Steve Bruce

[TRO]

3 hours ago, terrytini said:

 

We weren’t shaky or unsure in my view.

And Ipswich were never on the ropes, they fought very well.

Id agree there is a weakness in personnel- primarily at Centre Back.

I also remain to be convinced by Axel, though he was ok.

But the rest of our players are good enough. It’s largely the same group that narrowly missed out last season - I don’t understand this suggestion that the players are not good enough.

I saw no lack of effort or commitment, or lack of engaging in the physical aspect of the game.

I saw a player SO out of it, in Albert, that it was like 10 men. 

And I saw us adopt a safety first approach, needlessly in my view- and certainly for too long.

Finally I saw players fail to keep a cool head in decent positions .. it happens, it was below par, but the players responsible are all decent players.

When we FINALLY decided to try to use our midfield we looked much better.

So 

• The Goalkeeper is ok?
•  The left Centre half position is ok?
• The left wing is ok?
• The right wing is ok?
• The central Striker is ok.....Although I think Kodjia is coming back slowly.?

That is half the team Terry.....sorry mate, we are nowhere near ok.

[TRO]

2 minutes ago, QldVilla said:

Agree. I think the manager has built up some credit over the past 2 years. We can nit pick about where we think the club should be, but that minimises where the club was after relegation, and the subsequent poor signings before Bruce's appointment. But that doesn't remove the concerns with how we are playing.

The manager wasn't able to get the players he wanted this season due to the financial crisis, again, it shouldn't be minimilised. He basically only had two weeks to do anything, when he was preparing to lose his best players. But the club needs to try to correct it, where it can, with loan signings. Terry left a big hole in defence, his leadership, experience, confidence etc, IMO that's what we're lacking at the back. How we are travelling in October, will tell us how the club is situated.

Problem for me is......I don't think we are looking for a centre Half?

raving nuts IMO

[TRO]

11 minutes ago, av1 said:

Who is to blame for that? He signed them all. 

Yes, but how many has he lost through no fault of his own.....He has had players simply not do it for him...like Lansbury and Hogan.

I accept he has to take responsibility for that.

Its not a clear picture, there are many arguments and counter arguments.

[villabromsgrove]

I've just finished a brilliant party night with family and friends, and I've just logged on before going to bed after a good day.

I'm not down about dropping two  points against Ipswich. I felt that we would win (somehow) because our players are a bit better than theirs. When they went down to ten men I started to worry, because Bruce doesn't cope well with change. In the end we came away with one point and I'm not going to let that ruin my weekend.

I've posted enough posts explaining why I think that Bruce cannot take us forward, and now I'm content to sit back and wait for the inevitable. Night all.

[QldVilla]

1 hour ago, TRO said:

Problem for me is......I don't think we are looking for a centre Half?

raving nuts IMO

You could be right, or he can't loan a better CB than what we have, sometimes it can be a catch 22. I hope he does find the right player to put in at CB, it could make the clubs season.

[AvfcRigo82]

6 hours ago, terrytini said:

I also remain to be convinced by Axel, though he was ok.

You are entitled to be while he contiues to be played out of position.

[romavillan]

Less than the sum of it's parts is entirely right, we put out 11 individuals every week and when we play a team we struggle.

Cacking ourselves about Brentford is entirely justified by recent history and the point above. They are a team, they are trained as a team they do rehearsed movements on and off the ball as a group to set them up to keep the ball and get into the final third with it. They play to feet and they have good movement, they are precisely the type of team that we will struggle against. They are more than the sum of their parts, by a mile.

CEO news is good news though!

[cbr600rr]

unless the owners change SB for big sam you are wasting your time ,unbeaten start, 7 points on the board.

[DaveAV1]

I keep reading that we missed promotion by a single game. But we had 46 games in which to get promoted and we failed. We succeeded in winning a second chance. In the semi final we scored once in 2 games and went through on away goals. We all know what happened next. 

Although you can argue the single game loss was all that was between us and promotion, I think we’re kidding ourselves if we think we were anything but not good enough. One goal in three important games, when the pressure was on.  I shudder to think what would be happening to us now in the PL. 

[omariqy]

I think you have to be blind not to see how he makes excuses for himself. Talks about wanting younger players and younger squad but he is the one who went down the experience route and used that to justify our high wage bill. He then talks about how things would have been different if Fredericks went off in the final but yesterday says its more difficult against 10 men. Which is it Steve? 

[DaveAV1]

6 hours ago, TRO said:

Yes, but how many has he lost through no fault of his own.....He has had players simply not do it for him...like Lansbury and Hogan.

I accept he has to take responsibility for that.

Its not a clear picture, there are many arguments and counter arguments.

How can it be no fault of his own?? Sure nobody has 100% success rate in signings and injuries happen to all teams. But he was fully aware of how many loan players we had that wouldn’t be available the following season. 

The main  reason Hogan hasn’t worked out is that he was the wrong player for the style that Steve Bruce’s teams play. Hardly not his fault. 

Edited August 19, 2018 by DaveAV1

[DaveAV1]

3 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

How can it be no fault of his own?? Sure nobody has 100% success rate in signings and injuries happen to all teams. But he was fully aware of how many loan players we had that wouldn’t be available the following season. 

The main  reason Hogan hasn’t worked out is that he was the wrong player for the style that Steve Bruce’s teams play. Hardly not his fault. 

Sorry TRO I see you did lay that at his door. Must read the posts properly, 6/10 

[A'Villan]

I'm not looking for Neymar-esque nutmegs on defenders and 25 yard curlers at this level. Or Barca's 317 game run of consecutive matches having over 50% possession.

Preferably not resting on the laurels of being a big club with clout and prestige in a lower division either. That is the culture to some degree. Culture is something you exhibit, not what you think or want. To me, it doesn't look great.

I don't doubt Bruce's intentions one bit, but the outcomes we experience are down to the teams culture, whether it's effective and productive or not. It's Bruce's job to make sure that everyone's on the same page, and that values and behaviours are congruent to goals and strategy. That then breeds engagement and motivation.

Bruce is hindered by the mismanagement of the board and outgoings? Maybe he is. However Bruce is a part of the decision making process that led to that. And he still has a healthy amount of proven players at this level, if they are not fit for the first team then he only has himself to look at unless its injury related.

Winning and losing are ephemeral and so it's probably best to focus attention on the process that led to the result instead of getting hung up on the results.

A research done on the 2012-13 season, 98 teams across the top five leagues (England,  France, Germany, Italy, Spain) were analysed on their passing patterns in order to establish and define any unique playing style using statistics. Over 1 million passes were analysed. There was only one outlier. Barca's tiki taka. Surprise, surprise. The team dominating Europe at that period. What this revealed about Barca's game was that in a three-pass sequence, a player who passed the ball will often receive it back in a one-two exchange immediately. Rocket science, huh? Well, apparently that's what set them apart from the other 97 top tier teams. One-twos.

It  makes sense though and is what we're lacking. The Wigan game being an exception where we could have scored 6 or 7 goals and especially that one-two between McGinn and Grealish where McGinn was passed the ball from Chester, McGinn passed to Grealish, Grealish backheeled it and McGinn kept his run going to have a shot go just wide. In Barca's system, the player who makes the pass has to be quick enough on his feet to move to a new position for the return, without the defense forcing an interception or error. Equally passing has to be sharp and weighted well. There is constant and dynamic movement, something we could learn and develop.

According to an interview given by a Fulham player they were slow to start due to the difficulty of Jokanovic's approach (I think it was passing in particular) and went on that run of form for the same reason.

I don't expect us to try and model Barca but I just go back to the notion of focusing on the process and what's working, what's not. I'm as concerned with getting in to the Premier League as I am seeing us building the foundations to survive it with.

[Stephen_Evans]

“We didn’t move the ball quickly enough.”

Well done for noticing, Steve.  The problem is we never do.  When are you going to do something about it?

[peterms]

1 hour ago, omariqy said:

He then talks about how things would have been different if Fredericks went off in the final but yesterday says its more difficult against 10 men.

You often hear managers say it's harder against 10.  I wonder how many would really prefer to face 11 than 10, if given the choice.  I can see it means having to adjust tactics mid-match, which some managers obviously find harder than others.

[Taxahunter]

15 hours ago, Skruff said:

He made us solid. He got rid of toxic attitude and hanging heads. He stopped the ship from sinking. He got the lifewests out, pumped out the water. But he is unable to make the engine running and the guns firing. 

Has he? All teams we have played against this season has scored against us, Hull, Wigan, Yeovil and Ipswich. Granted Yeovil was disallowed, but In my opinion it shouldnt have been. Its  Championship teams we should have had clean sheets against. 

Edited August 19, 2018 by Taxahunter

[Taxahunter]

15 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

Today wasn’t good enough. 

I actually thought we dominated the game and played some good stuff up until the final third. 

But we lacked a cutting edge in attack that we’ve seen too many times before. Not able to break down a team that has parked the bus. 

I saw some encouraging signs today that give me hope. Grealish and McGinn in midfield look promising, Kodjia looked much more like his normal self and the defence is slowly settling down. 

 But no doubt things going forward need to improve a lot on that evidence. Yes breaking down 10 men who have settled for a draw is tough, but it’s no excuse to not manage a goal. 

But Stevo, they didnt park the bus, they outplayed us with 10 men for the first 15 minutes of the second half and was closer, than we were, to scoring the 2nd goal 

[BigAl]

Bruce should have been sacked after playoff final end of.He has managed us for nearly 100 games ,he has done decent things with us but the remit is to get us promoted but he won’t do that he is too tactically inept and he can’t change anything up during a game and god forbid if the opposition manager changes formation we are clueless with what to do there’s no plan B and that will be our downfall it isn’t that the players aren’t good enough it’s that Bruce isn’t .

[Jareth]

3 hours ago, romavillan said:

CEO news is good news though!

What yer heard on that?

[Rodders]

In defending Bruce in the summer - relatively speaking - I was doing so with eyes wide open that there would be many frustrating days like this one ahead. It's annoying, but I suppose at least we have points on the board whilst hopefully improving very quickly. If we play this badly for a while, irrespective of points gained, Bruce won't be here by Christmas. The new owners cant be blind.