Reivax_Villa

What concerns me is that lack of football minded people we have on our board. Middlesbrough made a footballing decision, sacked Monk and brought in a manager they believe that will compliment their style a bit better. I feel like our Chairman and our CEO are incapable of making this sort of decision. It appears that our board & chairman are more influenced by business opportunities and ideas opposed to footballing decisions.

He is a manipulator, he has manipulated his way into keeping this job. He makes stupid statements. One I remember vividly about the foreign players at Wolves not being able to cope with the cold weather.. He is full of BS

So now we are going back to basics..

He frustrates me. What he has done during his time here is a discredit to us. He has wasted millions on players that he has rarely played or utilised. He has then scrapped his approach and signed experience players who have not been up to the acquired standard. Interviews During his interviews he mentions this role like it is the poison chalice, he speaks as if no other manager but himself is capable of dealing with the expectation of this role. I reckon because of this he is still at this club Yes we are a huge club but the weight of expectation has been created by himself and it affected the players last season. He continues to say that there is still plenty of work to do, so what has he done for the past 14-15 months? He is negative and reluctant in most of his interviews, even when we win matches. Style So what is it? We are a defensive, counter attacking team but we have very few players capable of playing this way. We lack capable wide players so we rely on our full backs to overlap the wingers. Our central midfielders play too deep, even our most technical midfielders are deep lying players. We relied heavily on Kienan Davis because he held the ball up to give our midfielders time to move from their deep positions and make forward runs. Simply this has not been good enough, our team has not been coached to a good enough standard. I think players like Hourihane, Lansbury have declined since arriving here. We lack expression in our play, and we do not play with any purpose. This has resulted to our football being ineffective. Transfers Bruce likes the idea of good players, but the ones that he has signed shows that he does not know how to make them better or get the best out of them. Hogan - Hourihane - Bree- Lansbury -Bjarnason -Taylor -Johnstone - Onomah - Snodgrass - Samba -Terry- Elmohamady - Whelan. As well as our previous signings we are now in the s*** with FFP because of some of these signings. A lot of Bruce signings have been uninspiring with the exceptions of Hourihane, Terry and Taylor. Our signings do not look like it has been part of a long term strategy of building a team that can not only play to a style but capable of playing at the highest level in this country. Can we trust him next week when the transfer window opens? Summary Steve Bruce created this illusion that we were in the worst position and that only he could stop the "Rot". I actually do not think we was in a rot, our management made some poor decisions and we were paying for it. By stopping this Rot ( He calls it), we play this defensive smash and grab style of football whilst Kodjia saves our season and we finish 13th. He continues to mention that we have not had stability at this club and we are better off with him as our manager because he has four promotions, yet there is no improvement to our players or tactics. Keinan Davis and Adomah emerge as our top players whilst Terry rallies everyone and we are now promotion contenders. Ultimately this has not been a solution nor this has shown any signs of a long term plan, he has merely papered over the cracks that highlight his insufficiencies as a modern day manager. Recently Bruce has made his last throw of the dice by bringing Steve Agnew to buy him some more time at this football club but it may be too late for him. We are not getting promoted this season under Steve Bruce. It is that simple, we do not score enough goals and we do not create enough chances. We are very ineffective and we struggle against the top 8 sides in this league. The management i.e Wyness need to take responsibility for this and I believe that once Bruce is inevitably sacked, he should not play any role in finding a new manager.

First Half, Well we haven't had much of the ball which i expected. Elphick looks comfortable, makes me think why did he not replace Terry earlier. Our shape looks dreadful even our attacking play looks like a team that has not been coached. I do not see any benefits by playing Jedi and Whelan, it's one or the other for me. Hourihane may be fatigued but he is required in the middle of the park. Snodgrass.. I just do not know what he does. Contrastingly Brentford look progressive in their play, imaginative with their set pieces. I look at them with envy. This just shows what Dean Smith can produce with a squad assembled on a low budget.

Imagine what Dean Smith could do with our side.. He looks like a very good coach.

That line up is built for counter attacking football. I'm not expecting us to be dominating possession.

If we overlook the technicalities for one moment, the point i'm trying to make is that the management at that club had the foresight to make that decision. The question is whether our management can make a similar enough decision.

Interestingly Monk was sacked because of the playing style, they felt that style would not help them get promoted.. What is Keith Wyness & Xia doing right now?

I just hope that they don't give him any more money to spend.

Honestly I believe if we sack Bruce halfway through the season they will be looking to give the new manager enough time to make an impact for next season.

I dunno you know, RDM's signings were questionable,.

He will be gone in a month if this form continues and we are out of the top 6.

I reckon Clemence will be given less responsibility. Bruce has spoken so highly of Calderwood and to be fair to him, our defence has improved since he has arrived.

I found three articles that mentions his coaching and mentality briefly. https://www.oneboro.co.uk/blog/5150-the-curious-case-of-steve-agnew https://rokerreport.sbnation.com/2017/4/25/15406126/scout-report-boro-what-do-steve-agnews-direct-low-scoring-side-have-to-offer http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/risks-no-fear-option-two-12827595

Nice to know but this should have been done at Pre-Season. What impact can he have to our team now?

December was a crucial month for us and we have failed to deliver. This season is more frustrating than last season because we have better players and a manager that has been able settle. It makes it more frustrating when our neighbours decide to hire a quality manager and quality players and play the most scintillating football we have seen at this level for years. The reality is that we are stuck, stuck in this predicament, stuck to see what Steve Bruce can achieve this season and stuck with the same quality of football and tactics. When i see our players on the pitch I see glimpses of real quality but i just feel like the manager has just thrown these players on to the pitch without any sort of direction. As for promotion, a few weeks ago I was confident of a top 2 finish. Now i feel like we may just scrap play offs. But we haven't been able to beat the teams in the top 6 this season so how likely are we to beat them with the added pressure of promotion? Bruce has stabilised us and we have been able to beat poor teams below the top 10 but that is it. If promotion is not achieved this season. A lot of people need to be made accountable for this failure.

Onomah needs to be subbed. He is not contributing to our attacking play. Hogan has to come on.

I agree! Huddersfield, Brighton, Bournmouth ect

I read an interesting statistic 2 weeks ago. Basically showed that the most in form teams in December get promoted. We are on our 3rd game this month without a win.. I will back Bruce until mathematically we cannot secure promotion or a playoff spot. The thought of not being promoted this season is frightening and this will have dire consequences on our playing squad. We will need a bigger rebuilding job with less funds due to FFP if our top players leave. I just hope that we can just hit some real form in the coming weeks and months.

He has my backing until the end of the season.

I am happy with the result because it is always tough at Elland Road. I think we just need to take it one game at a time. I am pretty confident that we will reach the play offs.

He is one of the best CB's in the league. The reason why Samba has looked relatively decent at this level is because of James Chester. With Terry and Chester we have the best two centre backs in the league.

A good performance. He orchestrates our midfield shape and he is always looking for pockets and gaps that he knows he can fill. You can tell that he is highly regarded and respected in the dressing room.

I am so happy to see him back. He can play the ball forward nicely and he is brave enough to attack the opposition. What i love from him is this ruthless streak he has, he always gets in the head of his opponents. He is the player that opposing fans hate. I am happy that he finally scored his first league goal for us. He will be key for horrible away fixtures. Especially this month. We have depth and he proves it, not many teams can have Grealish and Lansbury on the bench.