Steve Bruce

[briny_ear]

53 minutes ago, peterms said:

It's not as though he's been surprised by some journo leaping out of the bushes as he was walking up to his front door.   Managers are interviewed after games.  They know it's coming.  The questions are predictable.  It doesn't take a genius to prepare.  All sorts of organisations invest in training staff who will face interviews, in the basic skills of dealing with interviews.  They practice for it, they have prepared lines, they are coached in dealing with hard questions, they have coping strategies.  This is the case with all sorts of people with far less senior roles than him.

If he doesn't manage to conduct himself well in a scheduled interview, showing appropriate qualities like a bit of modesty, perspective, realism, respect and so on, then that either means he doesn't actually care about it, or he has failed to prepare, or he can't control himself.  None of these things would be acceptable for even a middle manager, let alone a public figurehead.  Makes me wonder why the club don't see it as a problem.  Don't they see it?  Don't they care?

I don ‘t think it’s a problem because all managers and players talk incoherent nonsense just after a match and the footballing sky doesn’t fall in. It’s just showbiz and really, anyone who comes on here to analyse and pontificate on the sayings of their club’s manager immediately after a match in my view may need to check the life balance meter a little. 

[Dave J]

45 minutes ago, bobzy said:

If you take your Villa-tinted specs off, you can see that Bruce has “improved” us from a club-in-crisis to one pushing for promotion from the Championship. His “‘net spend” has been relatively small compared to previous managers yet he has us going, generally, in the right direction. 

If you don’t follow Villa, that’s an easy narrative to see, isn’t it? And that’s on the back of his last job where he got Hull promoted. So, without knowing the detail, I can see why he’d get another job incredibly easily. 

Well please tell what job you think he would get incredibly easily higher up the pyramid? I just don't see it - Bruce in my view is a yesterday man and becoming more out  of of flavour with each passing season - the likes of him and Sam belong consigned to the corridors of the past

yes I agree he will work in the championship because this is his level

[Villarocker]

1 hour ago, Dave J said:

Hand on heart have you seen anything from Bruce to suggest for one moment that he would appoint a forward thinking and progressive coach to his back room staff?

Nope but stranger things have happened. 

[peterms]

38 minutes ago, dounavilla said:

was it hysteria or mass hysteria? 

can someone please clarify

It was hysteria.  Mass hysteria involves candles and communion.

[Dave J]

Just now, villarocker said:

Nope but stranger things have happened. 

He won't do this - why would he expose himself in this manner 

[AvfcRigo82]

8 minutes ago, Genie said:

Ok, so Bruce sees his players every day, he knows how well they’ve trained, if they have any niggles, illnesses, disciplinary records, or have asked to be given a break. He knows the opposition, he has a team of staff around him who know our players and the opposition players in detail to confide in and discuss options and tactics... but you know better 

MAYBE it’s not a simple as you make out.

Are you for real? I would hope he and his team of staff would know all of the above as I would expect of any manager at any club.

Are you trying to convince me that I know more than Steve Bruce or telling me that I know more?

[omariqy]

1 hour ago, Genie said:

Which lies?

1. We have had only had a bad 45 mins recently. We should've lost against Millwall, poor 45 v Leeds, poor 70 mins v Sheff Utd, poor 90 mins v Derby and a poor 80 mins against Brentford. In fact after those games he commented after each game about how bad we were.

2. Adomah was on the sidelines because of Green's good form. He wasn't, he was on his way to Bristol City before Green got injured.

3. He talked about getting us into the playoffs when he came in last year and this year he was saying his remit was to keep us in the league.

4. Building the team around Grealish. Yet drops him after his first few starts and some good performances.

I could go on and on.

[peterms]

5 minutes ago, briny_ear said:

I don ‘t think it’s a problem because all managers and players talk incoherent nonsense just after a match and the footballing sky doesn’t fall in. It’s just showbiz and really, anyone who comes on here to analyse and pontificate on the sayings of their club’s manager immediately after a match in my view may need to check the life balance meter a little. 

If they gave the usual platitudes, maybe a comment or two about harsh decisions and the rub of the green, I would agree.

It's when a manager takes to the airwaves to insult and patronise supporters and deny and fantasise that I think there's something amiss.

Edited December 30, 2017 by peterms
sp

[vreitti]

3 minutes ago, Genie said:

So you’re making out that when he wins despite having to reshuffle his pack is a bad thing?

Every single game he has won was down to this?  

What I'm saying is that he hasn't got a goddam clue about formation, team selection, his best eleven, etc. Instead he just stumbles onto things by chance and circumstance. Sometimes these 'things' work, sometimes they don't. Today we snatched a lucky win. Before that we hadn't won in a month. We have a superior squad to most teams in this league, so it's not exactly a great achievement when we squeeze a 1-0 win from the likes of Burton Albion. 

[Genie]

3 minutes ago, vreitti said:

What I'm saying is that he hasn't got a goddam clue about formation, team selection, his best eleven, etc. Instead he just stumbles onto things by chance and circumstance. Sometimes these 'things' work, sometimes they don't. Today we snatched a lucky win.

 

[Villarocker]

I don't understand Bruce. 

In his own words he said that Elphick has had a tough time since joining us. In these last performances the guy hasn't seemed to put a foot wrong. Yet, against Brentford he was subbed so that Jedinak could make way for younger legs in midfield with Jedinak going into the back four, just a few days after gifting two goals to Sheffield United - strange decision. 

Bruce then admits that he was going to continue with Jedinak and Elphick wasn't going to be playing but was then called upon because Whelan - another error-strewn player recently - was taken sick. 

I agreed with Elphick being dropped last season because he made too many errors. But, he doesn't deserve to be brought in to play well and then be dropped straight away because of others who have also been guilty of making errors. 

 

[Dave J]

3 minutes ago, Genie said:

 

So how does this compute to the recent dross he has served up in December?

[Rob182]

1 hour ago, markavfc40 said:

I think overall we are under achieving under him at the moment as I think we have a squad that should be top 2. That puts him 7 points off where I think we should be. That probably isn't quite enough to give me a definitive Bruce out position with 20 odd games to go and things like acknowledging the injuries we have had.

Overall like I said I am sitting on the fence, happy when we win and prone to going off on one when we lose. If that doesn't sit right with some fans so be it.

 

Good post Mark. You’ve echoed what a number of us have said over the last few days. None of us think Bruce is doing well enough to be congratulated, or that he’s close enough to the aim of automatic promotion as we’d like - and yet despite underachieving, he’s also not doing terrible enough to push many of us into a full and forceful ‘Bruce Out’ mode. So we’re here in this limbo of waiting and seeing how we do, without fully committing to the Bruce In or Bruce Out mindset, in the hope that he gets us back into the play-off places and pull promotion out the bag like he did at Hull (who also had poor spells in their promotion season).

 

I don’t know why some posters on here seem unwilling to accept that. They seem to want us to commit to a side, when there is always going to be that dodgy patch in between ‘good’ and ‘bad’, where our own expectations and opinions will divide us, despite us all wanting the same thing for Villa - promotion.

[USA_Villa]

I will be very surprised if Bruce gets us promoted this season, and my preference would be to replace him with Dean Smith tomorrow. However there's a chance my replacement won't be available. To the Villa board, don't let Sheffield Wednesday take him from under our noses.

[Villarocker]

Bruce's comments are not accurate on the OS. He thinks the fans are angry because of a poor 45 minutes at Brentford? Is he stupid? That is such a dumb thing to say and will only alienate fans more. 

Steve - for the record - the fans just want you to stop boring them with performances against teams around us where we largely know before the game that your negative tactics and team selection will probably lead to defeat or, at best, a draw. 

Also, you now worry me even more if you really do believe that we played "very well" today. I didn't see the game but listened to the commentary and we seemed like we were poor, especially in that first half. Victory apart, if that performance really does "delight" you, you really do kill any hope that I will ever see Villa enjoy a comfortable or emphatic victory with you as manager. 

Your style of football might get you victories against the average teams in this league but you have a long way to go to get me - and many others - to believe that you can get us victories against the leading teams in this league and get us back I to the Premier League. 

[Genie]

11 minutes ago, Dave J said:

So how does this compute to the recent dross he has served up in December?

The results weren’t very good, everyone agrees on that. 

It was 8 wins out of 11 before that.

I think the point Bruce is trying to make is that people should look at things over over more than a few weeks. We’ve put a run together before and we can do it again. His scope is to get us up, if he fails I think it’s fair game. 

Edited December 30, 2017 by Genie

[vreitti]

8 minutes ago, Rob182 said:

I don’t know why some posters on here seem unwilling to accept that. They seem to want us to commit to a side, when there is always going to be that dodgy patch in between ‘good’ and ‘bad’, where our own expectations and opinions will divide us, despite us all wanting the same thing for Villa - promotion.

Perhaps because of after +50 games, some of us have already seen enough to form a definite opinion of where we are headed with Bruce in charge.

[AvfcRigo82]

3 minutes ago, vreitti said:

Perhaps because of after +50 games, some of us have already seen enough to form a definite opinion of where we are headed with Bruce in charge.

Sadly, it don't look like the Premier League.

[peterms]

9 minutes ago, Genie said:

people should look at things over over more than a few weeks

That's why there is this level of criticism. 

It's not about the last game, or the last week or month.

It's about the last year.

[Rob182]

3 minutes ago, vreitti said:

Perhaps because of after +50 games, some of us have already seen enough to form a definite opinion of where we are headed with Bruce in charge.

I have no problem with those people shouting “Bruce Out” from the rooftops, or having a sensible debate with them in the Steve Bruce thread... but it’s when they start questioning why I don’t want Bruce sacked yet, and what difference a few games will make, that I despair.

 

Some of us think that keeping Bruce could outweigh a new manager gamble, some of us can consider that the injuries to Terry and Kodjia have been a big factor in our downfall, others might think that we’re now only 7 points off 2nd, with our Top 6 rivals having a fairly tough January and us having a winnable run through February and March. We each have our own tolerances for what we deem to be acceptable. Some people have made their definitive opinion on what should happen to Bruce, which is fine. But what’s not fine is those people telling you that your opinion is wrong, or implying that the things that you’re suggesting ‘could happen’ never will happen.