Steve Bruce

[Richard]

People are saying they like his post match comments and at least it shows he is pissed off etc, well sorry but this line pisses me off enormously "having seen that I can see why the club decided to make a change and bring me in" that is just wrong on so many levels 

[villan_007]

15 minutes ago, Richard said:

People are saying they like his post match comments and at least it shows he is pissed off etc, well sorry but this line pisses me off enormously "having seen that I can see why the club decided to make a change and bring me in" that is just wrong on so many levels 

TBF - you jump on any little thing he does wrong, because you don't rate him, never wanted him and that's that.

I'm liking the honesty, because for yrs we've just had catchphrases and lies. Tell us how it is.

[philgetaway]

2 hours ago, Richard said:

People are saying they like his post match comments and at least it shows he is pissed off etc, well sorry but this line pisses me off enormously "having seen that I can see why the club decided to make a change and bring me in" that is just wrong on so many levels 

Good interview. Imagine if he just said "we go again" 

[Demitri_C]

McCormack has to start games just for his threat at set pieces. Also get bacuna back in the side his energy is a real asset.

[terrytini]

7 hours ago, TRO said:

Until we sort the midfield Terry, this is not going to go away.

5 wins is remarkable and down to individual brilliance as opposed to structured team play.

its going to be a major struggle until we can get reinforcements

Don't disagree we lack a couple of good midfielders but for me this performance was nothing much to do with that.

Agnonlahor, plus two ball carriers in Ayew and Grealish, means the unbalanced nature you mention was built in by the boss. It worked with Gabby the other week for an hour when we played a high pressing game against Brighton but we didn't even attempt to play that way last night, either by choice of the Manager or he failed to get a performance like at Brighton.

He had three midfielders on the bench if he wanted to change it, and it was evident very early on nothing was working.

Clearly Kodj can be effective wide, but he wasn't last night, and again, this could've been changed easily and early...we have four guys who score goals in this League, one was out wide the other three on the bench.

In my view the approach itself was overly cautious again, and the lack of balance was self inflicted. 

Lack of quality ? In some cases yes but our Subs bench last night would all get in most Chalpionship first elevens.

For me Bruce had previously largely assessed oppositions well, chosen appropriate line ups, got the players up for games,and made decent substitutions. Although I have had concerns he is overly cautious.

In the last three or so games he has failed on at least three of these four counts each time, rather than it suddenly being another load of players needed.

I don't hold that against him, it happens. But it's down to him for me.

 

[OutByEaster?]

I've seen a few people say that they thought the approach was overly cautious - for me it's the opposite - maybe I'm confusing selection over approach, but playing four forward minded players away from home is part of the reason we're unbalanced and therefore part of the reason we don't create chances. I'd like to have seen Gardner start ahead of Gabby last night - with Grealish left, Ayew right and Kodjia up top - that's more than enough forwards and enough midfielders to make sure they occasionally see the ball in the right areas.

Now that's not to say the forwards were hard done by - they didn't perform - but the manager got the balance wrong in my opinion by being too bold.

 

[gatecrasha]

When will we realise with the sh*#  midfield we have, that we need a minimum of 3 in the middle.

4-2-4 did not work for rubbish damn manager-rdm.

This isn't play station football manager- stick with 442 or 451 to get us to january, then midfield, midfield, midfield. A no brainer

[vreitti]

23 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I've seen a few people say that they thought the approach was overly cautious - for me it's the opposite - maybe I'm confusing selection over approach, but playing four forward minded players away from home is part of the reason we're unbalanced and therefore part of the reason we don't create chances. I'd like to have seen Gardner start ahead of Gabby last night - with Grealish left, Ayew right and Kodjia up top - that's more than enough forwards and enough midfielders to make sure they occasionally see the ball in the right areas.

Now that's not to say the forwards were hard done by - they didn't perform - but the manager got the balance wrong in my opinion by being too bold.

 

Spot on. We have a wealth of good forward options, and also some lesser options. Instead of trying to develop a tactic and actual game plan, Bruce does what his predecessor did, just throws them in there, hoping for the best. We've been lucky thus far, as a few individual moments of brilliance have saved us. Now we see what happens, when most of them have an off day. 

Edited December 14, 2016 by vreitti

[TrentVilla]

 

Formations, tactics, approach, selection... sure they are all important but for me they are secondary issues. 

The primary issue is that we have too many players that simply aren't good enough and/or don't have the right attitudes.

The likes of Hutton, Gardner, Westwood, Bacuna, Agbonlahor and Ayew are simply not contributing enough to the team performance or having sufficient impact or influence in games. For me every single one of them needs replacing.

Then there are question marks over the likes of Gollini, Elpwick, Jadinak, Grealish and at times Kodjia.

For me just about the only player beyond criticism is Amavi.

The players attitudes, performances and in some cases ability is just not good enough. We can get away with carrying a couple at home but away from home it's not enough.

Things need to change in January, Bruce needs to be given an opportunity to address the issues he inherited and which as far as I can see RDM only exacerbated.

I may not agree with every selection Bruce makes but it's fairly clear he is trying anything he can to get the most out of what he has got and what I'd imagine isn't quite as good a squad as he thought.

His public comments have had an increasing undertone of frustration, culminating in recent public warnings to unnamed players. Last night he was clearly furious, rightly so, irrespective of formation or selection the performance was abysmal.

After last night I think a few people will be struggling for much game time the rest of the season.

[lapal_fan]

We desperately needed to play a high line to get the full backs involved last night, but chester and elphick seemed happy to stay quite deep, leaving huge areas behind the wingers or full backs for their wingers to expose.

Norwich don't have many pacey players, so that confused me somewhat.

We know we have a weak midfield, so why we didn't get more bodies forwafd to give midfield more options I'll never know.  essentially this meant that we had to go long but none of our forwards could hold the ball up.  none of our midfielders could provide options to the strikers because none of them are mobile enough.

Not playing tish i think really restricted our play, he's athletic and can run with the ball, closing any gaps between positions.  not sure why bruce is not giving him a go, doesn't seem like good management to me.  he's done ok so far, in isolation losing to Norwich away isn't terrible, but my god they didn't have to work hard for those 3 points, which is the minimum i expect now from a bruce team.  i mean, if Norwich play well and beat us on their own turf then fine.. but they were just as poor as us for 70 mins and then they got better after the goal.

Mccormack came on and looked good.

Gabbys miscontrol for their goal was woeful, elphick not doing anything was woeful and i think gollini should have been slightly to his right so he could have at least tried to save it.

We gifted supposed rivals 3 very easy points.

A poor game.  let's move on and see some vast improvement where we act like a big team and try and dictate the game.

[Delphinho123]

Last night was the first time I was disappointed in Bruce. He got it very wrong.

That said, he's inherited one of the worst midfields in the division, so he's limited in that sense. 

[OutByEaster?]

Just now, TrentVilla said:

After last night I think a few people will be struggling for much game time the rest of the season.

I agree - but sadly I don't think they'll struggle for game time between now and January. For me, Westwood as a squad player and Tshibola as youngster are the only midfielders I'd be keeping - we need three starters. Our front line has more than enough talent and I think we'll see one or two leave - if it's one I don't think we need a replacement. 

For last night, I think we tried to cover up a weakness by making a strength stronger - in the end, the weakness just gets worse and the strength is completely lost - it doesn't help when within that the forwards don't actually play well.

[hippo]

He had sold his midlands home as he became manager. He was expected to buy another in the area. But has recently  purchased a house in High Wycombe

[hippo]

21 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Last night was the first time I was disappointed in Bruce. He got it very wrong.

That said, he's inherited one of the worst midfields in the division, so he's limited in that sense. 

But its more or less the same midfield that pummeled Brighton. Most alarming thing for me last night is how often we were second to the ball. 

[terrytini]

Hmmm.

When Bruce has done well a lot have said - rightly imo - it shows what a good Manager, with sound selections, positive motivation, and good tactics can do. Several pointed out it should the weakness in, for example, RDM.

Mow we've had a poor run its back to being an impossible job because of the players ?

Not for me. There are issues with the balance and character of the squad but I'm now seeing people writing off almost the entire team. It's just unrealistic. At worst, they would virtually all be in most Clubs first 14. 

Of course it's arguable several of our better quality players aren't getting as much game time as others but that's bt choice.

When, as I think they will, performances and results improve again , how will those blaming squad quality explain that ? How do they explain Bruce's hitherto decent run ?

Nah. He's started well and has slightly lost his way, and in the last few games hasn't been able to get the players minds right, nor his approach. It happens and as a decent boss he will likely recover soon enough.

He himself said, for example, the players weren't 'at it' right from the off. True. That happens on football, sometimes the Manager  can fix it before/ during a game, other times not.

I think he has done great in selection, tactics, motivation, on the whole, but poorly in all three recently.

[terrytini]

To put it another way I'm sure we will do well against QPR, or if not the game after or after that.

Same squad though.

[Richard]

4 hours ago, villan_007 said:

TBF - you jump on any little thing he does wrong, because you don't rate him, never wanted him and that's that.

 

how ironic

[sexbelowsound]

Formation seemed a little off to me yesterday.

I thought we were going to line up with Gabby up top with Kodjia left, Ayew right and Grealish through the middle.

Kodjia stayed left but way to far left for me. He gave no room for Amavi to run into.

Ayew spent most of the game wandering around wherever he felt like it and took up the spaces which I assumed were for Grealish to operate in.

Add into that Gabby being useless at pretty much every aspect of forward play and you've got an incredibly ineffective front 4.

Put behind that Westwood who, to quote Ross from Friends, looks real energetic but stays away from the ball and Jedinak who is there to sit a yard in front of the back 4 and you've got issues all the way through the team.

There's no creativity whatsoever and when you've got arguably our most effective attacker in terms of directness, Adomah, on the bench you can see why we were so poor.

[vreitti]

6 minutes ago, terrytini said:

I think he has done great in selection, tactics, motivation, on the whole, but poorly in all three recently.

OK, let's assume it's just a slight setback. When can we expect some actual consistency? He's had what, 10 games now. One would think he'd at the very least know his best formation, and starting eleven. If he's as good a manager as most seem to think, surely he doesn't need a full season to get 'things right'?

We've had a wonderful honeymoon period, which sadly is now gone. We saw the same type of revival when Sherwood first arrived. Then it went to shit, and quite rapidly.

I realize the deficiencies of the squad. We are seriously lacking in CM, and we also have minor other issues. However on the whole, I still argue that we have one of the best overall squads in the division, and thus we really should be doing better. Sad times.

[This Could Be Rotterdam]

1 hour ago, TrentVilla said:

 

Formations, tactics, approach, selection... sure they are all important but for me they are secondary issues. 

The primary issue is that we have too many players that simply aren't good enough and/or don't have the right attitudes.

The likes of Hutton, Gardner, Westwood, Bacuna, Agbonlahor and Ayew are simply not contributing enough to the team performance or having sufficient impact or influence in games. For me every single one of them needs replacing.

Then there are question marks over the likes of Gollini, Elpwick, Jadinak, Grealish and at times Kodjia.

For me just about the only player beyond criticism is Amavi.

The players attitudes, performances and in some cases ability is just not good enough. We can get away with carrying a couple at home but away from home it's not enough.

Things need to change in January, Bruce needs to be given an opportunity to address the issues he inherited and which as far as I can see RDM only exacerbated.

I may not agree with every selection Bruce makes but it's fairly clear he is trying anything he can to get the most out of what he has got and what I'd imagine isn't quite as good a squad as he thought.

His public comments have had an increasing undertone of frustration, culminating in recent public warnings to unnamed players. Last night he was clearly furious, rightly so, irrespective of formation or selection the performance was abysmal.

After last night I think a few people will be struggling for much game time the rest of the season.

Spot on. I said in another thread that several players have no influence for the majority of the game and had loads of people say its not about the performance but the fact we got three points. The signs were glaringly obvious saturday, and regardless of the three points, we didnt deserve them. A moment of magic doesnt cover the fact we were awful for the whole game! That carried into last night and we got what we deserved. 

Hutton is all too often seemingly playing as a third centre back and rarely takes responsibility for things coming down his side, preferring to leave it to whatever player is supporting him. By the time he gets across to support the damage is done. Amavi is the only player so far this season who has shown real class and it really wouldnt surprise me to see bids for him in January which would be really worrying. 

Last night was an absolutely massive opportunity, and Sunday will be really interesting. Fail to win that and it wouldnt surprise me to see us go on to reflect Norwich's recent run.