By all reports he fell out with Edu, the group’s Global Head of Football (big title I know) and it got to the point where one had to go and unfortunately it was Nuno, which was a real shame after the season before. He was critical of the summer transfer business, or at least the timing of it, as well so his exit was inevitable.
Initially, he did yes but the whole thing just unravelled so quickly and the last couple of games he was a bit more defensive.
Overall, it was a disastrous appointment though. He came in and looked totally drained by the Spurs sacking. He needed to take a much longer break by his own admission. His football is so intricate that you can’t appoint him mid-season.
There’s a lot of debate about him, but I would say his downfall was terrible football and terrible performances in some games (Everton home and away, Braga home, Leeds away, Villa away to name a few) and interviews which really wound people up.
He’s good at deflecting blame. He did get points though, whatever people say.
Got the players enjoying their football and the fans enjoying watching their team primarily.
He’s been a real unifying force as well. Tactically, he’s made good subs and always looks to change games positively.
We’re certainly in our best form of the season, although it’s been a bad season.
We’re on a good run and some players have really found form like Gibbs-White. We do have injuries though to Murillo and Callum Hudson-Odoi, so while we’re better, we’re not the team we were last season.
We’ve actually had good results after European games. One reason though is that we’ve rotated a lot in Europe and not really been able to attack it fully, so it’s really good we’ve got this far to be fair.
For sure, there’s three that stand out. Elliot Anderson dominates the stats in so many midfield metrics, not just in the Premier League but in Europe. Morgan Gibbs-White has 12 league goals and has been excellent since Dyche left. The other one would be Neco Williams, as he’s incredibly consistent.
Most likely 4-2-3-1, but one of the wingers will be Gibbs-White or Dominguez, if not both, so we have every presence in the middle of the pitch.
I don’t think we’ll be too attacking in the first half. We’re very patient on the ball. Too patient really, especially in the attacking third, but we’ve been good of late.
