Is Bruno Lage A Good Manager Or Should He Go?

[1986]

Wonder what will happen Nuno once he leaves his present job ?

Wonder if he has ambitions to manage again at this level .

 

[AndyWolves]

Wonder what will happen Nuno once he leaves his present job ?

Wonder if he has ambitions to manage again at this level .

This is a circle I've not been able to square, why hasn't Nuno had a decent job after wolves? Spurs was always going to be a car crash, or has it spooked prospective employers?

 

[b3h]

This is a circle I've not been able to square, why hasn't Nuno had a decent job after wolves? Spurs was always going to be a car crash, or has it spooked prospective employers?

Maybe he had a break after Spurs and then just took the first job that came up, not complaining at the $$$

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

The slightly bat shit mental part of my rationale thinks that Nuno getting the Spurs job was Mendes doing Wolves a favour so we could stop paying him, and all of his coaching staff wages.

It doesn't really make any sense beyond that so I tend not to believe it myself

 

[Derby Wolf]

So far with Lage I've accepted he's incompetent without really listening to anything he has to say owing to the fact he's got about as much gravitas as a pigeon. All of his comments I read second hand on here.

Im now at the stage where I feel it's best for him to say nothing and have us think he's an idiot/bellend/cunt than open his mouth and remove all doubt.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

Im now at the stage where I feel it's best for him to say nothing and have us think he's an idiot/bellend/cunt than open his mouth and remove all doubt.

Too late!

 

[Paul]

Im now at the stage where I feel it's best for him to say nothing and have us think he's an idiot/bellend/cunt than open his mouth and remove all doubt.

Are you paraphrasing Mark Twain on a Bruno thread kudos Sir

 

[Tony Towner]

I'm free articled out, but Percy has a piece on Lage today, the premise of which seems to be he's not at in immediate danger but his seat is getting warmer

https://twitter.com/x/status/1575426574589259776

 

[Tredman]

Mods feel free to remove but I have no scruples when it comes to this shit rag

Brendan Rodgers, Steve Cooper and Steven Gerrard might be dominating the conversation about the Premier League sack race as the domestic season swings back into action, but elsewhere in the Midlands a different manager is also starting to sweat.
Bruno Lage is facing a crucial month in his tenure at Wolverhampton Wanderers, and needs to deliver a response quickly to avoid his position coming under threat. It may surprise many outside of the Black Country that Lage’s results over the last 14 league games are worse than both Rodgers and Gerrard, who are under such intense scrutiny from their own supporters.
Since the win over Gerrard’s Aston Villa on April 2, Wolves have picked up only eight points from those 14 matches, winning just one and losing eight. That run has seen them collapse from seventh in the table, and within sight of the Champions League places, to the bottom four this campaign.
Fans are starting to turn and with justification: quite simply, Lage should be doing far better with the squad he now has at his disposal.


Fosun, the Wolves owners, backed the former Benfica manager with substantial funds this summer, spending more than £100 million on transfers; while Lage has insisted he cannot be properly judged until November, his employers will expect better returns long before then.
Matheus Nunes joined for a club record £38m fee from Sporting while Valencia forward Goncalo Guedes, a long-term target since Lage’s appointment, also moved to Molineux.
After another summer signing, Sasa Kalajdzic, sustained a cruciate ligament injury on his debut, Wolves moved swiftly to sign a former title winner in Diego Costa. The 33-year-old is expected to be available at West Ham, where David Moyes is also under pressure, this weekend.
There were no major sales, with midfielder Ruben Neves staying despite admitting after the final game of last season that he expected to leave. Arsenal did show interest in Pedro Neto but were never likely to pay Wolves’ asking price of more than £40m.
Conor Coady was surprisingly loaned out to Everton, with Lage making it clear the former captain was not in his plans this season as he looked to switch to a back four. Lage's treatment of Coady was ruthless, with such a big call also supported by the club hierarchy.

Conor Coady has swapped the Black Country for Merseyside CREDIT: REUTERS
Wolves offset their big spend after allowing Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest) and Leander Dendoncker (Aston Villa) to move on for a combined £38m, but those two players were never regarded as first-team regulars.
This is arguably the best squad Wolves have had since their promotion from the Championship four years ago. Ultimately, the club have done everything they can to back Lage, so the pressure is now on him to produce.
The main issue for Wolves under the Portugese manager has been their lack of goals. They have only scored three in the league this season, and registered just 38 across the entirety of last campaign (only the three relegated clubs fared worse).
This is not what Wolves were expecting when Lage was appointed. Indeed, they moved for him due to his achievements with Benfica, when he won the title in the 2018/19 season with his team equalling a club record of 103 goals scored.
The plan was to move away from the dour football which defined the final 18 months of Nuno Espirito Santo’s reign and become more entertaining. While there is an identifiable style of play under Lage, utilising wing-backs and pace on the flanks, there has been a glaring lack of chances created.
Raul Jimenez was previously the focal point of the attack, emerging as arguably one of the top three strikers in the Premier League before the life-changing incident in November 2020.
Sustaining a fractured skull in the victory at Arsenal, there were initial fears that Jimenez may never play again. He did, thanks to remarkable willpower, but he has scored only six goals in the Premier League since returning last August. He is now injured again and facing a race against time to be fully fit for the World Cup.

Raul Jimenez has only scored six league goals since his return CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES
Lage needs players like Neto, Daniel Podence, Guedes, Hwang Hee-chan and now Costa to provide more goals, but the question is whether his team is set up to create loads of chances.
So is Lage’s position under threat? Wolves sources insist Lage is not currently in danger, arguing he deserves more time with so many new additions, and a run of games against West Ham, Nottingham Forest, Leicester and Brentford represent an opportunity to spark the season into life. Yet an upturn in results is clearly required and quickly.
One theory to dismiss is that agent Jorge Mendes, who has close links to Wolves, will have any say on the future of the management. Mendes oversaw much of Wolves’ transfer activity in the summer, working closely with Gestifute associate Valdir Cardoso. He was also involved in the appointment of Lage, who is one of his clients, but if results do not improve he will not be consulted.
Any decision on Lage will be made by Wolves chairman Jeff Shi, who played a pivotal role in the departure of Nuno last year, and possibly Fosun chairman Guo Guangchang, who has attended a number of games this season.
We are not at that point yet, but this is undoubtedly a vital period ahead for Lage. The next few weeks will tell us whether he really is the man to take an ambitious club forward, or if he is holding them back.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

It is outright bizarre how far below the radar our shit form flies nationally. I don't expect it to be headline news every time we lose, like Man Utd, but we've been obviously shocking for six months minimum. Normally provokes at least some comment, whichever club it is.

MOTD normally just casually mention our lack of goals and move on. Very few national papers even mention us in the context of relegation.

 

[Johnny75]

Mods feel free to remove but I have no scruples when it comes to this shit rag

Three games at least you would think.

Forest at home could see him binned by the sound of that.

3 games too late for me.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Three games at least you would think.

Forest at home could see him binned by the sound of that.

3 games too late for me.

I never quite get this (football clubs' thinking, not you, though y'know... )

Say we draw on Saturday, lose at Chelsea and beat Forest. What has actually changed?

We'd still have 10 points from 10 games which absolutely no-one would have said in August to be acceptable.

 

[Johnny75]

I never quite get this (football clubs' thinking, not you, though y'know... )

Say we draw on Saturday, lose at Chelsea and beat Forest. What has actually changed?

We'd still have 10 points from 10 games which absolutely no-one would have said in August to be acceptable.

Quite.

The only change I can see us if we suddenly start shooting freely.

I just can't see that happening unless the players tell him to fuck off and do their own thing.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

An example of what I mean. From the Guardian's preview of Leicester vs Forest:

It’s not looking great in the east Midlands where Nottingham Forest, second-bottom with four points, visit Leicester, bottom with one point. And what should concern both clubs is that directly above them are West Ham and Wolves, neither likely to be so lowly for long

Why aren't we likely to be there for long, we've been shite for ages with zero sign at any point of turning it around?

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

I can only assume that the guardian pundit is looking at ours and the West Ham squads and thinks “way too good”.

However, the current Red Bull is way too good to finish last in a Grand Prix. But, if I was driving it, I can guarantee last place!

 

[Lupollet]

If we don’t start scoring we will definitely be going down.

Last season the defence held the bubble together till Christmas, but once it burst, it did so big time, and the defence was a shambles too.

The pattern is repeating itself, the defence is looking good, but if we don’t start scoring soon the wheels will be off again and we will be plummeting into the championship.

There is nobody who has less idea of how to turn this around than Lage. The pattern of decline at Benfica is repeating itself.

I’d rather have Big Sam with Pullis as his assistant than Bruno.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Still a few stray Bruno Truthers on Twitter. Can't accept that he's talking shite about Toti (he talks shite about everything, but this is topical).

Being a crap manager is one thing, we've had loads of them - or at least, managers who turned crap. Don't lie to fans though, it's a very bad look.

 

[b3h]

I keep thinking about it, as what else is their to think about. Maybe as we had such a brilliant manager in Nuno and he brought us all together, and things were great... people have developed a bit of patience? Think it's owed? The other thing is the "finally been backed" part - perhaps they're associating his whole time here as being under manned etc, accumulation of all the times they've wished Fosun would spend a bit more even though that goes back before Lage. Memories and timeline more like mine than DWs. Shite typing there sorry, hard to say what I mean

 

[Lupollet]

From BBC:

Lage is confident Wolves will move up the table. He said: "I believe from watching the team in training that the next eight games until the World Cup we are going to be mid-table. I don’t have doubts."

I agree, providing somebody else is managing seven of them.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

"Ok Bruno, on top of this squad that has finished 7th, 7th, 13th and 10th in the Premier League, here is £100m to spend on new players"

"Thank you, I will get you mid-table"

I don't think so.