Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[john e]

Dyche might fancy giving it a go - Burnley have peaked I think. New project and all that?.

As and when Bruce goes I'd be incredibly underwhelmed by Dyche. I can see if we go up (I know, I know...) Benitez coming in, he'll have money to spend and won't have Mike Ashley to deal with. The pessimist in me sees Sam Allardyce coming in and H&V exploding.

the way Newcastle played against Chelsea there was no difference between big Sam and Benitez
Ultra defensive ultra negative deserved all they got

[Clampy]

Dyche might fancy giving it a go - Burnley have peaked I think. New project and all that?.

As and when Bruce goes I'd be incredibly underwhelmed by Dyche. I can see if we go up (I know, I know...) Benitez coming in, he'll have money to spend and won't have Mike Ashley to deal with. The pessimist in me sees Sam Allardyce coming in and H&V exploding.

I wonder if Bentitez is losing it a bit. I mean, what was he thinking when he bought Soloman Rondon?

[Malandro]

Dyche might fancy giving it a go - Burnley have peaked I think. New project and all that?.

As and when Bruce goes I'd be incredibly underwhelmed by Dyche. I can see if we go up (I know, I know...) Benitez coming in, he'll have money to spend and won't have Mike Ashley to deal with. The pessimist in me sees Sam Allardyce coming in and H&V exploding.

the way Newcastle played against Chelsea there was no difference between big Sam and Benitez
Ultra defensive ultra negative deserved all they got

Big Sam would get Villa promoted, imagine his defensive style (ahem) with our midfield and attack.

Not that I'm advocating him. We just need the defence organising in a proper manner.

[mr underhill]

Mitrovic out for £20m to Fulham and Rondon in on a small-ish loan fee was great business - for the owner, not Rafa.

[Chris Jameson]

Benitez did exactly the same against Man City last season, he's better than Bruce but can't say he convinces me. Mitrovic looks a far better player playing for a different coach and a far better player than Rondon.

[clash city rocker]

Think we need the Birmingham tourist board to sell the benefits and pleasures of working and living in Birmingham to Zidane. Then we could get excited.

[passitsideways]

Benitez strolled the Championship with a squad that probably wasn't much better on paper than what we currently have, and probably similar to the squad we had last season. He was never a man for exciting football, even during the Liverpool days of Alonso, Gerrard and Torres, but he's gotten more out of a pragmatic brand than others.

Imagine there'll be a tasty enough job on the continent for him once he finally gets sick of Ashley though.

[ChicagoLion]

Great post Chelts, the problem is obvious and so is the remedy.

[Sexual Ealing]

There's no point in our style of play being about crosses when we never have anyone in the opposition's box.

[adrenachrome]

Not sure what to make of this. We are well on top of the total shots listing as well.

EFL Stats
‏@EFLStats

EFL Championship - total shots on target (cumulative after GW5)

1 Brentford 34 #Brentford
2 Aston Villa 29 #AVFC
3 Leeds United 27 #LUFC
4 Birmingham City 26 #BCFC
= Bristol City 26 #BristolCity
= Wigan Athletic 26 #wafc

#eflstats #eflchampionship #shots

[kippaxvilla2]

This is always worth a read.

Steve Bruce was a manager who refused to move with the times
Louise Taylor
Louise Taylor
The former Sunderland No1 paid little attention to modern coaching methods, technology or tactics – and now he looks like man whose era has passed
Wed 30 Nov 2011 16.08 EST First published on Wed 30 Nov 2011 16.08 EST

Shortly after taking charge at Sunderland Steve Bruce was asked if he had considered experimenting with a Christmas Tree formation. "I'm not really into tactics," he replied. At the time that response was easy to interpret as a deliberately flippant or, perhaps, a self-deprecating means of avoiding answering the question. As the seasons passed, though, the suspicion grew that the former Manchester United captain had simply been honest.

Arguably one of the principal reasons Bruce is no longer in charge at the Stadium of Light concerns his apparent inability to tweak formations or tactics during matches. Whenever a rival manager re-configured his system mid-game, Bruce invariably failed to come up with a countermeasure.


In recent months Alan Pardew, Mark Hughes, Roy Hodgson and, most recently, Roberto Martínez have all seemingly out-thought him as Sunderland dropped points against supposedly weaker sidesthey really should have beaten.

If he failed to cut it as a tactician, the 50-year-old did not seem much of a strategist either. Including loans, 30 players were signed – several of whom have subsequently been moved on – during Bruce's two-and-a-half years on Wearside. That represents an unsettling "churn" factor and hardly proved conducive to developing either a clear playing philosophy or strong team spirit.

Always rather amorphous, if not downright scrappy, Sunderland's high-tempo style lacked creativity, not to mention control, in central midfield. Unable to dictate play, the team frequently failed to press home early advantages.

In many ways Bruce's decision to make the hot-headed, yellow card-prone Lee Cattermole his captain proved emblematic of a rather gung-ho reign during which players such as David Meyler were rushed back from serious injuries only to suffer further complications, the idea of hiring a sports psychologist was dismissed and the manager boasted about his inability to send an email. While Bruce – who did finally learn how to log on last summer when the club issued him with an iPad – may well argue this lack of computer literacy was hardly relevant, many of his peers spend countless hours checking out the latest sports science innovations, researching transfer targets and analysing Prozone statistics on their increasingly indispensable laptops.


Unashamedly old school, Bruce believed that motivation was the key to management but the influx of overseas coaches has raised the Premier League's technical bar and despite his relative youth, he has begun to look suspiciously like a man whose era has passed.

Unlike many modern managers he did not coach the team himself, delegating that job to his assistant, Eric Black. While Bruce's undoubtedly engaging, humour-suffused, personality had a broad appeal, he fell out with quite a few players, most notably Kenwyne Jones, now at Stoke, and Anton Ferdinand, now at QPR and who had by common consensus finally emerged as Sunderland's outstanding defender when he was sold in August.

Shortly afterwards Sunderland's manager was badly let down by Titus Bramble, who faces a crown court trial on sexual assault charges in January. Other bad buys included Matthew Kilgallon, Christian Riveros, Marcos Angeleri and Paulo Da Silva. Meanwhile Craig Gardner, bought from Birmingham for £6m, has barely figured in the first team.

There were some good purchases along the way, too, such as Lorik Cana, Asamoah Gyan and, above all, Darren Bent . Unfortunately Bent had become desperate to leave Sunderland six months before his eventual move to Aston Villa in January. Cana headed to Turkey after just a year while Gyan has newly gone to United Arab Emirates on loan. Money evidently played a big part in all these deals, but it does not represent the entire behind-the-scenes story.


Something was clearly wrong because, as last season's promising beginning subsided into a post-new year collapse, managerial excuses increasingly became a recurring, if self-destructive, theme.

It certainly did not play well with Sunderland fans when the crowd were blamed for harbouring overly "great expectations" or that Bruce constantly bemoaned the difficulty of attracting players to the north-east. More recently, his loudest lament has been that locals would not accept him purely because he had been born north of the Tyne and grew up supporting Newcastle United.

Granted, a minority shamefully hurled chants of "You fat Geordie bastard – get out of our club" after Saturday's defeat to Wigan, but the overwhelming majority of supporters did not care about his roots. Moreover their "expectations" were mostly pretty modest.

Two home wins since New Year's Day have tried Wearsiders' patience but, contrary to Bruce's theories, many would have taken the odd defeat to Newcastle in their stride had there been signs of progress or a discernible playing pattern emerging. Maybe the core problem was that Bruce never accepted that, sometimes, the devil really is in the detail. Soon after Ahmed Elmohamady arrived from Egypt, Sunderland's manager was asked if the winger would be observing Ramadan and if so, how the daylight fasting might affect his game.


The question was met with a blank look. "Is Elmohamady a Coptic Christian rather than a Muslim then?" the questioner persisted. It was an important distinction and the answer should have tripped off Bruce's tongue, but he clearly did not have a clue.

[cheltenhamlion]

Kodjia, who is excellent in the air.

I assume he had 3 in the back in mind as he wanted to play two up front. It was highly likely Jack was going and then something extraordinary happened.

I don't want to rely on Green maybe coming good. Not in such a key position for how we play.

Hang on. If he had 3 at the back in mind then why not sign another central defender? He clearly doesn't trust Elphick, Bree or De Laet. If you want to wang balls in the box why not get Madine off Cardiff or Murphy from Forest who thrive on crosses and being the big lump to play off?

Sorry, but none of this was a plan scuppered by Grealish not leaving. Just like Grealish being injured last year didn't scupper any plans either for all of his pretence when results were going against him. The man is an absolute chancer.

If he wanted to start the season with two up front then where is the other forward? Kodjia is the only one who has been fit pre season and he must know smashing it into the box won't work if you are playing to Hogan or RHM.

And I can buy bringing in more pace on the wing or not wanting to rely all season on a kid. But why sign two of the fuckers?

If we do pick up Abraham then he will be the loan striker with Kodjia used wide. So that then means you have to pick one of Adomah, Bolasie or El Ghazi. Green won't get a look in at all.

And you could retort about him going on loan but the manager is shite at organising that as well, despite what he says is press conferences.

We have to loan in young players from the Premier League as they need games. Our own promising youngsters are left to fester however. Not trusted to play but not given the chance to show their mettle elsewhere.

Doyle-Hayes, Davis, O' Hare (and likely Bree) won't get close to our starting line up this year so why are they still here? Why aren't they getting games elsewhere to see if they can cut it?

Nope. He talks a good game but it is all bollocks for me I am afraid.

[Fred Crump]

This. Spot on.

[The Edge]

This is always worth a read.

Steve Bruce was a manager who refused to move with the times
Louise Taylor
Louise Taylor
The former Sunderland No1 paid little attention to modern coaching methods, technology or tactics – and now he looks like man whose era has passed
Wed 30 Nov 2011 16.08 EST First published on Wed 30 Nov 2011 16.08 EST

Shortly after taking charge at Sunderland Steve Bruce was asked if he had considered experimenting with a Christmas Tree formation. "I'm not really into tactics," he replied. At the time that response was easy to interpret as a deliberately flippant or, perhaps, a self-deprecating means of avoiding answering the question. As the seasons passed, though, the suspicion grew that the former Manchester United captain had simply been honest.

Arguably one of the principal reasons Bruce is no longer in charge at the Stadium of Light concerns his apparent inability to tweak formations or tactics during matches. Whenever a rival manager re-configured his system mid-game, Bruce invariably failed to come up with a countermeasure.


In recent months Alan Pardew, Mark Hughes, Roy Hodgson and, most recently, Roberto Martínez have all seemingly out-thought him as Sunderland dropped points against supposedly weaker sidesthey really should have beaten.

If he failed to cut it as a tactician, the 50-year-old did not seem much of a strategist either. Including loans, 30 players were signed – several of whom have subsequently been moved on – during Bruce's two-and-a-half years on Wearside. That represents an unsettling "churn" factor and hardly proved conducive to developing either a clear playing philosophy or strong team spirit.

Always rather amorphous, if not downright scrappy, Sunderland's high-tempo style lacked creativity, not to mention control, in central midfield. Unable to dictate play, the team frequently failed to press home early advantages.

In many ways Bruce's decision to make the hot-headed, yellow card-prone Lee Cattermole his captain proved emblematic of a rather gung-ho reign during which players such as David Meyler were rushed back from serious injuries only to suffer further complications, the idea of hiring a sports psychologist was dismissed and the manager boasted about his inability to send an email. While Bruce – who did finally learn how to log on last summer when the club issued him with an iPad – may well argue this lack of computer literacy was hardly relevant, many of his peers spend countless hours checking out the latest sports science innovations, researching transfer targets and analysing Prozone statistics on their increasingly indispensable laptops.


Unashamedly old school, Bruce believed that motivation was the key to management but the influx of overseas coaches has raised the Premier League's technical bar and despite his relative youth, he has begun to look suspiciously like a man whose era has passed.

Unlike many modern managers he did not coach the team himself, delegating that job to his assistant, Eric Black. While Bruce's undoubtedly engaging, humour-suffused, personality had a broad appeal, he fell out with quite a few players, most notably Kenwyne Jones, now at Stoke, and Anton Ferdinand, now at QPR and who had by common consensus finally emerged as Sunderland's outstanding defender when he was sold in August.

Shortly afterwards Sunderland's manager was badly let down by Titus Bramble, who faces a crown court trial on sexual assault charges in January. Other bad buys included Matthew Kilgallon, Christian Riveros, Marcos Angeleri and Paulo Da Silva. Meanwhile Craig Gardner, bought from Birmingham for £6m, has barely figured in the first team.

There were some good purchases along the way, too, such as Lorik Cana, Asamoah Gyan and, above all, Darren Bent . Unfortunately Bent had become desperate to leave Sunderland six months before his eventual move to Aston Villa in January. Cana headed to Turkey after just a year while Gyan has newly gone to United Arab Emirates on loan. Money evidently played a big part in all these deals, but it does not represent the entire behind-the-scenes story.


Something was clearly wrong because, as last season's promising beginning subsided into a post-new year collapse, managerial excuses increasingly became a recurring, if self-destructive, theme.

It certainly did not play well with Sunderland fans when the crowd were blamed for harbouring overly "great expectations" or that Bruce constantly bemoaned the difficulty of attracting players to the north-east. More recently, his loudest lament has been that locals would not accept him purely because he had been born north of the Tyne and grew up supporting Newcastle United.

Granted, a minority shamefully hurled chants of "You fat Geordie bastard – get out of our club" after Saturday's defeat to Wigan, but the overwhelming majority of supporters did not care about his roots. Moreover their "expectations" were mostly pretty modest.

Two home wins since New Year's Day have tried Wearsiders' patience but, contrary to Bruce's theories, many would have taken the odd defeat to Newcastle in their stride had there been signs of progress or a discernible playing pattern emerging. Maybe the core problem was that Bruce never accepted that, sometimes, the devil really is in the detail. Soon after Ahmed Elmohamady arrived from Egypt, Sunderland's manager was asked if the winger would be observing Ramadan and if so, how the daylight fasting might affect his game.


The question was met with a blank look. "Is Elmohamady a Coptic Christian rather than a Muslim then?" the questioner persisted. It was an important distinction and the answer should have tripped off Bruce's tongue, but he clearly did not have a clue.

When I read Louise Taylor typed twice I almost gave up as I was  thinking someone had been on the cooking sherry! But I'm glad I persisted as it was a very interesting piece. It really is a case of deja vu all over again. I was at Ipswich and for me his tactical shortcomings were shown in full that day. When they went down to 10 men he did precisely nothing to make that advantage pay. El Ghazi and Bolasie are great additions imo and we may yet get promoted but it will be by individual moments of brilliance rather than any kind of game plan by Bruce.

[ChicagoLion]

Again well said Chelts.