The Bruno Lage Appreciation Thread

[prawnking]

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.

The main thing I get from this though is that clubs have criteria for their managerial appointments that aren't always as simple as 'is he better than the last one' (which I feel Bruno was judged on from the start, as was Sa in player terms)

Bruno may not have got a top PL job, but none of the managers that would get top PL jobs would come to us anyway. He ticks the boxes of being connected to Mendes (as Neto was), Portuguese (hence at least some continuity from Nuno for a large chunk of our squad), wanting to play attractive, offensive football (and won silverware doing so).

There's some logic there, it's unconventional but not a completely wild punt. It's not that out of character in many respects as a Fosun appointment?

 

[redvictor]

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.

Of that there will be no doubt. Hopefully he gets a bit of time to show us what he is like long term. Only results will dictate that though.

 

[HanDoJin]

Reasonably sure I heard Lage himself say he had offers of work but wasn’t interested in managing whilst crowds were not allowed in stadia

 

[Sniffer]

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.

He was linked with a job at a Portuguese club where Villa’s owners were due to take over.

 

[WolfMan]

The main thing I get from this though is that clubs have criteria for their managerial appointments that aren't always as simple as 'is he better than the last one' (which I feel Bruno was judged on from the start, as was Sa in player terms)

Bruno may not have got a top PL job, but none of the managers that would get top PL jobs would come to us anyway. He ticks the boxes of being connected to Mendes (as Neto was), Portuguese (hence at least some continuity from Nuno for a large chunk of our squad), wanting to play attractive, offensive football (and won silverware doing so).

There's some logic there, it's unconventional but not a completely wild punt. It's not that out of character in many respects as a Fosun appointment?

Great post. It just seems to me that all the talk of him being nowhere near another job implies he's significantly less qualified than the rest of the managers in the league, which I don't think is the case. As Deutsche has explained, other factors play a role in managers getting jobs. Personally I think us getting Lage was probably about par for the level of club we are.

 

[redvictor]

Great post. It just seems to me that all the talk of him being nowhere near another job implies he's significantly less qualified than the rest of the managers in the league, which I don't think is the case. As Deutsche has explained, other factors play a role in managers getting jobs. Personally I think us getting Lage was probably about par for the level of club we are.

Agree on that. I think that Fosun believe he can get us further up the league than we did previously, and think ultimately now he has worked with the players he (Lage) thinks the same. All dependent on people starting to score goals when presented with opportunities of course. Whether that's with who we have, or someone brought in.
Personally i think the players of last year are starting to prove they have more strings to their bows that we gave them credit for.

 

[Throbber3]

All I can say is I am enjoying watching us more than I was at the start of the year. Considering Lage is the major squad change then it’s down to him. Keep it up Bruno man. It’s ok at the moment.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

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.

That's a good post, and I'm very much been one of the opinion that he's a lucky boy to have this job, but you're right.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

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.

It's probably my own ignorance, but i have no knowledge of the Watford manager's previous experience.

 

[darlowolf64]

It's probably my own ignorance, but i have no knowledge of the Watford manager's previous experience.

He was assistant manager at Gimnastic in La Liga 2 for a year in 2016/17, caretaker manager at CF Pobla de Mafumet in the Spanish 4th tier for 91 days. Back to Gimnastic for a year as assistant manager in La Liga 2. A year as assistant manager at Dinamo Tiblisi in 18/19 then took charge as manager for 117 day. They played 11 games and they won 8, lost 3 he was then snapped up by Watford and left to join them in December 2020.
He had an average playing career too but played for four years at Betis, also representing Valencia, Tenerife, Recreativo and Levante, winning the 2004 UEFA Cup with Valencia. Starting in 2011, he played four seasons in Georgia with Dinamo Tbilisi then finished his career at Gimnastic

 

[WolfMan]

It's probably my own ignorance, but i have no knowledge of the Watford manager's previous experience.

Same. I didn't put Watford in the original post as they got promoted with their manager like Brentford and Norwich, but I'm sure any other of those 3 would have at least considered Lage in the Prem if he hadn't come to us.

Personally I believe him when he says he's had offers since he's left Benfica. Maybe not Premier League jobs, but it's understandable not go want to take a job abroad during the pandemic. So to use the fact he's been out of work for so long as evidence no one else wanting him is also a bit of a red herring IMO.

 

[The Bear]

Still early days with Bruno but the signs are mostly encouraging.

 

[Del Woppio]

I'm really enjoying him tbh. The intensity, the pressing, the movement off the ball and the intent have a made for four really enjoyable games on the spin. He's made a really impressive start, despite being let down by the owners.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Southampton (A)
Newcastle (H)
Villa (A)
Leeds (A)

How many points do we think he needs? 4? 5?

Even 5 only gives us 8 from 10 games, which is shit and has us at best hovering above the bottom three. I don't think we'll get 5...

That 14/1 on him being first/next to go looks tasty.

NB: Us being a bit shit isn't all his fault. It's some of his fault.

 

[Deano]

Still early days. The issue he is going to have is that the start to middle of December sees a pretty horrific run of fixtures so between now and then we really need to be upper mid table.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

They'll get rid of him if we carry on losing, it's a very simple equation, no matter how "unlucky" we are (spoiler: we aren't unlucky).

If he doesn't win either of the next two then he's on very shaky ground going into two away games.

 

[Derby Wolf]

realistically we need 4-6 points from the next two. Villa, Leeds and Everton after that will all be winnable but varying degrees of difficult.

We're so over reliant on unreliable players in the two most pivotal areas it'd be actually quite funny if it wasn't us.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

If any other club were rolling along at 0.6 PPG, with a new manager that hardly anyone had heard of six months ago and they'd scored one goal of their own in five games, and had just lost comfortably at home to a newly-promoted team without having a shot on target, you'd be absolutely piling in at 14/1.

 

[Johnny75]

They'll get rid of him if we carry on losing, it's a very simple equation, no matter how "unlucky" we are (spoiler: we aren't unlucky).

If he doesn't win either of the next two then he's on very shaky ground going into two away games.

We're not unlucky but the board have fucked him by not backing him.

He's still picking poor players like Marçal and Saiss and asking Traore to score which is madness.

But then I really don't see another manager coming in and getting a tune out of players who can't score and some who just aren't fit for purpose.

The manager is not the problem here. It's the shitheads recruiting the players.

But sadly Bruno Harvey Oswald will carry the can.

 

[Johnny75]

If any other club were rolling along at 0.6 PPG, with a new manager that hardly anyone had heard of six months ago and they'd scored one goal of their own in five games, and had just lost comfortably at home to a newly-promoted team without having a shot on target, you'd be absolutely piling in at 14/1.

Who would you rather have as manager?