Steve Bruce

[GrassyNoel]

8 hours ago, villabromsgrove said:

We spent 75 minutes playing negative  rubbish because it was still 0-0.

To Bruce this is is half of the job done, and then someone somehow just has to find a moment of individual excellence so we can sneak three points. If that individual moment doesn't happen, then it doesn't matter too much because at least we haven't lost (in Bruce's negative footballing world.)

That was the scenario and it was working at 75 minutes, but Blackburn ruined it by being energetic and scoring a goal.

So then Bruce is forced to bring on three players who might score.

Hourihane takes a mean set piece .... He could have been available to do that whenever the opportunity arose throughout the 90 minutes, if Bruce wasn't so besotted with Jedinak!

Bruce saw that individual moment of class by Hourihane as justification for for the way we set up today. So did a number of fawning pundits.

 

Changing track, did anyone else think that Bruce does not look a well man. God forbid, but he looked like a heart attack waiting to happen today.

This continuing sh*t is damaging the club, p*ssing off the fans, and taking too big a toll on Steve Bruce's health. NSWE need to end this debacle.

 

Amazing. I was watching on tv with my brother in law who, a year to the day, suffered a major heart attack. There was a close up of Bruce at one point. He just look at me and winced. Say no more. 

We need a character who can absorb and digest our club, not choke on it whilst clinging on for dear life. 

[AvfcRigo82]

18 minutes ago, GrassyNoel said:

Amazing. I was watching on tv with my brother in law who, a year to the day, suffered a major heart attack. There was a close up of Bruce at one point. He just look at me and winced. Say no more. 

We need a character who can absorb and digest our club, not choke on it whilst clinging on for dear life. 

I have said it a dozen times, he is out his depth at this football club and sets up in fear of losing.

We are the biggest job of his career and he has been found out in my eyes.

We need to move him on for his own health and our own future too.

 

Edited September 16, 2018 by AvfcRigo82

[sidcow]

8 hours ago, villabromsgrove said:

Changing track, did anyone else think that Bruce does not look a well man. God forbid, but he looked like a heart attack waiting to happen today.

I thought exactly that. He looks like he's piled on the weight (I seem to remember he had lost quite a lot just before he joined us) and very red in the face. On the sauce maybe? 

Looks like a heart attack waiting to happen I thought. 

 

[Tony]

No wins in 5 and the guy then takes a holiday. This tells me enough that he is feeling the pressure / isn’t in the best place right now. For his sake and ours we need a parting of ways. His decisions are becoming worse and worse as the weeks go on. 

[jim]

8 minutes ago, sidcow said:

I thought exactly that. He looks like he's piled on the weight (I seem to remember he had lost quite a lot just before he joined us) and very red in the face. On the sauce maybe? 

Looks like a heart attack waiting to happen I thought. 

 

It’s the Villa curse, we do it to all managers!

[Kiwivillan]

From now on I'm calling him Steve Brexcuce

Edited September 16, 2018 by Kiwivillan

[Mazrim]

The players look like the're bickering with each other because they're frustrated as they don't have a plan. There is very little cohesion. A team should be able to anticipate where their teammates should be by now. Our players have to slow it down, look up to see who is doing what. Invariably it's not right, hence the slow clumsy attacking third play. Grealish is not playing well at all. Strikers are isolated. The defence has been a mess. Even the most basic things, like taking and competing for throw ins are all wrong.

This team is not being coached. It's not being motivated. There's no continuity in team selection and very little thought. Substitutions often desperately needed never happen before a certain time. There is no tactical appreciation of a game as it develops, no adaptability or reaction. We're never proactive despite a luxury of attacking options very few teams should be able to cope with. It's like watching Al Pacino in The Scent of a Woman - A blind man driving a Ferrari.

its dreadful if not painful to watch. It's not worthy of the biggest club in the division. It's all down to Steve Bruce and his staff and we need to cut ties yesterday. It's not too late to get it back on track to mount a challenge but it's close. I really don't see any need to continue with this situation. I can't think of even one reason to persist with Bruce. Not one.

[AvfcRigo82]

2 minutes ago, jim said:

It’s the Villa curse, we do it to all managers!

I was thinking this myself.

Managers come here and after we part ways we are lucky to see them in management again.

Again I feel we are too big a club for some managers.

Lambert, O'Leary, Sherwood, Houllier, Gardé*, Di Matteo, Bruce to name but a few all have been found out here.

Hence why I don't think your Eddie Howes, your Dean Smiths etc. Would survive here.

[Dodgyknees]

2 minutes ago, Mazrim said:

The players look like the're bickering with each other because they're frustrated as they don't have a plan. There is very little cohesion. A team should be able to anticipate where their teammates should be by now. Our players have to slow it down, look up to see who is doing what. Invariably it's not right, hence the slow clumsy attacking third play. Grealish is not playing well at all. Strikers are isolated. The defence has been a mess. Even the most basic things, like taking and competing for throw ins are all wrong.

This team is not being coached. It's not being motivated. There's no continuity in team selection and very little thought. Substitutions often desperately needed never happen before a certain time. There is no tactical appreciation of a game as it develops, no adaptability or reaction. We're never proactive despite a luxury of attacking options very few teams should be able to cope with. It's like watching Al Pacino in The Scent of a Woman - A blind man driving a Ferrari.

its dreadful if not painful to watch. It's not worthy of the biggest club in the division. It's all down to Steve Bruce and his staff and we need to cut ties yesterday. It's not too late to get it back on track to mount a challenge but it's close. I really don't see any need to continue with this situation. I can't think of even one reason to persist with Bruce. Not one.

I can't like posts right now, so want to say that I agree with this.

[sidcow]

10 hours ago, VillaCas said:

I was once at a party in Oxford when Kim Wilde turned up! I chatted to her for about half an hour and then asked her if she fancied a drink the next night......she didnt

Her loss!

You got away lucky there I reckon. 

It would have been a chequered love.....

[AvfcRigo82]

5 minutes ago, Mazrim said:

It's dreadful if not painful to watch. It's not worthy of the biggest club in the division. It's all down to Steve Bruce and his staff and we need to cut ties yesterday. It's not too late to get it back on track to mount a challenge but it's close. I really don't see any need to continue with this situation. I can't think of even one reason to persist with Bruce. Not one.

It was around this time 2 years ago that we parted ways with Di Matteo.

Let's repeat with the current manager.

[M_Afro]

Hopefully this will be the last time I have to post on this thread. In my mind this is some of the reasons why yesterday was so wrong:

Generally a much better balanced defence, although Hutton and Taylor both need to work much harder to stop crosses coming in to the box. Hutton is also too slow now. He cannot defend one on one. Elmo or Bree should both be picked ahead of him.

Playing Jedinak has got to stop. He is only capable of sitting in front of the defence. This just creates pressure. We need more energetic midfielders who can press and keep the ball away from our box. Even when Jedi wins the ball he almost always gifts it straight back to the opposition in an advanced part of the pitch. He must be replaced by Connor or Birkir.

Generally we need to play much higher up the pitch. Abraham was terribly isolated yesterday. We have better attacking players than any other team in the division. We need to press high up the pitch which will also push their defence back and relieve the pressure on our defence.

Elmo is useless in an advanced position. He cannot/doesn’t try to beat his man. His crosses are awful. Right back or nowhere. How he can be picked ahead of El Ghazi is anybody’s guess!

We need to try and win every game. We are capable of beating anybody, home or away. We cannot afford to give teams like Blackburn (or anybody) the respect that we do. We need to pick attacking teams, employ attacking tactics from the start and just go for it. Bruce is so scared of losing that it is detrimental to our chances of winning!

Albert and Elmo must never be picked ahead of Bolaise, El Ghazi or Kodija. Neither offer much in attack. They get praised for their tracking back but if they posed any threat going forward they wouldn’t need to track back so much!

We need to make changes much earlier in games. Tactical changes were needed before halftime yesterday. It was clear that things weren’t working and yet Bruce did nothing about it. His approach is much too formulaic. We need a manager who can outwit his opposition. This never happens with Bruce. Every week he comes up against a manager with inferior resources and yet he never significantly gets the better of them. 

He is a good man Steve and I want a good man in charge of our club but being decent is not enough. He is not capable of fulfilling the most simple managerial requirements. It is time for him to go. A few months ago I posted a message saying how important it was that we made a good start this season, particularly with our kind fixture list. We have failed. Our start has been pathetic. He must go now!

[sne]

4 minutes ago, jim said:

It’s the Villa curse, we do it to all managers!

In Bruce's case they were present long before he joined Villa and brought on by choice and whatever injuries he might have picked up while playing (hope he is OK)

Probably looked the healthiest I've seen him since his playing days at the start of last season.

With all that's happened around him added with the pressure of the job it wouldn't be surprising if he's fallen back into bad patterns with eating. 

He really does look unwell and his eyes are watery every time you see an interview. Hope it's nothing and not something serious like cirrhosis of the liver.

But I imagine the club does check ups on staff as well so it's probably a combination of stress and lack of sleep.

[Dodgyknees]

9 minutes ago, sne said:

In Bruce's case they were present long before he joined Villa and brought on by choice and whatever injuries he might have picked up while playing (hope he is OK)

Probably looked the healthiest I've seen him since his playing days at the start of last season.

With all that's happened around him added with the pressure of the job it wouldn't be surprising if he's fallen back into bad patterns with eating. 

He really does look unwell and his eyes are watery every time you see an interview. Hope it's nothing and not something serious like cirrhosis of the liver.

But I imagine the club does check ups on staff as well so it's probably a combination of stress and lack of sleep.

Fingers crossed he can get back to some sort of fitness when he goes.

[AvfcRigo82]

As much as we disagree with the managerial side of him, I wouldn't want to see him drop dead on the touchline or anything.

I remember it happening to Houllier at Liverpool and with us and also Joe Kinnear at Wimbeldon and again at Newcastle.

It is time to release the manager of his duties for a combination of reasons - his health now being the latest of the list.

[Mazrim]

I like Bruce too. I'd have a beer with him any day. I'd have loved for him to get us up and then part ways because his teams would be murdered in the top flight. But id settle for an utter bastard who can get the team playing some kind of recognisable football right now.

NSWE aren't daft and will want their own man in soon. Having arguably the best attacking talent in the Championship but only being aggressive when we give our obligatory soft goal away is not what they signed up for I'm sure.

[DaveAV1]

2 hours ago, blandy said:

A minority of fans were doing that. My sense from block S02 was that there were plenty who shared the criticisms made - we can all see the failings - but that the majority of the away fans at the game had not reached the point where you could claim “he’s lost the away fans”. It’s getting close, though. There’s a lot of lingering respect for him as a person and a lot of fans hope for that reason, perhaps that he turns it round.

please note this post is a comment on what I saw, not what I think.

Thanks Blandy, I always appreciate comments from people who were at the game. Although there are plenty of times I’ve seen a different game to the bloke sitting next to me!

From your comments Bruce’s on borrowed time with the away support. We’ll see soon enough. 

[foreveryoung]

I've said it before, you need now start playing Premiership football to get out of this league, i.e how Wolves, Fulham got promoted. Bruce will never be able to get us to play this way. he is an old school Championship manager who can't adapt.

The forward line we had on yesterday, should be scoring goals for fun. Iv'e always rated, Hourihain, its just Bruce has a way of isolating and frustrating our best players, you watch Tammy and Bolasie get bored, Grealish is already turning.

[villan-scott]

I am just so utterly utterly bored of Bruce. The guy is well past his sell by date here and needs to go. 

[Ingram85]

How long ago was Bruce’s last promotion? Been half a decade now, football has moved on and he is stuck in the past. He hasn’t got a clue what he is doing. He doesn’t coach, he doesn’t instruct and he has openly admitted he has had no plan and shows no signs of developing one. 

Im going to the Rotherham game on tuesday, it may be my last for a little while depending on how we play. If we don’t win then he has to go. If not then I’ll start questioning the board.

All those that want Bruce to stay keep talking about is stability. Well we’ve had that for a while now, cheers Steve but now we need to progress and go up because if we don’t then we are the new Forest. We have the players, we have an attacking squad, we need a fearless manager to do an in depth hands on job now. Not a dinosaur living off his past glories who doesn’t like to coach or watch his players and has no idea of how he wants this squad to play. 

He has until Tuesday for me now.

Edited September 16, 2018 by Ingram85