Steve Bruce

[bobzy]

6 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

I thought the selection and tactics were all over the place and that was reflected in the performance, Bruce as far as I'm concerned is on borrowed time, he's clueless, everything seems to be plucked out of thin air, clearly not the man to take us forward.

A lot of people have said about the selection, SO....

 

...who would you have picked?

[TRO]

8 minutes ago, terrytini said:

If Pep does it it’ll be called total football.

Imagine how many we will win by if we get a forward who can score and a CB who can defend !

been saying that for months...except our club has had to deal with exceptional circumstances.

For me Terry.....I thought last year watching Terry and Chester, good players but reminded me of  sweepers, not exactly dominating Centre backs that dominate particularly in the air.

I saw a team today, dominated physically and a ref that just allowed cynical fouls to go unabated.....but hey we want promotion.....only Hutton and McGinn can mix it.....Jack rides the tackles and just highlights the ridiculous challenges the ref lets go.....but we don't as a team give as good as we get.....we have a few too many passengers in that respect.

Kodjia was a complete joke, despite his rough treatment, surely he should use his superior skills to negate the physical assault by out witting them....he looked brain dead.

Looking at Green....He needs to watch Robinson their left back to know what tenacity and fire in the belly means.....just a passenger for me.

This team needs a massive wake up call.....albeit to come away with a win, god knows how they resurrected it, because at 1-2 down we looked dead.

fair play for coming back to secure the 3 points but as far as performance goes.....very mixed bag for me.

Wigan do look like a Cardiff to me....but Hey ho.....who am I to tell teams how to do it.

 

 

[DaveAV1]

2 hours ago, bobzy said:

First time we've won our first 2 league games since 1999/00.  That's pretty staggering.

When did we last win the first three?

[terrytini]

1 minute ago, TRO said:

been saying that for months...except our club has had to deal with exceptional circumstances.

For me Terry.....I thought last year watching Terry and Chester, good players but reminded me of  sweepers, not exactly dominating Centre backs that dominate particularly in the air.

I saw a team today, dominated physically and a ref that just allowed cynical fouls to go unabated.....but hey we want promotion.....only Hutton and McGinn can mix it.....Jack rides the tackles and just highlights the ridiculous challenges the ref lets go.....but we don't as a team give as good as we get.....we have a few too many passengers in that respect.

Kodjia was a complete joke, despite his rough treatment, surely he should use his superior skills to negate the physical assault by out witting them....he looked brain dead.

Looking at Green....He needs to watch Robinson their left back to know what tenacity and fire in the belly means.....just a passenger for me.

This team needs a massive wake up call.....albeit to come away with a win, god knows how they resurrected it, because at 1-2 down we looked dead.

fair play for coming back to secure the 3 points but as far as performance goes.....very mixed bag for me.

Wigan do look like a Cardiff to me....but Hey ho.....who am I to tell teams how to do it.

 

 

I don’t think we were dominated, physically or in any other sense. I thought Jedi looked tired, but not dominated. Chester was fine, one tackle in particular was a classic. Hutton, Jack, and McGinn weren’t dominated either.

Kodja, yes, he still looks a shadow of his former self. Axel and Green - yes they were flimsy at times, but not dominated, for me.

Mixed bag ? Yes.....but I’d say the same about practically every team I’ve watched this season, and the World Cup.

In my view we were in charge - despite some poor defending - until we gifted them a goal....then I’d say even until HT.

Second half, average for 25 minutes.....Wigan got the goal and started to play with confidence ( they will do well for a couple of months) but again, no more or less so than other teams....then a great comeback.

Nothing that worried me, defence will improve with time together, spirit is great, some great moments of interplay...usually involving Jack or McGinn.......but someone needs to be a striker.

I was very confident pre season, and am more so after 2 games.

.

[WhatAboutTheFinish]

7 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

When did we last win the first three?

62/63 season! 

[terrytini]

2 minutes ago, WhatAboutTheFinish said:

62/63 season! 

Is that true ?

[WhatAboutTheFinish]

1 minute ago, terrytini said:

Is that true ?

Yeah I’m pretty sure I read it earlier today on one of the news sites. Incredible isn’t it?! 

[ciggiesnbeer]

I was entertained today. End to end stuff. A genuinely enjoyable game of football. I give some credit to Bruce, I surely would give him some of the blame the other way around. It was helped by the fact Wigan came to play attacking football as well of course.

Edited August 11, 2018 by ciggiesnbeer

[AvfcRigo82]

1 hour ago, bobzy said:

Pretty ridiculous, but OK.  I think we were 8th favourites with the bookies before the season started.

How is it ridiculous?

You may be only one of many that will be satisfied with him staying as manager if we fail to gain promotion again.

[M_Afro]

Just cannot get excited about his teams. He just seems to muddle his way through, hanging on, in spite of his inadequacies! I genuinely think that a better manager could get us to play much better with exactly the same resources.

Anybody who genuinely thinks we have played well in more than a handful of games since Brucie took over does not understand football. We will not get promoted this season if he remains in charge. I have said the same in each of the past two seasons and I was right. Nothing has changed now.

Hope he proves me wrong.........but he won’t 

[villa89]

1 hour ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

I thought the selection and tactics were all over the place and that was reflected in the performance, Bruce as far as I'm concerned is on borrowed time, he's clueless, everything seems to be plucked out of thin air, clearly not the man to take us forward.

It's been the same since he got here. Formations, team sheets and "tactics" (if any) all seemingly picked out of a mystery box the night before the game. No gameplan, no structure, no attempt made to keep the ball, no confidence in what we are trying to do. 

The sooner he's gone the better. 

Edited August 11, 2018 by villa89

[jjaacckk91]

I like many of you thought the first team selection today was a bit odd, but I think I get what he is trying to do.

Last year we were reliant on the pretty much the same first 11 and I suspect Bruce is trying to make this more of a squad effort this year, Chester and grealish are going to be everpresents but I can see a lot more rotation this year as we have multiple good options in a lot of positions that I don't think weaken us too much.

At least I hope that is the plan.

[jim]

1 hour ago, bobzy said:

A lot of people have said about the selection, SO....

 

...who would you have picked?

A CB at CB would be a good start!

Not an ageing midfielder who has been a liability every time he has played in the position.

We have a highly rated CB in Axel who has played in that position all pre season for one of the biggest clubs in the world. Bruce plays him at RB, guess he knows more than Mourinho.

[DaveAV1]

1 hour ago, WhatAboutTheFinish said:

62/63 season! 

Blimey!

[Kuwabatake Sanjuro]

Hopefully there is some logical rotation for the Yeovil game. Something like:

--------------------------Nyland/Moreira

Bree------Suliman/Bedeau---Elphick--------Taylor

--------------------------Whelan

--------------Doyle Hayes-----Hourihane

O'Hare/Blackett Taylor-----------------------Adomah

---------------------Hepburn Murphy

Hopefully no burning players out and give youth a chance. Nyland could do with games but Moreira would probably be expecting game time.

 

[foreveryoung]

To me, we seem to have the players, but yet again not the manager. We may moan at Kodja but we just need a manager to wake him up, an play a few others in there rightful positions.

[Stratvillan]

I thought the subs today were positive and had a massive impact on the game.

There were few people who thought Elphick played well against Hull, so assuming he should be dropped who comes in. I'm surprised that he chose jedinak instead of axel.

Up front we have no options. RHM is being blooded (slowly and correctly imo) no matter how poor kodjia is, he's our best option at the moment. Davis and hogan aren't fit. 

[weedman]

On the selection of Jedinak, according to sky sports we made 21 headed clearances in the game and won nearly 60% of the aeriel duels. That's why he was put in the defence, he is by far our most commanding player in the air, he was put in to deal with the long balls. 

He screwed up the back pass for sure, but that's not down to him being out of position, it's a mistake. He makes 758 back passes a match regardless of his position (stat may not be 100% accurate) 

Oh for fairness, Wigan made 3 headed clearances all game by comparison...Bruce ball eh? 

[sparrow1988]

13 minutes ago, weedman said:

On the selection of Jedinak, according to sky sports we made 21 headed clearances in the game and won nearly 60% of the aeriel duels. That's why he was put in the defence, he is by far our most commanding player in the air, he was put in to deal with the long balls. 

He screwed up the back pass for sure, but that's not down to him being out of position, it's a mistake. He makes 758 back passes a match regardless of his position (stat may not be 100% accurate) 

Oh for fairness, Wigan made 3 headed clearances all game by comparison...Bruce ball eh? 

Do not come in here spouting facts to back up your opinion. I will not have it. I want unreasoned unfounded over the top comments. 

[Villarocker]

3 hours ago, TRO said:

been saying that for months...except our club has had to deal with exceptional circumstances.

For me Terry.....I thought last year watching Terry and Chester, good players but reminded me of  sweepers, not exactly dominating Centre backs that dominate particularly in the air.

I saw a team today, dominated physically and a ref that just allowed cynical fouls to go unabated.....but hey we want promotion.....only Hutton and McGinn can mix it.....Jack rides the tackles and just highlights the ridiculous challenges the ref lets go.....but we don't as a team give as good as we get.....we have a few too many passengers in that respect.

Kodjia was a complete joke, despite his rough treatment, surely he should use his superior skills to negate the physical assault by out witting them....he looked brain dead.

Looking at Green....He needs to watch Robinson their left back to know what tenacity and fire in the belly means.....just a passenger for me.

This team needs a massive wake up call.....albeit to come away with a win, god knows how they resurrected it, because at 1-2 down we looked dead.

fair play for coming back to secure the 3 points but as far as performance goes.....very mixed bag for me.

Wigan do look like a Cardiff to me....but Hey ho.....who am I to tell teams how to do it.

 

 

TRO, say what you want about the players mate but, truth is, Bruce has worked with the vast majority of them long enough to grow some backbone and spirit into them.

Also, why has he not addressed, as a matter of priority, the replacement of John Terry? You cannot lose a player of his standing and simply hope that Elphick becomes decent again or Jedinak will cut out the mistakes. Jedinak doesn't work at CB and Bruce needs to learn that before he costs us games. 

I think that so far Leeds look like last season's Wolves (pressing fancy football with foreign manager) and Middlesbrough look like last season's Cardiff (journeyman British manager grinding out results). Villa look like last season's Villa - the manager is the same and doing the same things. 

Bruce needs to adapt to the modern Championship otherwise we will waste another season in our history.