Fat waste of space, tactically inept cabbage head Steve Bruce sacked by Newcastle United

[Dr Gloom 21941]

14 minutes ago, Isegrim said:

I think someone like Terzic who stepped in at Dortmund after Favre got sacked could be one accepting Rangnick as a mentor.

I do actually think that someone like Potter could be working with Rangnick. Ten Hag from Ajax if you look at a manager with a bigger reputation.

Appreciate the inside track here. Genuinely interesting and exciting. It feels like German coaches are among the most progressive around these days. 

[Andrew 4771]

Quote

 

Gerrard, Conte, Rodgers, Benitez, Terzic: Analysing possible Newcastle replacements for Bruce

By Mark Carey Oct 10, 2021 78 

What a week it has been if you are a Newcastle United fan.

The Mike Ashley era is over and there are new owners in town — an Amanda Staveley-fronted consortium backed by the deep financial pockets of the Saudi Arabian state.

It looks as though there will be changes aplenty on Tyneside in the coming weeks and months, and one of the first switches they look likely to make is in the dugout.

Current head coach Steve Bruce understands the writing might be on the wall for him at hometown club Newcastle, just as he prepares for his 1,000th game in management.

“I want to continue, I’d like the chance to show the new owners what I can do, but you have to be realistic and they may well want a new manager to launch things for them,” Bruce said in an interview with The Telegraph last week. “New owners normally want a new manager. I’ve been around long enough to understand that.”

No permanent replacement has been lined up, but if the new owners are going to show Bruce the door, who might they have in mind to replace him?

Here, with the help of data from smarterscout’s coaching profiles, which highlights the distinctive traits of each coach’s playing style, The Athletic profile some of those who could feature on Newcastle’s list of candidates…

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Steven Gerrard

As we know, Steven Gerrard is still relatively inexperienced as a manager having only had three full seasons (though even one of those was curtailed by the pandemic) in the dugout at Rangers — his first senior role after previously managing Liverpool Under-18s for a season. 

Nevertheless, he boasts a great record in his short time as manager.

He battled through a difficult first two years at Ibrox to rebuild Rangers into Scottish champions once again, leading them to their 55th league title back in May.

Gerrard favours a 4-3-3 formation, both home and away, as Rangers are regularly tasked with taking the game to often inferior domestic opposition and breaking down their deep block.

As you can see from Rangers’ full-back touches (the FB pitch map in the bottom left corner of the graphic below), Gerrard likes his left- and right-backs to stay high and wide to stretch the width of the pitch and get crosses in.

The scatter graphs in the second-left column plot where Rangers (represented by the white dot) rate in relation to the other teams in the Scottish Premiership.

Working through the graphic (note the labels on the far right that indicate which are relevant to home matches and which to away ones), we can see that Gerrard’s style is very much built on playing out from the back and dominating the ball — particularly when playing at home (defending Style). When Rangers do lose the ball, you can see from their “Press Height” that they look to recover possession very high when playing at home, and are a little more pragmatic on their travels.

This is also shown by their “average seconds to recover possession” (in the furthest left column of the graphic), which shows Gerrard’s style is very much based on smothering the opposition where you can in the counter-press — most likely inspired by Jurgen Klopp’s gegenpressing style back at Liverpool.

As you would expect from a title-winning campaign, we see Gerrard’s Rangers were dominant home and away and also in both halves of games by looking at their expected goal difference (xGD, in the far right column above), which weighs up the quality of chances they create and concede. If anything, they got stronger in second halves as they continued to break down tiring opponents.

In terms of his thoughts on his managing style, Gerrard has not been short of inspiration in his playing career.

“There are lots of things I’ve taken from (Gerard) Houllier, (Rafa) Benitez, Roy Hodgson and (former England manager) Fabio Capello: the way they train and how they want it to look in terms of distances around the pitch. What I’ve tried to do is get a combination of all the coaches and managers I’ve worked with and go my own way with it in terms of how I want it to look and my own identity.

“The key for me was to get the right staff around me who could help me deliver that, because of where I was at in terms of experience and grass time.”

Gerrard knows the pressure that comes from being at a club with such an intense fanbase, both as a player and a manager.

He is a proven winner and would be an intriguing choice to lead Newcastle.

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Brendan Rodgers

Brendan Rodgers is not off to the greatest of starts this season with Leicester City. But the Northern Irishman’s stock is still very high from his trophy-winning achievements with previous club Celtic and his ability to get Leicester punching consistently above their weight.

Last season, Rodgers set Leicester up most often in a 4-2-3-1 but also had success when using a back three, with Jonny Evans, Caglar Soyuncu and Wesley Fofana giving the team a great foundation for large periods of the campaign.

Stylistically, Rodgers prefers his team to be technically strong and “keep the ball on the deck” where possible, and build out from the back (Defending style in the graphic below).

While they can be direct in utilising the pace of their wide forwards during counter-attacks, Rodgers is not one to advocate getting the ball up the pitch as quickly as possible — as you can see by their “directness” levels within their Attacking style scatter graphs.

Rodgers’s influence on the team in the Expected goals for (xGF) effect per match (bottom right of the graphic above) is calculated by looking at how well a club should perform based on the previous output of its players, then compare those predictions with actual results to see whether their coach may be having a positive impact.

The results for Rodgers show how his coaching is benefiting the team, particularly in defence last season (xG Against, or xGA effect per match, bottom right corner of the graphic), with 86 per cent confidence.

This also highlights how Leicester’s current defensive struggles are influenced by their injury problems more than structural issues with Rodgers’ system.

It is thought that Rodgers is one of the names on Newcastle’s short-list, but it might be unlikely he could easily be attracted away from Leicester given the success he’s had since joining from Celtic in February 2019.

Whether or not his head could be turned by the prospect of this new, long-term project on Tyneside remains to be seen, but Staveley and company would do very well to steal him away.

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Antonio Conte

What a coup it would be if Newcastle’s new owners were able to land a manager who has won two of Europe’s top five leagues a total of five times with three different clubs.

Antonio Conte parted company with Inter Milan in the summer having led them to their first Serie A crown since 2010 in his second season in charge, ending Juventus’s nine-year grip on the Scudetto.

Conte has a well-established choice of formation that he strongly stands by, favouring a variation of a 3-5-2 that has brought him those five title wins at Juventus, Chelsea and Inter in the past eight club seasons (he also spent two years as Italy manager). This system emphasizes the wing-backs, with two box-to-box midfielders and often a holding midfielder to start attacks from deep.

Stylistically, Conte prefers his team to play out from the back where possible and maintain attacks high up the field if they lose possession (defending style). While his teams are not swashbuckling in their pressing — as shown by Inter’s “average seconds to recover possession in open play” (left-hand column) — Conte’s solid tactical structure often allows them to regain possession and counter-attack to great effect.

A final interesting part of Conte’s profile is how much his coaching and tactical system has a beneficial effect on the team.

This is unsurprising given that he led Inter to the title last season, but the degree to which Conte’s coaching influenced the team is rated highly per smarterscout, with 100 per cent confidence in his influence towards the attack (xG For or “xGF effect per match”) and a 94 per cent confidence in his influence towards the defence (xGA effect per match, both in the bottom right of the above graphic).

Reports suggest the currently clubless Conte is one of the leading candidates on Newcastle’s short-list.

The Italian may well be waiting for a vacancy at one of the top European clubs, but who is to say that Newcastle will not be among that elite in the coming years if they invest heavily in the squad?

Stranger things have happened in football.

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Rafa Benitez

This one feels a little strange to even include, given that Rafa Benitez is only seven league games into his new job at Everton but it is difficult not to include the Spaniard on our list of candidates, given his strong links to Newcastle from his three-year stint as their manager from 2016.

Benitez was somewhat forced into a defensive, agricultural way of playing when he was at Newcastle, and did not shy away from the fact the players he had were not able to compete with many of their Premier League opponents in terms of technical quality.

Looking at Benitez’s coaching profile from 2018-19, his final season at Newcastle, he most frequently favoured a back three to pack the defence and turn into a back five when out of possession. 

Given the limitations in the squad, Benitez’s style was not so much based on building out from the back, and when they did lose possession his direction was very much to keep a solid defensive structure (see defending style below). He is known for making his teams well-organised when they don’t have the ball.

Similarly, given that Newcastle often defended quite deep, the attack would often be direct in quickly getting the ball upfield and engage in aerial battles to pick up on second balls (see attacking style).

As mentioned, Benitez’s influence would predominantly be on getting a solid defensive structure in place, and it worked to good effect with smarterscout placing an 86 per cent confidence rating on his coaching influence over the team’s defensive side of the game (xGA effect per match). 

It is fair to say Benitez grew frustrated with then-owner Ashley’s regime while he was at the club, and as he recently explained to The Athletic, a lack of ambition from the top meant his hands were tied and led to him walking away.

“I didn’t have any other option,” Benitez said. “When we had our last meeting, I was sure there would be no investment in the academy or the training ground. I could see there was no hope we would be progressing or improving. They didn’t want to invest. They didn’t want to have a project or exploit the potential of the club. It was just to stay there (in the Premier League).” 

It is believed fan-favourite Benitez was top of Staveley’s list of potential managers last summer when the takeover plans were first discussed and he was working in China but his Everton appointment just three months ago means the opportunity may have passed for that favoured reunion.

---

Edin Terzic

Edin Terzic may be an outside shout but it would be an innovative option to bring another well-regarded Bundesliga coach to the Premier League, following in the footsteps of Klopp, Pep Guardiola, Chelsea’s Thomas Tuchel and Ralph Hasenhuttl of Southampton.

Borussia Dortmund assistant coach Terzic took interim charge when the German club sacked Lucien Favre last December. The 38-year-old led Dortmund to lift the German Cup — thumping RB Leipzig 4-1 in the final — and to Champions League qualification, winning 20 of his 32 matches.

While there isn’t a full season of football to go from, Terzic’s coaching profile from last season still makes for interesting viewing.

He predominantly set Dortmund up in a 4-2-3-1 formation and also shifted to a 4-3-3, after Favre had moved between a back three and a back four in the early months of last season.

The smaller sample might skew things a little, but looking at Dortmund’s defending style both home and away shows how much energy he injected into the side, tasking them with dominating the ball in build-up play and regaining possession high up the field when they lost it (see defending style below).

A team with Jadon Sancho, Erling Haaland and Marco Reus all in the starting XI and occupying dangerous areas (see W/WM — wing/wide midfield — touches in the bottom left of the graphic), their attacking style was always going to be built on technical quality and not a direct, aerially-dominant approach, with midfielders Jude Bellingham and Mahmoud Dahoud also showing an uptick in form after Terzic took over. 

Realistically, Terzic only made small tweaks to the side when he took the reins, but he did steer a team who were fifth, had won once in five games and just suffered a 5-1 home loss to Stuttgart when he took over to a third-place finish, one point behind runners-up Leipzig. Perhaps the impact he had in that short period might overinflate his impact slightly, but smarterscout strongly rates the coaching influence he had towards Dortmund’s attack (xGF effect per match) and defence (xGA effect per match).

After completing the season and with Marco Rose coming in to be head coach, Dortmund’s offer of a technical director job seemed most suitable for all parties. But Terzic is still in demand, and has recently turned down an offer from fellow Bundesliga side Hertha Berlin to become their head coach. There is also an understanding that Terzic might leave to coach abroad before potentially coming back to Dortmund.

The Athletic understands he was quite tempted by an approach from Tottenham Hotspur in the summer, and has already turned down approaches from Europa League teams in recent weeks because the fit was not quite right.

However, Newcastle could be an intriguing prospect for Terzic, who has experience coaching in England when working as an assistant coach under Slaven Bilic at West Ham United from 2015 to 2017.

 

Might be a bit of an eyesore but from the athletic

[Isegrim 9798]

12.5m to sign and sack the bacon-muncher. It does only make sense if it was about money laundering…

[Polarboy 2311]

1 hour ago, Isegrim said:

 

 

Meanwhile we've had Cabbage, I don't do tactics, head. To have the ability to go out and hire the top brains in football to build the club is fucking surreal. 

[OTF 7297]

2 hours ago, Isegrim said:

12.5m to sign and sack the bacon-muncher. It does only make sense if it was about money laundering…

 

Hopefully we no longer have to wonder the reason for absurd logic defying decisions like this.

[ohhh_yeah 2967]

 

Dalglish:

 

"I'm not surprised that Steven Gerrard has been linked with the Newcastle United job.

But the first thing to say here is that, right now, Steve Bruce is manager of the club. We all need to respect that.

Speculation has been rife since the takeover by new owners, PIF from Saudi Arabia.

I would have been taken aback had the name of the Rangers manager not been put out there as someone who may well be in their thoughts.

Brendan Rodgers, Frank Lampard and Eddie Howe are also reportedly being considered as potential replacements for Bruce, should he and the club part company.

We will have to wait and see what actually happens

I know from experience that Newcastle United is a brilliant football club, and they have passionate supporters.

I was manager there for almost two years in the late 1990s. I really wanted to give the club the success it deserved, but we just couldn’t manage it.

So I will be keeping an eye on how it all unfolds under the Magpies new ownership, who have vowed to invest millions in their pursuit of success.

The Toon Army are excited about the future, and there is a real feeling of optimism after the way things were for a number of years under the previous owner, Mike Ashley.

Will they have Steven Gerrard in the dugout?

He has been fantastic for Rangers. He won their first SPFL Premiership title for 10 years in a crucial season, given Celtic were going for 10-in-a-row.

He has also made some huge strides in European competition.

That is why he is being linked with Newcastle United.

Right now, though, Steven will not be paying any attention to what is going on at St James’ Park. His only focus will be on Rangers, and Saturday’s massive game at home to Hearts."

 

Found here:

https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/steven-will-not-be-paying-any-attention-to-newcastle-united/

 

[Howay 12496]

I don’t want Gerrard to be our manager. Primarily because I don’t like the fucker, and I don’t like Liverpool. Additionally he’s unproven and light on experience, imo he wants to be Liverpool manager and I don’t want us to be some testing ground/learning experience for the prick on route to his dream job, we’re no ones stepping stone anymore. Get someone that’s a better and more experienced coach tbh. 

[Polarboy 2311]

34 minutes ago, Howay said:

I don’t want Gerrard to be our manager. Primarily because I don’t like the fucker, and I don’t like Liverpool. Additionally he’s unproven and light on experience, imo he wants to be Liverpool manager and I don’t want us to be some testing ground/learning experience for the prick on route to his dream job, we’re no ones stepping stone anymore. Get someone that’s a better and more experienced coach tbh. 

 

I'm not in favour of giving it to Gerrard either, but realistically any manager that we have come in will likely be a stepping stone for us as well. Someone who can develop the club in the right direction to the point where we can seriously think about appointing the Guardiola tier managers. 

[Tom 14011]

Quite a conversation to be having given that the current manager eats crisps on the toilet 

[PaddockLad 17284]

8 hours ago, Dr Gloom said:

You have to lol at the type of manager we are linked with now instead of the Mark Hughes/Tony Pulis shite you’d expect under Ashley 

Anyone know how/why is went tits up for Favre @ Dortmund?  

 

 

[Andrew 4771]

10 minutes ago, PaddockLad said:

Anyone know how/why is went tits up for Favre @ Dortmund?  

 

 

 

Isegrim would be able to offer the most detail I expect but as far as I remember (and a google to refresh) he got into a poor run of results during the last year of his contract and hadn't quite managed to push Bayern enough, didn't get a trophy in his time there so they let him go.

That said he was, apparently, their joint most successful coach in the league on a points per game basis over his three years and seemed to leave with a lot of respect intact but I don't quite follow european football as much as I did when I lived in a friendlier timezone so I could be wrong.

[Isegrim 9798]

9 hours ago, Isegrim said:

12.5m to sign and sack the bacon-muncher. It does only make sense if it was about money laundering…

Even more surreal when you remember that Keegan had to drag Ashley to court to get some compensation.

From all weird business decisions in the last 14 years, this seems to be the most idiotic one.

[Dr Gloom 21941]

6 hours ago, Howay said:

I don’t want Gerrard to be our manager. Primarily because I don’t like the fucker, and I don’t like Liverpool. Additionally he’s unproven and light on experience, imo he wants to be Liverpool manager and I don’t want us to be some testing ground/learning experience for the prick on route to his dream job, we’re no ones stepping stone anymore. Get someone that’s a better and more experienced coach tbh. 

Agreed. Aim higher 

[Alex 35095]

Some nice words from Dalglish but he’s just touting his mate Gerrard for the job, isn’t he? 

[trooper 940]

Probably just coming in to clear his desk 

Bruce is facing D-day as Newcastle boss - with the club ready to axe him - but he is due to take training on Monday (Daily Mirror)

[Gemmill 44935]

19 minutes ago, Ant said:

The amount of "respect Steve Bruce" articles/posts by the likes of those football bible pages and such on Facebook that have came up on my feed is nuts.

Talking about how much he did for villa and how he wasn't backed here,  his record is fucking woeful how is this a shock anyone wants him gone.

 

 

 

1.12 points per game lifetime in the Premier League. A 42 points a season man, in other words a perennial relegation scrap for whoever he manages.

 

Laat time I checked this his average was 1.13 by the way, so he's spent his time here getting worse at his job. 

 

He's objectively shit. All these dopes writing their articles just need to look at the facts and accept them for what they are. 

[ewerk 30633]

Aye, I was watching Football Focus on Saturday and Charlie Adam reckoned Bruce has been very hard done by and Ashley Williams said Bruce had been a 'great player and great manager in the Premier League' and it would be a shame if he didn't get his 1000th game.

[essembeeofsunderland 811]

We have big plans so we’ll need a bigger name manager than Gerrard who’s unproven in the Premier League,never mind the Champions League where I’m sure the new owners want us to be in,let’s say ,5 years time.Conti knows the Premier League.He knows European football.He likes to spend money and we have loads.I’m sure he knows which decent players to bring in to get the ball rolling.We have a number of shite players on long and well paid contracts.These need to be shifted to bring quality into the team and squad.Fortunately we can afford to pay up their contracts which will give them the chance to move to Championship teams at best,BUJ7 to a lower standard,his standard.

[ohhh_yeah 2967]

13 hours ago, Isegrim said:

I think someone like Terzic who stepped in at Dortmund after Favre got sacked could be one accepting Rangnick as a mentor.

I do actually think that someone like Potter could be working with Rangnick. Ten Hag from Ajax if you look at a manager with a bigger reputation.

 

Just curious, I mentioned Christian Streich earlier. What do you see for him as the next stepping stone to the next level?

 

Or, has he found his plateau? Players rave about him.

 

[Isegrim 9798]

2 minutes ago, ohhh_yeah said:

 

Just curious, I mentioned Christian Streich earlier. What do you see for him as the next stepping stone to the next level?

 

Or, has he found his plateau? Players rave about him.

 

He’s found his job. Him and Freiburg are made fir each other.

[The Fish 10858]

2 hours ago, ewerk said:

Aye, I was watching Football Focus on Saturday and Charlie Adam reckoned Bruce has been very hard done by and Ashley Williams said Bruce had been a 'great player and great manager in the Premier League' and it would be a shame if he didn't get his 1000th game.

There was a video shared on twitter with Darren Ambrose, Darren Bent and some tween. Bent asked if Bruce was being disrespected and fair play Ambrose and the tween shot him down spectacularly. Poor Bent didn't know where to look.

 

Here it is.

 

[David Kelly 1245]

3 hours ago, ewerk said:

Aye, I was watching Football Focus on Saturday and Charlie Adam reckoned Bruce has been very hard done by and Ashley Williams said Bruce had been a 'great player and great manager in the Premier League' and it would be a shame if he didn't get his 1000th game.

It's not much of a surprise that ex premier league players don't have grasp of something so simple as what the word great means!

[Gemmill 44935]

20 minutes ago, The Fish said:

There was a video shared on twitter with Darren Ambrose, Darren Bent and some tween. Bent asked if Bruce was being disrespected and fair play Ambrose and the tween shot him down spectacularly. Poor Bent didn't know where to look.

 

Here it is.

 

 

Bent just looks like he's livid they won't play along with the TalkSport wind-up radio format. 

[The Fish 10858]

2 minutes ago, Gemmill said:

 

Bent just looks like he's livid they won't play along with the TalkSport wind-up radio format. 

"eh, this isn't the script, they've gone off book.

 

 

Fam"

[Christmas Tree 4728]