With regards to Steve Bruce, my feelings are clear.
I don’t dislike him, but I don’t think he’s a Manager that can succeed at Premier League level and by succeed, I mean get a team anywhere near the Top Six.
His record just doesn’t indicate that would happen anywhere soon and then to top that we have his crazy decisions not to play Miggy and Fraser from the start last Saturday and attack an out of sorts Man Utd. They were there for the taking but instead he tried to play it safe.
He does this far too often and that’s why so many are calling for his head. That and his teams seem to go out without any shape, form, or tactics.
I constantly wonder ‘what is the plan?’. Not just when I’m watching 90 minutes of football with him in the dugout, but just in general. It’s difficult to know how he expects to see us progress when his uninspiring approach and head-in-the-sand comments suggest he really is out of his depth.
After all, this is no longer a ‘Championship team’ who are punching above their weight to stay up. This is a Premier League squad with quality all over the pitch.
He’s got a proven striker, several wingers with pace AND quality, Shelvey’s quality, Hayden’s industry, a £15m left-back, an array of reliable centre-backs and two VERY capable goalkeepers. I honestly think this team could get in the top 10 under the right management, yet we feel a million miles away from the likes of Everton, Wolves, Southampton, Leeds and even Aston Villa in terms of our identity as a team.
Playing well is a rarity and a win that we thoroughly deserve is a shock to the system, not the norm, and our approach to last Saturday night’s winnable game was so negative and defeatist it’s untrue.
With him in charge we’re always going to be either looking over our shoulders at those below or even looking up from the bottom.
The ironic thing is had we somehow scrambled a win on Saturday we’d have been second in the table. Astonishing to think.
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