VillaCas Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 28 minutes ago, PaulC said: Under RDM I thought the football was better to start with but he had no luck, with balls hitting bars and late goals against, it seems that Bruce has brought some luck. Yes we may be better organised but the difference in results is purely luck really. I dont agree entirely - Bruce seems to know his preferred starting XI and has them working in a clear shape and with clear tactics. We did not have this under RDM We have been more lucky - I won't trot out the old 'you make your own luck' but I think it's more likely that things will go your way when you have a clear plan than when you don't Early days and to win me over Bruce will need to do more than turn us into a team of 10-men-behind-the-ball spoilers but so far at least we have some sort of base from which to operate 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romavillan Posted October 31, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted October 31, 2016 Bruce is clearly better at organising the team when we don't have the ball than any of the last few managers. Which is awesome IMO, something we have lacked for ages and something I thought an Italian (even a swiss one) like RDM would bring as it's just the ABC's over here. Being organised and difficult to score against is the very first thing to get sorted. Now, the problem with games like Sunday is if you rely on that for 90 minutes, you are going to to suffer for a long time and you are asking your defence to be perfect. Something that not even the best teams manage for 90 mins every week. The problem was we had no way of taking the sting out of the game and relieving the pressure, we went back to front too fast and in a completely uncontrolled way, quite often just hoofing it into space up the field. It is far harder IMO to sort this out than being organised off the ball and compact, you have to go through hours of patterns of play in order to get "automatic" nice combinations of off the ball movement to help who is on the ball and easy options for who has it. With the amount of games we have to play and the short time Bruce has been here it's way to early to judge whether he is capable of doing this. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villarocker Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 When Bruce threw on two strikers - Gabby and Rudy - at the end of the Blues game I thought to myself "Oh no, what's he doing here. We will have no cover for the defence that is already under the cosh". He gave us more of a forward thrust with those subs and it left me thinking "They say attack is the best form of defence and so it seems that Brucey thought that way too". Like I have said previously, I cannot fault what he's done so far. I am sure that we will look better when he gets them fitter, they gain more and more confidence - which not losing will breed - and, when he brings some new faces into the squad in January. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozvillafan Posted October 31, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted October 31, 2016 54 minutes ago, VillaCas said: I dont agree entirely - Bruce seems to know his preferred starting XI and has them working in a clear shape and with clear tactics. We did not have this under RDM We have been more lucky - I won't trot out the old 'you make your own luck' but I think it's more likely that things will go your way when you have a clear plan than when you don't Early days and to win me over Bruce will need to do more than turn us into a team of 10-men-behind-the-ball spoilers but so far at least we have some sort of base from which to operate I don't get the whole "luck" thing. Was it luck that saw the noses header come off the bar and not cross the line? Or was it luck that saw them score from a ball that took just enough of a deflection to take it away from Gollini? It was them pressing that made the opportunities - odds were at least one was going to go in. Likewise, it's not lucky that we have had 4 unbeaten, that we look more solid and have stopped the late goals going in. We aren't the finished article, sure, but you build from the back until confidence comes. And I see it coming in time under Bruce. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodytom Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 I get that he's made us hard to beat and that was the most important thing to achieve. However, if we continue to approach the games in that manner I really don't see us winning many at all. best part of 40m quids worth of strikers on the pitch who never at any point looked like scoring. I was really looking forward to yesterday's game and it was a huge disappointment performance wise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 I'm not sure we were easy to beat before he came to be honest. Easy to score against? Maybe, easy to draw with ? maybe. Hard for us to win? For sure. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 We win Saturday, and I am confident we will, then in 5 games we will have taken more points under Bruce than in 11 games under RDM. It would be an excellent turnaround and give us a great base to build from with 30 games still to go and a transfer window on the horizon where I am confident he will fill the holes in our squad. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mjvilla Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 35 minutes ago, Woodytom said: I get that he's made us hard to beat and that was the most important thing to achieve. However, if we continue to approach the games in that manner I really don't see us winning many at all. best part of 40m quids worth of strikers on the pitch who never at any point looked like scoring. I was really looking forward to yesterday's game and it was a huge disappointment performance wise. I trust in Bruce's 100% promotion record that he has the know-how to win enough games. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodytom Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 1 minute ago, Mjvilla said: I trust in Bruce's 100% promotion record that he has the know-how to win enough games. Not saying he doesn't. what I'm saying is we won't win many playing like we did yesterday 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mjvilla Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 2 minutes ago, Woodytom said: Not saying he doesn't. what I'm saying is we won't win many playing like we did yesterday And what I'm saying is I trust in Bruce to have us playing different ways to win more games. I think yesterday we were set up to not lose which I don't think is a bad thing. Keeps momentum. I'd expect something completely different this Saturday so we shall see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 My criticism is I thought he should have made the changes earlier, Kodjia was completely stifled and they weren't allowing us to play. We should have brought on Tish. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 4 games in and unbeaten including 2 local derbies. I dont think he could really ask for that much more, he nearly has the same amount of points as our previous manager got. from out side he has refreshed the dressing room and he has got us more organised. under previous manager we would have got 2 points at most from them games 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted October 31, 2016 Moderator Share Posted October 31, 2016 1 hour ago, Richard said: I'm not sure we were easy to beat before he came to be honest. Easy to score against? Maybe, easy to draw with ? maybe. Hard for us to win? For sure. Actually I think this is a fair point. I think it is overly generous to credit Bruce with 'making us hard to beat', I do though think he has made us harder to play against. We've a shape and organisation to the team, the defense looks more sturdy and we have a midfield limited though it is. There is more confidence in the side which I think is the result of them having a better structure and organisation which has led to the improved results. I've seen some say Bruce is lucky and Di Matteo was unlucky, frankly I think that is grossly unfair and inaccurate. I don't think anyone could argue there isn't still massive scope for improvement in how we are playing but its also unfair to say we've not improved. Beat Blackburn on Saturday and he will have 11 from 15 which I think would be better than we all realistically thought we would get following the Preston no show. If we can maintain that sort of return between now and Christmas we will quickly close the gap on those above us. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubberman Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 The one thing I would like to see over the next few games is more consistency in individual performances. Jedi has been pretty poor, but came good yesterday, but Codger was well off his game. Ayew blows hot and cold, as do most of them. Bacuna seems to have been the most consistently solid performer over the season. If we could get everyone on their game we'd be winning games, and winning well. I know it's early in Bruce's reign, but we still haven't seen a full team performance yet and while I'm happy with 8pts we've also got to be upping the goal difference soon and giving ourselves more than a single goal lead in games and that needs more of them to start firing at the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaCas Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 (edited) 1 hour ago, ozvillafan said: I don't get the whole "luck" thing. Was it luck that saw the noses header come off the bar and not cross the line? Or was it luck that saw them score from a ball that took just enough of a deflection to take it away from Gollini? It was them pressing that made the opportunities - odds were at least one was going to go in. Likewise, it's not lucky that we have had 4 unbeaten, that we look more solid and have stopped the late goals going in. We aren't the finished article, sure, but you build from the back until confidence comes. And I see it coming in time under Bruce. I don't think anyone (at all) is saying that it is entirely or even mainly down to luck (insomuch as 'luck' is even a thing), but I think so far Bruce has had the rub of the green, whereas RDM seemed to experience the opposite - the fact that Bruce seems to have a structure and a plan whereas RDM had neither must be the largest factor With the examples you quote - 99 times out of a 100 the striker would score instead of hitting the bar on other example it was a very minor deflection and Gollini didnt look like getting to it in any case. It's not an insult to Bruce who has made a decent start, but so far he has had a little bit of fortune that eluded RDM Edited October 31, 2016 by VillaCas 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 I know it's only been 4 games but at the moment we're averaging 2 points a game under Bruce. Over the course of a 46 game season that's 92 points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 23 minutes ago, rubberman said: The one thing I would like to see over the next few games is more consistency in individual performances. Jedi has been pretty poor, but came good yesterday, but Codger was well off his game. Ayew blows hot and cold, as do most of them. Bacuna seems to have been the most consistently solid performer over the season. If we could get everyone on their game we'd be winning games, and winning well. I know it's early in Bruce's reign, but we still haven't seen a full team performance yet and while I'm happy with 8pts we've also got to be upping the goal difference soon and giving ourselves more than a single goal lead in games and that needs more of them to start firing at the same time. If they were all consistent they wouldn't be playing for us. The likes of Kodjia, Ayew can be awesome on their day and would be at higher clubs in the prem if consistent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
praisedmambo Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 (edited) 1 hour ago, Woodytom said: Not saying he doesn't. what I'm saying is we won't win many playing like we did yesterday But we won't be playing away in local derbies against teams who are performing well every week. We did win our previous two games btw. Over Bruce's 4 games in charge (a bit too few games for the stat, admittedly) only Newcastle and Brighton have better form. We've had a few difficult games too—Reading and Sha away particularly, judging on the table. Edited October 31, 2016 by praisedmambo 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sheepyvillian Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 Pass and move ,find space . Where is the difficulty in that ? To watch us getting out played by our bitter rivals ,and resorting to tactics that were akin to the Wimbledon of the eighties was painful . To spend the amount of money we have on players , only to watch them kicking aimless balls up the pitch ,well I just don't get that at all . We are Aston Villa ,bathed in history and tradition . That drivel is unacceptable . PP 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villaphan04 Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 17 hours ago, AshVilla said: Who's the fitness coach now? Still the italian or did he leave pretty sure he is still here. didn't see any information that he left or that Bruce brought in his own man Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts