The Bruno Lage Appreciation Thread

[prawnking]

I'll fully admit I was worried about replacing Nuno with Lage but those worries look unfounded now.

Still early days, but I feel his success with Benfica was played down a little too much. It's not like any old chump can do that.

He's obviously a talented coach, but the PL is unforgiving so he still has a long way to go, and he's still inexperienced as the main man, so there'll be mistakes along the way

 

[Dire Wolf]

Still early days, but I feel his success with Benfica was played down a little too much. It's not like any old chump can do that.

He's obviously a talented coach, but the PL is unforgiving so he still has a long way to go, and he's still inexperienced as the main man, so there'll be mistakes along the way

Agreed, but there’s certainly reasons to be hopeful. He’s clearly not out of his depth operating at this level and seems intelligent enough to adapt.

 

[sycophantia]

As said, it's very early days, I'm sure we're all enjoying the style but atm we still play nice stuff but don't really create a lot of clear cut chances given the amount of attacking play and possession. Our finishing is a bit cack too but it all feels like it's coming together

 

[The Bear]

We created at least 4 or 5 clear cut chances yesterday.

 

[The Saturday Boy]

Generally speaking you are more likely to score goals if you create chances. Then there is what is known in football as the “Adama effect” as was seen with Semedo yesterday where the number of chances created is inversely proportional to the amount of goals scored.

 

[prawnking]

The amount of chances our wing-backs get they need to start putting some away.

I'd be thinking of trying RAN personally as I could see him being more successful in this regard

 

[PuntsWolf]

We’ve had more 1v1s with the keeper in 4 games than we probably had in an entire season over the last few years.

Sadly Traore and Semedo aren’t finishers. Semedo has scored 6 goals in 264 games since moving out of Benfica B. And we all know about Traores record.

First ones not an easy one for Semedo, but there’s no composure there. He’s just put his head down and hit it straight into the on rushing keeper who spread himself but still just hit him square in the torso.

Second one is a lot easier as it’s a better angle. This time he does try and place it but gets is horribly wrong.

You’d hope these situations are stuff they are practising in training so hopefully we will get better at putting them away.

 

[Templeton Peck]

He's adapted to what he has
We've been the better side in each game
We look solid at the back
Individually everyone is playing better
All without Jonny, Neto and Boly

He wouldn't have got any other job in the league but he's clearly not out of his depth.

 

[WolfMan]

I keep reading on here he'd be nowhere near any other job in the Premier League, it's starting to annoy me a bit.

He's a title winner in Portugal, not some bloke who was managing a pub team before he came to Wolves.

Take a look around at some of the managers in the Premier League at the moment, their achievements prior to getting their jobs are not comparable to winning a title in a major European league.

Graham Potter - managed in Norway then did ok at Swansea in the championship

Vieira - finished 7th at Nice and then left the next season after losing 5 in a row

Arteta - literally never managed a professional football club in his life

Steve Bruce - enough said

Hasenhüttl - finished 2nd in with RB Leipzig in his first season and then left the next after finishing 6th

Hardly world beaters are they, and I don't think there is a League title between them, Maybe Potter in Norway?

I accept Lage wouldn't have got a job at one of the big big clubs, but we aren't a big club.

 

[The Bear]

Re Hassenhutl.

Germany is a MUCH stronger league than Portugal.

 

[Tony Towner]

Nobody could say for certain but I think it's highly unlikely he would have got another job in the PL. He was only Benfica manager for 14 months which included 4 months of Covid inactivity. He'd been unemployed for a year when he came to Wolves, so if you remove the Covid period had been out of work longer than he'd been at Benfica as manager. Without looking into some of the background which we are aware of, his time at Benfica at casual glance looks like he won the league with a side you'd expect to and got bulleted when they underperformed

Anyway, things have moved on, he has the job, has had a promising start and has been let down by his players finishing/decision making and Board in the last month

 

[WolfMan]

Fair enough, I just think that any club say 15th down would at least have a look if Mendes got on the phone to them, had he not come to Wolves. Say he never got the Wolves job and one of Brentford, Crystal Palace, Norwich, Brighton etc job came up and he went to one of them, I wouldn't be there thinking: WHAT?!?!?!?! this is absolutely insane!!!! I'd probably just think, oh he's won the League in Portugal but hasn't managed for long, decent appointment.

 

[Derby Wolf]

Fair enough, I just think that any club say 15th down would at least have a look if Mendes got on the phone to them, had he not come to Wolves. Say he never got the Wolves job and one of Brentford, Crystal Palace, Norwich, Brighton etc job came up and he went to one of them, I wouldn't be there thinking: WHAT?!?!?!?! this is absolutely insane!!!! I'd probably just think, oh he's won the League in Portugal but hasn't managed for long, decent appointment.

Its perspective I think.

From the perspective of an owner of the bottom 5-8 and the like its a fairly big risk to their stay in the league and hoover up the TV money MO.

Imagining a scale of likeliness Brighton would be somewhat likely to employ him having already took a risk on a manager with limited experience in Potter, whereas Newcastle a hard no and until recently Palace had gone down the safe pair of hands route with the likes of Pardew, Pulis Hodgson until appointing a name/reputation that Lage doesn't have.

Watford would be the most likely to appoint him IMO. Norwich might have done as they never seem to expect to stay up and would give him time.

 

[prawnking]

Without looking into some of the background which we are aware of, his time at Benfica at casual glance looks like he won the league with a side you'd expect to and got bulleted when they underperformed

Tbf the season he won it for Benfica was sandwiched between Porto being champions the year before and after, and it's the last time Benfica have won it to date, so it's not like winning that league is a foregone conclusion or minor achievement.

Nuno certainly didn't manage it, with an equally big club

 

[redvictor]

What i'm warming to with him is his ability to change it up during a match to suit the opposition. Nuno rarely seemed to be able to do that.
With the amount of preparation teams go to to predict what their opponent is going to do that can be the difference between 0 point or 3 points.
The team just need to find out how to take their hatful of chances! Our chance creation is on Chelsea and Liverpools levels. We just don't have Lukaku and Salah... Hopefully Raul, Hee-Chan and Podence can become our Lukaku/Salah..

 

[prawnking]

I don't think there's much point comparing Bruno and Nuno for a good while anyway.

Nuno had a relatively long time here to build something, which was very successful, and we're all aware of his achievements and also his blind spots. It's easy to nitpick about the latter now he's gone, but the former has significantly more weight.

He's still the best manager most of us have ever seen, and as he kept us up as a genuine decent force in the way no one has for most of our supporting lives, Bruno can't really directly challenge/emulate/eclipse him realistically.

What Bruno does have, imo, is a different kind of mission, which is to keep us up as a decent PL team but do it with more obvious style and entertainment. If he can do that it, it might be the manager after him who benefits the most. All this depends in some part on the scale of Fosun investment too

 

[redvictor]

I don't think there's much point comparing Bruno and Nuno for a good while anyway.

Nuno had a relatively long time here to build something, which was very successful, and we're all aware of his achievements and also his blind spots. It's easy to nitpick about the latter now he's gone, but the former has significantly more weight.

He's still the best manager most of us have ever seen, and as he kept us up as a genuine decent force in the way no one has for most of our supporting lives, Bruno can't really directly challenge/emulate/eclipse him realistically.

What Bruno does have, imo, is a different kind of mission, which is to keep us up as a decent PL team but do it with more obvious style and entertainment. If he can do that it, it might be the manager after him who benefits the most. All this depends in some part on the scale of Fosun investment too

I didn't think i was. Just saying Nuno wasn't able to change it up during matches very often. I certainly am not comparing 4 years of Nuno versus 4 matches of Bruno.
If you weren't directing it at me then apologies in advance..

 

[prawnking]

I didn't think i was. Just saying Nuno wasn't able to change it up during matches very often. I certainly am not comparing 4 years of Nuno versus 4 matches of Bruno.
If you weren't directing it at me then apologies in advance..

No mate, I actually agree with you that it seems to be a positive attribute Bruno has for sure...obviously I'm sure Bruno will have some blind spots that will exasperate us over time.

My post was more just ruminating on my own contributions. Comparison is inevitable and understandable, but I think on reflection I prefer to look at it as an evolution (hopefully) that just needs a different angle. Which one is the better manager (obviously Nuno on track record) isn't necessarily the point.

As an aside, I quite like that Bruno is fresh and a little bit of an unknown quantity personally.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Just to return to the "Bruno wouldn't have got a PL job anywhere else"...he wouldn't.

To pick out those mentioned as comparators (and I'm not saying many/any of them are any good):

Arteta: Not that this should matter but had a long standing PL playing career. Worked at Man City too
Vieira: Arteta but x 100000
Potter: Worked wonders in Sweden (not Norway), in fact he had seven years there, then did well at another British club
Hasenhüttl: Cannot seriously believe anyone would make that assessment of him! He was seriously touted for the Bayern job at one stage
Bruce: Clearly a potato shaped buffoon, but he has managed lots of Premier League clubs. Mike Ashley knows nothing about football and Bruce is cheap(ish) and will go along with anything, so ideal for him, just hope he flukes 17th or better

Bruno had 14 months in charge in a league that hardly anyone in this country watches (where there are about four good teams and the rest would struggle to survive in the Championship), took Benfica on a horror run, never managed anyone before or since and had no playing career so people simply didn't know who he was. Nothing else, other than working with Carlos Carvalhal who has a very mixed record. People telling you they knew who he was six months ago will be by and large lying.

Of course I am delighted that he's dispelling some doubts and his character/personality seem solid, let's hope we go on a run of results.

 

[slink]

Pretty sure Bruno was linked with the Villa job when there was talk of them sacking Smith in their first season back up and definitely at the end of it but the reports said Villa decided to stick by Smith.