Steve Bruce & Newcastle Utd

Annihilate Now!

...or later, I'm not fussy
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Got a crazy amount of ridicule this summer when he was appointed Newcastle manager...yet here we are, with them in 11th and more points gained this season then last year at this point under Rafa... plus wins against us, Chelsea, Sheff Utd and a draw against City.

Maybe he's not just a man to make fun off after all?

Also what do we make of Newcastle this season? They seem to be pretty unremarkable, yet keep pulling out decent results...
 
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Bojan11

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Done a decent job.

But too early to say because the leagues so tight at the moment, so they can easily be dragged back into the dog fight.
 

Wednesday at Stoke

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Yeah he got way too much stick considering what he is delivering in return, some of it was probably understandable considering he managed Sunderland.
 

ivaldo

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I don't get the cult following Benitez got there. Results were as expected, the football was a bore, and he ditched them for China the moment he got a big offer.

Bruce has come in and consolidated everything and in a relatively short space of time actually improved things. He was ridiculed for his defensive playing style but, as I've said, he's no worse than Rafa. They look like a mid-table side now and they've done it with their forwards completely misfiring. Their front three have enough quality for it not to last forever and then who knows?
 

FujiVice

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Was incredibly stupid not to take the job in 2004 when Robson left. With Given, Dyer, Bellamy, Shearer, Butt, Kluivert, Milner, Robert, Bowyer etc., it was potentially a top 4 job. He hasnt been offered a job as good since.
 

MsNuno

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Always up against it at that club due to the toxic relationship between Ashley and the fans. Fair play to Brucie for turning things around they looked like relegation certainties not long ago.
 

Nick7

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He’s a much better manager than a lot of the managers that have been on the sacking roundabout at lower premier league clubs the last few years.

Speaking of utter shite. What’s Alan Pardew up to these days? Always struck me as the type that saw himself as too good to drop down to lower leagues. But is actually a bit fecking shit at management.
 

Nickelodeon

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In general, their transfer dealings overall seem quite shambolic. Joelington with just one goal all season, Almiron with no goals and just one very recent assist all through the year. Saint-Maximin looks decent but overall their squad seems to be mixture of players who will still be there if they were to get relegated.

Given the circumstances, I don't see a lot of difference between what Benitez was doing vs. what Bruce is doing right now.
 

Vault Dweller

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In general, their transfer dealings overall seem quite shambolic. Joelington with just one goal all season, Almiron with no goals and just one very recent assist all through the year. Saint-Maximin looks decent but overall their squad seems to be mixture of players who will still be there if they were to get relegated.

Given the circumstances, I don't see a lot of difference between what Benitez was doing vs. what Bruce is doing right now.
I think that's more an indictment of Benitez than anything. He's a very good manager but he seems to develop cult hero status wherever he goes, yet Bruce is showing he wasn't far off him from a managing perspective.
 

VP89

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I don't get the cult following Benitez got there. Results were as expected, the football was a bore, and he ditched them for China the moment he got a big offer.

Bruce has come in and consolidated everything and in a relatively short space of time actually improved things. He was ridiculed for his defensive playing style but, as I've said, he's no worse than Rafa. They look like a mid-table side now and they've done it with their forwards completely misfiring. Their front three have enough quality for it not to last forever and then who knows?
I actually see more about this Newcastle side than the one under Rafa. You kind of knew what to expect with Rafas Newcastle, in that 80% if the sides will face a parked barcode bus. Bruce has been a bit more expansive. He used St Maximan quite well and that Dutch geezer looks alright too, Jetro Willems?
 

Liver_bird

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It’s pretty much still a Rafa coached and drilled side. What Bruce has done well with is man management.
 

André Dominguez

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Bare in mind that there are two type of managers who can get results at smaller clubs:
- The one who makes things simple, because a lot of players at their disposal lack either technical attributes or bring problems due to poor youth training.
- The one who is creative and clever enough to make the team outstand from normal results.

The later is a two edge knife, because you never know if you're appointing a smart man or a smart ass.
 

Chipper

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Another victory, going really well at the moment. That's 13 points from the last 6.

It's looking like that game against Leicester where they got slated for lack of effort when they went down to 10 men was a turning point. They beat us next game, only lost narrowly to Chelsea, drew with Wolves then went into this run of picking up points. It's 17 in the last 9 in total since that Leicester match.

West Ham, Bournemouth, Sheffield United and Southampton are exactly the sides they need to beating to stay up and fair play, he is /they are doing it.
 

marktan

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I've always thought of Bruce as a decent manager, he's done well at a lot of places. I've been reading the Newcastle forums and they absolutely hate him, poor guy doesn't have a chance after coming after saint rafa despite doing better than him so far after the same amount of games.

Signings wise Almiron and Maxim haven't scored much (or more like at all), but I like them both. Both work very hard and are technical. Modern top sides are built with players like those two, once they get a bit more clinical they'll be very good.
 

Chipper

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I've been reading the Newcastle forums and they absolutely hate him, poor guy doesn't have a chance after coming after saint rafa despite doing better than him so far after the same amount of games.
Read one the other day - Toontastic. Think it''s the worst board I've seen for having idiots on it and I'll include Blue Moon and RAWK in that.
 
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I never understood why people were so mean to him, he’s a decent manager. He’s done a good job with Newcastle so far, I hope it works out for him.
 

BazzaBear

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I think that's more an indictment of Benitez than anything. He's a very good manager but he seems to develop cult hero status wherever he goes, yet Bruce is showing he wasn't far off him from a managing perspective.
That's because he has an MO, wherever he goes, of turning the fans against the ownership organisation. This means that whenever anything goes wrong, he ensures that he escapes all blame. Him managing Newcastle was a perfect storm, being as they already detested their owner.
 

FootballHQ

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I never understood why people were so mean to him, he’s a decent manager. He’s done a good job with Newcastle so far, I hope it works out for him.
You would understand if you had to watch his style 38 times a season. Or even 46 times as we had in championship. That said he's done better than I expected considering he replaced icon as manager and Newcastle's squad aside from decent defenders isn that great.

When they lost to Leicester 5-0 in late September they looked terrible with no goal threat and think they were in the bottom 3. Since then they've lost just two league games away to Chelsea 1-0 and us 2-0 when they were poor. Very good run considering their forward players are struggling.

Have to say Jonjoe Shelvey is playing very well again. He's always been a strange player. To me technically he's good enough to play for England in deep lying midfield role but simply hasn't got the mentality. Was like that at Swansea.
 

Samid

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I swear they're losing several players to injuries before half time in every game.
 

the_box

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Weird how Pardew, McClaren and Bruce all have had lengthy injury crisis and Benitez didn't. Must just be luck and nothing down to the quality of the manager and/or their approach to training.

Bruce rode his luck for 3 months with half our goals came from defenders and super shit play in general. 20th in all attacking stats. Currently the lowest possession stats ever in the premiership.

In some ways I don't really blame people who don't watch our games for thinking he might have been doing a good job - despite, you know, the entirety of his managerial career establishing an idea of his quality. After all, results are results and if your only exposure to him is a 5 minute recap on motd every two weeks you might have gotten the wrong impression.

But he's shite lads and he was never due any "credit" from the fans who knew it wouldn't last.
 

the_box

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And yet he's doing better than Rafa. So this inferior manager inexplicably has his team performing better. 'Must just be luck.'
:lol: :lol: Seasons are 38 games long, kid. Bruce is floundering now and has no plan or idea on how to course correct. Rafa did.

"has his team performing better"

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Results are catching up to these "Great performances" now.
 

Dec9003

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13th isn’t too bad, but they can easily drop further down, I don’t think I could watch this football every week.
 

Maluco

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The injuries couldn’t be bad luck. It’s almost definitely down to dated training methods and his own medical staff.

As the poster said above, a better manager in Benitez had his own staff and ways of training players and it wasn’t even close to this.
 

ivaldo

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:lol: :lol: Seasons are 38 games long, kid. Bruce is floundering now and has no plan or idea on how to course correct. Rafa did.

"has his team performing better"

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Results are catching up to these "Great performances" now.
6 green smilies? Kid? Wow. Someone has some personal issues they need to iron out.

Keep the stats coming. Maybe you can find some more shots/possession based stats and dress them up as a separate points. Or maybe you can do an alternative results table? Or perhaps you can run some FM simulations?

Results are what matter, kid. Despite a long list of injuries he's still got Newcastle in a very respectable position, despite you and the others still spunking over a manager who ditched you the first opportunity he got. Whoops.
 

the_box

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Whatever issues I have pale in comparison to a cowardly post deletion. End of story. :lol: :lol:

I'll reiterate what I said since reading comprehension doesn't appear to be a strength of yours - he ran through a purple patch where the results were directly counter to the performances of the team. It was obvious to anyone who watches football. We're now seeing the results of his qualities as a manger and he's not good enough to change things up.

It doesn't bring me any joy to say we're about to crash and burn. But we are. And it was clear from the start.
 

ivaldo

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Whatever issues I have pale in comparison to a cowardly post deletion. End of story. :lol: :lol:

I'll reiterate what I said since reading comprehension doesn't appear to be a strength of yours - he ran through a purple patch where the results were directly counter to the performances of the team. It was obvious to anyone who watches football. We're now seeing the results of his qualities as a manger and he's not good enough to change things up.

It doesn't bring me any joy to say we're about to crash and burn. But we are. And it was clear from the start.
I deleted it because I couldn't be bothered to debate it with you, but you were feverishly spamming smilies while working out your clear anger management issues, so here we are. It says a lot about someone when they can't have a reasonable debate without devolving it into a mud slinging contest.

Reading comprehension? Original stuff! Someone's feeling sassy today. Ah a purple patch. That's a nice way to avoid reflecting on your predictions you were going to be horseshit after your lord and saviour ditched you. Not a suprise though; it's pretty evident you have issues with working things through...

If you're going to reply to me again, try to do it with a little more decorum; it makes for a far more enjoyable conversation.
 

Andersonson

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You can't blame Brucie for having a striker like Joelinton. He's by far the worst striker in the league.

To get that many points with that squad aint bad at all. Fair play to him, done alot better than I expected.
 

the_box

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Play like trash for 90 minutes, isaac hayden wanders onto the end of a cross on accident in stoppage time, perfect gameplan from brucie. I weep for the dafties who think this is sustainable or even on purpose. :lol:
 

Dec9003

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Play like trash for 90 minutes, isaac hayden wanders onto the end of a cross on accident in stoppage time, perfect gameplan from brucie. I weep for the dafties who think this is sustainable or even on purpose. :lol:
Are you American?
 

ivaldo

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I bet he willed them to lose
Oh definitely. He's having a meltdown and feels sorry for all those who don't think this all hasn't just been a big accident for half of the season. Good call on the win btw!
 

nore1975

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I feel sorry for Sheffield Wednesday who were very good to him at a time of personal distress for him. He ditched them after half a season. I get NUFC is his hometown club but still.