Steve Bruce

[Grasshopper]

17 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I honestly believe with the way we play if we do not set up not to lose against better teams. We will lose. 

The logic behind that being that:

Set up defensively........and we still lose against the better teams

[Vive_La_Villa]

5 minutes ago, srsmithusa said:

And who’s job is it to set and or change how we do that bolder part?

The manager. I wasn't defending him. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

2 minutes ago, Grasshopper said:

The logic behind that being that:

Set up defensively........and we still lose against the better teams

That's the ironic thing. We'd probably just lose by a lot more. 

[Grasshopper]

7 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

That's the ironic thing. We'd probably just lose by a lot more. 

then I‘d rather us lose fighting

you?

[Vive_La_Villa]

1 hour ago, Grasshopper said:

then I‘d rather us lose fighting

you?

Not sure. Lose 3,4 nil or scrape a point? 

Its a shit situation either way. 

[DaveAV1]

1 hour ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I honestly believe with the way we play if we do not set up not to lose against better teams. We will lose. 

The fact that you’re suggesting that Steve Bruce has created a team that means Aston Villa need to play as underdogs in The Championship, is a terrible indictment on his reign. I’m not particularly disagreeing with you either! Although I’d much prefer us to take the game to any team we play in this division. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

53 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

The fact that you’re suggesting that Steve Bruce has created a team that means Aston Villa need to play as underdogs in The Championship, is a terrible indictment on his reign. I’m not particularly disagreeing with you either! Although I’d much prefer us to take the game to any team we play in this division. 

Yep, Championship has moved on since Bruce was successful. Or maybe it's always been this way and I've just never watched it before. But teams actually try to play football. I've been very suprised with the way teams keep the ball in the league. I think in that respect we are one of the worst in the league.

[TRO]

3 hours ago, Grasshopper said:

The logic behind that being that:

Set up defensively........and we still lose against the better teams

That is always the danger......its equally a problem going all out attack, not scoring and conceding on the counter.

The balanced teams, those that can do both.....win the prizes.

[TRO]

13 hours ago, srsmithusa said:

So, for the sake of argument.  You agree the performances are not consistently good enough?

You just don’t know who’s at fault?  Might be players, might be coaches, might be other things, might even be, a little bit SB?   But because you don’t really know who is at fault you think Bruce should stay (for now at least). ?

if I’m (close to) right in presenting your position, what do you think should be done, by whom, in order to fix the problems you see?

You are right, that is my position.....I would love to be sure, but i am not.

I think it has been essential in stabilising the club.....but we all know we cannot just pay homage tp that forever.

I was talking to a long standing Villa fan this evening, who doesn't write on here and we were discussing.....is it the manager or is it the players.

He said Fwiw......The midfield particularly centre is not strong enough.....meaning there is not enough rounded skills being displayed from there.....I would go further and say the midfield 4 is not strong enough.

That is not a statement to give Steve a get out of jail card, because the critics do have a point .....but i still think a more concerted effort in the transfer market for midfield is required.

[TRO]

4 hours ago, Grasshopper said:

then I‘d rather us lose fighting

you?

If you lose by too many, it drags any bit of confidence out of the side and its hard to recover from.

I appreciate your fetish for attacking football, you are not alone..but abandoning the defensive responsibilities in pursuit of it is no answer either.

doing both is tricky and you need the players to do it.

oh and the manager / owner to sign them.

Edited November 12, 2017 by TRO

[vreitti]

24 minutes ago, TRO said:

I would go further and say the midfield 4 is not strong enough.

I can agree to this. Nevertheless compared to other teams in this league, we're still quite strong in midfield. 

Regardless I'm sure you're then not letting Bruce off the hook, seeing as he's bought that entire midfield? Would you agree he hasn't been able to get the best out of them?

[BigJim]

35 minutes ago, TRO said:

I was talking to a long standing Villa fan this evening, who doesn't write on here and we were discussing.....is it the manager or is it the players.

He said Fwiw......The midfield particularly centre is not strong enough.....meaning there is not enough rounded skills being displayed from there.....I would go further and say the midfield 4 is not strong enough.

That is not a statement to give Steve a get out of jail card, because the critics do have a point .....but i still think a more concerted effort in the transfer market for midfield is required.

So what does that tell you about SB who has brought in Hourihane, Whelan and  Lansbury ?  Are they not good enough? - Then why did he bring them in?  Or they are good enough - then why can't he get them to play together to take control of games?

My own opinion is a bit of both - with the possible exception of Whelan, they are not good enough, and Bruce has singularly failed to get anything like the best out of them.

 

[srsmithusa]

I IMO. It’s the players AND coached AND Bruce.  In that situation you change the manager and coaches rather than trying to change all the troops.  The buck stops with the manager   

especially when the players were effective at this level or above before they played here.

 

[srsmithusa]

2 hours ago, TRO said:

You are right, that is my position.....I would love to be sure, but i am not.

I think it has been essential in stabilising the club.....but we all know we cannot just pay homage tp that forever.

I was talking to a long standing Villa fan this evening, who doesn't write on here and we were discussing.....is it the manager or is it the players.

He said Fwiw......The midfield particularly centre is not strong enough.....meaning there is not enough rounded skills being displayed from there.....I would go further and say the midfield 4 is not strong enough.

That is not a statement to give Steve a get out of jail card, because the critics do have a point .....but i still think a more concerted effort in the transfer market for midfield is required.

Thanks for the reply.  I agree that our midfield is especially underperforming (that’s been true for years now. ). But I also think our backline is too slow.  And that’s not really amenable to coaching.   

[Villarocker]

With our best defender (best player JT?) playing, we tried to keep it tight against Wolves and were out-played and still managed to concede two goals.

Against the better teams, and we are looking at facing several of those soon without JT in the team, we will probably concede so what's the point in trying to keep it tight? We will be better off trying to out-score our opponents' because I simply cannot see us shutting out the better sides, particularly without our Captain and best defender. 

Bruce needs to grow a pair and go for it. Surely people would rather watch that kind of football than turgid batten-down-the-hatches football that ends up in defeat or bore draws?

[lexicon]

18 minutes ago, villarocker said:

With our best defender (best player JT?) playing, we tried to keep it tight against Wolves and were out-played and still managed to concede two goals.

Against the better teams, and we are looking at facing several of those soon without JT in the team, we will probably concede so what's the point in trying to keep it tight? We will be better off trying to out-score our opponents' because I simply cannot see us shutting out the better sides, particularly without our Captain and best defender. 

Bruce needs to grow a pair and go for it. Surely people would rather watch that kind of football than turgid batten-down-the-hatches football that ends up in defeat or bore draws?

Wolves have the best attack in the league though, not many teams are close to them in that respect IMO. I wouldn't take them as the benchmark of attacking prowess in this division. 

[Grasshopper]

QPR A

Sunderland H

Ipswich H

Leeds A

Millwall H

Derby A

Sheff Utd H

No tweets from the doc surely means Dead man walking. 2 defeats from the above and he‘s done.

My money‘s on QPR & Leeds. Sit back v Ipswich and it may be curtains

latest Derby A

Edited November 13, 2017 by Grasshopper

[sheepyvillian]

17 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Yep, Championship has moved on since Bruce was successful. Or maybe it's always been this way and I've just never watched it before. But teams actually try to play football. I've been very suprised with the way teams keep the ball in the league. I think in that respect we are one of the worst in the league.

It's certainly moved on ,hence why we look so shit .

[sheepyvillian]

With the racist out injured ,maybe young Easah Suliman can be given a chance . Am I correct in maybe thinking he's on loan ? If so ,call him back .

[srsmithusa]

6 hours ago, villarocker said:

With our best defender (best player JT?) playing, we tried to keep it tight against Wolves and were out-played and still managed to concede two goals.

Against the better teams, and we are looking at facing several of those soon without JT in the team, we will probably concede so what's the point in trying to keep it tight? We will be better off trying to out-score our opponents' because I simply cannot see us shutting out the better sides, particularly without our Captain and best defender. 

Bruce needs to grow a pair and go for it. Surely people would rather watch that kind of football than turgid batten-down-the-hatches football that ends up in defeat or bore draws?

Won’t happen.