Is Bruno Lage A Good Manager Or Should He Go?

[Elephant Pyjamas]

I took it as a simple do you want him to stay or go poll.

You may have done, but it's not presented that way is it.

It's presented in a way that anyone who dares to vote for no would be ridiculed.

It's mol mix levels of shittery.

 

[Tredman]

The discussion on here has been fair and balanced.

But the poll itself is a bit of a joke isn't it? Total waste of time when it is so heavily loaded like that, i expect better from a forum such as this.

It’s just a go or stay isn’t it? With a bit of bantz thrown in. I hardly think anyone here is going to vote based on a only fools joke. May be wrong though

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Yeah, sounds like until they make a big sale now they don't have loads of money as they had to spend so much last summer though.

However I think they are signing Cheick Doucoure for £15m who appears to be the type of midfielder we could do with.

They've done well considering they've been using Schlupp in centre midfield a lot and still got gaps at fullback that they weren't able to upgrade. Shows the impact a reasonable shake up can have though in even giving some of the incumbents a shake up and new lease of life.

Would be interesting at Wolves to see how some of the others would change up their game to suit some new recruitments coming into the team.

 

[EdgeOfTheAlps]

Clearly we can have a big clear out - like most I think it’s necessary - but well run clubs opt for evolution not revolution.

The time for evolution was 4 windows ago, arguably more. A CM, a CB for starters. Sellars and Shi have done absolutely nothing about it except buy U23 players and dross for Grasshoppers whilst letting Mouts reach the end of career. Sellars and Shi not bothering about evolution is the ordinary reason we probably need revolution.

 

[pr0sl0]

I don't think they "haven't cared" about the future of the squad - the transfer policy is clearly "bring in young players, develop them, sell when older for profit, invest in new young players". The results just haven't been particularly successful bar the Neves/Jota double bill. I think Aït-Nouri and Neto are the only others who've come in where the fan consensus has been, "yes, these kids are going to be something special even if they're still inconsistent at the moment, nice job."

It's a strategy that isn't always going to deliver, obviously - not every promising player reaches their potential - but you do have to at least recognise when your young prospects aren't developing and bring in other players to cover the gaps. We keep bringing in players that range from duds (Hwang) to the merely OK (Podence), and so other players who have been here longer (and who reached their own ceilings many seasons ago, like Coady, Saiss, Dendoncker, etc.) never get phased out like they probably should.

It's a culmination of underperforming transfer and training decisions from multiple directions, over multiple seasons, collectively generating the sense of inevitable decline - and now not helped by an underperforming manager on top.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

The time for evolution was 4 windows ago, arguably more. A CM, a CB for starters. Sellars and Shi have done absolutely nothing about it except buy U23 players and dross for Grasshoppers whilst letting Mouts reach the end of career. Sellars and Shi not bothering about evolution is the ordinary reason we probably need revolution.

Exactly my point.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

But it is the evolution model that the club says it aspires to (they say) - hence the large fees paid for young, inexperienced players who were not ready for first team football. That is also a risky strategy but it is a choice they have made rather than improving the first team with oven ready players who are better than the ones we have already.

The problem for a club like ours is that we can bring young players in, develop them and then they leave which (in theory) is the model of a successful club that evolves and is self sufficient. We are now looking at players to sell that others want to pay for without having suitable replacements ready having been developed - we sold Jota, already had Neto....and that's about it really. Silva, Hoeveer (nearly £50 million), not ready. The rest of our purchases have been squad fillers or like for like replacements (Sa, Semedo).

At the moment it feels like we don't have any clear strategy, or if we do it isn't working. It looks very possible that there will be a significant turnover of players this summer whoever the manager is which means we will be able to spend big...but not necessarily wisely.

There’s an argument they’ve been unlucky with Raul and without his injury there would be less need for Silva to step up so soon, however in CD and CM it’s just inept.

It was clear almost immediately Neves was the real deal and he was always likely to want to step up to a higher level. Combined with the fact Moutinho is nearing the end of his career it’s ridiculous the only player to replace them is Donk.

This time last year it was pretty clear Saiss and Boly were likely to soon be struggling and that’s exactly what has happened. They might argue Mosquera was the replacement but in his few games he looked clumsy and a walking red card.

We’ve now probably got to replace best part of half a team by selling our best player and raising a few quid here and there from the sales of fringe players. I just hope the recruitment is a lot better than recent windows but have serious doubts. Despite the Sky money for four years we’re weaker now than at the end of August in our first season back in the PL.

 

[AndyWolves]

Fwiw I think our u18 and u23 teams are better and younger than they've been for along time.

I wonder how much of our strategy relies of players coming through to either play in the first XI or be sold to generate income.

 

[YoungWolf]

They've done well considering they've been using Schlupp in centre midfield a lot and still got gaps at fullback that they weren't able to upgrade. Shows the impact a reasonable shake up can have though in even giving some of the incumbents a shake up and new lease of life.

Would be interesting at Wolves to see how some of the others would change up their game to suit some new recruitments coming into the team.

Just good coaching as well isn't it.

Nuno still made good to excellent use of players already at the club when he took over and got the right signings alongside that. The problem is it's becoming clearer (if it wasn't anyway) that we just landed lucky that the best manager we've had since Cullis became available at the right time.

 

[sycophantia]

It would be very risky to have 'big clearout' of playing staff imo. We still have some very good players. It worked under Nuno but we clearly got some players who would normally be out of reach, don't think that's the case now. Also we were in a much lower class league.
If we can I think we should retain (if possible)
Sa, Semedo, RAN, Jonny, Kilman, Coady, Moutinho, Neves, Neto, Raul, Silva.
Assuming we keep the youngsters like Mosquera, Toti, Chiquinho, Cundle, then we need at least, 1 striker, 1 CB, 1 CM and a wide forward.

 

[PuntsWolf]

You may have done, but it's not presented that way is it.

It's presented in a way that anyone who dares to vote for no would be ridiculed.

It's mol mix levels of shittery.

What it may have needed is a “not bothered” category. That may have taken the majority of the vote. Basically few people actually want him to stay because he’s proven to have few redeeming features , but I doubt the majority would chase him out of town with pitchforks.

Think it just shows he’s not really making many friends amongst the fans at the moment for any one of the reasons stated previously

 

[Del Woppio]

Aye, I don't think anybody is particularly 'pro' Bruno - the second option for me is "I would like to see what he could do with better footballers, and given a; we'll need to buy them anyway, and b; clearly our managers don't have much input in recruitment, we may as well see how he fairs with better talent for a few months before making a decision on him.

Fosun won't sack him anyway, to somebody that doesn't understand football the obvious conclusion is that he's done a decent job, massively improved the league position, and hasn't had to spend anything. The background stuff is insignificant fluff as far as they're concerned

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Just good coaching as well isn't it.

Nuno still made good to excellent use of players already at the club when he took over and got the right signings alongside that. The problem is it's becoming clearer (if it wasn't anyway) that we just landed lucky that the best manager we've had since Cullis became available at the right time.

It's good recruitment all round really I think, getting together a group of players and manager that are aligned to one another.

Identifying what the retained element of their squad could be capable of, the right players to plug the gaps and a manager who can bring it all together. You look at Palace now compared to a year ago and they're in a phenomenally better position.

 

[YoungWolf]

Oh without a doubt. But Palace still have a lot of work to do as their midfield is still pretty rubbish (especially with Gallagher unlikely to be coming back) and they it sounds like they used up a lot of their finances on Guehi, Andersen, Olise, Edouard, Mateta, Hughes. net spend of over £70m. They had to do it but I don't think they'll be spending as much this summer and not sure they'll get buyers just yet for their talents (but you'd imagine they will eventually make a big profit on Guehi and Olise)

 

[EdgeOfTheAlps]

Aye, I don't think anybody is particularly 'pro' Bruno - the second option for me is "I would like to see what he could do with better footballers, and given a; we'll need to buy them anyway, and b; clearly our managers don't have much input in recruitment, we may as well see how he fairs with better talent for a few months before making a decision on him.

Fosun won't sack him anyway, to somebody that doesn't understand football the obvious conclusion is that he's done a decent job, massively improved the league position, and hasn't had to spend anything. The background stuff is insignificant fluff as far as they're concerned

If they think they can plod along with these players and this manager next season they'll be shocked to see us facing a relegation battle.

 

[Lupollet]

At the start we got everything right. Marketing, Branding, Transfers, Manager, Mendes, Results, everything.

We had a clear identity, were full of fresh ideas, the media loved us and we were extremely hard to beat.

I couldn’t believe my luck that this happened to my faded, perpetually also-ran wolves.

normal service has now been resumed. One slip this summer and we will be pretty much back to where we started.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

"We came to a position in the middle of January and February and we were competing with 10 or 11 players, now I have the whole squad with me and they have to understand that we arrived at 40 points without some of the players," he added.

"They need to understand better what I want, the way I want to play and they need to understand that I want everyone fit and ready in every moment for me to choose the best XI.

Fuck off, dickhead.

 

[sycophantia]

It occurred to me this morning while on the bog having a shit that do people want us to carry on being horrific for the rest of the season, perhaps losing to Norwich and getting thumped by the top 3? Which would hopefully mean he'd get the bullet. I can't bring myself to hope for that, I still want us to compete and finish strongly. That could mean (very unlikely I know) we still finish 7th and get a place in Europe which would make it impossible to sack him and he would get some cash to spend.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I'd never wish for us to lose. We are pretty much nailed on to lose three of the next four though and it wouldn't surprise me if we lost the lot, as we're awful at the moment.

I wouldn't give him the steam off my piss, let alone money to spend. He comes across worse than Dave Jones, nothing is ever his fault.

 

[Lycan]

"If not, we finish with 40 points and rest. No, the players don't have that character to relax. Every time they fight hard and are a very good group.

"These kind of things can happen but I want to feel it in the next training and in the next game, like they've shown all season.
"Every time they've come from a bad game and bad performance they have come with everything to the next game to do their best.
"That's now the answer I want to see. Not with words but with good training, good games and a good performance."

We'll see about that on Saturday then Bruno. If they put in another limp dicked performance then I'm taking that as proof that he's completely lost the dressing room.