Popular Post Okonokos Posted June 13, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted June 13, 2018 1 minute ago, Jareth said: Bruce staying is what we need. We need new players to come in to a settled environment, not a complete tear down and start over. I think we'll see the benefit of stability this season. Definitely. In our current position I can't understand why anybody would want Bruce out. We need stability and a safe pair of hands now more than ever before. Bruce may not be glamorous but he is safe and more than capable of steadying the ship for us next season, whatever squad we have. I can't think of one single manager out there that we realistically could get that would be less of a risk than Bruce staying. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoof hearted Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 Ultimately, our opinions of whoever manages us are irrelevant, results and league position are paramount, we fell short on both counts so he should do the honourable thing. He won't of course and we'll no doubt stumble into next season with the same mediocre football with the odd decent (flattering) result against the better teams. I'm done with Villa for a month now, world cup eve and I'm going to forget our troubles and enjoy some entertaining footy for a change! Bring on Iran v Japan!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 For me next season will not be about promotion, and I honestly doubt it will be as bad as fighting against relegation. (Could still happen I guess if we get a points deduction and so on) Next season will be about rebuild, integrating the academy players, getting a solid foundation to progress from in regards to style of play and developing a cohesive tactic both in defense and possession. While I certainly can think of worse managers for that job than Bruce. He wouldn't even be on the list of managers I think suited for that job. He'd be better off at another club throwing a hail Mary for promotion, and we'd be better off with a manager with another skill set. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pintpotvilla Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 12 minutes ago, sne said: For me next season will not be about promotion, and I honestly doubt it will be as bad as fighting against relegation. (Could still happen I guess if we get a points deduction and so on) Next season will be about rebuild, integrating the academy players, getting a solid foundation to progress from in regards to style of play and developing a cohesive tactic both in defense and possession. While I certainly can think of worse managers for that job than Bruce. He wouldn't even be on the list of managers I think suited for that job. He'd be better off at another club throwing a hail Mary for promotion, and we'd be better off with a manager with another skill set. Come on now cheer up. There will be no points deduction and let's wait and see what the line up is on Aug 4th. I think you may be pleasantly suprised. Anyway they are going to need our fantastic support next season and that's exactly what they'll get Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 1 minute ago, pintpotvilla said: Come on now cheer up. There will be no points deduction and let's wait and see what the line up is on Aug 4th. I think you may be pleasantly suprised. Anyway they are going to need our fantastic support next season and that's exactly what they'll get By my standards that was a pretty cheerful post But honestly Bruce is playing a big part in sucking the joy out of watching Villa. Added with everything else that is rotten at the club I'd find it very difficult to into next season with him at the helm. And as I've said I think he'd be a terrible fit for the job at hand. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bannedfromHandV Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 14 hours ago, sheepyvillian said: This dispute about did we set up defensively. I suggest watching the first - half of our most important game of the season, if anyone has any doubts about the way Bruce wants his team's to play. It must be one of the most inept first - half performances in a play-off final ever. When you realise the consequences of that defeat, it makes the way we approached that game totally incomprehensible. Unforgivable, as far as I'm concerned. I want a manager who is prepared to send us out to play on the front foot from the first minute, especially against opposition, who are considered inferior to us. It still riles me how a club the size of Fulham were shown so much respect by our players . Why would you allow the opposition to just stroke the ball around like they did in that first - half ? Where was the intensity and will to dominate the game. All that so called experience, and where did it go ? AWOL. So that first half display was the Managers fault? Nothing to do with the players freezing up and bottling it no? Do you honestly think SB's teamtalk/final words before that first half were 'lads, go out there, do not attempt to press or tackle any Fulham players, kick the ball as far away as possible and as aimlessly as possible every time you get it and generally do nothing' - do you honestly think this was the tactic? The players lost that final, not SB. There were times in the first half when no-one took responsibility, where players (Chester & Terry) who have looked solid all season suddenly looked like complete stranger to one another. Do you also believe that it was SB's fault that Adomah (and to a slightly lesser extent Hutton) decided go to sleep for their goal - the one goal in the game? I know you don't like SB, you've made that patently clear on as many times as possible in the past 12+ months but the players lost that final, irrespective of how we set up tactically (by the way, the same formation and players won many games and scored many goals throughout the season). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Okonokos Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 1 minute ago, sne said: By my standards that was a pretty cheerful post But honestly Bruce is playing a big part in sucking the joy out of watching Villa. Added with everything else that is rotten at the club I'd find it very difficult to into next season with him at the helm. And as I've said I think he'd be a terrible fit for the job at hand. Can I ask why that is? Because personally I enjoyed last season more than any other season since O'Neill left. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jareth Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 I get that Bruce is not known for working with young players and creating a style of play, but he does have the advantage of having been at the club for nearly 2 years, he will know the younger players well and who is ready and who is not. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pintpotvilla Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 Just now, sne said: By my standards that was a pretty cheerful post But honestly Bruce is playing a big part in sucking the joy out of watching Villa. Added with everything else that is rotten at the club I'd find it very difficult to into next season with him at the helm. And as I've said I think he'd be a terrible fit for the job at hand. Yes it was quite cheerful for you and actually I agree that given a choice Bruce would not be my preferred candidate for a re-building job. However I don't think we have that choice. It also may not be the massive re-build that looked on the cards last week. Obviously we have lost a lot of the older players but Bruce has some funds and a good knowledge of the kids so we will see!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Rob182 Posted June 13, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted June 13, 2018 13 minutes ago, bannedfromHandV said: So that first half display was the Managers fault? Nothing to do with the players freezing up and bottling it no? Do you honestly think SB's teamtalk/final words before that first half were 'lads, go out there, do not attempt to press or tackle any Fulham players, kick the ball as far away as possible and as aimlessly as possible every time you get it and generally do nothing' - do you honestly think this was the tactic? The players lost that final, not SB. There were times in the first half when no-one took responsibility, where players (Chester & Terry) who have looked solid all season suddenly looked like complete stranger to one another. Do you also believe that it was SB's fault that Adomah (and to a slightly lesser extent Hutton) decided go to sleep for their goal - the one goal in the game? I know you don't like SB, you've made that patently clear on as many times as possible in the past 12+ months but the players lost that final, irrespective of how we set up tactically (by the way, the same formation and players won many games and scored many goals throughout the season). I try to be balanced in my opinions about Villa, but I can't agree with this. How many times last season did we play well for the full 90 minutes of a game? We could probably count it on one hand. That is fully at the manager's feet. If once, twice or three times in a season a team failed to perform for a full 45-minute half, then you could say that the players were at fault, because the manager presumably would have given them a rollocking and sorted it out for the next handful of games. But when it happens for the majority of the games in a season, the manager must take the blame. He's seen it over and over and over, so he should manage the team and stop them from doing it so regularly. You could blame a few individual players for momentarily lapses (ie: the goal), but I place the blame squarely with Steve Bruce for setting out the team 'in a certain way', which resulted in us having (yet again) an utterly appalling first half showing. 4 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post HeyAnty Posted June 13, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted June 13, 2018 15 minutes ago, Jareth said: I get that Bruce is not known for working with young players and creating a style of play, but he does have the advantage of having been at the club for nearly 2 years, he will know the younger players well and who is ready and who is not. I give you that and raise you Joshua Onomah. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted June 13, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted June 13, 2018 27 minutes ago, Okonokos said: Can I ask why that is? Because personally I enjoyed last season more than any other season since O'Neill left. Same. As I said before, I think people have failed to tweak their expectations of the standard of football to match the league we're in. For the Championship, our football is just fine. And last season we won bloody loads of games. It wasn't enough, but it was enjoyable. If people didn't enjoy last season then I feel bad for them, because it's probably as good as it will get for a long long time. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
praisedmambo Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 33 minutes ago, Okonokos said: Can I ask why that is? Because personally I enjoyed last season more than any other season since O'Neill left. Re: Bruce is sucking the joy out of watching Villa. I have to agree with Okonokos...how much joy was there in watching Villa before he came? From that perspective, and in fairness, from the perspective of reality, he's been a bit of a revelation. His football does feel incredibly limited and I like everyone wonder about an attacking genius coming in, but last season was the best in ages. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob182 Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 9 minutes ago, Stevo985 said: Same. As I said before, I think people have failed to tweak their expectations of the standard of football to match the league we're in. For the Championship, our football is just fine. And last season we won bloody loads of games. It wasn't enough, but it was enjoyable. If people didn't enjoy last season then I feel bad for them, because it's probably as good as it will get for a long long time. I haven't failed to tweaked my expectations. I would have been fine with a mid-table finish last season. I'm not the type of fan that expects promotion. But I can't bring myself to say that I enjoyed the style of football. I probably enjoyed our style of play, and how we imposed ourselves on the opposition, in 10 games, maybe. The rest of them, I was happy with the results when they were good, but we often won 'ugly'. No matter what the stats say about our goals or amount of passes, it can't be denied that we hit a lot of long balls and tended to rely on a moment of magic by one of our more expensive players, or for Grabban/ Hogan/ Davies to get a flick on from a long ball and build something from there. It can be effective, but I think it's old fashioned and too short-term an approach for where we are as a club right now. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Okonokos Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 3 minutes ago, praisedmambo said: Re: Bruce is sucking the joy out of watching Villa. I have to agree with Okonokos...how much joy was there in watching Villa before he came? From that perspective, and in fairness, from the perspective of reality, he's been a bit of a revelation. His football does feel incredibly limited and I like everyone wonder about an attacking genius coming in, but last season was the best in ages. I've genuinely not enjoyed a season so much probably since the 07/08 season, which was the best Villa team I've seen. I went to games expecting us to win, instead of maybe hoping for a draw. And I honestly don't think the football was as bad as some people make out. Look at the Derby home game for example. We were losing until the 85th minute but I still thoroughly enjoyed watching the game, so much so that I didn't want it to end. Nobody can say we didn't play good football that day. Same goes for the Wolves home game. We also mustn't forget that we were missing Grealish until December. Kodjia was effectively out for the season also.Terry was out with a broken foot for 10 games as well as various other injuries. The three teams that finished above us, did they at any point have the injuries that we did? Take the best three players from each of those teams out for the same length of time that ours were out for and I bet they wouldn't have coped as well as we did. Any team would miss players of that quality and yet, we were 90 minutes away from promotion in the end. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, Okonokos said: Can I ask why that is? Because personally I enjoyed last season more than any other season since O'Neill left. FWIW the second half of one of MON's seasons is probably the most frustrating half season of football I've ever seen. The man did everything wrong (from transfers in January to forfeiting the game against CSKA) he should have been sacked the second the season ended. But that's another topic. While I enjoy Villa getting 3 points on the board, ultimately we didn't get enough of those to reach our goal. And doing it against minnows while looking totally disjointed is not something that get my pulse rushing. No doubt there very times when we looked good, but those where IMO too few and far between considering. For my part I much rather watch us draw against say West Ham in the PL than win against Rotherham in the Championship if the end result is us still not getting promoted. I'll add that there very quite a few games I didn't get to or choose not to watch due to my job and they may have been humdingers the lot of em. Edit: Might have the MON seasons confused, I've tried to forget what happened. Edited June 13, 2018 by sne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted June 13, 2018 VT Supporter Share Posted June 13, 2018 Thanks god things are back to normal on here now. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave J Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 1 hour ago, Stevo985 said: Wow. If you're expecting improvement with those names you're in for a big disappointment. This is exactly why sacking Bruce might not be the great decision everybody thinks it will be. If those are the kind of replacements we can expect then we're ****. Improvement in style of play would be without question imo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainy316 Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 My main issue with Bruce is not the style of football but as soon as he comes up against a good team away from home he sets us up to fail every single time. We beat all the top 3 at home last season which proved we could go toe to toe with anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LakotaDakota Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 As daft as it seems maybe with some of the pressure off it may actually help. we were supposed to get promoted last year, that was the expectation but our poor start meant we were always playing catch-up & like it or nor sometimes pressure gets the better of people, even experienced players. Going into this season it seems our main goal is to still be around to complete game 46 and hopefuly finish mid-table ish. Get off to a good start to the season and who knows where we could end up with a slightly different mindset 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts