and have competed for the title about once in my lifetime.

Sounds like a back door to get Arsenal in now they've turned into mid-table, and whoever is losing out in top-4 now likes Leicester, Villa, Everton are showing some competition to the elite.

World Club Cup on iPlayer... Andre Pierre Gignac scored twice for Tigres. Blast from the past, weren't we linked with him for a while years back

Interesting watch if you've got 10-15 mins spare ... Kirkland, played for Rafa, Bruce and Jones/Martinez Skip into about 44mins..

Don't blame the players staying on for whatever loyalty bonus they signed when they made their deal. It's our fault for making the deal with the players. What doesn't make sense is why we haven't been able to secure deals to get them moved to clubs whist paying percentages of their deals. Saivet went out on loan as soon as we dropped to the Championship, so there must have been some appetite from clubs who would have taken him in 2017 or 2018 windows - just that we'd have had to pay a percentage of whatever contract was owed to him. Even Ki was paid up to leave the club

Whatever moron (Charnley) that deals contracts to these sorts of players shouldn't be in a job. Can't blame Rafa/whoever for bringing him into the club, but signing a player who's unproven/stop-gap/back-up on more than a 2 year deal is mental. The club must have lost millions in recent years on contracts of players who haven't even been PL registered - Atsu, Saivet, Aarons, Lazaar, Colback.... Emil Kraft on a 4 year deal, when it would surely make more sense to 2 year with option of 3rd on appearances etc. Isn't playing, doesn't seem to have long term future here, he'll be the next we're stuck with and can't/refuse to shift on. I can appreciate players and agents wouldn't really fancy anything short term, but that's not our problem.

And yet ... we still suck. Be interesting to see how he looks in the current setup now we actually have more of the ball and players are getting forward. Despite his many limitations he tends to make things happen for those around him far more than Carroll and Gayle do, so we'll see I guess. Might be more suited as that wide forward than we've seen previously, and always thought he was a better option instead of Carroll to partner Wilson when we doing that Bruce 442 with Almiron wide. But now it looks like were going with Jones' 433/diamond - no chance he starts ahead of Wilson and ASM who should be first names on team sheet, then Almiron seems to fit the central forward who drops deep so you'd fancy him over Fraser. But you can't have any faith to bring him on if we need a goal - he doesn't score, he's not creative with a pass either, and can't take on a man. Neither do Gayle, or Carroll really, but you'd have more faith of them getting on end of something. With all the forward players fit, you'd only really fancy Fraser to come off the bench to add something. He has a knack for setting people up to score when he is able to get on the ball further up the pitch and there are options ahead of him. He won us the game at Palace (the team we just lost to) by setting up the first and then scoring the second (which was a horrendous goal ), but it still counted though. I guess we'd potentially see a different player in him now we are capable/allowed to have bodies forward. Whenever he's played before he's either been the only player within 30 yards when playing up front, or shoved wide with limited options closed off. He can hold up the ball I take, and get his arse in the way, but I think baring Gayle really every other forward can do that as well. I've just lost total trust and faith in him. Take the point that he won us the game at Palace, but if you'd look at the game as a whole he was his usual self for the majority of the game. Those two goals were just huge anomalies, just mental really in last few minutes of game we deserved to lose. Even a blind squirell can find a nut, and Joe's been bumping into trees and falling from branches since he turned up here and whenever he featured after that Palace escapade.

And yet ... we still suck. Be interesting to see how he looks in the current setup now we actually have more of the ball and players are getting forward. Despite his many limitations he tends to make things happen for those around him far more than Carroll and Gayle do, so we'll see I guess. Might be more suited as that wide forward than we've seen previously, and always thought he was a better option instead of Carroll to partner Wilson when we doing that Bruce 442 with Almiron wide. But now it looks like were going with Jones' 433/diamond - no chance he starts ahead of Wilson and ASM who should be first names on team sheet, then Almiron seems to fit the central forward who drops deep so you'd fancy him over Fraser. But you can't have any faith to bring him on if we need a goal - he doesn't score, he's not creative with a pass either, and can't take on a man. Neither do Gayle, or Carroll really, but you'd have more faith of them getting on end of something. With all the forward players fit, you'd only really fancy Fraser to come off the bench to add something.

He probably earned £200 in the time he was sat in the chair Say he's on 50k a week, about 40mins equates to £200

Only watched last half hour of Liverpool game last night, but Origi stood out as being totally hopeless, especially last few minutes just getting in the way or launching it out of play instead of playing TAA in

Taken the oafs in charge long enough to figure out this guy is a donkey now... Hasn't featured since that Arsenal loss when he was lumbering around on the wing. Didn't come off bench for Palace, ASM, Gayle and even Carroll ahead of him. Everton we only made 2 subs, we were winning so fair enough not sticking on a forward, But we were losing in Leeds game and only 2 subs, and he didn't come off bench. Losing to Villa and only 2 subs made, and doesn't come on. Fallen to bottom of the forward pecking order now... 1) Wilson and ASM 2) Fraser, Almiron 3) Gayle/Carroll 4) Jokelinton

Last 10 games I'd have had us down to pick up 7/12 points from possible 30, and we picked up 5! Going into that Leeds game we'd played 12, were 14th on 21 points. Add an either predicted 7 or 12 points to that, it would have meant we'd now be either on 26 points (14th/15th) or 33 points (9th) - were now on 22 points 16th Next 10 game predictions - 7 winnable games, but can't see us picking up more than 7 points honestly. That's if Bruce stays in charge, which I can't invisage anything else sadly. That'd stick us on P32 - 29 Points - well in the s***, but we'd stay above 18th as long as Fulham can't pick up 15 or more points in the next 11 games, WBA picked up 18 points in 10, or Sheff U picked up 28 in 10. On that basis, Bruce should have relegated us - if nothing changes he'll finish us on a points total that honestly doesn't deserve to stay up, and has every right to lose his job. But sadly anything above 18th is good enough. Southampton home - Draw/Win- 1/3 Chelsea away - Lose - 1/3 Man U away - Lose - 1/3 Wolves home - Draw/Win - 2/6 WBA - away - Draw/lose - 3/6 Villa home - Lose - 3/6 Brighton away - Lose/Draw - 3/7 Spurs home - lose - 3/7 Burnley - away - Lose/Draw 4/7 West Ham - Home - Draw/Lose 5/7

Wouldn't mind the 'throw on strikers' approach to getting an equaliser if the players were coached better, or a bit more intelligent enough to grasp the fact they collectively need to change their approach. I remember Neville saying with Man United they had to sustain pressure on sides and waited for them to cave, like not giving/letting the other side win fouls, high temp quick and passing, ringing the box with players to keep the ball in the area when it breaks etc. Their all still going to play their own way, and not understand they need to all shift approaches to a way that sustains pressure and gets the ball into the box/behind the defence. Ties into a wider disjointed approach to when Bruce plays Carroll, or subs him on - we never actually cross the ball for him that much, or he never really busts a gut to get in the box when he goes deep. Personally don't think he's even that much of a threat in air/crosses any more anyway

Wolves away With the added spice of Murphy as a wing back and Hendrick in the headless chicken-run-around and achieve nothing role. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this was Brucey basically throwing his toys out of the pram in response to us all calling him out on his defensive limp-dick football by throwing all the attacking players into an XI as if that could actually affect anything; total failure to comprehend some detailed and effective coaching might actually be the solution to a problem he isn't even able to fix or at best see.

Missed out most of the first half last night, watched first 10mins and then tuned back in, and it was 2-1 From what I saw from the kick-off it was night and day. Total breathe of fresh air and a joy to watch. Everyone looked to have an energy about them, pressing high, but with clear triggers - like even Hendrick or Shelvey bursting out of nowhere to charge someone down and stop Palace passing it into midfield. No chance has that come from the Cock in charge or his two balls.

Noticed against Everton we were passing it out on goal kicks, and trying to beat Everton press instead of hoofing it like we always have done with Bruce. Was back to hoofing it again last night.

Been thinking that for a while. SAF obviously had head coaches do the bulk of the training, would change them around every few years (McLaren, Quireoz, Muelensteen) and that's obviously Brucey Bumfuck's copy cat approach as well. Totally makes sense he'd take a lot from Ferguson's approach to managing in his own approach to management. Worked well enough in first half of his managerial career, but second half, last 10 years he's become more and more redundant as a PL level manager as seasons go by. He was all but done at PL, but we throw him a bone. He'd have no doubt been sacked/walked from Sheff Wed by now without promoting them, and no other PL side we're going to be giving him a job after failing at Villa. His interview on BBC sport is frightening. Finally, he says he didn't bother changing anything for 18months as the players liked playing 'Rafa's way', sitting deep, and it was going well enough. Now he's decided to do things 'his way', which means essentially bringing in Jones to do the coaching directional change.