Eastie Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 Just now, dounavilla said: I'm not necessarily one for polls, but I'd genuinely like to see one with the question : Bruce 1:Stay 2: sacked 3: sacked at end of the season Sacked at the end of the season though surely depends on what happens between now and then ? review at the end of season would be more apt . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brumstopdogs Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 3 centre backs at home against a poor side when you need to win and your team struggles to score goals. Worrying times! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJ Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 I haven't seen the game in any form other than the match thread, but on paper, and our undefeated home record, could I be forgiven for at least expecting a point? I was all for giving Bruce until the end of the season, but if Tony decided to pull the trigger before then, I would be very much at peace with that. There are no more excuses. He is not the manager for us, and even if he was to stay as caretaker until the end of the season when we hunt for his replacement, how much further damage will be done? If we do let him go now, we will be even more rudderless until this shit season is over. I am dreading the thought if Calderwood takes over, for any amount of games. So, we are damned if he goes, and damned if he stays. We are finding ourselves in quite a nasty hole here. Some have been trying to answer this question already, but who's next? Which promising/experienced/ enthusiastic manager is going to come here with hopes, dreams, and stars in their eyes, so that they can throw their career under a bus? The poisoned chalice looks like a sweet, delicious tropical cocktail, but it still is what it is, a poisoned chalice. No matter who stays or who comes in. I think we may have real problems. Are we beyond finding the right manager for us, or has it gotten so bad, we have that question around backwards? Are we such a career death sentence, we are no longer the right club for any manager? Horror novels are fun. Good ones are real page turners, and suspense is quite exciting. But, if you are a character in it, you are pretty much f***ed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post terrytini Posted February 11, 2017 Popular Post Share Posted February 11, 2017 (edited) There is NO mystery to our plight..... it's happened to many many Clubs before. We underinvested under Lerner and, additionally, his lack of involvement created a failing culture at all levels in the Club. We exacerbated this by appointing a poor dour Manager in Mcleish. We then had a reasonable effort by a poorly backed Lambert who soon sunk under the weight of managing a sinking ship. On the cheap and with little thought we sold our remaining quality players ( who weren't great but kept us up) and appointed two guys who weren't really proper selections by any stretch of the imagination. RDM had achieved elsewhere but at the time an awful lot of people thought we needed a tougher character as he needed to unravel years of neglect and a club in free fall. Before he'd hardly begun on that job he was gone ( arguably too early but equally arguably too late) and we appointed a 'safe pair of hands' in Bruce. Who has proceeded to play - for at least two months and arguably the whole time- in a very negative, overly cautious manner. Why is anybody's guess but the most likely explanation is it's worked for him in the past- unfortunately it's also failed for him in the past and in any event the Past is exactly that...it's past. Today was a continuation of those poor tactics. We were previously poor at scoring. Probably our most effective part of the team was the Baker/ Chester partnership. It didn't need turning into a 3 (5 plus Lansbury = 6 actually). But having decided to do it he then deliberately selects very cautiously. The most damning evidence that it's down to jom being that when he FINALLY decided we ought to try and win he replaced Hutton, Elphick, and Taylor, with Adomah (who had scored both goals last time out at VP) Green, and Bacuna. Just ponder those names and look at which three he thought was best to start with, at home, to Ipswich. Absolutely staggering. Add to that after 10 minutes it was apparent that under that system Hutton was getting more ball in the final third than anyone. Again ponder that. Now he either didn't notice that (a sackable offence) or he did and was happy with it. Happy having least technically able player the most possession in their half ?! Repeatedly Hutton was 40 yards further forward than the goal scoring Lansbury .....???? And incidentally was then repeatedly exploited defensively . What an absolute unmitigated mess. 100% down to the Manager. I could go on but see no point. Make no mistake he is in great and grave danger of getting us relegated. Edited February 11, 2017 by terrytini 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodytom Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 Deary me. What a **** shambles. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 21 minutes ago, Eastie said: Sacked at the end of the season though surely depends on what happens between now and then ? review at the end of season would be more apt . Agree, if some signs of improvement look to have been made and he can outline a proper plan for the summer then go again next year, if not and we're still scrambling round with no clear identity from Bruce then it's time to move on rumours of a non playoffs clause in his contract on the ever reliable Twitter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven123 Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 Bruce out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 Think Xia will keep him until the end if the season but if we don't improve he'll be gone then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreveryoung Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 Ha ha ha! What the hell are you doing Bruce. What is the fascination of Hutton. He is the downfall of every manager who plays him. He is not a winger or creative player. We now have a half decent midfield, USE IT YOU DUMMY, Hoofing to Hutton/ Kodja is never going to work. Awful awful tactics today, not using players to there ability, wasted McCormack now wasting players he has brought in. We need to see vast improvements. We have the players, nearly 100 million spent, not sure he can last the end of the season if it continues. We can all see whats happening, is he fracking blind!!! I don't wanna go the Villa and watch this awful football again, Ipswich were shite. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Woodytom Posted February 11, 2017 Popular Post Share Posted February 11, 2017 The jobs too big for him. He's a journeyman manager used to journeymen footballers and perhaps the odd star (dugarry for example). He's the ultimate grinder out of results at a poor level. Any higher he's pretty useless. He has no experience of taking a decent footballing side (which we have the players to be) anywhere and has no (to my knowledge) any proof he can stop a rot. He just ends up looking sorry for himself and closing his eyes in response to the latest **** up. Enough of this 'stop sacking the manager nonsense' and just start employing the right one!! 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 2 minutes ago, mikeyp102 said: Think Xia will keep him until the end if the season but if we don't improve he'll be gone then Don't know we are only 7 points above the drop zone and yet now 16 pts from the play-offs. Unless things pick up soon he's gone. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Albert Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 Im all for stabilty and giving a manager time but this isnt good. Since he's taken over we havent seen a consistent formation and we've only had 1 good performance (brighton). There arent any signs of this changing, what does steve bruce want to do at villa? What style is he trying to inpliment? Again i come back pulling my hair out. Like i said i want stabilty but we havent picked up 3 points since boxing day 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post The Fun Factory Posted February 11, 2017 Popular Post Share Posted February 11, 2017 If we are being brutally honest the football under Bruce has ranged from functional to terrible. We did play better football under RDM- but kept on dropping points in the last third of matches. Which we now doing again. We nicked a few wins under Bruce in the first few months. I then expected from this for the team to progress and actually play better. In fact we have regressed since January. Today though we should have won- but we did not. The last 4-5 results has changed the season from a long shot of the playoff, to start planning for next season, now to seriously wonder how many points we need to stay up. Alll momentum has gone and today was the first time I got a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that Bruce is not going to sort us out. And yet.... we can't just keep on sacking managers. We have to hope something starts to work. He has got a proven record at this level to get teams promoted. That is as far as we can look at present as we are miles away from a top flight side. I hope I am wrong on him. I want him to be successful at my club. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 2 hours ago, 1974Centenary said: Your a pedantic I'm a pedantic because I took exception to you totally misrepresenting someone's point? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshVilla Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 I just want him gone Whether its now or in the summer he's a dinosaur of a manager Playing 3 CB's at home against Ipswich Piss off please 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrytini Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 I'm afraid he sounds deluded. Ive just read him saying "it's an individual mistake that's cost us again, we make one mistake" Theres a simple explanation. Mistakes will always happen in every game. The reason they are mattering so much is because we pose so little real threat and that in turn is because of your tactics. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andym Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 How about forcing the opposition into mistakes by actually having a sustained go? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jas10 Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 (edited) 1 hour ago, terrytini said: There is NO mystery to our plight..... it's happened to many many Clubs before. We underinvested under Lerner and, additionally, his lack of involvement created a failing culture at all levels in the Club. We exacerbated this by appointing a poor dour Manager in Mcleish. We then had a reasonable effort by a poorly backed Lambert who soon sunk under the weight of managing a sinking ship. On the cheap and with little thought we sold our remaining quality players ( who weren't great but kept us up) and appointed two guys who weren't really proper selections by any stretch of the imagination. RDM had achieved elsewhere but at the time an awful lot of people thought we needed a tougher character as he needed to unravel years of neglect and a club in free fall. Before he'd hardly begun on that job he was gone ( arguably too early but equally arguably too late) and we appointed a 'safe pair of hands' in Bruce. Who has proceeded to play - for at least two months and arguably the whole time- in a very negative, overly cautious manner. Why is anybody's guess but the most likely explanation is it's worked for him in the past- unfortunately it's also failed for him in the past and in any event the Past is exactly that...it's past. Today was a continuation of those poor tactics. We were previously poor at scoring. Probably our most effective part of the team was the Baker/ Chester partnership. It didn't need turning into a 3 (5 plus Lansbury = 6 actually). But having decided to do it he then deliberately selects very cautiously. The most damning evidence that it's down to jom being that when he FINALLY decided we ought to try and win he replaced Hutton, Elphick, and Taylor, with Adomah (who had scored both goals last time out at VP) Green, and Bacuna. Just ponder those names and look at which three he thought was best to start with, at home, to Ipswich. Absolutely staggering. Add to that after 10 minutes it was apparent that under that system Hutton was getting more ball in the final third than anyone. Again ponder that. Now he either didn't notice that (a sackable offence) or he did and was happy with it. Happy having least technically able player the most possession in their half ?! Repeatedly Hutton was 40 yards further forward than the goal scoring Lansbury .....???? And incidentally was then repeatedly exploited defensively . What an absolute unmitigated mess. 100% down to the Manager. I could go on but see no point. Make no mistake he is in great and grave danger of getting us relegated. Fully agree with all this plus Bruce has to take the blame for so much (all of which is just too tiring and depressing to express). Change is needed and fast. He seems lost and defeated now and the repetition of it all is so draining. Even admitted he's not sure about 5-3-2 now and whether it was worth it. Can't believe we are going into games with 5 defenders on the pitch, a club of our size and stature...what a joke & embarassment. Such cowardice... Plus, just how mentally weak and dreadful are we that time and again we manage to concede a late goal and just fall apart? Surely someone can motivate these players and lift their spirits or give them the kick up the backside that is required? We're just spineless... Edited February 11, 2017 by Jas10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveAV1 Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 What baffles me, and the lads I go down the Villa with, is what is it that Bruce, or whoever does the halftime talk, actually says? Because whatever it is they need to stop saying it. No matter how well or badly we have played in the first half, the second is almost invariably worse. Teams always seem to come out in the second half re-energised, and we seem to let the whole tempo of the game be dictated by the opposition. Why???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave J Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 1 hour ago, Woodytom said: The jobs too big for him. He's a journeyman manager used to journeymen footballers and perhaps the odd star (dugarry for example). He's the ultimate grinder out of results at a poor level. Any higher he's pretty useless. He has no experience of taking a decent footballing side (which we have the players to be) anywhere and has no (to my knowledge) any proof he can stop a rot. He just ends up looking sorry for himself and closing his eyes in response to the latest **** up. Enough of this 'stop sacking the manager nonsense' and just start employing the right one!! I find it hard to disagree with anything you say - but still find it equally hard to say sack him - even though I have never had any belief that he is the right person for the job. Just don't want us to be viewed a poison chalice- however if a villa man comes creeping out of the woodwork then I say hell yes Platt, Sid even Barry with an elder statesman alongside them would be possibilities for me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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