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POLL - Bruno Lage: Stick or Twist

koplex

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Ok, now the season is over we can look at this again.

Everyone knows this will be a massive summer for Wolves, with several players leaving an already thin squad. We have ended the last third of the season with relegation form so it should concern every Wolves fan.

So... have you lost faith in Lage, do you entrust this huge rebuild to him, or is the manager largely irrelevant due to your lack of faith in what Fosun, Shi & Sellars achieve in the window?
 

Rufio

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I say keep him. Only get rid if you know the replacement is a cast iron upgrade.
 

cannockwolves

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I never call for a manager to be sacked. But I have real doubts about this guy. I don't think the players can understand him, I listen to him and think he is a Portuguese Dean Saunders most of the time.

If there is an half descent manager out there I would pull the trigger.
 

JadeWolf

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I’d only sack him if a much better manager was available and ready to sign, AND there was serious investment ready for them to revamp and re-energise the squad. Sacking Bruno and bringing in a Sean Dyche for example, and sticking with a very similar squad next season would be absolutely no good.
 

AlexWolvesHD

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Personally don't think he offers us anything, pretty sure for most of the season the team picked itself and we could have had anyone in charge and got the results we did.

A manager is supposed to implement tactics, improve players and during a bad run of form be the person to change things to turn it around. I haven't seen him do any of that. He is very much replicating his benfica form as well that got him the sack.

I also think he is the cheap option and if he stays I think this summer's recruitment will be the same. If we brought in a new manager it would instantly breed excitement that the club are serious about investing this summer and will get fans back on side.
 

thetwistedsock

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Why do we have to have such extremes when just sack stay or don't know would do.
 
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Deleted member sbk12944

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Personally don't think he offers us anything, pretty sure for most of the season the team picked itself and we could have had anyone in charge and got the results we did.

A manager is supposed to implement tactics, improve players and during a bad run of form be the person to change things to turn it around. I haven't seen him do any of that. He is very much replicating his benfica form as well that got him the sack.

I also think he is the cheap option and if he stays I think this summer's recruitment will be the same. If we brought in a new manager it would instantly breed excitement that the club are serious about investing this summer and will get fans back on side.
Just my opinion, on your first paragraph, as you say the team picks itself because of the lack of strength in depth and the only way they can play because of lack of pace down the spine, having Pep or Klopp in charge would probably result in the same league position.

I can only go of off Bruno at Benfica but if you want a high press to win the ball higher up the pitch you need pace/mobility all over the pitch especially the spine and we just don’t have it. I’d say Kilman has improved as under Nuno he would of been binned off, RAN, Semedo, even Neves have got better. The other players have hit a ceiling this year either because of talent/injury or age.m, no shame in that.

I think bringing in a new manager only brings excitement to those that want Bruno gone, good recruiting from Mendes would do the same (not Sellars or Jeff) It would be a bit **** by those above imo that you get a new manager and he gets backed whilst the one in charge has been shafted recruitment wise. What manager would take over knowing not to trust a word the owners say about backing.
 
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VancouverWolf

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It’s out of our hands.
….……………………..

I do remember quite a few Mixers jeering and mocking Levy at Spurs last year because he was taking so long to find a new coach and bragging how fast Jeff hired Bruno.

Now here we are …..many want Bruno gone, and Conte is doing great with Spurs.
( let’s call a spade a spade……Nuno was only hired as a caretaker by Levy…….Nuno was totally used like white trash by Levy while he settled on Conte).

Did Jeff settle too fast with Bruno last year? Would it have wiser to hold onto Nuno for 6 months or so and find a better coach than Bruno?
 

MattH

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Options on the poll are a bit limiting...I'd keep him provided he gets some proper backing this summer. If we sell Neves and a few others then expect three or four first team ready players coming in. Otherwise it'll be non-stop Hwang ball...
 

Mugwump

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I think there should be an option where you can sit on the fence. Part of me wants him gone, part of me thinks he should be given a chance next season.
 

WV4 Wolves

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I would get rid. My view is we need a more established coach/manager to build the team again for the next 2 or 3 seasons. I really don't think Bruno is the man for this. I'd rather change now and start a fresh than be in a mess come November. We definitely can't afford to start the first 10 games of next season how we finish the last 10 of this one.
 

MasWolf

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You say that but he’s got a team choc full of internationals. A poor workman always blames his tools.
It makes no difference when the teams you're playing against are also full of internationals. A bit of a strange argument to be honest. Surely, if you give a manager players that he has asked for, and that fit the way he wants to play, you'll then see exactly how good they are.
 

Shergar

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Whoever comes in is going to have to sign up to agree to the shenanigans of Tweedle Shi and Tweedle Glum, just like Bruno.
 

Zico

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As others have said, if we're going to have a poll can we have a grown up one? - Sack / keep / on the fence, rather than a daft one by someone trying to be funny.
 

Halesowen wwfc

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Lage is on circa 2 to 3m a year, one of the lowest paid in the premier league. Think he was 17th worst paid manager. The club have a seriously difficult decision to make. Get rid and pay circa 4 mil in compensation and get in a higher qualified manager to oversee the refresh or, stick and entrust him in moulding a new team with most likely 100m to 120m spent this summer. I dont for one second think he has a choice who he is given, but he has to make it work. The first half of the season uplift i suspect was down to having a different voice, but, that impact has now gone. The squad needs overhauling, and i just dont think he has the influence needed to take this team on to the next level.

On the flipside, getting in someone like lopetegui is also unlikely as shi et al will want to bring in their own players, and lopetegui will want his own players so there would be an immediate conflict.
 

WolfLing

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If we keep him, we have to back him 100%.

But I think the question marks over him will mean we won't fully back him, so it will end badly.
 

old wittonian

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Whoever comes in is going to have to sign up to agree to the shenanigans of Tweedle Shi and Tweedle Glum, just like Bruno.
One problem is that whoever eventually replaces Big Jeff, almost certainly a Fosun man, will very, very likely have less experience of football. Jeff has been here six years but, too me, has gone into reverse particularly in interacting with the fans. It's now a long way from buying beers at Brentford.
Whoever comes in will need a Sellars type to look to.
 

marrs-guitar

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Like any question about a manager's future, it's really about the faith you have that the club will recruit an upgrade. And I don't have all that much confidence in Shi doing so, particularly as I expect the salary on offer won't be competitive enough to interest many of the better options.

Nevertheless, it's probably the much more convenient option for them to just replace him with someone or other that Mendes knows who fancies a gig in the Premier League and who is expected to miraculously turn Silva into a goalscorer and Hwang into a footballer, so, in this respect, I am leaning toward expecting that Lage will depart over the summer. The alternative, i.e. financing a major overhaul of the playing squad, is surely anathema to Shi at this point.

I think Lage has done hmm.. okay... he's not a disaster, but he seems to have quite glaring deficiencies when it comes to in-game management and, going by the final months of the season, in creating a motivated dressing room full of players ready to pull together for the sake of the club. I wouldn't particularly fancy him in a relegation scrap.

He's certainly not an improvement on the previous incumbent, but I don't think he's quite the fraud that some seem to be painting him as and I don't think anyone can dispute that he has certainly been woefully supported from above and has probably had false promises made to him along the way.
 
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SingYourHeartsOut

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I'm usually amongst the last to call for a manager's head. Partly because I'm too loyal and partly because I think fans tend to over-react to dips in form. I was sad to see Nuno, Mick, Jackett, even Lambert (God help me) get the push. He's a descent bloke as far as I can tell, I know there's the Hoever stuff, but none of us know the behind the scenes frustrations that lead to that. It is odd how he unearths a rough diamond like Chiquinho and the plays him in a crazy position and then not at all, preferring the hapless Hwang. I worry that it's telling that when we only had about 13 fit players it was going OK, but as soon as he had options it all went to ****. He seems to have some good tactical plans at times, but no idea how to change a game in play. I do sympathise that he hasn't been given the tools to do the job, but I can't see anything apart from a team that has forgotten how to defend for its life and how to punish teams on the attack. The transformation to a high energy, possession based style hasn't happened at all. I take the point of not sacking him unless there's better out there, but no doubt Mendes will have an option for us!

If Fosun are going to continue to insist we sell to buy though it will be harder to get a good replacement and impossible for them to change the style. We had 3 amazing seasons, 2 reasonable ones, the cycle of life may be on the turn.
 

Hoganstolemywife

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Options on the poll are a bit limiting...I'd keep him provided he gets some proper backing this summer. If we sell Neves and a few others then expect three or four first team ready players coming in. Otherwise it'll be non-stop Hwang ball...
Option 3 for: indifferent instead of apportioning blame(!) Would be my vote
 

Superted

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Keep him but give him some backing. Doesn't have to be all in one go though. Klopp took what, five years at least to get Liverpool to the title, albeit with a Champions league on the way but even that took three years?

As long as we fix the holes and replace whoever leaves this summer with Bruno-style players it can be a long term transition as long as it doesn't go completely pear-shaped on the way. It's not going to happen over one summer transfer window.

No coach we can realistically get is going to be able to turn us into anything other than a modified version of what we are in one season, especially with two crappy transfer windows. Who would you replace Bruno with anyway?
 

Bawtry Wolf

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I don’t see any evidence of a Bruno way of playing. There’s no identity, he seems more worried about the opposition, chops and changes the formation in accordance with what the opposition might do and then is knackered if they don’t do what he expects because his in game management is atrocious. The only way he’s going to be successful next year is if he phones the opposition up the week before and asks them to play the way his scouting reports have told him.

We have a massive rebuild to do, thanks to his ineptitude we are now shopping at Asda or Tescos rather than Waitrose. If he stays in charge it’s quite likely we’ll be shopping at B&M and Home Bargains the season after in the Championship.
 

Bawtry Wolf

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Keep him but give him some backing. Doesn't have to be all in one go though. Klopp took what, five years at least to get Liverpool to the title, albeit with a Champions league on the way but even that took three years?

As long as we fix the holes and replace whoever leaves this summer with Bruno-style players it can be a long term transition as long as it doesn't go completely pear-shaped on the way. It's not going to happen over one summer transfer window.

No coach we can realistically get is going to be able to turn us into anything other than a modified version of what we are in one season, especially with two crappy transfer windows. Who would you replace Bruno with anyway?
What are Bruno style players? Hwang?
 
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Deleted member drgr12429

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I don't know. I'd like to see him with his own players playing his own way. Absolutely needs a player refresh and has done for a couple of seasons. As others have said some of his in game stuff is odd (to us), sometimes there's reasons, some they make you wonder.
Thing is unless you have someone out there that can instantly come in and make it work then what do you do?
I think there's no option other than to back him properly, and hope it works.
Even managers like Conte are a gamble to begin with!
One more thing. Hwang, nah....
 

Superted

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What are Bruno style players? Hwang?
Not sure to be honest. Like I say, I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt because he's had nobody else apart from Chiquinho (who I think we're all quite excited about) and Trincao (who has been surprisingly ineffective for large parts of the season).

I seem to recall we were linked with Hwang a while before Bruno arrived so I'm not convinced he's 100% Bruno's guy.
 

Northampton_wolf

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If he is going they need to do it and replace him in June - with new signings for new manager before pre-season.

neto looked good and is seemingly ok acorrding to his insta post.

So if we can back lage and sign the players we need in June plus a resurgent neto i will feel positive about next year
 

Loefah

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He's just completed his first full season as a manager and the second half was near relegation form, mirroring his end at Benfica.

There's nothing that we've seen during the last 9 months or in his CV to suggest he's the man to oversee a squad overhaul and be a long term success.

Expectations that things will be better and we'll turn into a swashbuckling attacking side when he's got some new players are fanciful too.
 

kentish wolf

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I would get rid. My view is we need a more established coach/manager to build the team again for the next 2 or 3 seasons. I really don't think Bruno is the man for this. I'd rather change now and start a fresh than be in a mess come November. We definitely can't afford to start the first 10 games of next season how we finish the last 10 of this one.
I agree with this post ...
Get Potter in or somebody who knows this league
I have had enough of boring Bruno.
 

Timberwolf

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It makes no difference when the teams you're playing against are also full of internationals. A bit of a strange argument to be honest. Surely, if you give a manager players that he has asked for, and that fit the way he wants to play, you'll then see exactly how good they are.
It’s not a strange argument at all. He hasn’t got the players to play his preferred way, well boo boo!!! He’s got what he’s got and should be able to work with it. He did okay to get us up to 8th not playing his preferred way and then things went tits-up.
…and Hwang, just wtf??!?!??
 
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