Bruno Lage

[AndyY]

Interesting post game interviews, both managers talked about the wolves wingbacks being key.
Everyone here has said Marcal and Semedo had a brilliant game.

Agreed, but what do they know, “the Mix” largely th8nks they are cr@p!

 

[AndyY]

That performance is down to him.

Fantastic.

The question is why do we play like that in one game and like we did at Palace in another.

Two reasons:
10 days of coaching
Podence Inking the midfield and the front.

 

[Achilles Last Stand]

Oh for Podence to stay injury free for the next 18 months!

 

[Oh When the Wolves]

2nd best defence, worst forward line, us creating more chances doesn’t necessarily mean more goals, however the defence works.

We lost to palace tho .

Have to be flexible

 

[oldgoldheart]

Bruno lage is showing his tactical nous. We are still strugglingto score but it will come. I said before that he is doing a decent job and i still believe it. We played well against city, liverpool and chelseas. Three teams scoring for fun. Great win at brighton and now tonights brilliant performance. I hope a few naysayers are a bit reflective tonight. Coyw

 

[sedgwolf1980]

Even now, in Jan 2022, months after Nuno left us, it’s so, so hard to get attached to another manager. The Nuno relationship was like a marriage, we all had so much invested emotionally whether we like to admit it or not.

It still feels weird. Post game, you are almost expecting the Nuno fist pumps.

It’s all quite unfair on Bruno tbf. He is doing a simply outstanding job. I really hope he is here for years to come and gets to create his own legacy.

Well done Bruno.

 

[groundhogwolf]

We lost to palace tho .

Have to be flexible

It’s football even City lose

 

[old wittonian]

We lost to palace tho .

Have to be flexible

So did City

 

[Contrarian]

Luckily that the Big 6 all have either new managers or managers doing very well at the moment. Otherwise, the "Arsenal are interested in Bruno Lage" rumours would be spreading.

 

[WWFC4EVA]

Two reasons:
10 days of coaching
Podence Inking the midfield and the front.

Podence is a most talented individual but I had no idea he was also a tattooist!!!

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

Not sure the extra training is true most of the lads were off isolating, but the ones who didn't get it looked very fresh. I'd still go very strong against Sheff U, with Fabio & Donk in the only changes I think.

 

[Contrarian]

Both Palace and Norwich stopped our midfield 2 from playing, also 2nd half against Everton, game over.

Absolutely. Something worth watching about us - see how much space the opponents give Neves in the first 20 minutes. If he's given loads of space and time, then we are in for a good match. If he's being harried and has no time, then it's going to be one of those we never seem to get going in. Goes back to the first season in this division and partly explains why we did well against the big clubs and struggled against Huddersfield, Cardiff, Brighton etc. Man Utd at Old Trafford, a bit of complacency steps in, they don't think much about stopping us, it's all about them. So we can exploit the time and space.

You mention Everton, prime example and first half was very similar to today. We had control of midfield. Though Benitez realised and changed formation to deal with it and the match was pretty much even (or even they had the edge) from then on. I thought Man U would do this tonight, but they never did. Maybe it's all about accomodating their superstars and none of them fancy harrying a defensive midfield pairing as much of a glamour job? Where team players at normal teams will give it a go willingly. Either that or Rangnick is overrated. Post match, the impression I got was he knows they have problems, but not sure he has the nous to manage the egos in their squad and get them working for the team. Got to remember, they have easily 5 times the budget and pulling power as us, at least. And we didn't do a Stoke on them - we outplayed them for 90% of the match. Something rotten at that club as they should be up there with Liverpool and City.

 

[John de Wolf's hairdryer]

Quick tempo. Sharp passing .

Where has this been!

Perhaps showing the benefit of having 15 days without a competitive fixture and the results of the ability to rest players who had previously played seven games over the month from 20th November to 19th December?

 

[top fox wolf]

Bruno lage is showing his tactical nous. We are still strugglingto score but it will come. I said before that he is doing a decent job and i still believe it. We played well against city, liverpool and chelseas. Three teams scoring for fun. Great win at brighton and now tonights brilliant performance. I hope a few naysayers are a bit reflective tonight. Coyw

I have said before we have a very special manager here he ant nobody's fool just hope foson back him .what a wonderful performance in front of the whole world .

 

[John de Wolf's hairdryer]

Record in the last 16 league games:

W8 D4 L4 GF14 GA11 Pts 28 GD +3 (average points per game: 1.75; win percentage 50.0%)

And, just to underline what is both totally obvious and yet simultaneously underacknowledged... this is the English Premier League we're talking about.

 

[Mugwump]

He's surprised me a lot in terms of what he's getting out of this group at the moment. I really want to see what he would be capable of if he can get a few players to change the dynamic of this team.

 

[PTW]

Two reasons:
10 days of coaching
Podence Inking the midfield and the front.

Absolutely, the last 2 months all the best games Wolves played Podence was involved, unfortunately he always misses significant periods of the season with injuries, linking play from the front 3 he is the best player in the squad with some distance, sadly he isn't a goalscorer.

 

[PTW]

And a discussion I've been having with a mate! Stick like this and I'm more than happy for Lage to stay but it does beg the question why we've gone to Selhurst Park and Carrow Road and totally stunk the places out with little to no attacking intent. We have the same set of players, go and try to force the game

Nobody is saying go in with reckless abandon but we're a far better side than one that has 14 goals in 19 games, go and show it

With the players you have on the front 3 regardless who will play they won't score many goals, the only one who has quality to do it isn't at the same level as he was before injury. Jimenez I mean.

If you look at number of chances created Wolves is the 10th best team in the League, if not spectacular it tells a lot how hard it is for this team to score goals beside setpieces. I don't know if without a new quality option the numbers will go up, but tell me, if he is that bad, explain to me how this team only conceded 2 goals against the 2 best football teams in Europe alongside Bayern? I mean City and Liverpool of course.

Has anyone looked with detail to the quality of the coordination of the defensive line? That is top level work, they can moan defensive all day long boy, it's even better than it was under Nuno. Anyone paying attention to Kilman improvement under him? Coaching.

So yes, regarding the number of goals scored it could be better but regarding the defensive organization of the team saying the team is badly coached it's a joke of people who just want to create noise. Not saying some of the critics aren't valid, but it's time to stop with the nonsense of always comparing him to Nuno, judge him entirely if he has the chance to get 1 or 2 better offensive options.

Let him work. Oh and let's hope Neto can recover to his previous level, it will be hard at least the rest of this season to get back to the level he was playing. Not easy.

 

[PTW]

Only a final note, even praising him he has to feel he has the duty to play his best 11 in the FA CUP, it's the more realistic chance to reach European Competitions, no excuses if things don't go the right way Sunday, Sheffield United has nothing to lose, Wolves has everything to lose here, it's time for the club to be more demanding on Cup competitions at least if you're not playing in Europe, this was already a problem under Nuno.

 

[old wittonian]

With the players you have on the front 3 regardless who will play they won't score many goals, the only one who has quality to do it isn't at the same level as he was before injury. Jimenez I mean.

If you look at number of chances created Wolves is the 10th best team in the League, if not spectacular it tells a lot how hard it is for this team to score goals beside setpieces. I don't know if without a new quality option the numbers will go up, but tell me, if he is that bad, explain to me how this team only conceded 2 goals against the 2 best football teams in Europe alongside Bayern? I mean City and Liverpool of course.

Has anyone looked with detail to the quality of the coordination of the defensive line? That is top level work, they can moan defensive all day long boy, it's even better than it was under Nuno. Anyone paying attention to Kilman improvement under him? Coaching.

So yes, regarding the number of goals scored it could be better but regarding the defensive organization of the team saying the team is badly coached it's a joke of people who just want to create noise. Not saying some of the critics aren't valid, but it's time to stop with the nonsense of always comparing him to Nuno, judge him entirely if he has the chance to get 1 or 2 better offensive options.

Let him work. Oh and let's hope Neto can recover to his previous level, it will be hard at least the rest of this season to get back to the level he was playing. Not easy.

I think his Sky interview clearly showed his tactical acumen was extremely high.

 

[Fenrir_]

With the players you have on the front 3 regardless who will play they won't score many goals, the only one who has quality to do it isn't at the same level as he was before injury. Jimenez I mean.

If you look at number of chances created Wolves is the 10th best team in the League, if not spectacular it tells a lot how hard it is for this team to score goals beside setpieces. I don't know if without a new quality option the numbers will go up, but tell me, if he is that bad, explain to me how this team only conceded 2 goals against the 2 best football teams in Europe alongside Bayern? I mean City and Liverpool of course.

Has anyone looked with detail to the quality of the coordination of the defensive line? That is top level work, they can moan defensive all day long boy, it's even better than it was under Nuno. Anyone paying attention to Kilman improvement under him? Coaching.

So yes, regarding the number of goals scored it could be better but regarding the defensive organization of the team saying the team is badly coached it's a joke of people who just want to create noise. Not saying some of the critics aren't valid, but it's time to stop with the nonsense of always comparing him to Nuno, judge him entirely if he has the chance to get 1 or 2 better offensive options.

Let him work. Oh and let's hope Neto can recover to his previous level, it will be hard at least the rest of this season to get back to the level he was playing. Not easy.

Chances created we're 18th in the league, not 10th, we have better forward players than that and the main reason we've created so few is we've been defending as a team but attacking as a front three. Yesterday we left ourselves slightly more open at the back and a couple of better decisions by Sancho or Cavani could have seen us in trouble, but we were so much better going forward than we have been that we always carried a threat and as such Man U were never able to build up any real sustained pressure

As for why did we only concede two against Man City and Liverpool? Well we could look at the chances missed by players like Jota and Grealish or a couple of excellent saves by Sa,1-0 wasn't anything like reflective of either match. You can argue it was unlucky to lose one in the 95th minute and the other to a nonsense penalty, but had we lost both 3-0 nobody would have been able to say we were hard done by

 

[WWFC4EVA]

On Kilman's development alone I think the guy has won me over...the rest is gravy!!!

 

[reanswolf]

A lot of us have stressed just how good the defensive side of our game is, but there have been many games where our attacking intent is negligible.

Yesterday produced an overall different performance so now they have done this away at Manure we will see if they keep it up or not.

Whilst last night was fantastic , it doesn't simply wipe away the genuine issues the squad clearly has, but it does show just how savvy Bruno Lage is and it would be great if Fosun backed him a bit in the transfer market.

 

[Oliwolf44]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1478109835967270925

Team clearly well drilled, players know their roles and have multiple instructions depending on how the opposition set up. Knows where the spaces are in opposition set up and players buying into it.

Can we dispel the crazy notion that he aint a good coach and should be gone lol.

 

[Bostin]

I honestly can’t take to Bruno as a person. But I do like the way he makes comments in the media which show his support for the players. That’s good man management.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1478346411959848961

 

[JadeWolf]

Seems like for a lot of people Bruno’s biggest weakness is that he’s not Nuno. You can’t look at what Bruno has done this season at face value and tell me you don’t like him or you don’t think he’s a good coach.

 

[sillytuna]

Last couple of games have improved my view of him as we've stopped not even trying to attack and better use of subs.

Does look a great coach though. Several players look improved under his team. Saiss and Coady far better than last year.

 

[Bognor_Wolf]

Seems like for a lot of people Bruno’s biggest weakness is that he’s not Nuno. You can’t look at what Bruno has done this season at face value and tell me you don’t like him or you don’t think he’s a good coach.

Said this when he was appointed even if he does well won't get the credit he deserves from some who will just wait for a couple of defeats to have a pop....

He has done a great job so far this season and the way he talks about the game/coaching is impressive which even people outside the club are picking up on (Rio Ferdinand being one after he spoke to him at the training ground)..

Confident we have a top head coach on our hands here...

 

[Bawtry Wolf]

Seems like for a lot of people Bruno’s biggest weakness is that he’s not Nuno. You can’t look at what Bruno has done this season at face value and tell me you don’t like him or you don’t think he’s a good coach.

It’s noticeable that Coady always bigs him up when interviewed and talks of him as a breath of fresh air.

Last night we saw clear examples of work on the training pitch coming to fruition. The way we got ourselves out of defence with little fast passes and similar in attack around their box are examples of the training ground drills we see on the training videos.

He’s not necessarily as enigmatic as Nuno but clearly thinks about the game and is obviously a good coach and to be honest that’s what I want first and foremost from my head coach.

 

[Puddled Duck]

Bruno is doing better than I thought.

But I'm sorry, I strongly doubt he is essentially doing anything that Nuno wouldn't have done.

In essence we have just IMHO replaced like with perhaps like.

 

[S G Wolves]

We may have got ourselves a gem of a coach. Saint Nuno waltzed in and created a legacy and memorable wins and moments, most will never forget.

Bruno will do the same.

For starters the 2-3 against Villa and last night, there will be many more to come.

A very astute appointment.

 

[Contrarian]

Chances created we're 18th in the league, not 10th, we have better forward players than that and the main reason we've created so few is we've been defending as a team but attacking as a front three. Yesterday we left ourselves slightly more open at the back and a couple of better decisions by Sancho or Cavani could have seen us in trouble, but we were so much better going forward than we have been that we always carried a threat and as such Man U were never able to build up any real sustained pressure

As for why did we only concede two against Man City and Liverpool? Well we could look at the chances missed by players like Jota and Grealish or a couple of excellent saves by Sa,1-0 wasn't anything like reflective of either match. You can argue it was unlucky to lose one in the 95th minute and the other to a nonsense penalty, but had we lost both 3-0 nobody would have been able to say we were hard done by

And if we'd won each of the first 3 matches of the season 1-0, nobody would say we were lucky. That's football. In no other sport is the final result so unreflective of the actual play.

Yesterday again, as in every one of our good performances, we created not that much (considering our dominance) and scored only one because of our flawed forwards. And our wingbacks are really full backs. It has nothing to do with an overly defensive mindset. We try and attack, it falls down in the final 3rd because of the weaknesses of the individuals involved, not the tactics.

If you're going to look at the chances missed by Jota and Grealish, for balance then you have to also look at the chances missed by Traore and Trincao that would have given a few points. I don't know what else Bruno can do with those players, pretty much all of them inherited at this stage. And several times he has hinted that players he asked for, we have been unsuccesful at signing.

 

[Corporate Wolf]

He's surprised me a lot in terms of what he's getting out of this group at the moment. I really want to see what he would be capable of if he can get a few players to change the dynamic of this team.

I'm not sure what others thought about SS coverage last night, but typically it just seemed to focus on Manure's woes and problems which in my humble opinion overshadowed what actually was a dominant Wolves performance. I don't why I'm moaning about it because it's always the case. Somehow though, I think if it had been Leeds that beat them 0-1 at Old Trafford there would have been an absolute jizz fest for Bielsa from the pundits.

That aside, Mr J Redknapp - jeez he loves Wolves and particularly Neto doesn't he?

 

[PTW]

Chances created we're 18th in the league, not 10th, we have better forward players than that and the main reason we've created so few is we've been defending as a team but attacking as a front three. Yesterday we left ourselves slightly more open at the back and a couple of better decisions by Sancho or Cavani could have seen us in trouble, but we were so much better going forward than we have been that we always carried a threat and as such Man U were never able to build up any real sustained pressure

As for why did we only concede two against Man City and Liverpool? Well we could look at the chances missed by players like Jota and Grealish or a couple of excellent saves by Sa,1-0 wasn't anything like reflective of either match. You can argue it was unlucky to lose one in the 95th minute and the other to a nonsense penalty, but had we lost both 3-0 nobody would have been able to say we were hard done by

Better forward players than that? Jimenez is at best at 70% of the level he was previously before injury. Podence isn’t a goal scorer, Trincao and Traore the same, midfielder’s, wingbacks barely score also.

I have to check that on number of chances, certainly sure on expected goals the team isn’t 18th, and the team doesn’t attack only with 3 players.

One thing I am absolutely sure, Lage is certainly more competent and able to improve the things as you might think , and no, you’re wrong if you think with this type of players the team will suddenly start to score a lot of goals, or that they play like this because Lage is defensive.

I am not even going to comment on City because you probably missed the small detail the team played with 10 players for 45 minutes, but ok, maybe you know better and the coordination of the defensive line isn’t happening related to the work done and it’s only pure luck.

Sorry I confirmed on number of shots Wolves is 18th but there’s also a point missing here, on big chances missed it’s in 8th place in the League, which reinforces my point that the conversion rate of some players hasn’t been good at all, let’s see how in the second half of the season things go.

But with all that you’ve right that on some games even with this group of players the offensive production of the team as a whole has to improve, let’s see what happens.

 

[Oliwolf44]

Jeff Shi and Fosun seem to be the lightening rod for criticism at the moment (me included) but deserve praise for decision made it seems on the coach. Things can change fast in football but looking at the trajectory of the team and compare to how Nunos career has gone it has been an inspired appointment of a 'relative unknown'. Got this one right in my opinion been very impressed and more importantly all players are onboard and everything points to them enjoying their football here.

 

[GoldenHorseshoe]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1478109835967270925

Team clearly well drilled, players know their roles and have multiple instructions depending on how the opposition set up. Knows where the spaces are in opposition set up and players buying into it.

Can we dispel the crazy notion that he aint a good coach and should be gone lol.

Definitely, very, very impressive. No clichés, just simple explanation of tactics.
I said earlier, he knows his football.

 

[PulverWolf]

If your looking for stats re Bruno, wolves are currently the all time best goals per points team in Prem history !

 

[Darvo]

If your looking for stats re Bruno, wolves are currently the all time best goals per points team in Prem history !

Points per goals?

 

[WeAreTheWolvesII]

I think as a manager you need to have big moments to help build the relationship. Nuno was slightly different in that it was the start of the journey, so everything was new/exciting.

So it's harder for Bruno to create memories as he joined when the bar was high but last night felt like the first big one for him and building a connection.

You could say Villa but I think everyone who watched it recognised it was, fluke isn't the right word, but it just happened. It was one of those things that football can throw up. We were average/poor for most the game and then just came alive, it wasn't a managerial masterclass or anything, IMO anyway.

However, last night was significant because we played well, deserved it and made history. Up until then, we'd lost all the other big games.

I watched the Everton game back after we beat them and he said in the pre-match interview how the game would go and it did. Was similar to how he picked apart the win last night.

I think he's an excellent speaker and so knowledgeable on the game, which is great. As people say, the issue is United were arrogant enough in the first half to just let us play. Second half, when they actually respected us enough to change tactically, they probably edged it and could easily have won if Bruno doesn't miss a sitter.

Other teams will pay respect to us and shut us down, so we need more answers, which hopefully will come by bringing in one or two different type of players.

 

[nomadwolf]

"Bruno, Bruno, take us into Europe..."

"No Bruno, not Europe camp...but Europe Champ!..."

https://twitter.com/x/status/1478299180976295936