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Steve Bruce


Demitri_C

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I think people are forgetting the mistakes Elphick made against Hull. Luckily we didn’t get punished. 

I don’t beleive for a second Bruce wants to play Jedinak at centre half. He just doesn’t trust Elphick or Taylor and needs to be doing everything possible to replace them if they aren’t going to feature 

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15 hours ago, terrytini said:

Well, Chester and Hutton made sense, played the same positions as they’ve been doing..... so at most it’s 2 of the back 4 that made no sense isn’t it ? That’s my view anyway. Then, of the 2, there’s no obvious, better, alternative at CB, so whilst a poor option, one could argue it made as much sense as anything else. Which leaves Axel, and again, in my view, it’s not as if there was a clearly better alternative.

Add to that Bruce has made it clear he thinks - and I agree - that he didn’t rotate the squad enough last season, I’d say the back 4 made sense, in my view.

I understand if people have views as to alternatives they’d have preferred, but that’s not the same as it making no sense.

I agree.

I have no real complaints with Bruce at this time and certainly don't put much blame on him in regard to what was overall a pretty poor performance yesterday. I think aside from perhaps Jedinak at centre back he got the line up pretty much spot on. The new players need integrating asap and if Axel in particular is to be first choice he is going to need game time and hopefully with that he will improve.

What let us down yesterday wasn't the starting line up, the formation or the intent in our play it was the fact that 3 or 4 players had poor individual performances that dragged the level of the team down. Nyland perhaps understandably behind a new to him team looked unsure and nervous and failed to in anyway command his area. Jedinak was lacklustre. Kodjia was totally ineffective for the first 60 minutes and looks as though he badly needs a goal for confidence and Axel as said looks as though he needs game time to get up to speed.I thought Bruce got the substitutions spot on with Adomah coming on and Elmo going back to right back, Murphy for Green who was starting to look leggy understandably as that was his first competitive start in almost a year and Hourihane for Kodjia whose race was run.

The overall picture for me looks good. Maximum points from two games and playing nothing like to what we will be capable has to be a positive. Early days but McGinn looks a gem, Grealish unaffected after being 99% certain he was off, Chester and Hutton picked up from last season and Green/Murphy look ready to play a big part. Overall the squad looks strong and the positions we are lacking in left back, centre back and up top I expect to be addressed in the next couple of weeks. Another positive is that despite the loss of two big characters and leaders in Terry and Snodgrass the team spirit looks to still be intact as shown by coming from behind in both our games and yesterday going right until the death for a winner.

Whether some like it or not Bruce has managed us through what has been a very disruptive and uncertain summer and he is a big reason we have come out the other side and managed to start the season in decent shape and getting results. That is only the start of course and he has a lot to do to get us to build on it and meet the now increasing expectancy that we should again be well in the mix for promotion. So far so good though.

Edited by markavfc40
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24 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I think people are forgetting the mistakes Elphick made against Hull. Luckily we didn’t get punished. 

I don’t beleive for a second Bruce wants to play Jedinak at centre half. He just doesn’t trust Elphick or Taylor and needs to be doing everything possible to replace them if they aren’t going to feature 

Exactly. Elphick isnt up to it. So why not play Tuanzebe (a natural centre half) there instead?

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35 minutes ago, Mazrim said:

Exactly. Elphick isnt up to it. So why not play Tuanzebe (a natural centre half) there instead?

That’s true. I can only think it’s because he didn’t want to start with Adomah either. 

Bruce needs to work out which players he does not trust and do everything in his power to replace them. Because if he would rather play several players out of position as has no faith in the players that natural play there then we’re going to have a problem. 

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11 minutes ago, Mazrim said:

Exactly. Elphick isnt up to it. So why not play Tuanzebe (a natural centre half) there instead?

Well, why do you think ? Why do you think he did what he did ?

I mean, I’ll guess from what he and his team have seen of both he decided Jedi was the better bet. 

Thats what I’d hope happened anyway.

Im not sure I can think of any other explanation. 

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8 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

That’s true. I can only think it’s because he didn’t want to start with Adomah either. 

Bruce needs to work out which players he trusts and do everything in his power to replace them. Because if he would rather play several players out of position as has no faith in the players that natural play there then we’re going to have a problem. 

Perhaps he has done exactly that and just happens to see it differently to some of the thousands that watch us ?

As for the bit in italics about him replacing the players he trusts I know what you meant but it made me chuckle.

 

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@markavfc40 I agree with every word except it being an “ overall poor performance “..........of course this is entirely subjective but in my view you don’t create a fair chunk of chances, score three goals, and come from behind ( against a side with the wind - temporarily - in their sails, with an overall poor performance.

Id say it was good in parts, average, for the League, in parts, and poor in parts ( which was largely when Wigan had scored the Second and played with a bit of swagger). 

Other than that you’ve summed up how I saw it - dont really understand some of the criticisms.

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12 minutes ago, terrytini said:

@markavfc40 I agree with every word except it being an “ overall poor performance “..........of course this is entirely subjective but in my view you don’t create a fair chunk of chances, score three goals, and come from behind ( against a side with the wind - temporarily - in their sails, with an overall poor performance.

Id say it was good in parts, average, for the League, in parts, and poor in parts ( which was largely when Wigan had scored the Second and played with a bit of swagger). 

Other than that you’ve summed up how I saw it - dont really understand some of the criticisms.

 

Terry maybe I am being overly critical mate. I think the trouble is I, and perhaps others, still get sucked into the 'oh it is Wigan at home we should be winning this comfortably' mentality. I actually said in the reaction thread I was impressed with Wigan, especially going forward, and they will give plenty of teams problems this season. We didn't hep ourselves yesterday though and it could have been more comfortable had the players all been on their game.

As said overall I have no complaints and in fairness even though I have done it we shouldn't be dissecting every performance looking at where we can give the manager a bit of a pasting. He has managed us through a difficult summer and ensured the team spirit has been maintained and despite still lacking in certain areas and a few players not up to speed he has overseen a good start to the season. 

There is a bit of a feel good factor round the place now, it was great to see a big crowd yesterday and we have put an early foundation down to build on. We will fill the gaps in the squad I have no doubt about that and overall there is plenty to be positive about going forward. It is certainly a world away from what I was anticipating three weeks ago.

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18 minutes ago, terrytini said:

Perhaps he has done exactly that and just happens to see it differently to some of the thousands that watch us ?

As for the bit in italics about him replacing the players he trusts I know what you meant but it made me chuckle.

 

I’ve amended it. 

I hope his confident of replacing them because it can’t be good for their moral and confidence to see players being played out of position ahead of them. Especially when as in Jedinaks case it’s done poorly. 

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54 minutes ago, terrytini said:

Well, why do you think ? Why do you think he did what he did ?

I mean, I’ll guess from what he and his team have seen of both he decided Jedi was the better bet. 

Thats what I’d hope happened anyway.

Im not sure I can think of any other explanation. 

But Jedi is not a centre half and looks a massive liability there, therefore why would you think he's a better bet than somebody you've brought in to play there? So I have no idea why he did it. It baffles me.

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1 hour ago, markavfc40 said:

 

The overall picture for me looks good. Maximum points from two games and playing nothing like to what we will be capable has to be a positive. Early days but McGinn looks a gem, Grealish unaffected after being 99% certain he was off, Chester and Hutton picked up from last season and Green/Murphy look ready to play a big part. Overall the squad looks strong and the positions we are lacking in left back, centre back and up top I expect to be addressed in the next couple of weeks. Another positive is that despite the loss of two big characters and leaders in Terry and Snodgrass the team spirit looks to still be intact as shown by coming from behind in both our games and yesterday going right until the death for a winner.

Whether some like it or not Bruce has managed us through what has been a very disruptive and uncertain summer and he is a big reason we have come out the other side and managed to start the season in decent shape and getting results. That is only the start of course and he has a lot to do to get us to build on it and meet the now increasing expectancy that we should again be well in the mix for promotion. So far so good though.

Cannot agree with this fabled notion that ‘we are playing nothing like we are capable’. This implies that any moment now we will see more of a game plan, more of a system and more basic passing football.....none of which I have seen from Bruce in the 21 months he has been here!

What we saw yesterday IS Bruce’s football, it will not improve as the last nearly 2 years has shown us. There is no master plan that will eventually kick in and we suddenly understand our strategy and game plan. What we saw yesterday is what we have seen for the shoot time he has been here. Of course our players are capable of more but when they are not set up to be able to play to their potential it will never improve. 

Bruce said yesterday that he changed things to freshen it up and because he thought ‘we needed to go more direct’. Sorry Steve, I’ve never seen us play consistently any different to this ‘direct’ approach. Also, you think going more direct to a striker who is woefully out of form and is poor at holding the ball up and bringing others into play is an effective game plan?? Complete joke!!

Bielsa has done more in six weeks to ingrain a defined strategy and game plan into a team than you have done in 21 months. Just go please and give us a chance of making the most of the opportunity our new owners have given us. 

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59 minutes ago, terrytini said:

Well, why do you think ? Why do you think he did what he did ?

I mean, I’ll guess from what he and his team have seen of both he decided Jedi was the better bet. 

Thats what I’d hope happened anyway.

Im not sure I can think of any other explanation. 

Which sadly demonstrates that Bruce and his team don't know what they're doing. Bruce is the antithesis of a 'right first time' approach. 

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What I find most baffling about yesterday is why did Tuanzebe play at right back? We have lots of right backs but are short at centre half. If Bruce doesn’t trust him at centre half why have we taken him on loan? Has he come here to gain game time and help develop him for Man U? 

A good centre half and a goal scorer are priorities in my opinion. We were short at the back last season but more or less got away with it. An injury to Chester would be a disaster. 

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14 minutes ago, eholm said:

Cannot agree with this fabled notion that ‘we are playing nothing like we are capable’. This implies that any moment now we will see more of a game plan, more of a system and more basic passing football.....none of which I have seen from Bruce in the 21 months he has been here!

Exactly. Yes we're playing nothing like we are capable, and that's exactly the whole problem, and has been for the best part of 2 years!

If it was going to be rectified, it would have by now. The fact that it hasn't logically points to Steve Bruce's inability to do so. After 2 years there can't be any other explanation.

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