Steve Bruce

[Vive_La_Villa]

12 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

Why would Warnock come here if he was in the Premier league with Cardiff ?  Tbh, I wouldn't want him as Villa manager. I'd rather have Dean Smith.

If we don’t go for Dean Smith at the end of the season assuming we are not promoted  then I could see him at West Brom.

[sheepyvillian]

9 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

If we don’t go for Dean Smith at the end of the season assuming we are not promoted  then I could see him at West Brom.

I think he'll go on to have relatively, successful, career. Who knows? It may well involve a spell with the team he loves.

Edited March 18, 2018 by sheepyvillian

[pacbuddies]

4 hours ago, Dave J said:

TRO - I am one of Bruce's detractors on here and not happy with the last two results but in no way am I clamouring for his head - he is here to stay for now and rightly so - however if we implode and do not make the play - offs this year then I'm afraid in my view he should go.

would you not agree that his remit for the past two seasons has been to achieve promotion? I say again if the club did not expect Bruce to deliver last season why sack RDM after only 11 games? Back to my point promotion has been his remit and therefore if not achieved you cannot disguise this as anything but failure imo 

If we make the play offs and fail to get promoted he should be sacked.

The Wolves manager has only been in the English league system for 9 months and is way ahead of Bruce. The Cardiff manager inherited a bag of s*** at roughly the same time as Bruce joined Villa yet with far less resources is way ahead of Bruce.

The target for Bruce this season had to be promotion and with the amount of resource he has been given since his arrival to not achieve that goal warrants dismissal.

[striker]

2 minutes ago, pacbuddies said:

If we make the play offs and fail to get promoted he should be sacked.

The Wolves manager has only been in the English league system for 9 months and is way ahead of Bruce. The Cardiff manager inherited a bag of s*** at roughly the same time as Bruce joined Villa yet with far less resources is way ahead of Bruce.

The target for Bruce this season had to be promotion and with the amount of resource he has been given since his arrival to not achieve that goal warrants dismissal.

Would like to see those who keep making excuses for Bruce answer your second paragraph.

I really don’t think Xia will tolerate a second failure to gain promotion anyway and rightly so.

[Demitri_C]

1 hour ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

If we don’t go for Dean Smith at the end of the season assuming we are not promoted  then I could see him at West Brom.

I have a feeling bruce will end up at West Brom if he is removed end of the season

[sne]

2 games with 2 pretty strange formation changes.

I'm fine with making adjustments during games, I encourage it.

As long as it's formations that the team has been working on in training and are at least a bit familiar with and comfortable in.

If they are not then it's just rolling the dice and hope it works.

2 seasons in I'd expect us to have these things in place.

Not sure we do and that is really disappointing.

[PieFacE]

Not good enough this week.  

[Eastie]

1 hour ago, striker said:

Would like to see those who keep making excuses for Bruce answer your second paragraph.

I really don’t think Xia will tolerate a second failure to gain promotion anyway and rightly so.

After the wolves game on here  many of us agreed that he should be manager next season .

I know there were many with that viewpoint but clearly the last 2 games have been unacceptable and I can understand the change of heart in many who had backed Bruce .

I think very few would have thought a week ago we would be in this situation now - whoever is to blame its happening too often under Bruce’s watch and you cannot afford to lose games in this manner .

the last 2 games we have been outfought and out thought - on and off the pitch it has been far from acceptable .

i reserve judgement until the season is over as to whether Bruce should go , but there are serious questions about his tenure . 

Edited March 18, 2018 by Eastie

[Vive_La_Villa]

During our good run I didn’t want to get too excited because it did feel like the team and shape picked itself. 

We have only managed to win 2 games from going behind. One of them we were lucky that the opponent was not already out of sight. 

No plan B when going behind is where the problem lies. Hopefully for those 3 crucial games in May we do not go behind. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

9 minutes ago, Eastie said:

Didn’t you agree after the wolves game on here that he should be manager next season whatever happens ? I know there were many with that viewpoint but clearly the last 2 games have been unacceptable and I can understand the change of heart in many who had backed Bruce .

I have to admit it’s suprised me all season when people have had this viewpoint. 

[Eastie]

9 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I have to admit it’s suprised me all season when people have had this viewpoint. 

Me too but I can see why many would think it after the wolves game when it seemed we were playing high tempo and with confidence and agression - I find the difference in our last 2 displays quite staggering - were players thinking they could beat anyone now and was complacency a part of it - qpr and Bolton wanted it more than we did .

Did our players  we could just roll them over with ease ?  The application and desire was not there - unacceptable .

Edited March 18, 2018 by Eastie

[sheepyvillian]

7 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I have to admit it’s suprised me all season when people have had this viewpoint. 

You're not the only one. How can anyone say it's progress without promotion ?

[TRO]

9 hours ago, srsmithusa said:

You didnt respond to my questions.

 What does he shoulder the blame for?  

What is the appropriate reaction to those particular “failings?”

 

He is the manager, he has to take responsibility for his team.

However He is to blame and shouldering the blame is not the same thing, I hope you recognise that.

I'm not sure what caused it.....some of our players, didn't look as though they wanted the last 2 games.....not sure how you deal with that, Steve Bruce is an experienced manager, he will know if he can fix it or not.

Whats your view?

Why do you think we can offer such a massive disparity in form in the space of 1 week?

[AshVilla]

I think he's a limited manager and was brought in as a short term fix to try and get us back into the premier league and anything but promotion this season will be a failure warranting the sack.

He's had nearly two full seasons here now and i still see a team that has no plan B and we still only know how to play one way.

I certainly wouldn't want him as manager in the premier league, not that i think we will get there anyway with him at the helm.

Sad times really, if we don't go up this season we are pretty much ****.

Edited March 18, 2018 by AshVilla

[sne]

I've had the same view from the get go that he should not be our manager next season no matter what happens (barring the unlikely outcome that we went on a all season unbeaten run and won the league at a canter)

If we fail to get promoted he(we) will have failed both at short term (get us promoted) and at long term (build a team for the coming seasons)

If we are promoted I don't see him as the manager to manage us in the PL or build the team to play there.

No I do not hate him  I just don't rate him as more than a competent but limited Championship manager.

[TRO]

23 minutes ago, Eastie said:

After the wolves game on here  many of us agreed that he should be manager next season .

I know there were many with that viewpoint but clearly the last 2 games have been unacceptable and I can understand the change of heart in many who had backed Bruce .

I think very few would have thought a week ago we would be in this situation now - whoever is to blame its happening too often under Bruce’s watch and you cannot afford to lose games in this manner .

the last 2 games we have been outfought and out thought - on and off the pitch it has been far from acceptable .

i reserve judgement until the season is over as to whether Bruce should go , but there are serious questions about his tenure . 

I think its out fought, more than out thought.....and then other things get affected and we start chasing around like headless chickens.

I was just listening to Mourinho in a summing up of his team and he said " One player had a very poor game, but he wanted to play and played with a passion for wanting the shirt.....There were others who were playing better, but I can see, they were saying please come and get me off mister"

If it can happen to a Mourinho team it can happen to anyone.....To keep seeking another manager after every time we have this situation is desperate, there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that someone else wouldn't  have the same problem.

We can clearly beat anyone ,but we can equally get beat by anyone we do not have the consistency of the teams we are competing against.....We are not rounded enough and I suspect injuries have played a crucial part in that.

I would have played Samba against QPR & Bolton if he was fit.....JT & JC look a bit muscle weary to me,call it fatigued, they are in their 30's and have had a tough old season where they have been great.....they don't look quite as dominant lately and I think it has had a knock on effect to the team.

Many factors are catching up with us IMO

[Eastie]

3 minutes ago, TRO said:

I think its out fought, more than out thought.....and then other things get affected and we start chasing around like headless chickens.

I was just listening to Mourinho in a summing up of his team and he said " One player had a very poor game, but he wanted to play and played with a passion for wanting the shirt.....There were others who were playing better, but I can see, they were saying please come and get me off mister"

If it can happen to a Mourinho team it can happen to anyone.....To keep seeking another manager after every time we have this situation is desperate, there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that someone else wouldn't  have the same problem.

We can clearly beat anyone ,but we can equally get beat by anyone we do not have the consistency of the teams we are competing against.....We are not rounded enough and I suspect injuries have played a crucial part in that.

I would have played Samba against QPR & Bolton if he was fit.....JT & JC look a bit muscle weary to me,call it fatigued, they are in their 30's and have had a tough old season where they have been great.....they don't look quite as dominant lately and I think it has had a knock on effect to the team.

Many factors are catching up with us IMO

A fair assumption - let’s hope we are fresh for the 3 play off games -failure and the consequences will be dire. 

Chester isn’t in his 30s yet by the way  

Edited March 18, 2018 by Eastie

[Vive_La_Villa]

@TRO for me it’s the lack of any tactical nous. We look best suited as 4-4-1-1 and when we take the lead we are able to remain solid and see out games.

But when we go behind and the shape and counter attacking system isn’t working we can all sense that it’s not going to change. 

Now I don’t know what Nuno, Jokanovic or even Warnock would do in these situations. But whatever Bruce seems to do it clearly doesn’t work. More often than not it makes the situation worse! 

[villianusa]

I only watched the 2nd half yesterday and the conditions were not suitable for either team to play in. Bolton handled them better than we did even though they created very little and deserved to win.

In those conditions, I didn't care that he had four strikers on, I cared the tactics the team used after that. I'm not one to promote long ball, but that's the way we should have gone. Davies and Grabban should have been pushed upon their backline with Hogan and RMH picking up knockdowns. I'm not sure why Grabban kept coming deep to pick up the ball where a number 10 should have been and Grealish taking the ball of the defenders and trying to dribble it 50 yards up the field. We played to deep in conditions that didn't suit it.

We got the tactics wrong yesterday and if that came from Bruce, then it falls on him. If players were trying to adapt to the conditions and didn't listen to orders, shame on them. I was confident at the start of the season that we would get through the playoff if needed, but as everyone on here, I'm disappointed in our results since last Saturday. I am still confident we can achieve playoff victory.

I think Bruce has got a B+ so far this season and will wait to see where we are next season before I say if he goes or not. 

 

[Vive_La_Villa]

3 minutes ago, villianusa said:

I only watched the 2nd half yesterday and the conditions were not suitable for either team to play in. Bolton handled them better than we did even though they created very little and deserved to win.

In those conditions, I didn't care that he had four strikers on, I cared the tactics the team used after that. I'm not one to promote long ball, but that's the way we should have gone. Davies and Grabban should have been pushed upon their backline with Hogan and RMH picking up knockdowns. I'm not sure why Grabban kept coming deep to pick up the ball where a number 10 should have been and Grealish taking the ball of the defenders and trying to dribble it 50 yards up the field. We played to deep in conditions that didn't suit it.

We got the tactics wrong yesterday and if that came from Bruce, then it falls on him. If players were trying to adapt to the conditions and didn't listen to orders, shame on them. I was confident at the start of the season that we would get through the playoff if needed, but as everyone on here, I'm disappointed in our results since last Saturday. I am still confident we can achieve playoff victory.

I think Bruce has got a B+ so far this season and will wait to see where we are next season before I say if he goes or not. 

 

Good post. The irony is Bruce got a lot of criticism in the first half of the season for direct (long ball) tactics. Yesterday was the game that it was acceptable to play that way and we didn’t do it!