Steve Bruce

[Demitri_C]

So if Taylor is injured who plays left back Saturday??

[Don_Simon]

He **** up last night. No two ways about it. (Not exactly critical insight, but I needed to vent).

[sexbelowsound]

Very poor for all concerned last night.

Lethargic performance, poor tactics and substitutions.

I expect a reaction on Saturday.

[Stevo985]

I'm reluctant to place too much blame on Bruce last night. If you send the same team out int he same formation that just spanked the best team in this league 4-1, you can be forgiven for thinking you'll get a result vs QPR.

I was happy with the setup and I was happy with the subs he made.

The tactics weren't the problem tonight in terms of set up. For me the problem was two fold.

Firstly, the motivation. I think for the first time this season we saw our team complacent as ****. They thought they were going to win that game easily. The manager should have done more to stop that happening.

Secondly, we seemed to have a gameplan to get it wide and cross it in. Maybe due to the fact QPR had a new CB pairing. But that clearly wasn't working. Yet we continued more or less all game. The amount of times Adomah crossed it straight to Onuoah's head was infuriating. Again, the manager should have done more to change things up when that clearly wasn't working.

 

So yes, of course the manager takes some blame for last night. But let's not pretend that the players can't take a huge slice of blame too. Pretty much everyone to a man was shit. Every free kick, corner, key pass, throw in was bollocks. If your incredibly experienced, best CB in the league is making simple errors; your usually superb number 10 who never loses the ball is being easily dispossessed all over the park; and your players can't deliver a single decent dead ball to anyone other than an opposition player, then you haven't got much chance from the start.

It was a shit show all round. From manager to tea lady.

 

 

What I would say is, yet again, the reaction on here is manic. We've lost 2 games in the last 13 (I think?). If we pick ourselves up and win the next game and get back into the groove then we've still got a good chance of 2nd, and I'd back us in the playoffs as well.
You really are only as good as your last game on VT. 

Edited March 14, 2018 by Stevo985

[Demitri_C]

5 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

I'm reluctant to place too much blame on Bruce last night. If you send the same team out int he same formation that just spanked the best team in this league 4-1, you can be forgiven for thinking you'll get a result vs QPR.

I was happy with the setup and I was happy with the subs he made.

The tactics weren't the problem tonight in terms of set up. For me the problem was two fold.

Firstly, the motivation. I think for the first time this season we saw our team complacent as ****. They thought they were going to win that game easily. The manager should have done more to stop that happening.

Secondly, we seemed to have a gameplan to get it wide and cross it in. Maybe due to the fact QPR had a new CB pairing. But that clearly wasn't working. Yet we continued more or less all game. The amount of times Adomah crossed it straight to Onuoah's head was infuriating. Again, the manager should have done more to change things up when that clearly wasn't working.

 

So yes, of course the manager takes some blame for last night. But let's not pretend that the players can't take a huge slice of blame too. Pretty much everyone to a man was shit. Every free kick, corner, key pass, throw in was bollocks. If your incredibly experienced, best CB in the league is making simple errors; your usually superb number 10 who never loses the ball is being easily dispossessed all over the park; and your players can't deliver a single decent dead ball to anyone other than an opposition player, then you haven't got much chance from the start.

It was a shit show all round. From manager to tea lady.

 

 

What I would say is, yet again, the reaction on here is manic. We've lost 2 games in the last 13 (I think?). If we pick ourselves up and win the next game and get back into the groove then we've still got a good chance of 2nd, and I'd back us in the playoffs as well.
You really are only as good as your last game on VT. 

its the manner in the defeat stevo and also when you look at fulham have had tougher games yet have failed to lose. cardiff have some tough game coming up so be interesting to see how they do as they could implode, but i fancy fulham to get 2nd if that happens as we will likely drop points  now. 

i think you are right about the players think they would walk it which was stupid as you cant think that in this league. also the point you raised about adomahs crossing. Jesus it was so bad last night. every ball was predicatble and straight at the QPR cbs head. adomah had  absolute stinker last night. 

[Stevo985]

4 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

its the manner in the defeat stevo and also when you look at fulham have had tougher games yet have failed to lose. cardiff have some tough game coming up so be interesting to see how they do as they could implode, but i fancy fulham to get 2nd if that happens as we will likely drop points  now. 

i think you are right about the players think they would walk it which was stupid as you cant think that in this league. also the point you raised about adomahs crossing. Jesus it was so bad last night. every ball was predicatble and straight at the QPR cbs head. adomah had  absolute stinker last night. 

Weirdly I think Adomah was quite good right up to the point of crossing. He had the better of their fullback all game. But every time he got past him, he delivered a shit final ball. It was like watching Alan Hutton.

Usually he's the opposite. Doesn't get past the fullback that often but when he does he makes something happen.

Last night was just so weird all round. Baffling game.

[Demitri_C]

Just now, Stevo985 said:

Weirdly I think Adomah was quite good right up to the point of crossing. He had the better of their fullback all game. But every time he got past him, he delivered a shit final ball. It was like watching Alan Hutton.

Usually he's the opposite. Doesn't get past the fullback that often but when he does he makes something happen.

Last night was just so weird all round. Baffling game.

Yeah I cant quite get my head around how we were 3-0 down at home. no teams done that to us since we came down. Have the hell did it happen? It had elements of the Millwall game but QPR actually took their chances this day, Millwall didn't

I dont understand how you can go beta Wolves like that then just implode like that. Talk about letting the fans big  time. Had we won this and Cardiff potentially dropping points weekend had we beat Bolton it would be one point, now 7 points is going to be ridiculously difficult to overtake 

[Demitri_C]

You would have to raise your hands up and say Warnock is doing a much better job than Bruce so far this season as much as it pains me to say it 

[tomav84]

bruce has admitted he should have freshened it up a bit but hindsight is a wonderful thing. had we still dropped points of course questions would have been asked as to why the team was changed

big weekend this one before 2 weeks off...cardiff have another tough game and i expect bruce to get a reaction from the players

[Rob182]

10 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I think Taylor was injured and we had no cover for left back so he went back 3.

I think Bruce was just rolling the dice and hoping the 3-5-2 would work. We've had 1 left back all season, and Bruce hasn't been scared of moving a right-back to the left, so he could have easily put Bree or Elmo there last night. 

[Demitri_C]

That crappy 3-5-2 has failed every bloody time he has done it. never use that crap system again bruce! 

[Vive_La_Villa]

46 minutes ago, Rob182 said:

I think Bruce was just rolling the dice and hoping the 3-5-2 would work. We've had 1 left back all season, and Bruce hasn't been scared of moving a right-back to the left, so he could have easily put Bree or Elmo there last night. 

 Unless they’ve worked on 3-5-2 a lot in training it was a bad move. Ended any chance of a comeback. 

[Stevo985]

14 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

 Unless they’ve worked on 3-5-2 a lot in training it was a bad move. Ended any chance of a comeback. 

It clearly didn't work, but it did improve things from the first half, although nowhere near enough.

It made sense to me. He had to change things, but I wouldn't have been confident going to a 4-4-2 and leaving two of Jedinak/Hourihane/Grealish in the centre of midfield. I don't think that would have worked.

So it kind of made sense. 

 

Didn't work of course. But I don't think it was an outrageous decision.

[Vive_La_Villa]

27 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

It clearly didn't work, but it did improve things from the first half, although nowhere near enough.

It made sense to me. He had to change things, but I wouldn't have been confident going to a 4-4-2 and leaving two of Jedinak/Hourihane/Grealish in the centre of midfield. I don't think that would have worked.

So it kind of made sense. 

 

Didn't work of course. But I don't think it was an outrageous decision.

It wasn’t an outrageous decision if it’s been worked on.  But they did look all over the place. 

I would have tried to keep same shape but just done a straight swap of Davis for Grabban. 

But to be fair we were second best all night so probably wouldn’t have mattered what he did.

Edited March 14, 2018 by Vive_La_Villa

[Stevo985]

5 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

 

I would have tried to keep same shape but just done a straight swap of Davis for Grabban. 

 

 

I don't think that would have made a blind bit of difference tbh

5 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

But to be fair we were second best all night so probably wouldn’t have matted what he did.

Yep, no disagreement there. As I said earlier I think our biggest problem last might was motivation/complacency related

[TRO]

When you are losing every individual battle or challenge its inevitable the formation changes, its sometimes a consequence as opposed to the other way around.

just about everything on the night that could go wrong did, blimey the first goal was scored by a 21 year old Irish midfield player, not an experienced championship centre forward or some up and coming Brazilian whiz kid.

also why are strikers always in the bunch defending corners, whats happened to the outlet ball player near the half way line?

I think the criticism is a collective one.....they all ****** up.

just left themselves a lot of hard work.

Edited March 14, 2018 by TRO

[TRO]

Total lack of aggression and i can only speculate why?

took all the shine and confidence away from the Wolves game.

Edited March 14, 2018 by TRO

[sne]

Pretty shocking if the players are not motivated enough at this point of the season considering what's at stake.

Especially if they are less motivated than a QPR side that has nothing to play for.

I think it was selection and choice of way of attacking (they won more than 70% of the aerial duels) that cost us more than anything.

But I fully appreciate that they had difficulty to re-focus after the big game this weekend. But that's when having a big squad like us comes into play.

Every manager get's it wrong from time to time, this was one of those times and Bruce has admitted as much.

Just have to make sure it doesn't happen again this season.

 

[omariqy]

I thought the 3-5-2 made us a lot worse. We looked pretty threatening without getting in the final ball with Adomah and Jack working well on the left. We  completely nullfied any threat by switching to 3-5-2 as Adomah and Elmo spent most of the time playing as full backs and Jack was not receiving the ball in the final third but in our half. I think putting Thor at LB if Taylor was injured would have been the best move or maybe even move Elmo there and put Bree on. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

I don’t think it was motivation. I think they were just drained from Saturday. My mate who went to Wolves game said they looked leggy first half to but managed to stay in game then got on top.