Let's talk about Nuno....

[Jinky]

He’s hardly going to give an in depth breakdown of where we went wrong. Are you genuinely getting annoyed because a manager spouts crap at full time? I don’t watch much football these days, but I’m going to hazard a guess that it’s still not unusual. I’d rather he did this that throw his own players under the bus Moutinho style.

You’re happy with him banging on about “solutions” week after week. I’m not.

No point going around in circles.

 

[Haggstone]

Yeah, forget about the transition. We need to go back to what the players know how to do, and hopefully still know how to do, which is to defend with three at the back. If that fails, he will walk.

 

[Tredman]

You’re happy with him banging on about “solutions” week after week. I’m not.

No point going around in circles.

Dunno, I don’t watch. There’s better things to do as you would say.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

The owners aren't remotely of the mindset to sack him.

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

He looks a bit like a broken man at the moment but I’d be gutted if he walked/was sacked.

Ever since he’s been here there has been a clear plan to how he wants us to play but since Raul’s injury it’s all gone out of the window.

We’re not going to get relegated so he just needs to go back to 3/5 at the back, scrape a few wins, make it until the end of the season and hopefully start afresh next season.

 

[exfan]

Before the Arsenal match nobody would even have thought of this thread. We had gained 14 points from 9 matches and comfortable mid table. Since then 5 points and crashing towards the bottom. 1 injury and the world changes.

 

[GLASGOWOLF]

Beforel today untouchable
Holy fuck does he realise how bad today was


Nuno You still have nor apologised for today against them Cunts

 

[Paul]

Do you think Glasgow will fall asleep soon because he's nearly incomprehensible ?

 

[YoungWolf]

Do you think Glasgow will fall asleep soon because he's nearly incomprehensible ?

When is he ever comprehensible?

 

[Johnny75]

Do you think Glasgow will fall asleep soon because he's nearly incomprehensible ?

I think he may be past anger and into the melancholy stage of drunkenness.

Only a pint of Caffreys away from love/ violence and then sleep/ arrest.

 

[Paul]

I miss the old mellow Glasgow, my favorite line was "walking down the middle of the street while all the Albion fans where brickin it !" it has a poetry to it

 

[Jabbawolf]

I’ve seen Glasgow do a shoot out at half time some years back - he was not the best.....

 

[Premier Quality]

I’ve seen Glasgow do a shoot out at half time some years back - he was not the best.....

Had he had 12 pints of caffreys at the time?

 

[lemonjelly]

been giving this some thought, and can't help wondering if Nuno is getting a raw deal as a result of doing so well so far in his tenure.
He rocked up 3 years ago, and implemented a style of play that saw us win the championship, then successive 7th place finishes, an fa cup semi final, followed by a uefa league quarter final.
Throughout that time, he's never really had a run like this. There have been blips, but nothing that has lasted 10 or so games.
He's moved us upwards so far so quickly, that we are well ahead of fosuns initial plan. so much so, that he has taken the decision to make changes in an attempt to change the style of play.

So for me, this is the first proper footballing challenge he's faced.
On top of this, we're 10 months into a global situation that has thrown the entire world.

This is without the additional injury and other factors, which may have contributed to the current challenges, and accountability may lie in a few places for this, but regardless these issues also affect us.

So it seems a bit odd (to me at least) for people to think that either fosun, or Nuno himself would choose to call it a day at his first major challenge. I'd more expect them to unite and face it head on.

 

[redvictor]

been giving this some thought, and can't help wondering if Nuno is getting a raw deal as a result of doing so well so far in his tenure.
He rocked up 3 years ago, and implemented a style of play that saw us win the championship, then successive 7th place finishes, an fa cup semi final, followed by a uefa league quarter final.
Throughout that time, he's never really had a run like this. There have been blips, but nothing that has lasted 10 or so games.
He's moved us upwards so far so quickly, that we are well ahead of fosuns initial plan. so much so, that he has taken the decision to make changes in an attempt to change the style of play.

So for me, this is the first proper footballing challenge he's faced.
On top of this, we're 10 months into a global situation that has thrown the entire world.

This is without the additional injury and other factors, which may have contributed to the current challenges, and accountability may lie in a few places for this, but regardless these issues also affect us.

So it seems a bit odd (to me at least) for people to think that either fosun, or Nuno himself would choose to call it a day at his first major challenge. I'd more expect them to unite and face it head on.

That latter i'm sure. I'm hoping they get a seige mentality in there. They have to roll their sleeves up. Even though they said that they knew how important this game was, i don't think they really did know. If fans were there they would have known in 5 mins.
As an aside, i just watched the "highlights" on MOTD. We are surely getting some shit luck and are having some really bad refereeing decisions. That catch by the Albion player in the box? WTF was that decision? Fabio dived yes, but he got booked! Kane did much worse and the ref didn't do shit.

 

[The Bion]

been giving this some thought, and can't help wondering if Nuno is getting a raw deal as a result of doing so well so far in his tenure.
He rocked up 3 years ago, and implemented a style of play that saw us win the championship, then successive 7th place finishes, an fa cup semi final, followed by a uefa league quarter final.
Throughout that time, he's never really had a run like this. There have been blips, but nothing that has lasted 10 or so games.
He's moved us upwards so far so quickly, that we are well ahead of fosuns initial plan. so much so, that he has taken the decision to make changes in an attempt to change the style of play.

So for me, this is the first proper footballing challenge he's faced.
On top of this, we're 10 months into a global situation that has thrown the entire world.

This is without the additional injury and other factors, which may have contributed to the current challenges, and accountability may lie in a few places for this, but regardless these issues also affect us.

So it seems a bit odd (to me at least) for people to think that either fosun, or Nuno himself would choose to call it a day at his first major challenge. I'd more expect them to unite and face it head on.

I said something similar a while back. We've been on a very steep upward curve since he arrived, it was inevitable it would start to flatten out and the rate of progress would slow at some point - we probably hit our ceiling in terms of what the team was capable of.

Could you make the case we even overachieved? Perhaps. I think most of us if we're honest would have been happy with mid-table for our first year back in the PL - 7th, qualifying for Europe and an FA Cup semi-final was an amazing year.

Then last year managing to make the Europa 1/4 final while still finishing 7th and narrowly missing out on Europe again was pretty damn good going. Could it have been better, sure, we certainly dropped points down the stretch that we probably shouldn't have done, but it was a damn good effort nonetheless.

Which brings us to the here and now, and what might be called a down year. There are multiple issues contributing - injuries, reshaping of the squad, COVID...hard to say if things were normal, or Raul hadn't got injured, or whatever else you can think of, how things might be - but we have to play the hand we're dealt.

I'm disappointed with how things have been going, and there have unquestionably been mistakes made that could easily have been avoided, both from the club and the players/manager, but personally they've shown enough in prior years to give them the benefit of the doubt.

That does not mean a free pass. As others have said, if there are genuine signs of progress - if the team starts to gel better, if the mistakes get ironed out, etc - then it'll be easier to swallow.

Hypothetically if a change were to be made I'm not even sure where we would turn. Fosun didn't have the greatest track record prior to Nuno, it has to be said. Doesn't mean there aren't options but it might mean moving out of their comfort zone a bit - how that would play with Mendes is another question. I know he works for us and not the other way around, but there is no denying Nuno is important to the relationship.

 

[Wolvensam]

For me he doesn't get sacked or walk - you can turn to his time at Valencia and Porto and say "similar things happened", but I don't recall there being a global pandemic or a long-term serious (potentially career ending) injury to one of the best strikers in the league then either. He got sacked at Porto because he didn't win any silverware for one season and the team came the lowly place of second... madness!

Truth is, a lot of clubs are feeling it: look at Liverpool and Southampton with their injury crises, I don't think Liverpool have scored a Premier League goal yet this year and they have the best front three in the league.

I think good on Nuno for trying to change our style so we can evolve onto the next stage (it might not have been wise to do it in the middle of a season, but hey ho - perhaps he viewed this season as a free pass with no pre-season, a pandemic and no European football) but, again, he hadn't had chance to do this at his previous clubs. This is a longterm project that has been on an almighty upward trajectory for three years, and although he has to take some of the blame because he is the manager, I don't think he is totally to blame for an injury-riddled squad and a global pandemic and the team's reaction to those. I doubt some of these players have seen their close family for the past ten months.

Unlike previous regimes I've supported the club under (so basically Hayward/Moxey and Morgan/Moxey) I think Fosun have it bang on: we sign the right players when they become available at the right price, and we don't panic. I'm all for signing the best young talent Europe has to offer at "bargain" prices, but we as a fanbase have to accept that sometimes comes at a cost to those players making mistakes or not being as good as the senior pro's ahead of them - because they are young. The truth is, Fabio Silva and Ait-Nouri are insanely good for their tender years.

I appreciate this thread was created long before his signing was a thing, but Willian José is the epitome of how this club's transfer policy is run, and I'm all for it.

 

[PuntsWolf]

We have the striker we need to make Nuno’s systems work without the need to compensate elsewhere.

The sooner we can get 3 wins the better, as that’s probably all we will need.

Then Nuno has no pressure, and can hopefully show the signs that we will be able to progress next year.

If this season just peters out and we’re stinking the place out with no clear sign of progression then I’d be looking to change the manager.

Similar to how Brendan Rodgers has taken Leicester from being dull and uninspiring to top 4 challengers despite having his best players sold, an injury crisis and noting particularly special spend wise in the transfer market.

 

[Premier Quality]

We shouldn’t even be considering changing the manager, Nuno has been fantastic for us.

even if you wanted to be completely mercenary and a bit of a cold arsehole about it - for every Brendan Rogers, how many Claude puel’s are there?

 

[Trips]

Will be interesting to see how Leicester get on next few weeks without their main striker, and no proper back up for him (I know they have Perez and Ihenacho but they are miles off Vardy's level)