Is Bruno Lage A Good Manager Or Should He Go?

[sycophantia]

I think this argument has more layers to it than he should go or he should stay because he’s good and i think on the back of 3 dreadful performances where Bruno has been at fault a lot of people have completely changed their mind or it’s gone from he’s doing ok to he’s completely useless when that clearly isn’t the case. Now of course people can change their mind but it’s been an extreme change in less than 2 months.
We’ve been pretty inconsistent the whole season but so has everyone from 3rd to 17th. That’s how the league is and unfortunately whether we play attacking or defensive football we haven’t really got goal scorers. At times we’ve played really well and looked like a side capable of making Europe but then at others like we could quite easily be in the bottom 5. Again though this could be the case for most sides in the league.

Bruno has got it massively wrong in the last 3 games after getting it right against Villa and the only thing that nearly cost us in the game was the players inability to finish and their poor decision making in the final third. Take that across the whole season and you can say both Bruno and the players have cost us points, ultimately that all comes back to Bruno because he’s the manager but I don’t think it’s as easy as saying after the last 3 games that he should definitely go. It’s been clear all season we struggle when we go behind and Bruno struggles to change the things, i think that’s also because teams know if they sit in against us we haven’t got anyone who can break a side down. I do also think Bruno has been left with a strange unbalanced squad but then i also think he’s got the best out of some players but not getting the best out of some others and on top of that not using others as much as he should. Toti and Cundle should have been used more, Hwang should not play as often as he does but then not many would want Trincao and Neto hasn’t been ready. Podence has been the best attacking player but his temperament needs to be questioned and he’s not got much end product and then we’ve got Raul who isn’t anywhere near the same player and Fabio who has looked like a good link player recently but isolated and isn’t the old Raul either who would have created something on his own. Just on where we go…

Who do we get instead? Do we trust Fosun to replace him? Do the players get a free pass? Those who want Fosun out do you think there’s just owners queuing up? We definitely deserve more clarity from the club and they definitely could be better owners but again they could 100% be worse.

Taking everything into account with Bruno, i’ve got no real problem if we got rid providing we replaced him with someone better but i’m not sure they would. I do also think that whoever the manager is next year this squad needs a overhaul and to be rebalanced which as fans the majority think is easy but it really won’t be. It’s just Wolves isn’t it really, if someone would have told us 6 years ago we would be 8th in the Premier League and most fans aren’t happy we would have said they were talking shit but that’s where we are. Nothing is ever straight forward with this football club.

You've no business coming on here atm with your balanced views, we need a lynching, nothing else will do.

 

[redvictor]

The girl?

I had to look. Jemma. Pretty sure she is a girl.

 

[Tredman]

I’m suppose so, in the same way that you’re a little boy.

 

[redvictor]

Maintenance. Mmmm.

Fosun bought a car in 2017, and invested in high quality parts. The current engine needed a couple of tweaks of senior mechanic but eventually Nuno got it purring.However, the owners did not change the oil or the filters , instead they bought shiny new alloy wheels (Fabio) and a stainless steel exhaust (Semedo) The mechanic reminded the owners that they still needed to maintain the car or it would run into problems. The car started to fail. Fosun changed mechanic. This new mechanic wanted to add nitrous to make the car faster but the existing engine and gear box where not strong enough. The new mechanic (Bruno) also asked for maintenance parts but again the owner did not buy them . The owners pointed out that the car appeared to be running fine and what is not broken does not need fixing. However, the cars parts were wearing because of lack of maintenance and other parts started to break . The engine that already needed tuning , started to badly misfire. The shiny wheels looked pitted and the stainless steel exhaust dull. The new mechanic however, would not tell the owners the truth and kept running the car without maintenance. The owners eventually tired of seeing their car limping along and fired the mechanic.
Hopefully the owners learn that every car needs constant maintenance, often small and the major parts need to be kept in shape or the whole car splutters to a halt.

It's an analogy i fully understand having been messing with cars for 45 years. I'd just add that major parts require replacement to go faster and last, rather than just maintaining them.

 

[redvictor]

I’m suppose so, in the same way that you’re a little boy.

I've said it before. If you don't like other people commenting or actually engaging in the forum then why don't you just close the it to the public and slap yourselves on the back in private?
Both of you know what i mean, but you insist on having a petty dig at what i say. It doesn't matter what you think i should say to be honest.

 

[Quirkafleeg]

Don't become Cyber number 4 mate.......

Here's some cute puppies have a great day Victor..

 

[Quirkafleeg]

Looking at the post some of you could interpret that in thinking 'Wanna see some puppies' Savilesque thinking guys..

 

[redvictor]

Don't become Cyber number 4 mate.......

Here's some cute puppies have a great day Victor..

I don't want to become anyone but me. Just leave me out of the games is what i'm asking. I don't start anything, but need to reply when people take the piss. It's a trait in me.
Thanks for the puppies. It would have been better if they were wobbly!

 

[jdrodrigues]

 

I think this argument has more layers to it than he should go or he should stay because he’s good and i think on the back of 3 dreadful performances where Bruno has been at fault a lot of people have completely changed their mind or it’s gone from he’s doing ok to he’s completely useless when that clearly isn’t the case. Now of course people can change their mind but it’s been an extreme change in less than 2 months.
We’ve been pretty inconsistent the whole season but so has everyone from 3rd to 17th. That’s how the league is and unfortunately whether we play attacking or defensive football we haven’t really got goal scorers. At times we’ve played really well and looked like a side capable of making Europe but then at others like we could quite easily be in the bottom 5. Again though this could be the case for most sides in the league.

Bruno has got it massively wrong in the last 3 games after getting it right against Villa and the only thing that nearly cost us in the game was the players inability to finish and their poor decision making in the final third. Take that across the whole season and you can say both Bruno and the players have cost us points, ultimately that all comes back to Bruno because he’s the manager but I don’t think it’s as easy as saying after the last 3 games that he should definitely go. It’s been clear all season we struggle when we go behind and Bruno struggles to change the things, i think that’s also because teams know if they sit in against us we haven’t got anyone who can break a side down. I do also think Bruno has been left with a strange unbalanced squad but then i also think he’s got the best out of some players but not getting the best out of some others and on top of that not using others as much as he should. Toti and Cundle should have been used more, Hwang should not play as often as he does but then not many would want Trincao and Neto hasn’t been ready. Podence has been the best attacking player but his temperament needs to be questioned and he’s not got much end product and then we’ve got Raul who isn’t anywhere near the same player and Fabio who has looked like a good link player recently but isolated and isn’t the old Raul either who would have created something on his own. Just on where we go…

Who do we get instead? Do we trust Fosun to replace him? Do the players get a free pass? Those who want Fosun out do you think there’s just owners queuing up? We definitely deserve more clarity from the club and they definitely could be better owners but again they could 100% be worse.

Taking everything into account with Bruno, i’ve got no real problem if we got rid providing we replaced him with someone better but i’m not sure they would. I do also think that whoever the manager is next year this squad needs a overhaul and to be rebalanced which as fans the majority think is easy but it really won’t be. It’s just Wolves isn’t it really, if someone would have told us 6 years ago we would be 8th in the Premier League and most fans aren’t happy we would have said they were talking shit but that’s where we are. Nothing is ever straight forward with this football club.

I agree with Slink in this post, but it is quite jarring and sad for me to see the form we have demonstrated lately.

It reminds me of what happened to Benfica in 2019/20 under Lage. Same signs, same results. Fortunately, our place is pretty safe in the table now and we've blundered the chances to do better.

The problem seems to go deeper than him, but he should also be doing a better job at managing the team and players. While the result is what ultimately matters, we, the fans, are in this to watch a good show. And it Wolves hasn't been a good show.

 

[Paul]

To give the man some credit he is showing an excellent amount of efficiency, I mean echoing his Benfica trajectory only in one season rather than two !

 

[ROVERT47]

I’ve never really took to him to be honest, I was gutted when Nuno was sacked and would have liked him to have been given a couple of months post pandemic to turn it round.
Having said that the Tottenham debacle proved that he had probably run out of steam.
I’m not gonna start chanting’Bruno out’ when the inevitable happens and we go one down against Norwich but if he’s gone at the end of the season I certainly won’t be feeling the same as I did when Nuno went.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

I’ve never really took to him to be honest, I was gutted when Nuno was sacked and would have liked him to have been given a couple of months post pandemic to turn it round.
Having said that the Tottenham debacle proved that he had probably run out of steam.
I’m not gonna start chanting’Bruno out’ when the inevitable happens and we go one down against Norwich but if he’s gone at the end of the season I certainly won’t be feeling the same as I did when Nuno went.

Nuno had plenty in the bank which is why many thought he deserved the chance to prove last season is an aberration. Bruno has little in the bank and without Sa’s heroics would have considerably less, if any. I think a few fans would feel Bruno has been harshly done by if he’s sacked but I don’t think any tears will be shed.

 

[sycophantia]

Nuno had plenty in the bank which is why many thought he deserved the chance to prove last season is an aberration. Bruno has little in the bank and without Sa’s heroics would have considerably less, if any. I think a few fans would feel Bruno has been harshly done by if he’s sacked but I don’t think any tears will be shed.

I think many opposition fans and pundits will think we're mad if we sack Lage. A middling team like Wolves finishing 8/9th without spending money, who the fuck do we think we are, will be their attitude as they don't have to sit through it every week

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I don't care what they think.

I put up that post from a Leicester fan last week who corrected pointed out that they and Southampton were seen as 'entitled' for sacking Puel when comfortably mid table. So what, no one else has to watch it, and they're both way better off now. And Puel's football is way better than Lage's.

 

[PuntsWolf]

All football fans of other clubs and the media talk nonsense (including us). Was only a few weeks ago we didn’t understand Burnley sacking Dyche and now it looks like a masterstroke.

Same as when the media/pundits say stuff about our players/manager/club which make you think “you’ve surely never watched us play?”.

Even the most knowledgable of fans won’t know the full story or even the majority of it at another club.

 

[Wolf of Ashford]

The thing i've never really understood with Lage....... and i appreciate i see a lot less than many of you guys.......... but in our opening 3 games, we played decent football and created loads of chances without scoring.
We lost all 3 games but only 1-0, so it's not as if we were being carved open due to this expansive attacking style we were playing. But after those 3 games we seem to have spent the season becoming steadily more and more conservative to the point where we barely look like laying a glove on some relatively mediocre (or in the case of Norwich, just outright rubbish) teams.

I don't really understand why he has abandoned that more attacking style so readily.

I'm kind of conflicted with Lage a bit. Generally, i think it's hard for a manager to come into a squad, be expected to change it's style without being given the means to make substantial changes in the squad. But...... he hasn't inherited a squad full of long ball cloggers. We've got some decent footballers who are capable of playing more on the front foot i think.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

It was three games nearly a year ago, we've had 31 since that have been mostly rubbish, the latter is Lage's 'style' (we weren't even *that* good in these mythical Brazil 1970 games either).

I saw us play well under Hoddle at least a couple of times but by the end I didn't hold out hope that we could still see the real Glenn and the irredeemable tedium was just a bit of an accident.

 

[pr0sl0]

I think it's maybe more accurate to say that Lage's true "style" is "have a world class wonderkid attacking midfielder come through your club's academy the same season you arrive as manager", and without that struck of luck he doesn't actually have the "attacking football" credentials his reputation suggested.

 

[sycophantia]

I don't care what they think.

I put up that post from a Leicester fan last week who corrected pointed out that they and Southampton were seen as 'entitled' for sacking Puel when comfortably mid table. So what, no one else has to watch it, and they're both way better off now. And Puel's football is way better than Lage's.

Neither do I, just saying how it will look from outside.
On his tenure, for me, the first 3 games were encouraging in style (by no means 'Brazil 70').
He then went all pragmatic and scrapped to a couple of wins, which I thought was fair enough. From then on apart from a few aberrations eg Brentford and Palace I thought we played some decent stuff at times, scored a few goals, won a good share of games. Since the 2 Arsenal games (apart from Villa I think) we've fell off a massive cliff. The players don't get a free pass, especially last Saturday but for me it's mainly on Lage, the last 3 especially he has looked devoid of any plan or ideas, which sort of fits in with the end of his Benfica days.....time for him to go.

 

[Jinky]

I’ve never really took to him to be honest, I was gutted when Nuno was sacked and would have liked him to have been given a couple of months post pandemic to turn it round.
Having said that the Tottenham debacle proved that he had probably run out of steam.
I’m not gonna start chanting’Bruno out’ when the inevitable happens and we go one down against Norwich but if he’s gone at the end of the season I certainly won’t be feeling the same as I did when Nuno went.

Just seen you're back posting again, Rover. Good to see you're doing well, mate. Nice to have you back on the board.