Steve Bruce

[jackbauer24]

There are a number of players that pretty much every fan recognises should only be used in emergency or in a particular role. There is no way we should ever be in a situation where two, never mind three, of Whelen, Elphick or Jedinak are on the pitch at the same time. You automatically lose all pace and passing from the team. There is no valid reason for why that was the case against Brentford. Injuries haven't destroyed us that much.

So for that reason, using Samba as a striker, failing to sign attacking players/strikers so we could get in Terry when our defence was fine enough, for buying every right sided midfielder possible, for having no plan, for making no progress, for being unable to beat any half decent team and for failing yet again to show we look serious about promotion;

HE NEEDS TO GO.

[Villarocker]

 

17 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Agree in a term. but no one can say we were quality, an just out played by Brentford. We were shocking, did you see how many times we lost the ball. This was not because we were outclassed by a master tactician. Its because we were absolutely shit!!!

Brentford won 8 drew 10, 12th in the table. We drew last game 0-0. Can't really see this quality coached side, average at best, an whatever is said, they do have a few quality players in that squad. 

They have a few but we, on paper and experience, have more. Their coach gets them playing above their group level. Our coach has a team that should be top two in this league but we struggle every time we play anyone half decent who can play a bit of football. 

Bruce says we'll be better on Saturday. How many fans think we will be better enough to actually win that game? I'm not one of them, thats for sure. 

Edited December 27, 2017 by villarocker

[sheepyvillian]

It's not a master tactician we need ,just someone with the passion to inspire us to play like an Aston Villa team should play ,with purpose, poise, panache and a belief to try and win every game we play . Nothing less than those qualities should be acceptable. 

Now to find the manager to instill such qualities, because believe me ,he's out there somewhere. 

[Dr_Pangloss]

3 hours ago, NurembergVillan said:

And Liverpool have spent more on one player today than we've spent in that 18 months.  It's all relative.

Yes and relative to our league we have literally spent at Man City levels.

[Dr_Pangloss]

3 hours ago, NurembergVillan said:

And Liverpool have spent more on one player today than we've spent in that 18 months.  It's all relative.

Yes and relative to our league we have literally spent at Man City levels.

[sidcow]

11 hours ago, Dick said:

I’d love to know what we do in training and what Steve tells the players to do pre-match and what the tactics are.

So would the players! 

[vreitti]

5 minutes ago, sidcow said:

So would the players! 

This would be funny, if it weren't true.

[TheStagMan]

4 hours ago, TRO said:

Its his responsibility absolutely no doubt.....but Steve Cotterill comes out now and says to blues fans" if you only knew th half of it" now what does that mean a cop out or a truism.

We could have a similar situation, who knows.

We need some honesty......because what I am watching doesn't even resemble football.....Onomah's bum clearance was laughable if it wasn't so serious.

I fear if we sack him, we are just taking a rain check.....but what other alternative is there?

Will Dean Smith come in and in a few months say " You don't know the half of it"?.......It wouldn't surprise me.

I could possibly believe that there was something going on behind the scenes if it wasn't for the following:

• We have replaced the Owner, the board, the manager, most of the first team, the youth team coaches and many others at the club. The only consistently present people are Gabby and Doris the tea lady. Much as I would like to blame Gabby, it would be ridiculous, which just leaves Doris putting wacky baccy in the tea.
• Villa park is not cursed or haunted.
• John Terry would not put up with players not pulling their weight or some sort of backroom drivers (unless it is him, but it has been going on far longer than he has been here)
• EXACTLY the same problems have arisen at every club Bruce has managed. See the infamous Sunderland article from 5 years ago. 

 

 

The problems are crystal clear:

• No defined game plan or style
• Over reliance on one or two good players to paper over the cracks
• A lack of tactical nouse
• Over reliance on a defensive game with lump it up front tactics
• Players bought with little thought of how to fit them into a style
• Defence first and foremost, no plan B, backs to the wall lads
• Other teams will come at us for a scalp and WILL raise their game to the point where us having better individual players is not sufficient, hence all of the above comes into sharp focus

ALL of this comes down to the fault of the manager. If the players are not performing or making stupid mistakes, they should be benched and have extra training to eradicate mistakes from their game play. If they do not improve, they should be replaced. This is not a Sunday league team (although we do play like one) - these are professional footballers who are some of the best in the division. They look lost. That comes from a lack of clear instruction and a defined game plan. Brentford had one, we did not. For the umpteenth time this season.

[TheStagMan]

3 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

While I appriecate it's all relative the key difference is Liverpool haven't failed to beat us in 4 games and been totally out played by us in the other 3. 

And are quite literally in a different league to us.

[TheStagMan]

3 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

@TRO

I'm with you. The problems do not all lie with Steve Bruce. Something fundamentally wrong. I'm thinking maybe it's the pressure. I doubt many of these players have ever played for a team when failing to win in 2-3 games feels like a crisis. 

They have bottled it yet again. 

5 games

[Vive_La_Villa]

27 minutes ago, TheStagMan said:

5 games

Felt like a crisis after the Millwall and Derby games. It's when the players first bottled it. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

1 hour ago, Junxs said:

Based on what? why must something be fundamentally wrong?

is it not possible that football has changed in the championship over the last few years. Bruce was good at getting teams up once upon a time, but now theres some good teams and tactics in the championship. Bruce has been relegated so many times from the top flight with his approach, all thats happened is that the upper teams in the championship have reached the standards of the lower premier league teams so Bruce at his best cannot compete with footballing sides.

Allerdyce went to a struggling Everton, in a similar situation where perhaps some whispered about something being fundamentally wrong, and turned it around with a click of a finger. 

All we need is a manager with some nous and a plan and things would turn around completely. We have some good attack minded players, they just need the restraints taken off and we will flourish. 

I just don't think they are very good. That's what fundementally wrong. But yes I do beleive they should be better. 

[TRO]

1 hour ago, TheStagMan said:

I could possibly believe that there was something going on behind the scenes if it wasn't for the following:

• We have replaced the Owner, the board, the manager, most of the first team, the youth team coaches and many others at the club. The only consistently present people are Gabby and Doris the tea lady. Much as I would like to blame Gabby, it would be ridiculous, which just leaves Doris putting wacky baccy in the tea.
• Villa park is not cursed or haunted.
• John Terry would not put up with players not pulling their weight or some sort of backroom drivers (unless it is him, but it has been going on far longer than he has been here)
• EXACTLY the same problems have arisen at every club Bruce has managed. See the infamous Sunderland article from 5 years ago. 

 

 

The problems are crystal clear:

• No defined game plan or style
• Over reliance on one or two good players to paper over the cracks
• A lack of tactical nouse
• Over reliance on a defensive game with lump it up front tactics
• Players bought with little thought of how to fit them into a style
• Defence first and foremost, no plan B, backs to the wall lads
• Other teams will come at us for a scalp and WILL raise their game to the point where us having better individual players is not sufficient, hence all of the above comes into sharp focus

ALL of this comes down to the fault of the manager. If the players are not performing or making stupid mistakes, they should be benched and have extra training to eradicate mistakes from their game play. If they do not improve, they should be replaced. This is not a Sunday league team (although we do play like one) - these are professional footballers who are some of the best in the division. They look lost. That comes from a lack of clear instruction and a defined game plan. Brentford had one, we did not. For the umpteenth time this season.

can't argue.

[markavfc40]

2 hours ago, terrytini said:

Agree @markavfc40, other than I don’t see why 4 points should save him - either the powers that be have seen enough to tell them it’s always going to be this way ( as I have for example) or they have seen enough to assess they will stick with him and see how we finish.

I doubt very much they have any desire to sack him but there will come a tipping point where they will have to and I'd imagine we are very close to that.

I doubt 90% of managers are anymore than a run of 6-10 poor results away from being sacked and Bruce has now pushed himself to that limit a couple of times and is right on the brink of doing so again and if we do I think he is done. Certainly 4 or 6 points in the next two games will save him though. I don't see that as the board being short term they are just giving the manager a chance to again turn things around.

[AJ]

2 hours ago, TheStagMan said:

I could possibly believe that there was something going on behind the scenes if it wasn't for the following:

• We have replaced the Owner, the board, the manager, most of the first team, the youth team coaches and many others at the club. The only consistently present people are Gabby and Doris the tea lady. Much as I would like to blame Gabby, it would be ridiculous, which just leaves Doris putting wacky baccy in the tea.
• Villa park is not cursed or haunted.
• John Terry would not put up with players not pulling their weight or some sort of backroom drivers (unless it is him, but it has been going on far longer than he has been here)
• EXACTLY the same problems have arisen at every club Bruce has managed. See the infamous Sunderland article from 5 years ago. 

 

 

The problems are crystal clear:

• No defined game plan or style
• Over reliance on one or two good players to paper over the cracks
• A lack of tactical nouse
• Over reliance on a defensive game with lump it up front tactics
• Players bought with little thought of how to fit them into a style
• Defence first and foremost, no plan B, backs to the wall lads
• Other teams will come at us for a scalp and WILL raise their game to the point where us having better individual players is not sufficient, hence all of the above comes into sharp focus

ALL of this comes down to the fault of the manager. If the players are not performing or making stupid mistakes, they should be benched and have extra training to eradicate mistakes from their game play. If they do not improve, they should be replaced. This is not a Sunday league team (although we do play like one) - these are professional footballers who are some of the best in the division. They look lost. That comes from a lack of clear instruction and a defined game plan. Brentford had one, we did not. For the umpteenth time this season.

Here is the thing. A manager can either set up for either a team built for attack, or to focus on defence, or preferably, a bit of balance. Mistakes will happen. If you make a mistake in attack, it is a missed opportunity and hand back possession to the opposition. If you make a mistake in defence, the opposition has an opportunity to put one past our goalie. Which mistake's consequence is more tolerable? Are you guaranteed to win more with a clean sheet, or by scoring goals?

This has been going on for far too long. It was the style of play that saw us relegated. Backwards sideways football does not win games. This has been our biggest problem on the pitch for the last few seasons, and should, and had to be, the number one priority that had to be addressed. Adomah's goal against Barnsley, where the ball went through half a dozen players moving up the pitch, that was beautiful. When I saw that, I thought " Yes! That's the shit we are talking about!" Unfortunately, it has proved to be a freakish event, never to be repeated.

Steve Bruce should never have been concerned about this rot creeping  back in. He should have done all that was possible to ensure we never see that "style" of football ever come back. If he wanted this club to get back to its former glory, then that should have been his apex priority, especially if he had identified it as a problem with the club. Well, the rot is back, and Bruce has acknowledged it. OK. So, when setting up against a young, pacey, Brentford side, you put two mostly static defensive players in the middle of the park for Brentford's wingers and forwards to use as traffic cones? Sorry, but that is not trying to discourage the rot. That is nurturing it.

Edited December 28, 2017 by AJ

[villalad21]

I'm tired of having to rebuild every 3 years. We need consistancy at this football club we can't keep changing managers every single year, we're becoming a laughing stock.

Edited December 28, 2017 by villalad21

[AvfcRigo82]

2 hours ago, villalad21 said:

I'm tired of having to rebuild every 3 years. We need consistancy at this football club we can't keep changing managers every single year, we're becoming a laughing stock.

I think we have already achieved that mate. 

[Keyblade]

10 hours ago, Morley_crosses_to_Withe said:

I’ve said it elsewhere but, to add to your post, this is the most overrated Villa squad I’ve known in a long time. The perceived talent just isn’t there. Aside from Chester and Terry (maybe Kodjia and an on form Adomah), it’s a woefully average squad. How people think having players like Whelan, Hourihane, Gabby, Jedinak, Onomah, Snodgrass, Hutton, Lansbury, and Elphick equals having one of the best, if not the best, squad in the division is beyond me. How the **** we’ve spent all the money we have and ended up with so much mediocrity is utterly shambolic. 

They might seem average to us who have spent the last 24 out of the last 25 years in the PL, but those players would easily get into 90% of Championship sides. So yes, this is one of the best squads in the league from that perspective. Seriously, apart from Wolves, nobody is even touching the depth and (relative) quality of our team. 

Automaticpromotion challengers Cardiff's best player this season is perennial journeyman Junior Hoillet for example, and pound for pound they can't put out a starting XI that can match ours with all respect to them. And this is just Cardiff; the same applies to Bristol, Sheffield United etc etc. It's their managers who are doing exceptional jobs getting the most out if their players and getting them to be more than the sum of their parts. Whereas Steve Bruce is doing the complete opposite.

I feel like down playing the strength of our team is just another way to let Bruce off the hook. There is no excuse for being 8th in the table at the halfway point of the season.

[tinker]

3 hours ago, villalad21 said:

I'm tired of having to rebuild every 3 years. We need consistancy at this football club we can't keep changing managers every single year, we're becoming a laughing stock.

I agree but unfortunately we pick the wrong managers, it was obvious what Bruce was going to offer us from the start.

Rowett should have been picked, he was young and hungry with proven ability. I have picked him as an example because it's a manger we all knew because of his work down the road, theres probably managers around just as capable, I just don't know of any.

.Bruce will not take the club forward , nor will Wyness . If we scrape promotion we would be slaughtered every game , I would rather stay down , get the right managment team in place and go up in style with some hope.  

If Xia is the future of this club he will see this , as wel do , plans for Bruce to be replaced should be in place and Wyness should be doing this now. If he isn't then that's enough to show Xia his worth.

For me Wyness is not the man to pick our next manager, if he does i fear t will be from the shelves of yesterday's football legends

. UTV

[turvontour]

4 hours ago, villalad21 said:

I'm tired of having to rebuild every 3 years. We need consistancy at this football club we can't keep changing managers every single year, we're becoming a laughing stock.

When Mane scored 12 goals in 37 seconds we became a laughing stock.