Steve Bruce

[PieFacE]

Definitely feels like the right man for the club at the minute. I'm sure that feeling actually stems from purely having the ability to win a few games of football, but it does just feel "right" for whatever reason.

One thing that I was a little cautious of was his brand of football. But you know what, that fear has completely gone. Winning football is good football regardless and after the shite we've witnessed over the past 5 years it's so nice to see a manager who's tactically sound. What's even more baffling is that Steve Bruce's "tactics" aren't even that.... tactical. It's doing the basics right, it's playing to your strengths and it's making the right decisions in game in terms of substitutions (I'm sure there's more to it, but from the outside looking in, it very much feels like "let's go back to basics"). Which we really really needed.

Edited November 29, 2016 by PieFacE

[markavfc40]

15 hours ago, blandy said:

I don't think we're doing anything like as well as we could be in terms of the forwards linking up with each other. Yes Adomah makes chances, which is great, but there's not much interplay between the forwards, not much movement a lot of the time from them. They're all very able, but I hope to see a fair bit of improvement in their forwardy team play. It's a bit basic, saved perhaps by the fact that Kodjia in particular can make a goal from nowhere. With him loitering out wide there's not much threat, often, down the centre of the pitch, and often next to no-one in the box, or even making runs into the box, when they should be. Definite room for improvement and something to look forward to.

It may be wishful thinking on my part but I just don’t think up top we have quite clicked yet. We have had games/periods in games where we look fantastic going forward, a number of them under RDM, but we have lacked consistency.

That lack of cohesion up top at times may partly be down to the chopping and changing. Under Bruce we have had Kodjia, Adomah, Grealish as a front three, McCormack, Kodjia, Adomah also Gabby, Kodjia, Adomah and Kodjia, Adomah and Ayew. Sometimes Kodjia starts centrally, sometimes wide or changes within games.

As others have mentioned creativity from midfield also isn’t the best and we often fail to get the ball forward quick enough and break at enough pace. When we do that is when we look our best.

I think I’d keep Grealish in an attacking midfield role as I think he is more than capable of linking with the forwards quickly and being the creative spark. Then have Jedinak and either Westwood or Gardner in the deeper midfield roles. In January we bring someone in to pay alongside Jedi.

Bruce has dealt with the main issues which was getting us to be more solid at the back and cutting out the silly mistakes and lack of concentration/tendency to sit back late in games. I think he/we will get it right up top as we have the best forward options in the division and once we do get it right I am still expecting us to give a number of teams a good beating.

Edited November 29, 2016 by markavfc40

[R.Bear]

27 minutes ago, PieFacE said:

Definitely feels like the right man for the club at the minute.

Wow, sticking your neck out there 

[dont_do_it_doug.]

1 hour ago, markavfc40 said:

It may be wishful thinking on my part but I just don’t think up top we have quite clicked yet. We have had games/periods in games where we look fantastic going forward, a number of them under RDM, but we have lacked consistency.

That lack of cohesion up top at times may partly be down to the chopping and changing. Under Bruce we have had Kodjia, Adomah, Grealish as a front three, McCormack, Kodjia, Adomah also Gabby, Kodjia, Adomah and Kodjia, Adomah and Ayew. Sometimes Kodjia starts centrally, sometimes wide or changes within games.

As others have mentioned creativity from midfield also isn’t the best and we often fail to get the ball forward quick enough and break at enough pace. When we do that is when we look our best.

I think I’d keep Grealish in an attacking midfield role as I think he is more than capable of linking with the forwards quickly and being the creative spark. Then have Jedinak and either Westwood or Gardner in the deeper midfield roles. In January we bring someone in to pay alongside Jedi.

Bruce has dealt with the main issues which was getting us to be more solid at the back and cutting out the silly mistakes and lack of concentration/tendency to sit back late in games. I think he/we will get it right up top as we have the best forward options in the division and once we do get it right I am still expecting us to give a number of teams a good beating.

I agree with all of this. I will also add that Bruce has, I imagine, had to prioritise which aspects of our game to work on first and foremost. Don't forget he had 2 days before his first game in charge, then another 2 before his second, then another game the following weekend, then an international break etc etc all the while not having his coaching team in place. It was a very choppy start for him and he has handled it well. His first job was to stop the rot, my feeling is that from there we have started to play some neater football, particularly with Adomah and Kodjia linking up and with the return of Grealish after a 3 game suspension.

We're still scoring plenty of goals, averaging 1.57 a game which would be 72 over a full term which would have made us joint top scorers last season. We are lacking a bit of fluidity sure, but the foundations are built and I can certainly see signs of us cracking on from here. 

Interestingly, according to Squawka, we've not scored a counter attacking goal all season. 

[LakotaDakota]

Will be interesting to see what he can do next year if he manages to get us up as he has never really been at a club with a decent amount of cash to spend. Presumably the Dr will need to dig deep in order to ensure survival as realistically half of the current squad would need upgrading for the prem.

I am intrigued to see who he would go after given a much higher budget than he is accustomed to

[TRO]

3 hours ago, PieFacE said:

Definitely feels like the right man for the club at the minute. I'm sure that feeling actually stems from purely having the ability to win a few games of football, but it does just feel "right" for whatever reason.

One thing that I was a little cautious of was his brand of football. But you know what, that fear has completely gone. Winning football is good football regardless and after the shite we've witnessed over the past 5 years it's so nice to see a manager who's tactically sound. What's even more baffling is that Steve Bruce's "tactics" aren't even that.... tactical. It's doing the basics right, it's playing to your strengths and it's making the right decisions in game in terms of substitutions (I'm sure there's more to it, but from the outside looking in, it very much feels like "let's go back to basics"). Which we really really needed.

Good post

He also puts much emphasis on the physicality of the game , in one of the pieces in the B/mail he said he has drove them mad with it and he will continue to do so, he talks about the 3 Rs ....Resilience,resilience, resilience......that focus has been missing with our previous managers.....and boy, did that need fixing.

Edited November 29, 2016 by TRO

[striker]

I can see the potato head thingy but he does have nice hair.

The perfect fit for Villa and much, much more to come with hopefully a few of his own signings in January.

[AntrimBlack]

1 hour ago, LakotaDakota said:

Will be interesting to see what he can do next year if he manages to get us up as he has never really been at a club with a decent amount of cash to spend. Presumably the Dr will need to dig deep in order to ensure survival as realistically half of the current squad would need upgrading for the prem.

I am intrigued to see who he would go after given a much higher budget than he is accustomed to

I think he got quite a lot of money at Sunderland, and perhaps did not always spend it wisely. But that could be a learning experience for him, and Round will have a big input into transfers.

[romavillan]

3 hours ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

I agree with all of this. I will also add that Bruce has, I imagine, had to prioritise which aspects of our game to work on first and foremost. Don't forget he had 2 days before his first game in charge, then another 2 before his second, then another game the following weekend, then an international break etc etc all the while not having his coaching team in place. It was a very choppy start for him and he has handled it well. His first job was to stop the rot, my feeling is that from there we have started to play some neater football, particularly with Adomah and Kodjia linking up and with the return of Grealish after a 3 game suspension.

We're still scoring plenty of goals, averaging 1.57 a game which would be 72 over a full term which would have made us joint top scorers last season. We are lacking a bit of fluidity sure, but the foundations are built and I can certainly see signs of us cracking on from here. 

Interestingly, according to Squawka, we've not scored a counter attacking goal all season. 

He's almost said as much himself, that he had to hit the ground running and that it was about hard work and being difficult to play against and difficult to beat. He's certainly managed that well so far. When we've been bad we've still been hard to beat. I was expecting as much though from Bruce, what I didn't expect was the second half against Brighton, where we were completely dominant. Kept the ball well, kept the pressure on, looked threatening, everything but the goal. I think that is reason for optimism, that given some more time to build on the solid foundations he's putting down we might end up being a proper football team in a  few months time!

Hopefully we don't get spanked at Elland Road and the wheels all fall off! Can't see it though for the first time in ages the other team will have to put in a proper shift to beat us. Rather than just turn up.

[bannedfromHandV]

Can you imagine if we went unbeaten for the rest of the season, whilst highly unlikely it is possible given how we're playing and the resources at our disposal.

[MarkLillis]

Very happy so far. Steve Bruce has always done a good job (with maybe Sunderland as an exception) it seems to me, at every club he has been at.The experience and organisational skill he has, showed from the second game onwards for me.

The fact that he has got Jedinak doing the exact role he should be doing for any club (protecting the centre halves) speaks volumes for me. Its a simple move but we haven't had that type of player at Villa for YEARS!

 

Edited November 29, 2016 by MarkLillis

[TRO]

1 hour ago, MarkLillis said:

Very happy so far. Steve Bruce has always done a good job (with maybe Sunderland as an exception) it seems to me, at every club he has been at.The experience and organisational skill he has, showed from the second game onwards for me.

The fact that he has got Jedinak doing the exact role he should be doing for any club (protecting the centre halves) speaks volumes for me. Its a simple move but we haven't had that type of player at Villa for YEARS!

 

Its the simplicity that is sometimes in the genius.

i.e Lennon & McCartney

not comparing them with SB, just the simplicity bit.

I think some folk try to over complicate the game.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

2 minutes ago, TRO said:

Its the simplicity that is sometimes in the genius.

i.e Lennon & McCartney

not comparing them with SB, just the simplicity bit.

I think some folk try to over complicate the game.

Haven't been the same under Koeman. 

[LakotaDakota]

5 hours ago, AntrimBlack said:

I think he got quite a lot of money at Sunderland, and perhaps did not always spend it wisely. But that could be a learning experience for him, and Round will have a big input into transfers.

From what i can see he paid money for :

Lorik Cana- £5m
Fraizer Campbell- £3.5m
Darren Bent- £16m
Lee Cattermole- £6m
Michael Turner- £4m
Matthew Killgallon- £2m
Simon Mignolet- £2.5m
Marcos Angelari- £2.5m
Titus Bramble- £1m
Asamoah Gyan- £13.25m
Stephane Sessegnon- £6m

Not loads in the grand scheme of things i guess with only 2 signings over 10 million, There were also a bunch of other free transfers & loans.

The one concerning thing i guess is that Cana, Bent, Gyan, Killgallon, Angelari had all left again within a little over 12 months of signing and the rest of them went the year he left

[AVTuco]

I have nothing to say.

I'm content.

What now?

[dont_do_it_doug.]

15 minutes ago, LakotaDakota said:

From what i can see he paid money for :

Lorik Cana- £5m
Fraizer Campbell- £3.5m
Darren Bent- £16m
Lee Cattermole- £6m
Michael Turner- £4m
Matthew Killgallon- £2m
Simon Mignolet- £2.5m
Marcos Angelari- £2.5m
Titus Bramble- £1m
Asamoah Gyan- £13.25m
Stephane Sessegnon- £6m

Not loads in the grand scheme of things i guess with only 2 signings over 10 million, There were also a bunch of other free transfers & loans.

The one concerning thing i guess is that Cana, Bent, Gyan, Killgallon, Angelari had all left again within a little over 12 months of signing and the rest of them went the year he left

Interesting list. 

He was a little unlucky with Gyan, A fantastic player who only had eyes for one thing unfortunately, not that he cares what I think. We nicked Bent and it was all downhill for Bruce from there. Mignolet of course went on to Liverpool. A load of average players, though Cattermole has been a good player for them over the years despite the turd around him and of course being a horrible shit head. 

It's not the best but it's not the worst list I have ever seen. I feel like he has done a good job building a squad at Hull and obviously did well at Birmingham. No real red flag for me. 

[AntrimBlack]

24 minutes ago, LakotaDakota said:

From what i can see he paid money for :

Lorik Cana- £5m
Fraizer Campbell- £3.5m
Darren Bent- £16m
Lee Cattermole- £6m
Michael Turner- £4m
Matthew Killgallon- £2m
Simon Mignolet- £2.5m
Marcos Angelari- £2.5m
Titus Bramble- £1m
Asamoah Gyan- £13.25m
Stephane Sessegnon- £6m

Not loads in the grand scheme of things i guess with only 2 signings over 10 million, There were also a bunch of other free transfers & loans.

The one concerning thing i guess is that Cana, Bent, Gyan, Killgallon, Angelari had all left again within a little over 12 months of signing and the rest of them went the year he left

Good post, LD. A lot of effort. 

[AJ]

If Tony is happy, Steve is happy, and he continues to do a good job, I would like to see Steve stay here for the long haul.

Due to the fickleness in job security for managers, it tends to create mostly journeymen. I like to hope that Villa is Steve's final destination.

[hippo]

Anyone still think Wagner at Huddersfield was the better choice ? - no - nor me....

[carewjust4u]

18 hours ago, LakotaDakota said:

From what i can see he paid money for :

Lorik Cana- £5m
Fraizer Campbell- £3.5m
Darren Bent- £16m
Lee Cattermole- £6m
Michael Turner- £4m
Matthew Killgallon- £2m
Simon Mignolet- £2.5m
Marcos Angelari- £2.5m
Titus Bramble- £1m
Asamoah Gyan- £13.25m
Stephane Sessegnon- £6m

Not loads in the grand scheme of things i guess with only 2 signings over 10 million, There were also a bunch of other free transfers & loans.

The one concerning thing i guess is that Cana, Bent, Gyan, Killgallon, Angelari had all left again within a little over 12 months of signing and the rest of them went the year he left

Sessegnon, Gyan, Bent, Cattlemole and Mignolet were all great signings for Sunderland. Seems as though when he spent big, he spent well.