Steve Bruce

[striker]

2 hours ago, villarocker said:

The first half tactics were disgraceful for such an occasion but, there's no denying the fact we should have been playing against 10 men for an hour, not 20 minutes! Decisions like that can win and lose you games. I believe we would have had Fredericks been sent off in the first half. 

While I accept your point on the difference between playing against 10 men for an hour rather than 20 minutes Villa played much better in the second half against eleven than they did 10 because Fulham were still going forward when they could which left them more open.

When they went down to 10 they parked the bus and Villa really struggled to create anything which imo would have still happened if they’d been down to 10 for an hour.

[Jareth]

I have the feeling that on reflection the club will go with Bruce again. I presume he can make it work with less budget and that he will have to use the younger players. All it takes is the likes of grealish commiting, green back to fitness and one or two decent signings and hope springs eternal. If Bruce is confirmed then I’m sure there will be some disquiet but what can you do. 

[thabucks]

The FA have invested  millions on St. George's Park to coach a new breed of tactically astute coaches and managers to replace and erase managers like Bruce from our game but let's gloss that fact  over and live in the past and forget football moves on shall we. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dr_Pangloss]

9 minutes ago, Jareth said:

I have the feeling that on reflection the club will go with Bruce again. I presume he can make it work with less budget and that he will have to use the younger players. All it takes is the likes of grealish commiting, green back to fitness and one or two decent signings and hope springs eternal. If Bruce is confirmed then I’m sure there will be some disquiet but what can you do. 

Same shit negative football that won't deliver, regardless of personale, no thanks. Xia is turning out to be a bit of disaster.

[hippo]

20 minutes ago, Jareth said:

I have the feeling that on reflection the club will go with Bruce again. I presume he can make it work with less budget and that he will have to use the younger players. All it takes is the likes of grealish commiting, green back to fitness and one or two decent signings and hope springs eternal. If Bruce is confirmed then I’m sure there will be some disquiet but what can you do. 

I still think Bruce staying is the most likley outcome. If the reports on finances are accurate I just can not see past us selling Jack. 

[holteend1982]

32 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

Same shit negative football that won't deliver, regardless of personale, no thanks. Xia is turning out to be a bit of disaster.

Disaster? Think you might be over reacting a bit there!

[Eastie]

47 minutes ago, striker said:

While I accept your point on the difference between playing against 10 men for an hour rather than 20 minutes Villa played much better in the second half against eleven than they did 10 because Fulham were still going forward when they could which left them more open.

When they went down to 10 they parked the bus and Villa really struggled to create anything which imo would have still happened if they’d been down to 10 for an hour.

We played the best part of 80 mIns v 10 men against boro earlier in the season too - I agree there’s no guarantee we’d have broken them down .

[sne]

Just went back and read the posts from last summer (around p 600 and forward)

Think we might as well copy paste them into the thread and take the summer off.

Nothing has changed and nothing will change with Bruce here.

[Rob182]

13 minutes ago, holteend1982 said:

Disaster? Think you might be over reacting a bit there!

Sunderland fans say hello  

Dr X has been far from a disaster. ‘Hit and miss’ maybe. ‘Naive’, probably.

[holteend1982]

21 minutes ago, Rob182 said:

Sunderland fans say hello  

Dr X has been far from a disaster. ‘Hit and miss’ maybe. ‘Naive’, probably.

Yes, dropping to league 1 now that's a proper disaster, I'd say Xia has only made 1 error and that was getting in Di Matteo from the start and letting him loose with all that money. I'd have also preferred him not to be telling the world we would be competing with Barcelona after 5 years either, it's year 3 and we are still playing the likes Bolton, Rotherham and Birmingham! 

[Eastie]

19 minutes ago, holteend1982 said:

Yes, dropping to league 1 now that's a proper disaster, I'd say Xia has only made 1 error and that was getting in Di Matteo from the start and letting him loose with all that money. I'd have also preferred him not to be telling the world we would be competing with Barcelona after 5 years either, it's year 3 and we are still playing the likes Bolton, Rotherham and Birmingham! 

Possibly so but that error was huge and costly in the extreme - maybe had he given the money to someone  better than rdm we wouldn’t be in this mess now .

[Davkaus]

I think him still being in a job by this point suggests he's going nowhere. Xia's left the country. I'm sure Bruce has spoken with him and Wyness by now. If he was going to be sacked, it'd have happened. 

[TRO]

5 hours ago, villarocker said:

The first half tactics were disgraceful for such an occasion but, there's no denying the fact we should have been playing against 10 men for an hour, not 20 minutes! Decisions like that can win and lose you games. I believe we would have had Fredericks been sent off in the first half. 

The first half was very disappointing

VR....gleaning from Steve Bruces comments I am not so sure, it was planned that way.....He said he was disappointed that we were so negative.

Now I get the notion that the players are not playing plan for whatever reason and thats his responsibility....but it doesn't sound like he was expecting it.

Look, whatever the situation....He is the manager the book stops with him, I accept that but he has done some good things.....it would be more helpful in the critique if fans were more specific.

Mt biggest gripe is....I think we should have signed a good leader of the line and a player comfortable with aerial balls.....I think he missed a trick there and IMO it cost him.

[Vive_La_Villa]

12 hours ago, VillanousOne said:

Fat Sam.

But seriously, we can't fear change or believe there are not other options out there, many other clubs have managed to get young English and foreign managers and do ok.

Fat Sam has met his objective wherever he has gone. Wouldn’t be the worst appointment in the world. 

[Eastie]

41 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

I think him still being in a job by this point suggests he's going nowhere. Xia's left the country. I'm sure Bruce has spoken with him and Wyness by now. If he was going to be sacked, it'd have happened. 

Just as easy to say if they were backing him to continue they’d have come out and said so by now - I’d expect things are going on behind the scenes as they pick the bones from this situation . 

[Pimlico_Villa]

My view is that for those teams that narrowly miss out, if they can keep the core together and make some modifications, they usually go up the following season - just like Brighton. For this reason alone, I would keep Bruce - by doing so we maintain the culture, togetherness and discipline that he has installed. I just hope he realises that, under no circumstances, can you set out to draw a game and set his team out accordingly. Every single mode of play must be geared towards scoring a goal - that is the type of relentlessness that took Cardiff up this year. 

To be honest, I've often wondered this season whenever I have seen us sit deep and pass sideways and backwards - even when not in a winning position - whether this is Bruce's tactics or the fact that older players will always play the easy ball rather than the ambitious one. 

Perhaps a good infusion of youth - O'hare and Green in particular - will fix this. 

I'd like to see Terry stay but would be more sensible to have him in a coaching capacity; that way, we can keep his influence around the club but not have to pay him huge wages. If we are to bring youth through, it would be hugely beneficial to have Terry looking after them.

[briny_ear]

4 hours ago, DCJonah said:

 Terry's comments add to the need to move on from Bruce. That game plan was terrible. 

That’s a different point of course. You claimed they had no game plan. Now it just seems you didn’t like the game plan.

[Rob182]

4 minutes ago, TRO said:

The first half was very disappointing

VR....gleaning from Steve Bruces comments I am not so sure, it was planned that way.....He said he was disappointed that we were so negative.

Now I get the notion that the players are not playing plan for whatever reason and thats his responsibility....but it doesn't sound like he was expecting it.

TRO, you’re a good poster on here, but I think your support of Bruce sometimes clouds your judgement. How many times this season has Bruce come out and said that he wasn’t happy with how we played in either the whole game or one of the halves? It’s happened a LOT. It can’t always be that the players aren’t following his instructions. It seems quite obvious to me that we set up to defend and try to break on the counter. In a final, against a team that, man-for-man, we should be able to match, that was poor from Bruce. We’ve seen it all season, he only seems to want to play fully on the front foot when we NEED to. Reactive, not proactive.

[hippo]

4 minutes ago, Pimlico_Villa said:

My view is that for those teams that narrowly miss out, if they can keep the core together and make some modifications, they usually go up the following season - just like Brighton. For this reason alone, I would keep Bruce - by doing so we maintain the culture, togetherness and discipline that he has installed. I just hope he realises that, under no circumstances, can you set out to draw a game and set his team out accordingly. Every single mode of play must be geared towards scoring a goal - that is the type of relentlessness that took Cardiff up this year. 

To be honest, I've often wondered this season whenever I have seen us sit deep and pass sideways and backwards - even when not in a winning position - whether this is Bruce's tactics or the fact that older players will always play the easy ball rather than the ambitious one. 

Perhaps a good infusion of youth - O'hare and Green in particular - will fix this. 

I'd like to see Terry stay but would be more sensible to have him in a coaching capacity; that way, we can keep his influence around the club but not have to pay him huge wages. If we are to bring youth through, it would be hugely beneficial to have Terry looking after them.

Thats the dilemma we can't keep the current squad together.

Spoke to the ticket office this morning, I tried to get info - she told me she would probably be the last to know anything - but she wasn't aware of anything drastic happening soon.  Sounds like he is staying. 

[TRO]

4 hours ago, AntrimBlack said:

That will be the Steve Bruce luvvies, more overpaid, underworked veterans.

 

You really make too much play on if's and but's - immaterial. The discussion needs to move on to what actually happened during his tenure.

If life was all just black and white, you would be right, but it's not.

We never got promotion fact, so he never acheived the objective fact......so what now dismantle the whole thing and start again....Have you any idea how much work that could entail, not to mention the money, that we haven't got.

It seems most fans want to keep Jack Grealish....If SB goes, the new man will want money, the likelyhood that Jack has to sold.

I am not for sacking him, because i think we came so close and i do not want to see all the good work over the last 18 months undone....but I recognise there is a mood for change....If SB cannot recognise a mood for change , then I will find it difficult to support him....but I still fear the worst, if he goes.

I think Steve Bruce going all hinges on who the prospective replacement could be....that is the 64 million dollar question.

Edited May 29, 2018 by TRO