Steve Bruce

[TRO]

Right now we have issues that are causing us massive problems.

• Albert is shadow of himself and there is no clear replacement.
• Green is not showing the signs we would hope for.
• Nyland is not showing signs of competency.
• The left centre back role is doubtful.
• The left back role is not ideal.

Now, you can blame Bruce for all that, if you wish .......but to create other issues regarding the way we play, is there any wonder the spectacle is not what it should be.

You simply cannot sweep all that under the carpet and call it something else.

[TRO]

10 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Maybe because they have actually watched the games and realise like anyone else who has watched them that the three wins and a draw is Emperors New Clothes? 

Well if thats the case.....we will see.

[TRO]

I am not saying, steve Bruce is long term.

but to just discard this summer with ease and then question the actions of the manager, i find very harsh.

He wasn't sure he had a job, we wasn't sure we had a club and insinuations spread to doubting our recruitment.

There clearly is work to do.....and yes the football is not acceptable.

let them fix it.

[VillanousOne]

what is painful is he would make a better case for needing more loan signings if he just played the players he has in the positions you would expect to play them in, not saying it would make things 'ok' just a little more balanced. 

                       Nyland

Taylor -- Axel (or Elphick) - Chester - Hutton

Adomah -- McGinn -- Connor (or even Jed) --- Green

                    Grealish

                           Kodjia

Switch the sides Green with Adomah play on if that makes more sense. Not sure either are naturally right sided wingers but Adomah usually plays on the right anyway.

Adomah and Taylor are possible weak links in that side but at least it would be a better balance than what we've seen so far and I think will work better.... for now, well better than.....

                      Nyland

Hutton (Right Back) -  Jed  (Midfielder) - Chester - Axel (Centre Back)

Adomah -- McGinn -- Thor (no idea what form of midfielder he now is)  --- Elmo (Right Back)

                    Grealish

                           Kodjia

At the moment we know we need back up or even a full on replacement for Taylor.

We could do with another centre back but i doubt that is a priority now we have Axel and the fact Bruce thinks Jed can play there.

He wants another attacking player, which makes sense although at some point we will have Hogan, Davis, RHM all kicking their heels for another season until loans or sales in Jan.

 

 

 

[villa89]

1 hour ago, TRO said:

And yes the football is not acceptable.

let them fix it.

He's had long enough to fix it and has shown he's not able to get us playing well on a consistent basis. 

[villa89]

1 hour ago, TRO said:

Right now we have issues that are causing us massive problems.

• Albert is shadow of himself and there is no clear replacement.
• Green is not showing the signs we would hope for.
• Nyland is not showing signs of competency.
• The left centre back role is doubtful.
• The left back role is not ideal.

Now, you can blame Bruce for all that, if you wish .......but to create other issues regarding the way we play, is there any wonder the spectacle is not what it should be.

You simply cannot sweep all that under the carpet and call it something else.

I'd agree with the above issues but at the end of the day we are a team playing below it's potential and have been since Bruce joined. His job is to get the best out of the players that he has and, from my point of view, he doesn't do that. 

[srsmithusa]

1 hour ago, TRO said:

I empathise with your comments, that we lack coherent football, but we clearly have differences why that is.

you say if you failed in your job's targets,twice in a row you would possibly go and then mitigate that by saying held to account.which is it?

In most companies, if you fail your objectives, but have feasible rationale why that is and it is accepted by the directors as reasonable mitigation, you will possibly survive.

We don't know, whether those conversations have been made or not.

The question here is.....is it all Bruces fault, is it partly his fault or is it none of his fault at all.

Our football currently has issues, I don't think its ALL his fault.

It’s not all his fault.  The part about my job was a throw away comparison. (Held to account and terminated were meant to be the same thing.). But again “throw away” in my mind.  To me the issue is our club culture.  

It’s not 100% the managers fault (and it never, ever is one persons’ fault when a large organization is failing to perform).  But at Villa no-one is ever held accountable.  Except maybe Round and Wyness?  But football clubs must ultimately be judged by the football, not by the backroom stuff.   

Jedi makes two bad blunders at CB and plays there again next week.  Adomah misplays multiple simple balls and does it again next week.  Jack gets whacked (again) and our players, including the captain stroll past the referee for the restart without remonstrating for the well-earned caution.  And it happens again next week.  The manager says we don’t play the ball quickly enough and nothing changes.  They don’t get fired, fined, benched, publicly criticized, nothing. (I know you’ll say that we may not see stuff being addressed behind closed doors, but it’s not being EFFECTIVELY addressed because the very same thing will happen again next match.) 

That’s just not acceptable, but somehow it all gets excused.  It’s not 100% his fault so we let it continue.  When it’s players, we blame the opponent, or the manager, or the coaches and nothing changes.  We blame injuries, refs, bad luck, sky coverage, rather than persons.  And on the occasion when we do blame persons (we didn’t move the ball quickly enough), they are not held accountable to CHANGE. Teflon came to stop the rot and IMO has failed because there remains no accountability.  

Maybe I’m not really Bruce out.  Maybe I’m “excuses and rationalizations out.”   The biggest problem at our club IMO is the culture that says, “he’s doing pretty well all things considered” so let’s just stick with mediocrity.  Or even, it’s not 100 % his fault, so let’s let him keep failing.  We accept the failures as “the. best as could be expected all things considered” and the rot continues.  We are fading into mediocrity because it’s what we accept.  Rinse. Repeat.  

As a club, we are not “Prepared” to succeed, and we won’t, because we do not demand it.  We excuse it, rationalize it, at all levels of the football side at least.   

[TheStagMan]

7 hours ago, sheepyvillian said:

And whose fault is it that we're not in the Premier league ?

Not Bruce's, no sir-ee, definitely not Bruce. must be someone else.

[PompeyVillan]

A Bruce in or out poll on Aston Villa Worldwide on Facebook with 1800 respondents had Bruce in at 75%. 

[TRO]

9 hours ago, sheepyvillian said:

I think you'll find the left back from Bristol City went to Fulham because he thought the football would suit his game more. I'm not saying the wages weren't a factor also, but he's definitely on record as saying he thinks his game will improve more with the way Fulham play.

 

is that a cop out for wanting more money and prem status

[TRO]

you all need to kick the cat...and if you haven't got one, get one.

[AvfcRigo82]

I wonder if Steve Bruce listens to Adam Ant?..

Don't you ever, don't you ever
Stop being negative, holding us to ransom

Don't you ever, don't you ever
Want three points, instead of fighting for just one

Stevie Bruce
Stevie Bruce
Modern day tactics are nothing to be scared of
 

Do you ever, do you ever
Play your players in their natural positions

Don't you ever, don't you ever
Try to lower us, forgetting all our standards
Don't you ever, don't you ever
Want to try and play entertaining football

It's alarming
It's alarming

Villa park should be a place that everybody's scared of

Don't you ever, don't you ever
Stop playing Bruceball, Pretending that it's handsome..

 

 

I guess not?  

[sheepyvillian]

19 minutes ago, TRO said:

is that a cop out for wanting more money and prem status

Even if it is, it's true. Just look at James Bree.

[sheepyvillian]

5 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

I wonder if Steve Bruce listens to Adam Ant?..

Don't you ever, don't you ever
Stop being negative, holding us to ransom

Don't you ever, don't you ever
Want three points, instead of fighting for just one

Stevie Bruce
Stevie Bruce
Modern day tactics are nothing to be scared of
 

Do you ever, do you ever
Play your players in their natural positions

Don't you ever, don't you ever
Try to lower us, forgetting all our standards
Don't you ever, don't you ever
Want to try and play entertaining football

It's alarming
It's alarming

Villa park should be a place that everybody's scared of

Don't you ever, don't you ever
Stop playing Bruceball, Pretending that it's handsome..

 

 

I guess not?  

Love that one to catch on.

[AvfcRigo82]

1 hour ago, PompeyVillan said:

A Bruce in or out poll on Aston Villa Worldwide on Facebook with 1800 respondents had Bruce in at 75%. 

Blimey, I didn't realise he had that many friends in the media.

Keith Wyness must have been busy setting up those other 1750 accounts.  

 

Edited August 20, 2018 by AvfcRigo82

[AvfcRigo82]

6 hours ago, NurembergVillan said:

100%.

I'd replace Bruce.  We have to.  But it's got to be part of a root and branch change in approach to management at AVFC.

Get a proper CEO in, with a vision.  Have him get the DoF in that can execute that vision on the football side of the business.  Have him get in a Head Coach that can bring it to life on the pitch.

It's not easy, and it won't be quick.  Until we can get the right bodies in the top roles, Bruce is ideal to keep us in contention.

Absolutely NV. It's a big frustration.

As much as it annoys me to see it we are a case of better the devil you know with Bruce right now until these changes are implemented at the top.

While I accept these things cannot be rushed I do wish the club would hurry up. Time is money, games are points, we don't want to lose the notion for promotion.

[A'Villan]

14 hours ago, Morley_crosses_to_Withe said:

Soooo, problem solved then: we need a manager who can get us playing like Barcelona. It can’t be any of the managers from the other 97 teams in that study, though, because they don’t play like Barca either. 

On the bolded bit, perhaps Bruce bought McGinn because he wanted a more dynamic midfielder who could compliment Grealish; one who is adept at passing sharply, moving quickly and finding spaces to take the ball back effectively. 

 

I take your point.

Mine was clearly not to suggest that I have the answers on moving forward, that I expect us to play like Barcelona, or that I have no faith in Bruce's ability to find a way for us to win games this season. My message was for us to learn about what works in the game, and to incorporate it in to our improvement.

I simply am trying to highlight, as I did in the ratings and reaction thread, what works best in football. From a viewpoint that is based on thorough and you might say expert analysis.

This is a difficult thing to ascertain for any particular club, and I don't envy Bruce for the position he's in.

I agree, McGinn would be a good fit for that role, and I certainly hope that's why he's been purchased, hence the nature of my post.

[abdulaziz1]

6 hours ago, TRO said:

Right now we have issues that are causing us massive problems.

• Albert is shadow of himself and there is no clear replacement.
• Green is not showing the signs we would hope for.
• Nyland is not showing signs of competency.
• The left centre back role is doubtful.
• The left back role is not ideal.

Now, you can blame Bruce for all that, if you wish .......but to create other issues regarding the way we play, is there any wonder the spectacle is not what it should be.

You simply cannot sweep all that under the carpet and call it something else.

You could say that but, we are much better in the midfield (we didnt have Jack some parts of last season, McGin is a huge addition), we have Kodjia upfront who is better than last season strikers. We had the LB issue last season.

So our weakness are GK and CB, many clubs are having less than average keepers and going with it.

If we’re having an issue with wingers, why just we don’t play from the midfield which is our main strength?

[Villan_of_oz]

I admire all of you, who still pay any money to watch our matches. I still love Aston Villa, the club I chose to support when I first started following the sport.

 

Maybe it's living in another country, Australia.

Maybe it's every time I pay $10 just to watch one match, I get served up dross.

I fell asleep at my computer in the 2nd half on Saturday night, (mind you it was 1230am and I'd been up since 6 in the morning) it was just like all other times I'd bothered to pay $10 to watch my team. Mostly crap.

I don't blame Steve Bruce for us being a mess of a club.

I don't blame him for us being in the championship.

I do blame him for being just plain bored of watching!

Doesn't mean I want him sacked, necessarily. His boring, restrained, defensive, incohesive, non flowing style of play may just do the job. I'll be very happy for him and us if it does.

But I ain't staying up all night and paying a tenner too watch it again. I'll wake up in the morning and check the scores.

The. Football. Is. CRAP.

 

Edited August 20, 2018 by Villan_of_oz

[Stratvillan]

Thought Villa played patches of good football on Saturday. (Sit backs and awaits condemnation). 

The issue I had with Bruce is that even my 9 year old knew he wouldn't make subs until a prearranged point in the game, and even then, not really change the system. We've 2 or 3 players who are hideously out of form and yet still get picked, and these are all forward / attacking players. So even when we play out from the back as Nyland wants to do in fairness, when we have a collection of forwards who can't control / make a simple pass the ball comes straight back. 

Do I blame Bruce -yes

do i blame the players -yes.