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Steve Bruce


Demitri_C

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13 minutes ago, Mantis said:

Fair play to Bruce for turning it around. We shouldn't have been in that position to start with but turning such an awful run of form into three straight wins (and clean sheets) is decent. The challenge now is to avoid going on such a slide again the next time we lose a couple of games in the future.

I think the loss of kodija and jedinak badly weakened the team during that time as well as many new signings bedding in - I wouldn't expect to see that sort of poor run of results again under Bruce as there were some mitigating reasons for it although he also made errors relying on gabby and bringing in Johnstone.

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I am still not decided about Bruce.

He started well, he was the best manager available at the time, and he walked in when our squad resembled more an asylum than a football team.

During January and February, the goals dried up, and the team played like a random bunch of people who won raffle tickets for the chance to play football. We were awful, and dire to watch. New players who were tearing it up at their old clubs had suddenly turned shit after changing their shirt. With some of the decisions that were being made, criticism of Bruce was totally understandable.

With the last 3 games, we are now starting to see some resemblance of structure. The midfield is working, when before we were asking,  where is our midfield? Player's confidence is returning.  And, we started doing some of those winny things.

The next game, against Huddersfield, is going to be the test. It will show whether we are just picking off weaker teams, or if we really have turned a corner, and it will be more dependent on the performance than more so the result.

If Bruce can show that we have some promise next year, then I will be happy for him to stay.

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9 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Not like there were any mitigating circumstances in that game. 

ye but der manager is young innit.

Let's ignore for a minute that the 2 sides going up are managed by blokes closer to 60 than 50.

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Just now, AJ said:

The next game, against Huddersfield, is going to be the test. It will show whether we are just picking off weaker teams, or if we really have turned a corner, and it will be more dependent on the performance than more so the result.

And if we do lose, does it show anything? Other than Huddersfield have a better team and more than about 12 fit players?

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22 minutes ago, JE- said:

He gets us the win on Tuesday I'll be giving him massive credit 

I fear we will be shown exactly what the future looks like vs the past though

Brentford have already done that already 

I guess we'll just have to see. I think with the pressure off we'll perform better.

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1 minute ago, kurtsimonw said:

And if we do lose, does it show anything? Other than Huddersfield have a better team and more than about 12 fit players?

It would depend on how we lose. Is hoofball still in vogue? Do the heads drop? Is sideways backwards football still our default style?

If so, then we haven't improved a damn thing.

However, if we lose like a team trying to squeeze as much juice out of 90 minutes, then there is hope, I guess.

 

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8 hours ago, dudevillaisnice said:

If Bruce gets us promoted he is at the very least getting one season in the premier league. It's all ifs and buts at the moment though so pretty pointless discussing it. 

As much as I like Steve Bruce and back him now....I wouldn't want him managing us in the prem.

All the issues people are complaining about now in terms of style and tactics....it will only be found out more against Arsenal, Chelsea and the Manchester clubs so I wouldn't want to waste half a season fighting relegation before a change is made.

We all know the big plans Dr Tony has for us and I'd imagine he wouldn't waste too much when we get in the prem as that would accelerate things.

There is precedent...Watford let go of Jokanovic after he got them promotion and they did fine last season and Hull lost their manager just before kick off...wonder who that was.

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7 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

Teams getting relegated from the PL have been financially better equipped for years. The gap has been massive for decades now. Yet the statistics are clear to see - normally no more than one of the teams relegated goes back up the following year. 

Football is not simply decided by comparing bank accounts. 

Hull and Sunderland would be in a lot of turmoil coming down...mediocre aquads and owners who want to sell. They'd have similar seasons to us and Norwich I reckon.

Boro or Palace would be up there.

Next season to me looks far more realistic for promotion than this year so we need a good start next season and hopefully things can take off from there.

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25 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Hull and Sunderland would be in a lot of turmoil coming down...mediocre aquads and owners who want to sell. They'd have similar seasons to us and Norwich I reckon.

Boro or Palace would be up there.

Next season to me looks far more realistic for promotion than this year so we need a good start next season and hopefully things can take off from there.

Us and Norwich? I'm afraid we are parallels apart from Norwich this season... They could still make the play offs if they get their act together 

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3 hours ago, Tommo_b said:

I think Bruce bought exceptionally well in the January transfer window, like it was a dream championship transfer window!

Now none of us have seen what Bruce could do with s sizeable transfer kitty in the premier league but I think it could be quite exciting. 

We have seen some of his signings at Sunderland and Hull so it's a no from me.

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2 minutes ago, JE- said:

Us and Norwich? I'm afraid we are parallels apart from Norwich this season... They could still make the play offs if they get their act together 

Hardly. They lost 5-1 on Saturday and we're just 7 points off them now.

Their fans have also wanted Alex Neil out for months. They had 2 wins in 12 championship games from middle of October to start of January.

They also largely kept a decent squad for this level together after relegation, only selling Brady for big money in January.

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2 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Hardly. They lost 5-1 on Saturday and we're just 7 points off them now.

Their fans have also wanted Alex Neil out for months. They had 2 wins in 12 championship games from middle of October to start of January.

They also largely kept a decent squad for this level together after relegation, only selling Brady for big money in January.

8th and 13th... Their manager is crap though I agree with their fans 

 

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1 hour ago, JE- said:

Us and Norwich? I'm afraid we are parallels apart from Norwich this season... 

I think you're right in fairness. They went down last season on twice as many points as us, saw plenty of stability over the summer in terms of the managing and coaching staff being retained and many of the players. Off the back of this they had an excellent start to the season taking 23 points from their first 11 games leaving them in second spot.

It is interesting to note that since Bruce joined us we have taken 35 points in 24 games and over the same period Norwich have taken 29. We have gone from 19th in the table up to 13th. They have gone from second to 8th. I think we are now, off the back of some stability, which they have had for some time, arguably going forwards whilst they are going backwards.

Edited by markavfc40
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Question

where will everybody be if we return 0pts v Hudds & ShefW?

I've had a look at the rest of our fixtures and have surmised a possible 6pts from 11 games if the "current turnaround" was only 3 wins against 3 poor sides and we as shit as the previous 10/11 games.

If the Titanic has in fact been saved obviously more pts will come.

but has it?

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2 minutes ago, Grasshopper said:

Question

where will everybody be if we return 0pts v Hudds & ShefW?

I've had a look at the rest of our fixtures and have surmised a possible 6pts from 11 games if the "current turnaround" was only 3 wins against 3 poor sides and we as shit as the previous 10/11 games.

If the Titanic has in fact been saved obviously more pts will come.

but has it?

Fair question, but no one knows the answer....

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