Steve Bruce

[bannedfromHandV]

13 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

You sound like Bruce. Always the victim, never his fault. 

That of 12 Bruce signings in the squad were 8 of the 12 that took the field against Burton is not only to his detriment as a football manager it's a disgrace, a debacle. 

Moreira - according to most on here he wasn't signed by Bruce so do we chalk that one off?

Taylor - was used as a makeweight in an exchange to get sulky pants Ayew out of the club

Elphick - signed before SB arrived

Tuanzebe - young player, minimal experience, tried in a new role 

Bree - young player, hasn't made the grade to be honest and doesn't look likely to do so

Lansbury - bit part player

Adomah - signed before SB arrived

Hourihane - the one 'genuine' first teamer, even he's looking likely to be pushed out of the starting XI

De Laet - Signed before SB arrived

Hepburn-Murphy - young player, trying to find his way (and currently failing, sorry to say)

El Ghazi - has been here one week or so, trying to settle into the club

 

That was the starting XI last night, so 7 players signed by SB (6 if we stick with the VT narrative that the keeper was not a SB signing) and I'm sure when all 7 were signed (bearing in mind that they weren't all signed at once) they were with a view to playing an important role either now or in the future, that it hasn't happened for most of them is either through bad luck or a failure on their part.

Banging on about 'he started with 8 of his signings' a) is factually incorrect (wow, soooo not like VT to get something wrong) b) is a misrepresentation of the truth, not a lie, but a distortion of the truth to fit a narrative.

[MrBlack]

6 minutes ago, bannedfromHandV said:

Undefeated in the league and up near the top of the table with the first team, sorry but which corner do we need to turn?

We could/should have an additional 2-4 points, in some respects we've been pretty unlucky to not be an additional 2-4 points better off.

I've witnessed us playing pretty well this season so far, all things taken into account.

Undefeated having played a number of very poor sides is not a massive achievement. Accept that we've been unlucky in a couple of those games, but it's my view that a portion of blame for that bad luck lies with the manager. It's not all total coincidence.  For the moments we've played well, there are as many where we haven't.

You've also totally ignored the main point of my post...Bruce played HIS players, and lost to a team we should have easily beaten. Not relying on a last minor penalty to take the game to the lottery of penalties.

[wilko154]

1 hour ago, bannedfromHandV said:

Why are you even surprised? When was the last time you can recall us making wholesale changes in a game such as this and putting in a strong performance?

The problem is even in games where we aren't making wholesale changes we aren't putting in strong performances.

[HeyAnty]

7 minutes ago, bannedfromHandV said:

Undefeated in the league and up near the top of the table with the first team, sorry but which corner do we need to turn?

We could/should have an additional 2-4 points, in some respects we've been pretty unlucky to not be an additional 2-4 points better off.

I've witnessed us playing pretty well this season so far, all things taken into account.

Just out of interest how should/could we have had 2-4 extra points? 

We scored a goal against Wigan late in stoppage time to gain an extra 2pts and a goal against Brentford late in stoppage time to gain 1pt.  If you ask me we are lucky to be on the points we currently are on.  

Also dont mention that the 5 teams we played already most likely wont be in the top half of the league come the end, with perhaps Brentford being the exception. 

[villabromsgrove]

Last night encapsulated Bruce's time at Villa. No plan A, no plan B, no shape, hopeless selection of yet more square pegs in more round holes.

Absolutely no sign of coaching or tactics, and yet again a refusal to accept blame or learn lessons from yet another 90 minutes of BruceBall.

I've had enough of this total incompetence.

It's way past time for a change!

[bobzy]

2 minutes ago, HeyAnty said:

Just out of interest how should/could we have had 2-4 extra points? 

We scored a goal against Wigan late in stoppage time to gain an extra 2pts and a goal against Brentford late in stoppage time to gain 1pt.  If you ask me we are lucky to be on the points we currently are on.  

Also dont mention that the 5 teams we played already most likely wont be in the top half of the league come the end, with perhaps Brentford being the exception. 

I think Wigan will be top half FWIW.  This seasons' Sheffield United.

[bobzy]

Just now, villabromsgrove said:

Last night encapsulated Bruce's time at Villa. No plan A, no plan B, no shape, hopeless selection of yet more square pegs in more round holes.

Absolutely no sign of coaching or tactics, and yet again a refusal to accept blame or learn lessons from yet another 90 minutes of BruceBall.

I've had enough of this total incompetence.

It's way past time for a change!

Were you at the game last night?  If so, why put yourself through it knowing it'll be crap?!

[bannedfromHandV]

3 minutes ago, wilko154 said:

The problem is even in games where we aren't making wholesale changes we aren't putting in strong performances.

But we are! We dominated both games against Reading and Brentford, that we didn't win is another matter but there was little wrong with the performances, generally speaking.

[Rodders]

we should have the extra points if we hadn't been so inept at either defending, attacking, or generally looking like a coherent football side. We scraped points against bottom half ( maybe bottom quarter! ) sides - with the exception of Brentford. He's been here near 2 years now, he isn't changing, we are going to be largely mediocre with occasional glimpses of decency ( i.e. v Brentford at times ) which will give false succour and hope to the idea we might be looking like a comfortable side that can control games, only to be obliterated to smithereens by the next match or two when we throw in utterly pisspoor football again. He can rarely get us playing well enough and long enough to sustain a points growth, we need more three pointers, not boring, anti-loss 1 pointers.

[bannedfromHandV]

5 minutes ago, HeyAnty said:

Just out of interest how should/could we have had 2-4 extra points? 

We scored a goal against Wigan late in stoppage time to gain an extra 2pts and a goal against Brentford late in stoppage time to gain 1pt.  If you ask me we are lucky to be on the points we currently are on.  

Also dont mention that the 5 teams we played already most likely wont be in the top half of the league come the end, with perhaps Brentford being the exception. 

So you think we deserved to lose against Brentford then? Or even Wigan?

Reading were very lucky to get a penalty (off our most experienced defender) in the 93rd minute - there's an extra 2 points. We should have beaten Ipswich after they had a man sent off, there's another 2 points.

In the end, taking all into account 2-2 against Brentford was probably a fair result but it was the least we deserved.

[turvontour]

16 minutes ago, bannedfromHandV said:

Undefeated in the league and up near the top of the table with the first team, sorry but which corner do we need to turn?

We could/should have an additional 2-4 points, in some respects we've been pretty unlucky to not be an additional 2-4 points better off.

I've witnessed us playing pretty well this season so far, all things taken into account.

Undefeated! Yay, Bruce's favourite distraction term. And im sure he'll mention it after drawing at Sheff u.

Tell me one good thing there is about being unbeaten. It means absolutely nothing, unless of course your objective is to avoid relegation, but it still doesnt gurantee you safety.

[bannedfromHandV]

1 minute ago, turvontour said:

Undefeated! Yay, Bruce's favourite distraction term. And im sure he'll mention it after drawing at Sheff u.

Tell me one good thing there is about being unbeaten. It means absolutely nothing, unless of course your objective is to avoid relegation, but it still doesnt gurantee you safety.

If you need someone to explain why being unbeaten is a good thing I'd suggest switching to another sport.

Of forgetting about sports altogether.

[bobzy]

2 minutes ago, turvontour said:

Undefeated! Yay, Bruce's favourite distraction term. And im sure he'll mention it after drawing at Sheff u.

Tell me one good thing there is about being unbeaten. It means absolutely nothing, unless of course your objective is to avoid relegation, but it still doesnt gurantee you safety.

a]  Gaining points in every single game

b]  Teams cannot gain points on you from games you play against them

[Stevo985]

10 minutes ago, HeyAnty said:

Just out of interest how should/could we have had 2-4 extra points? 

We scored a goal against Wigan late in stoppage time to gain an extra 2pts and a goal against Brentford late in stoppage time to gain 1pt.  If you ask me we are lucky to be on the points we currently are on.  

Also dont mention that the 5 teams we played already most likely wont be in the top half of the league come the end, with perhaps Brentford being the exception. 

I think we're on what we deserve. 

You could say we were unlucky to not beat Brentford but we were lucky to beat Wigan.

Swings and roundabouts. With a bit of luck we could have had 4 wins. With a bit of bad luck we could have had zero.

[meregreen]

Some managers come in to a club, and within a couple of games after working with them in training, it is possible to see a discernible difference on the pitch. After 2 years of Bruce, by and large, I’m seeing the same confusing mess on the pitch I saw 2 years ago. Just don’t see it getting any better with this guy and his coaching set up. I was actually pleased when we appointed him. But I think his times up. Time to move on.

[terrytini]

It was a dreadful performance and a miserable night out.

Not altogether surprising. 

I fully agree with those who lay the problems at Bruce’s door. It’s all very well ‘rotating’ but it rarely works unless a specific playing method is coached into all the players throughout the Club, and that’s not Bruce’s way. Players have little chance when it’s all random.

His method ( whether or not one agrees with it, or agrees that it works ) - he does have one  for those that say he doesn’t - is to buy decent players, then ‘man manage’ decent performances out of them. He sets up relatively defensively ( even now) and expects and encourages the players to then think the game out on the pitch. It’s pretty basic stuff.

He has said himself, and anyone who has watched us or any of his other Clubs can see clearly, he doesn’t do tactics, at all.

He isn’t going to build a Club, or a repeatable playing style, and he will always depend more than most on individual form and inspiration.

However.

For me, he stays.

He has been averaging close to 2 points per game for more than a seasons worth of games. That gets us up around top 2. That’s what we must achieve.

If, IF there was a standout candidate - whether proven or not - who was available, and of whom it was reasonable to believe they could get  that points average, then it’d make sense to see whether that person could takeover.

But I don’t see such a person.

The only other scenario is if he starts to average significantly below 2 points per game, for whatever period of time one would deem a reasonable sample size.

 

[terrytini]

14 minutes ago, bobzy said:

Were you at the game last night?  If so, why put yourself through it knowing it'll be crap?!

Well I was, it’s what I do. Same as any fan that goes to watch most teams !

[privateer]

6 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Bruce said the performance made him feel physically sick. 

Hopefully it confirmed that the second string isn’t good enough and he buys some defenders by the end of the week. 

He got off light. At the end of the game I threw up my own pelvis and one young kiddie near me cried all the water out of his body. Just imagine how his mother felt. It's a **** disgrace.

[bobzy]

1 minute ago, terrytini said:

Well I was, it’s what I do. Same as any fan that goes to watch most teams !

I don't get the impression that you go assuming it'll be terrible, clueless stuff with an inevitable loss at the end.... but I may be wrong!

[terrytini]

Just now, bobzy said:

I don't get the impression that you go assuming it'll be terrible, clueless stuff with an inevitable loss at the end.... but I may be wrong!

Weellllll...........

I agree I don’t think defeat is inevitable ....the rest though........

Nah only joking.......we play ok quite a lot in my view. I get why lovers of the passing game might dislike it but we generally play watchable enough stuff, and we Win a lot, which is always fun !