HolteExile Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 The thing that stuck out for me at Hull (not that I watched them a huge amount last season) was that even with the likes of Huddlestone, Livermore and Diame, they weren't a footballing side. Despite that trio looking perfectly at home in sides that retained possession such as Spurzzz and Wigan. Westwood, Gardner > Hourihane, Landsbury. The personnel doesn't really matter. This bitty, awkward style is just what he does. You can wear it (just about) if there's results. When the style is gash and the results are similar, patience wears thin. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted February 4, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted February 4, 2017 I said in the match thread. You can't just switch to 3-5-2 and expect it to work straight away. It's so different, especially at the back, to playing 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 that it will take time to adjust to it. I don't know if it's the right way to go, but people writing it off as an option are being too hasty. As for the game tonight, I was disappointed. Things need to improve. However, things have improved from midweek. We played a new formation with two people debuting and over half the team with less than 5 appearances each. Despite that, I thought whilst we weren't great, we were fairly comfortable and were let down by a comical goalkeeping error and a stupid red card. There's plenty of time for things to get better and I still believe they will. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudevillaisnice Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 The only concern I have is Bruce is speaking about this system and how we counter attack. With the players we have we should be dominating possession not the other way round. It would work with smaller teams but not us and believe me it's not arrogance, teams set up differently against us. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 Bruce has as good a record at this level as anybody, saying that I'm left scratching my head a lot at his thought process. Against Brentford playing 3 brand new players who had barely even trained together as stupidity. Not buying an experience keeper when he has pretty much a blank cheque. There's too many to list tbh, I'm sure he'll get it right eventually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farlz Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 I think the 352 could be good for us, there were brief points tonight it showed that but only if we stop sitting so deep that it ends up becoming 541. Just noticed we had 29% possession. 29% against Nottingham Forest is tragic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 Yes but at least tonight we created a few more chances. I don't really care about possession stats. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 3 minutes ago, PaulC said: Yes but at least tonight we created a few more chances. I don't really care about possession stats. Normally you create chances by having the ball, the more possession the more chances that are likely. Tonight we just relied on the counter attack which is fine if it's a planned tactic and you are good at it. We never will be though because our defence is shaky and our keeper is abysmal. We need to keep the ball better if we are ever going to do anything in this league and with the money spent we should be dominating teams in that department (IMO). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrytini Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 (edited) Other than being disturbed at how he had tried his new midfield in two different formations out of two games the system doesn't interest me. It most definitely isn't ( yet another) excuse for playing very little football, for lacking any discernible plan other than to sit deep and wait/hope, and for a lack of Drive and energy. To have had the occasional passage of play against a side as poor as Forest is not a sign of progress, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Our performances have nothing at all to do with our formations, but everything to do with our style ( or lack of). These are top Championship players against a poor side. Whilst you can't always win you should at least manage to look like you expect to win. We play how I would expect a team to play away to Man City or Chelsea, but in this Divisoon we should be forcing other teams to treat us like that. Too deep, too negative, too many hopeful punts, too little attacking intent. When we got at them, as every other game, we looked a threat. Edited February 4, 2017 by terrytini 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpt666 Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 4-1-2-3 Steve BUNN BREE CHESTER(c) BAKER TAYLOR JEDINAK LANSBURY HOURIHANE ADOMAH HOGAN KODJIA None of this sitting back shite let the opposition worry about us 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NottingVilla Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 Steve Bruce has a good record before the Championship learned how to play football. Nice guy but as a manager he's a dinosaur/relic. Its fine to sack managers if they are shit. Even his wins are considered lucky. Get rid. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mykeyb Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 First we list because we had lost Kodja, then it because we have lost Jedinak. Ipswich is a must win for Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest av1 Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 2 hours ago, terrytini said: Yes I'm willing to give him time too. End of the season. But his performances are not stacking up. This is where i am. I still support him but you can't assembly one of the leagues strongest sides and still perform so badly. Given this is his first window, it is technically (some will say this is a weak argument) only his 2nd game with "his own team" so i believe he deserves a bit of time. That said, our performances are terrible and some of his decisions are strange. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 2 minutes ago, dpt666 said: None of this sitting back shite let the opposition worry about us I agree, what's the point spending a shit load of money on the best players in the league and then being all cagey and tentative. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 1 minute ago, mykeyb said: Ipswich is a must win for Bruce We've moved on from "must win for the play offs" to "must win for Bruce" I fear chapter 3 "must win to stay up". 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mykeyb Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 We haven't played well at all this season, Bruce got some good wins but in some games it was by adopting the same 4-1-5 formation that RDM got roasted before. Was he just lucky before Xmas........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grasshopper Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 Bruce Out ASAP Soooooooooo Angry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigAl Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 Bruce speaks a lot of sense ,I like him a lot he is old school and doesn't accept any rubbish from players this has been going on at villa for years ,will be interesting to see how far we have come by end of season when the players he has bought have settled in .We are in the middle of a very poor run and the football is awful but we do need to go back to basics to go forward when we get that right and we haven't yet we can get more expansive .There is no quick fix for this sacking Bruce won't help we need continuity it might even take a couple of seasons before things come good we have been awful for 6 season we have lost a lot of battles but we a little patience and continuity we will win the war . 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romavillan Posted February 4, 2017 VT Supporter Share Posted February 4, 2017 I don't think he set us up that badly to be honest, I think he needs more time with the players to train with this system. Not sure you could blame him for the result tonight, we looked to have played out the 10v11 no worries and then we left their debutant striker all alone in the box. You can't legislate for the deflection and goalkeeping error or for the hatfull of missed chances. It was a big improvement on Brentford, it couldn't have been worse I know, in that we looked like a team at times and scored a nice goal, making tons of chances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeyAnty Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 Protecting 1pt away from home. Does he think we could be relegated? We had nothing to loose. Fed up to back teeth of watching this rubbish. With that team anyone could manage and play better than his teams. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 19 minutes ago, Grasshopper said: Bruce Out ASAP Soooooooooo Angry And go through another rebuild with a new manager? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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