The Bruno Lage Appreciation Thread

[WolfmanOz]

I reckon there was as good as a 0% chance of us going down under Nuno.

I reckon there's a significant chance we'll go down this season under Lage. I certainly don't see us finishing higher than 13th, which is where we finished last season.

Agreed . . . although I quite like what I’ve seen so far with Lage, but he’s been thrown under the bus, and when/if the results continually go tits up, he will suffer the fate that always befall managers when their club is facing relegation - which unfortunately I think we’re facing as we are in real serious trouble.

Regardless of the defence, if you can’t score you don’t win.

 

[Johnny75]

Don't disagree with any of that but you do have to take into account the lack of backing in the transfer market when considering the ceiling element. It's not difficult to see what his ideal set up would look like and how he can't really play it without taking a big gamble defensively

Yep, the board have cut him off at the knees. Lage is clearly a good coach and his play has seen us create a huge amount of chances.

 

[Johnny75]

Yeah, but it's a bit like Moyes saying he'd have been brilliant for United if he'd been allowed to sign all the players he wanted. He didn't get them, you have to work with what you have, if you're shit then you get canned.

We have been shit so far.

Nuno would’ve been just as shit.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Yep, the board have cut him off at the knees. Lage is clearly a good coach and his play has seen us create a huge amount of chances.

Or he's not pragmatic enough to get results, because you won't always win when you play well, and if you always lose when you play poorly, you're bang in trouble.

Benfica's worst run ever, remember.

I don't dislike the guy. I just cannot see for the life of me how anyone thinks this is actually going to work. And you can blame the board (well, the owner and CEO basically - we don't have a board) until the cows come home, they don't sack themselves. It's chasing parked cars levels of pointlessness.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Nuno would’ve been just as shit.

I disagree.

Nuno knows how to grind out points. It might look awful at times but you get them on the board and worry about everything else later.

What about Lage tells you he can do that?

 

[PuntsWolf]

Breaking up this nonsense that home games against against Spurs is an automatic loss (again).

If we’re on 6 points after 10 games and we’ve lost 8, he will struggle to keep his job. He’s not been backed but it’s not a 0.6ppg team from a quarter of the season where you haven’t even played the best 3 teams who are head and shoulders above everyone else.

Contrary to Andy and Cybers nonsense, United, Spurs and Leicester are very beatable and certainly in home games I’d expect a point.

 

[PuntsWolf]

I dont think we will be on 6 points after 10 though. I think even Saunders would manage that.

 

[Johnny75]

I disagree.

Nuno knows how to grind out points. It might look awful at times but you get them on the board and worry about everything else later.

What about Lage tells you he can do that?

It really isn’t about Lage, it’s about the terrible recruitment and inability to score goals in our forwards.

I just don’t see Nuno having any different outcome with the same set of players. Sa would still make the mistake against Spurs, our set piece marking had become a joke and chance creation was zero.

Nuno was done.

Lage’s team creates more but it’s the players at fault in the main. I’m hoping Brentford was an aberration as tactically that was shocking. I don’t think Lage can grind out results but Watford showed we can keep going.

 

[Johnny75]

Or he's not pragmatic enough to get results, because you won't always win when you play well, and if you always lose when you play poorly, you're bang in trouble.

Benfica's worst run ever, remember.

I don't dislike the guy. I just cannot see for the life of me how anyone thinks this is actually going to work. And you can blame the board (well, the owner and CEO basically - we don't have a board) until the cows come home, they don't sack themselves. It's chasing parked cars levels of pointlessness.

Goes back to my question, if not Lage then who, because any new manager is going to have the same issues to deal with.

 

[From Distant Shores]

I dont think we will be on 6 points after 10 though. I think even Saunders would manage that.

That's got me really worried. Saturdays 2-2-6 at the end had the look of a Saunders formation.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Goes back to my question, if not Lage then who, because any new manager is going to have the same issues to deal with.

I didn't say I would sack him. I just think they will in that scenario.

 

[Johnny75]

I didn't say I would sack him. I just think they will in that scenario.

I do too. But it’s papering over the cracks.

 

[AndyWolves]

Breaking up this nonsense that home games against against Spurs is an automatic loss (again).

If we’re on 6 points after 10 games and we’ve lost 8, he will struggle to keep his job. He’s not been backed but it’s not a 0.6ppg team from a quarter of the season where you haven’t even played the best 3 teams who are head and shoulders above everyone else.

Contrary to Andy and Cybers nonsense, United, Spurs and Leicester are very beatable and certainly in home games I’d expect a point.

Man United are unbeaten away from home for 28 games, they've beat us at our place the last three times they've played here. They've improved their squad and we haven't - but you're still think they're very beatable?

 

[Tony Towner]

By your own favourite metric we should have done
Post in thread 'Wolves 0-1 Man Utd: Verdict Thread' https://www.wolvesforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/wolves-0-1-man-utd-verdict-thread.37251/post-1459616

 

[AndyWolves]

By your own favourite metric we should have done
Post in thread 'Wolves 0-1 Man Utd: Verdict Thread' https://www.wolvesforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/wolves-0-1-man-utd-verdict-thread.37251/post-1459616

I think the world just fell of its axis

 

[slink]

Yeah, but it's a bit like Moyes saying he'd have been brilliant for United if he'd been allowed to sign all the players he wanted. He didn't get them, you have to work with what you have, if you're shit then you get canned.

We have been shit so far.

Personally i think your argument loses a lot of credibility when you say we've been shit so far because that clearly isn't the case. We've tactically been better than 4 of the 5 sides we've played so far and as Johnny says we've been let down by our finishing on very good chances and individual errors.

Obviously Saturday was the worst performance so far and our points total at the moment isn't good but there were lots of positives from the first 4 games and suddenly lose to Brentford and people can't wait to put the boot in in some way.

I’ve seen a few comments to say Bruno isn’t flexible but he was very flexible at Watford. Started with the inverted wingers, switched to conventional ones and then switched to inside forwards with Podence and Hwang picking up central positions earlier and that worked.

If we were really struggling at the back and not creating any chances i could understand it but that’s certainly not the case. Obviously it’s a results based business but win doesn’t mean great and lose shit and you know that.

If we continue to play as we are but not picking up points then there has to be a line drawn somewhere i get that but not after 5 games and a game that just seemed a bit of an anomaly with the level of head loss, poor decisions and shit housery from the other side.

I get there’s a lot of shit that doesn’t look great from the club at the moment but the football itself up until Marcal’s rugby tackle has been a positive overall without having the end product. Appreciate that’s the most important part but that blame should definitely lie at the door of the recruitment team signing players who don’t look like scoring goals.

Another long post this but i do feel as i’ve said previously the reaction to Saturday’s game has been a massive overreaction.

 

[Throbber3]

United, Spurs and Leicester are very beatable and certainly in home games I’d expect a point.

United , the united unbeaten in 29 away premier matches. Jesus! Leicester , a week after they beat Man City, and a Spurs team led by Nuno keen to get one over his old employer and knowing the exact abilities of the team and setting up accordingly. Very beatable my fanny. Where is the laughing emoji when you need it? Absolute tosh.

I fear there is an element on here that will be forever Nuno and nothing else will come close to the mark. sad but true. Lage appears to be an excellent coach working within some very strict parameters set by his employers. There has been enough debate regarding the squad , the recruitment and the style. The squad is too small ,lacks depth in the right areas and the recruitment has been horrendous pretty much for a number of years. But expecting us to beat teams who we couldn't beat last year with the same team as this year is the definition of madness. Doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. We gave all three teams much better games and got nothing because we cant finish. Its as simple as that.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I don't think it is an overreaction in fairness. We've lost 4 games out of 5. We have scored one goal and Watford scored one for us out of nothing, off a nothing cross (a familiar theme). That's it.

We don't score and we can't defend. You see the problem I have here.

It's fine to say "it's too early" but what if this is still the case in another couple of games? Or five? We're a very easy team to play against, I think.

 

[Tony Towner]

United , the united unbeaten in 29 away premier matches. Jesus! Leicester , a week after they beat Man City, and a Spurs team led by Nuno keen to get one over his old employer and knowing the exact abilities of the team and setting up accordingly. Very beatable my fanny. Where is the laughing emoji when you need it? Absolute tosh.

As disenguous posts go using the Charity Shield as the basis for an argument is way up there.

It's a very confused thread this, on the one hand we should have beaten Leicester, Man Utd and Spurs, but the same people say how can you expect us to get something from Leicester, Man Utd or Spurs?

 

[Throbber3]

I find it strange that we have one bad game and the Lage out bandwagon appears to be gaining momentum. Disingenuous to use the first trophy of a new season , the first competitive match of the new season? Leicester players seemed very pleased to win it.

I think you need to read the thread a little more closely to be fair. I dont think we should be beating any of those three on paper but looking at the games we easily could have beaten all of them.