Bruno Lage

[Superted]

With respect I think you missed my point slightly. I was saying he has had very little impact across the board. Whether we won or lost did he make a difference? I’m not sure he did and that for me is worrying. I don’t see a clear identity or style and we can’t throw all the blame on the squad and say they’re not his players or not good enough because the evidence shows barring one disappointing season they are a top ten squad.

Did any of the players improve as the season went on? I honestly don’t think so

Did he bring through younger talent? Again no we saw Cundle briefly but barring a 2 minute cameo at Newcastle the u23s top scorer has been ignored and he publicly criticised other younger players.

Are we a better team for a full season with him in charge? I really don’t think we are

It’s a shame because I genuinely had such high hopes for him, but I no longer believe he is the man to lead the next stage, he doesn’t seem to have the characteristics to unite people, players, staff, fans all together as we need them to be. It’s perhaps unfair that he followed a man who did just that, but to move forward we need a new Nuno not a Paul Lambert and I’m sorry for me Lage is Lambert

I do get it, and I can see where you're coming from. You're view is perhaps more measured than others.

There's a lot of doubt around which is understandable. It just seems some are prepared to give the benefit of it to Bruno and some aren't.

I think he's earned a proper crack at it. Whether he'll get the opportunity and whether he'll succeed are not certain. Either way it'll be intriguing finding out. I'm just not convinced that there is any alternative that will satisfy our requirements.

We need someone who can come in, identify all the percieved weaknesses in the squad, manage the departure of the players who leave and identify their replacements, acquire the players and integrate them into the squad while implementing an exciting, attacking playing style, all in one pre-season. Preferably someone with experience of rebuilding a squad (which I'm fairly certain doesn't exist) while working to a budget and no guarantee of significant investment.

 

[Zico]

Brighton started off well... dreadful middle , where they didn't score for 3 months at home.... strong end..

We started and finished badly but had a very strong middle ....

Overall result the same ..

Exactly. So why should Potter be an improvement? Can't understand why people rate him so highly.

 

[Direwolf]

While this season overall I am happy to see us finish in the top half and probably qualifies as satisfactory. I think next season will look safer and brighter with a new face as coach and a fresh start. Lage has not impressed me or enough of the fanbase to be the one to shoulder the responsibility for a rebuild and move us up a notch. The disappointing finish after being in such a promising position has been a big let down and it feels like we have drawn a game after being 3 - 0 up.

 

[Corporate Wolf]

With respect I think you missed my point slightly. I was saying he has had very little impact across the board. Whether we won or lost did he make a difference? I’m not sure he did and that for me is worrying. I don’t see a clear identity or style and we can’t throw all the blame on the squad and say they’re not his players or not good enough because the evidence shows barring one disappointing season they are a top ten squad.

Did any of the players improve as the season went on? I honestly don’t think so

Did he bring through younger talent? Again no we saw Cundle briefly but barring a 2 minute cameo at Newcastle the u23s top scorer has been ignored and he publicly criticised other younger players.

Are we a better team for a full season with him in charge? I really don’t think we are

It’s a shame because I genuinely had such high hopes for him, but I no longer believe he is the man to lead the next stage, he doesn’t seem to have the characteristics to unite people, players, staff, fans all together as we need them to be. It’s perhaps unfair that he followed a man who did just that, but to move forward we need a new Nuno not a Paul Lambert and I’m sorry for me Lage is Lambert

I have to agree with the points here.

Of course ultimately it is down to what Fosun believe; and their wider appetite for PL success or mediocrity will of course determine the backing Bruno (or a new manager) will get.

 

[woop woop barmy army]

I find it strange non of the players have come out and defended Bruno or mentioned anything about him while he was away with COVID.

 

[Bawtry Wolf]

Bruno cant play the game for them, from everything i have heard from tony roberts and the players he is conistently training attacking dynamic football on the training pitch.

To many flicks, low confidence and slow players in passing or defence, have caused issues.

I do think sometimes managers get to much slack

But if he is doing all of that on the training pitch it’s not getting translated to the match day performance. QED the coach is failing as the idea of a coach is to take the ideas from the training pitch into the pitch.

I think he’s overthinking and asking the players to overthink. How many interviews, biographies have you read about players and managers in all sports who say coach/manager x or y was great as they made the game simple and I just concentrated on my performance, particularly when they talk about the difference between one coach and another. Yet we hear from Bruno et al how they’ve analysed the opposition to death and he plays different forwards to create different opportunities etc. the best teams and even Nuno’s best team worried about themselves and their performance not the opposition. You have a style of play and you try and impose it on the opposition.

 

[Highlandwolf2]

I do get it, and I can see where you're coming from. You're view is perhaps more measured than others.

There's a lot of doubt around which is understandable. It just seems some are prepared to give the benefit of it to Bruno and some aren't.

I think he's earned a proper crack at it. Whether he'll get the opportunity and whether he'll succeed are not certain. Either way it'll be intriguing finding out. I'm just not convinced that there is any alternative that will satisfy our requirements.

We need someone who can come in, identify all the percieved weaknesses in the squad, manage the departure of the players who leave and identify their replacements, acquire the players and integrate them into the squad while implementing an exciting, attacking playing style, all in one pre-season. Preferably someone with experience of rebuilding a squad (which I'm fairly certain doesn't exist) while working to a budget and no guarantee of significant investment.

The respective wageroll for 2021/2022 shows the "impossible" task it would take any "smaller" club to break into the top 6. Interestingly our wageroll is not massively less than Spurs.

 

[Superted]

The respective wageroll for 2021/2022 shows the "impossible" task it would take any "smaller" club to break into the top 6. Interestingly our wageroll is not massively less than Spurs.

I don't know, it's around 20% less. Which is a fair old chunk.

If we've got the 14th lowest wage bill then finishing 8th/9th is punching well above our weight really. We're currently above everyone we're "supposed" to be above and a few more besides.

 

[North West Wanderer]

This is the thing. Do you take another gamble on a change of manager?

You've got the incumbent, who knows the squad well and has, one way or another, got an imbalanced squad to an 8th/9th placed finish and has presumably been planning for the summer transfer business (whatever that turns out to be).

Or you've got some potential, currently unidentfied, replacement candidate who hasn't done any of the above, doesn't know the squad and will still want millions to get his own players in and system installed throughout a summer of upheaval.

Yes the final third of the season was alarming but I think Bruno has probably earned the benefit of the doubt for now and deserves to try and implement his preferred philosophy. I'm convinced that the current one is not what he wants to be doing judging by his constant frustration on the touchline and regular pleas for new players. I understand he was subdued yesterday but what do you do if you think you've tried everything? Nobody has an unlimited bank of ideas and knowledge, there surely comes a point where you have to accept that you're not going to get what you want out of a certain individual(s)?

I've had to dismiss several staff over the years who, despite all of my best efforts of encouragement, training, mentoring, discipline, just were not performing in the role they were brought in to do and weren't interested in improving their performance. The advantage for me is that I'm not limited by a transfer window that prevents me from changing staff when I need to.

I'm prepared to accept that this season was something of a trial to see what he could do with what he'd got, hopefully with the promise of more significant backing if he did well enough. That would make some sense rather than wasting millions backing a manager straight away who then turns out to be useless. Yes that would be risky but at least if it had failed, we wouldn't have been totally ruined financially.

I hate changing managers, I was all for keeping mick longer, and lambert and Jackett too.

However this guy gives me the same feeling solbakken did sadly.

 

[KBWWFC]

He can play different formations, but the players he has just can't. I don't know why, because i'm not privvy to the workings of the team. Players aren't capable/Players don't want to/players don't want to play for the manager/manager doesn't trust the players. Take your pick.

It stems from our recruitment policy:
Money has only really been pumped into attackers (Neto, Podence, Silva, Jimenez, Cutrone, Jota, Adama).

When we've signed central defenders, we've signed cast-offs who have specific attributes that fit the system:
Boly, Roderick, Bennett, - poor concentration and reading the game doesn't really affect him in the back 5 as he's got a spare man either side that can cover.
Same goes for Coadys lack of physicality that only seems to be a problem if he's either got a striker man marking him (Mitrovic, Pukki) or if the defensive line is sat higher than the edge of our box.

We've then used this template to penny pinch and convert other players to centre backs (Dendoncker, Saiss) where the negative attributes they possess don't particularly hinder them when they've got men either side that can cover for their lack of pace, physicality in the tackle, and defensive positioning.

It's left us with a squad of defenders who can't really defend - they do a serviceable job only by defending in numbers, including with the midfield, and restricting the opposition to poor quality chances.

If anything changes with that defensive line, the whole structure is compromised - play a higher line? Lack of pace kills us. Players can't form an effective offside trap because they don't have confidence that they can catch any striker who runs in behind.

Reduce it by a person? Lack of concentration or physicality leads to a plethora of chances ceded to the opposition (see any of the games we played a 4 last season, WBA games are a good point for how **** we are at defending in a four).

So we're wedded to this deep back five where there's an expectation on the midfield 2/3 to come back and defend as a solid unit consisting of 7/8 blockers.

When our midfield do have the ball, they've all got the same negative attributes - complete lack of mobility, can't move with the ball, so they're restricted to passing only, which is frequently from a deep area within our own half. Which makes us ridiculously easy to play against. Any of our midfielders get the ball, we know what they're doing, none of them are moving with the ball, they're just going to either pass it back or down the wing, that's it.

A couple of silly examples from recent games, in the first, Neves receives the ball, there's plenty of space to drive in to and progress the entire team up the pitch, we've got players ahead of him who are offering for the ball, but he chooses to turn and play a nothing pass to Saiss. In the second, the ball breaks to Neves near the edge of the box, we've got players and space ahead to drive into and the attack slows right down and ends up with Boly at the back.

Part of me genuinely thinks the players are that knackered they don't fancy the sprint to get back into position if they lose the ball so they play it safe.








Often the midfield hide and don't show for the ball, and the players are just stood there throwing their hands about with no options for a pass, or you've just got Coady waving his hands half the pitch away screaming for the ball so the players make the safe choice and pass it back to him





If you're Bruno, how do you solve this with the players you have at your disposal? The three midfielders we have at this club are never going to suddenly start moving the ball past players, so we're just stuck repeating the same patterns of play until we get fresh legs in.


TLDR:
The players neither have the ability or confidence to play any other way than safety first.

 

[Fenrir_]

The respective wageroll for 2021/2022 shows the "impossible" task it would take any "smaller" club to break into the top 6. Interestingly our wageroll is not massively less than Spurs.

It's Spotrac, i.e. the numbers are wrong, Wolves' wage bill for 20/21 was around £94m as revealed in the club accounts.

The general gist is correct though, the top six have much higher wage bills than the rest (and the gap can get even bigger with the new FFP rules - yay!!)

 

[Superted]

I hate changing managers, I was all for keeping mick longer, and lambert and Jackett too.

However this guy gives me the same feeling solbakken did sadly.

Funny isn't it. I was quite enthused by the Solbakken apointment in the beginning. I thought it was a sign we were trying to modernise.

Turns out I was wrong but I'm also not sure that 100% of the fault was Solbakken's. That's another discussion though.

 

[Corporate Wolf]

I hate changing managers, I was all for keeping mick longer, and lambert and Jackett too.

However this guy gives me the same feeling solbakken did sadly.

Solbakken at least was given significant backing with players he wanted (Sako, Doumbia, Boukari, Peszko, Sigurdarson, Margreitter - correct me if I am wrong on these?).

Sadly the football was indeed dire and 'player power' was his undoing.

 

[steve vena]

Excellent shout. Used to working within a budget. Clearly a great man-manager who's stock is rising.
And a Midlands lad to boot!

Why would he leave Brighton,?

 

[Zico]

Solbakken at least was given significant backing with players he wanted (Sako, Doumbia, Boukari, Peszko, Sigurdarson, Margreitter - correct me if I am wrong on these?).

Sadly the football was indeed dire and 'player power' was his undoing.

I still wonder what might have been, if Peszko hadn't got injured. But best not start that discussion!!

 

[lets all have a disco]

Exactly. So why should Potter be an improvement? Can't understand why people rate him so highly.

Nor me....if we would off had potter ,we would have wanted him gone January/February........the reality is potter probably won't do any better at Brighton, and neither will our manager who ever he is...

 

[KBWWFC]

Solbakken at least was given significant backing with players he wanted (Sako, Doumbia, Boukari, Peszko, Sigurdarson, Margreitter - correct me if I am wrong on these?).

Sadly the football was indeed dire and 'player power' was his undoing.

Solbakken was given a crazy amount of backing.
The old guard didn't fancy his football and wanted an easy life just for existing in the league doing nothing.

Club didn't turn a corner until we completely refreshed the squad. Which is what's needed now.

 

[Zico]

Solbakken was given a crazy amount of backing.
The old guard didn't fancy his football and wanted an easy life just for existing in the league doing nothing.

Club didn't turn a corner until we completely refreshed the squad. Which is what's needed now.

Yep. After the FA Cup defeat to Luton, we could maybe have used the January window to get rid of the old guard. Might not have worked, and I know most on here wouldn't agree. Instead, Morgan bumped into his old mate Dean on the golf course.........

 

[SakosRightFoot]

I do get it, and I can see where you're coming from. You're view is perhaps more measured than others.

There's a lot of doubt around which is understandable. It just seems some are prepared to give the benefit of it to Bruno and some aren't.

I think he's earned a proper crack at it. Whether he'll get the opportunity and whether he'll succeed are not certain. Either way it'll be intriguing finding out. I'm just not convinced that there is any alternative that will satisfy our requirements.

We need someone who can come in, identify all the percieved weaknesses in the squad, manage the departure of the players who leave and identify their replacements, acquire the players and integrate them into the squad while implementing an exciting, attacking playing style, all in one pre-season. Preferably someone with experience of rebuilding a squad (which I'm fairly certain doesn't exist) while working to a budget and no guarantee of significant investment.

I’m not sure the modern role of “head coach” does all those things anymore. What’s crucial though is to have an idea and ruthlessly implement it, as Nuno did.

Plus if we’re honest it’ll be another Mendes appointment so chances are they’ve already decided who the next guy is. We’ve had an ex Porto one, now an ex Benfica one, probably former Sporting next

 

[Deleted member drgr12429]

It stems from our recruitment policy:
Money has only really been pumped into attackers (Neto, Podence, Silva, Jimenez, Cutrone, Jota, Adama).

When we've signed central defenders, we've signed cast-offs who have specific attributes that fit the system:
Boly, Roderick, Bennett, - poor concentration and reading the game doesn't really affect him in the back 5 as he's got a spare man either side that can cover.
Same goes for Coadys lack of physicality that only seems to be a problem if he's either got a striker man marking him (Mitrovic, Pukki) or if the defensive line is sat higher than the edge of our box.

We've then used this template to penny pinch and convert other players to centre backs (Dendoncker, Saiss) where the negative attributes they possess don't particularly hinder them when they've got men either side that can cover for their lack of pace, physicality in the tackle, and defensive positioning.

It's left us with a squad of defenders who can't really defend - they do a serviceable job only by defending in numbers, including with the midfield, and restricting the opposition to poor quality chances.

If anything changes with that defensive line, the whole structure is compromised - play a higher line? Lack of pace kills us. Players can't form an effective offside trap because they don't have confidence that they can catch any striker who runs in behind.

Reduce it by a person? Lack of concentration or physicality leads to a plethora of chances ceded to the opposition (see any of the games we played a 4 last season, WBA games are a good point for how **** we are at defending in a four).

So we're wedded to this deep back five where there's an expectation on the midfield 2/3 to come back and defend as a solid unit consisting of 7/8 blockers.

When our midfield do have the ball, they've all got the same negative attributes - complete lack of mobility, can't move with the ball, so they're restricted to passing only, which is frequently from a deep area within our own half. Which makes us ridiculously easy to play against. Any of our midfielders get the ball, we know what they're doing, none of them are moving with the ball, they're just going to either pass it back or down the wing, that's it.

A couple of silly examples from recent games, in the first, Neves receives the ball, there's plenty of space to drive in to and progress the entire team up the pitch, we've got players ahead of him who are offering for the ball, but he chooses to turn and play a nothing pass to Saiss. In the second, the ball breaks to Neves near the edge of the box, we've got players and space ahead to drive into and the attack slows right down and ends up with Boly at the back.

Part of me genuinely thinks the players are that knackered they don't fancy the sprint to get back into position if they lose the ball so they play it safe.

View attachment 27945

View attachment 27946

View attachment 27950
View attachment 27951

Often the midfield hide and don't show for the ball, and the players are just stood there throwing their hands about with no options for a pass, or you've just got Coady waving his hands half the pitch away screaming for the ball so the players make the safe choice and pass it back to him

View attachment 27948

View attachment 27949

If you're Bruno, how do you solve this with the players you have at your disposal? The three midfielders we have at this club are never going to suddenly start moving the ball past players, so we're just stuck repeating the same patterns of play until we get fresh legs in.


TLDR:
The players neither have the ability or confidence to play any other way than safety first.

Very valid points. When you watch teams like Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City The defence plays through the press to midfield, who immediately look for the runners up top. The images there show we have the players in the right position, but it seems they are scared to play the pass and rather play it safe. Bruno is constantly waving them forward, and when they don't he has a wobbly on the side line.
The defence is too slow for a higher line, and that is where you start with the rebuild imo.

 

[OsloWolf]

Exactly. So why should Potter be an improvement? Can't understand why people rate him so highly.

Surely the Wolves squad is far superior to the one he's got at Brighton. And, of course, Brighton's brand if football is much more fun to watch than what Bruno is currently serving up. I would have Potter over Bruno every day of the week.

 

[Zico]

Surely the Wolves squad is far superior to the one he's got at Brighton. And, of course, Brighton's brand if football is much more fun to watch than what Bruno is currently serving up. I would have Potter over Bruno every day of the week.

Were the Brighton fans saying that when they failed to score at home for three months? Their brand has been just as dull as ours. And I'm really not sure our squad is superior at all.

 

[Sammy Chungs Tracksuit]

Very valid points. When you watch teams like Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City The defence plays through the press to midfield, who immediately look for the runners up top. The images there show we have the players in the right position, but it seems they are scared to play the pass and rather play it safe. Bruno is constantly waving them forward, and when they don't he has a wobbly on the side line.
The defence is too slow for a higher line, and that is where you start with the rebuild imo.

When you watch teams like Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City ....... they dont "play through the press" mostly there isnt a press to play through, their opposing teams are generally sitting deeper anyway.

 

[Contrarian]

If we were to play Oldham we would be in trouble. They're National league bound are they not.

Better than Chorley, then? Let's hope we don't get drawn against Oldham in the Cup.

 

[Corporate Wolf]

When you watch teams like Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City ....... they dont "play through the press" mostly there isnt a press to play through, their opposing teams are generally sitting deeper anyway.

Their movement and technique is also far superior to other teams. The majority of their players are happy to receive the ball in confined spaces and can control it on a "sixpence" with teammates offering immediate options to them - passing backwards is rarely one of those options.

 

[Deleted member drgr12429]

When you watch teams like Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City ....... they dont "play through the press" mostly there isnt a press to play through, their opposing teams are generally sitting deeper anyway.

FA cup final. Watched both teams play sideways and backwards until they played through the press to midfield. Then midfield plays to the runners either through the centre, or to the outside. Of course most teams sit low against them. If you don't you get thrashed 5-1.

 

[Bill McCai]

Our recent **** run is probably going to cost us £4m-£6m in PL placement money (at £2.2m per place). That is between 4-6x what the most recent season ticket increase is likely to raise. Not to mention the deal Sellars et al put in place for Adama - which has likely cost us a similar amount if not more. Lage and Sellars should be buying our tickets!

 

[Deleted member drgr12429]

Their movement and technique is also far superior to other teams. The majority of their players are happy to receive the ball in confined spaces and can control it on a "sixpence" with teammates offering immediate options to them - passing backwards is rarely one of those options.

Yep. Wolves players get into the positions, but seem frightened to play the option pass and just play the backwards safe one. The top teams do the safe passes but more often want to play forward.

 

[Deleted member sbk12944]

If the owner of a restaurant keeps employing unexperienced chefs, then, you can't blame the chefs for not serving up top quality food, blame the owners of the restaurant.
If the owner of the restaurant, then employs kitchen porters to take the place of pastry chefs, you will lose a lot of business, for trying to do things on the cheap.
Venga, Nuno and Bruno all follow a pattern of being implementers, taken what they are given and being thankful for coaching a Premier League club. None of them had CV's to take us to the top, and they would take the wages and the players that they were given.
I would still back Fosun, as they have given us top half of the PL. Fosun look at us, like they look at their managers, we were a championship club and would be grateful for being an established
PL club.
We got lucky with Nuno. I would love Fosun to push on, but I prefer being a top half PL team, than playing Oldham on a Tuesday night.

Another problem is that even if you have the best chef in the world if the food has gone stale and mouldy you will struggle no matter how good you are to knock up something nice. If the chef asks for fresh better ingredients and all the owners pay for is a tin of beans it will affect what you can serve.

 

[Ironfistedmonk]

Spent all season screaming at the useless ****s in front of him to go ****ing forward. **** squad as predicted in August.

The Richard Stearman of football management, pashun

 

[giantwolf]

The respective wageroll for 2021/2022 shows the "impossible" task it would take any "smaller" club to break into the top 6. Interestingly our wageroll is not massively less than Spurs.

It's Spotrac, i.e. the numbers are wrong, Wolves' wage bill for 20/21 was around £94m as revealed in the club accounts.

The general gist is correct though, the top six have much higher wage bills than the rest (and the gap can get even bigger with the new FFP rules - yay!!)

Yep, Sportrac isn't the best. As well as @Fenrir_ highlighting Wolves' wage bill, Spurs' in 2021 was £204m

 

[WickedWolfie]

The respective wageroll for 2021/2022 shows the "impossible" task it would take any "smaller" club to break into the top 6. Interestingly our wageroll is not massively less than Spurs.

Firstly that Spuds figure looks low given what they are paying Kane and Conte doesn't come cheap. Secondly that "not massively less" amounts to approx 22% if you believe those figures.

The really scary one there is Everton. Spent massively, apparently high wages, but utter crap.

 

[Ironfistedmonk]

I've probably posted this before but I'm torn on my opinion of Bruno, it's not his squad and several of the senior players have gone very stale, so it's harsh to lay most of the blame at his feet when the players need to take more responsibility and the owners need to hold their hands up and admit they have got recruitment drastically wrong these last few seasons.

On the flip side he hasn't shown any signs that he should be the man to rebuild this squad, I don't see any identity, it's like a more disorganised version of Nunoball, he hasn't really bought anything new to how we play and the league position puts a bit of a false perspective on this season.

 

[Supadavewolf]

Lage isn't going to be opportunity to build his own team purely on his own terms.

He is head coach, not manager, and will not be dictating the transfers. This will be done by Shi/Sellars. At best, our head coach will get to have strong input into transfer decisions, maybe even able to overrule Shi/Sellars on a target, maybe at most able to make suggestions.

But he certainly won't be able to say "get me player X and player Y" and have them delivered to him. That model went at Wolves with McCarthy's departure and isn't coming back under Fosun.

This was already the case under Nuno, who plainly didn't want Cutrone or Afobe coming in, but had to lump it as Thelwell was so keen. I'd suggest that Lage won't even get as much say as Nuno did anyway (younger, cheaper coach, with a rocky standing within the club), and that Shi's frustration with Nuno's resistance to certain transfer ideas ultimately paved the way for his sacking.

So, when the plea goes out for Lage to "build his own team", it's a total non-starter. That's not his remit, and never would have been presented as his remit from day 1. His remit is to coach the players the club signs and create a good team from those materials.

Where he has been let down is that the club have been totally complacent in addressing the weak areas of the squad and then bizarrely frivolous with the supposedly frugal budget in throwing down money on a poor player like Hwang. The hope is that the club is far smarter in the summer with its transfer dealings, but that won't be due to Lage getting on the phone and having a kitty to spend as he wishes.

Well argued.

 

[JOSWolf]

Trouble is with Lage and one of the big reasons he has lost my support is I watch sides below us who have a game plan, have an identity and look like they will probably improve next season. With us I see the exact opposite.

 

[Supadavewolf]

Just read the last few dozen posts. What's happened to all the vitriol?!!!

Plenty of really thoughtful and well-argued points made.

Pleasure to read, #notmissin'the bitchin"

 

[WickedWolfie]

Just read the last few dozen posts. What's happened to all the vitriol?!!!

Plenty of really thoughtful and well-argued points made.

Pleasure to read, #notmissin'the bitchin"

Getting on for 24 hours to calm down including a night's sleep.... From Wednesday night l was dreading the atmosphere had we lost yesterday...

 

[Fifty Niner]

Interesting that Lage analysis a game really well. Post match yesterday he acknowledged his frustration at the spaces the team allowed the opposition and why a four at the back would be difficult for them. Perhaps the team aren’t listening or perhaps he is more the no.2 who helps a manager see the game better.

 

[North West Wanderer]

But what has Potter achieved this season that Bruno hasn't? Struggled for much of the season to score goals, about to finish in pretty much the same position.

Exactly. So why should Potter be an improvement? Can't understand why people rate him so highly.

I think he’s done well at a much smaller club. Like his brand of football and style and would like to see what he could do.

 

[Deleted member drgr12429]

Interesting that Lage analysis a game really well. Post match yesterday he acknowledged his frustration at the spaces the team allowed the opposition and why a four at the back would be difficult for them. Perhaps the team aren’t listening or perhaps he is more the no.2 who helps a manager see the game better.

And that's the thing. For all the vitriol he gets he's not the guy who is letting the players run behind him. At some point the players have to hold their hand up and say "it was my fault". Our defence since Kilman got injured cannot play a higher line without being exposed by the runner in behind. We have 3 fit CB's. You can only play who you have and currently 2 of them are too slow for a higher line.
The manager knows this, but his hands are tied. The only way round it is play a deeper line of 5, and the midfielders protecting them.
Then you have zero threat going forward as defence/midfield are so far away from the forward line. Our counter attacking ship sailed when Jota and Doc left, Traore was given away for a couple of marlies, Neto and Podence aren't fit, and Raul sadly isn't the player of old. Fabio, Trincao and Hwang aren't even at the party. So we have a raw Chiquinho as our only threat up top.