Steve Bruce

[DaveAV1]

12 minutes ago, USA_Villa said:

Every dog has it's day and by the sound of it Steve was very lucky as Derby played us off the park.

Let's get a few points straight:

1. When Bruce was appointed we were 19th in the league. We're now 17th. Hardly setting the division on fire.
2. Other than Wigan, we are the lowest scorers in the Division. That really doesn't look like changing does it?
3. When was the last time you watched the Villa and thought they played well. I can't remember

I will settle for 17th at the end of the season and then hope and pray we bring in another manager.

I missed the game yesterday due to work commitments, but from what mates have told me and stuff I've read it sounded like a great result but another poor performance. We need roughly a point a game to stay up and have two relatively winnable games coming up, which we really need to win or we'll be sucked into the relegation fight, with a squad that looks nothing like a squad up for a fight.

If we're looking for out of contract signings then L. Uck might be the best we can find.

[AJ]

I remember 2 seasons ago, when we had Sherwood as manager. We managed to avoid relegation, but our last 3 games, 1 - 6 Southampton, losing 1 - 0 to already relegated Burnley at home, then 0-4 loss to Arsenal in the FA Cup, and I questioned are we really going to keep this guy.

For Bruce, I believe the last 3 to 5 games this season are vital. It would give us an insight into next season, so we really need to start seeing things click. If not, he has to go.

 

[villa4europe]

1 hour ago, USA_Villa said:

Every dog has it's day and by the sound of it Steve was very lucky as Derby played us off the park.

Let's get a few points straight:

1. When Bruce was appointed we were 19th in the league. We're now 17th. Hardly setting the division on fire.
2. Other than Wigan, we are the lowest scorers in the Division. That really doesn't look like changing does it?
3. When was the last time you watched the Villa and thought they played well. I can't remember

I will settle for 17th at the end of the season and then hope and pray we bring in another manager.

agree with all of that, rotherham at home is still the only good 90 minutes we've had all season IMO

[VillanousOne]

I think Jedinak, Baker and Taylor have stabilised the team somewhat. But maybe Green aside we have very little threat up front and even if we did we are so poor in possession and play so many long balls that any threat is easily wasted. Kodjia still has a lot of talent but keeps trying to go it alone.

The issue now seems to be that Adomah, Grealish and even Amavi are the only players capable of adding width or creating much in the final third and none of them are showing any real form or potential to do that. Green is decent but still young and his inexperience shows at times, especially when it comes to beating his final man.

If Bruce can't find a way of scoring goals we could easily remain hovering around relegation.

Edited February 26, 2017 by VillanousOne

[TheStagMan]

35 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

agree with all of that, rotherham at home is still the only good 90 minutes we've had all season IMO

Brighton away...... but even so, thats still only 2. 

 

Like most i will take a scruffy 1-0 win over a pretty 0-1 loss. BUT, I have no confidence from current performances that we can compete at the top end of this league nexts season. Lets hope things pick up in the next few games. 

Edited February 26, 2017 by TheStagMan

[striker]

2 hours ago, markavfc40 said:

I can't argue with any of that mate. When he was appointed I certainly felt it wasn't beyond the realms we could still make the play offs and at the end of the year that was still very much the case.

For whatever reason we completely folded in January and whilst the loss of Kodjia to the AFCON is a partial contributor it shouldn't have had the impact it did.  By the time he returned we had also undertaken another big overhaul with 14 ins/outs and were back to square one in terms of having a good group of individuals but throwing them together and looking nothing like a team.

You could say Bruce/the club shouldn't have made that amount of changes in January but I think a number of situations fell for them and they felt they had to act. Lansbury, Hourihane, Bree were all coming to the end of their contracts. McCormack was playing silly buggers, clubs at this time wanted Ayew, Westwood and Gestede and there was no saying that would be the case in the summer, and besides the books also needed balancing now.

Regardless of any mitigating circumstances in terms of having to integrate so many players bad runs of results happen and now you can put that down to a bad run under a good manager or a bad run under a poor one. I personally think it is the latter but time will tell. Certainly by the end of this season I want to see a settled side, in a settled formation, getting good results with decent performances giving us all the belief that next season we will be capable of achieving promotion under Steve Bruce.

Again excellent post mate and while we all don't agree on every point I'm sure we all want Bruce to succeed.

[briny_ear]

4 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

I completely forgot about de laet!

I don't believe he exists. Or maybe he did play for us a long time ago but that decision to holiday in Haven, Maine, went horribly wrong for him.

[USA_Villa]

3 minutes ago, striker said:

Again excellent post mate and while we all don't agree on every point I'm sure we all want Bruce to succeed.

We may all want him to succeed but how many have the confidence that it will actually happen. I for one don't.

[Zatman]

10 hours ago, Jareth said:

I think Bruce needs the summer transfer window to get this squad right - not total overhaul but definitely need a few replaced such as Gardner, Hutton, Bacuna, Gabby and then an experienced keeper brought in. I'll be judging him proper next season. 

ah yes the lads who fight for the jersey, they are definitely the players we should remove

at the moment Bruce has shown nothing to say he deserves a summer in charge

[TrentVilla]

 

For me Bruce is already on borrowed time, time afforded to him because of what he has achieved before he arrived at Villa Park rather than what he has done in the job.

The absolute last thing I want or we need on is another change of manager but failure to go up next season is very likely to result in financial meltdown.

The performances and the results just haven't been good enough, most worrying of all is I can't see any kind of a plan.

So he has the rest of the season for me and if it hasn't significantly improved, and unless we look like we can challenge next season then I'll be calling for his head.

 

[Stevo985]

11 minutes ago, TrentVilla said:

 

 

So he has the rest of the season for me and if it hasn't significantly improved, and unless we look like we can challenge next season then I'll be calling for his head.

 

This has been my position for a while.

As long as we don't seriously look like being relegated, then he gets the rest of the season.

If things haven't "clicked" by then, he should go.

[Eastie]

40 minutes ago, TrentVilla said:

 

For me Bruce is already on borrowed time, time afforded to him because of what he has achieved before he arrived at Villa Park rather than what he has done in the job.

The absolute last thing I want or we need on is another change of manager but failure to go up next season is very likely to result in financial meltdown.

The performances and the results just haven't been good enough, most worrying of all is I can't see any kind of a plan.

So he has the rest of the season for me and if it hasn't significantly improved, and unless we look like we can challenge next season then I'll be calling for his head.

 

I agree with this - I think it's too soon to be calling for his head now but promotion should be a must next season and he needs to show progress between Now and may - I believe a top half finish should be an absolute minimum this season for him to continue - we have a good squad with proven players now and it's down to him to make it work .

some have said he should have 2 or 3 games but I believe that to be not enough time - another 13 games will give him ample time to find the way forward to get the best from this team .

Personally I think he will turn it around and I expect promotion next season with the squad we have built - should he fail to turn around things then I'd go for someone like Wagner if Huddersfield don't go up .

[TrentVilla]

27 minutes ago, Eastie said:

I agree with this - I think it's too soon to be calling for his head now but promotion should be a must next season and he needs to show progress between Now and may - I believe a top half finish should be an absolute minimum this season for him to continue - we have a good squad with proven players now and it's down to him to make it work .

some have said he should have 2 or 3 games but I believe that to be not enough time - another 13 games will give him ample time to find the way forward to get the best from this team .

Personally I think he will turn it around and I expect promotion next season with the squad we have built - should he fail to turn around things then I'd go for someone like Wagner if Huddersfield don't go up .

We could and would argue should have got Wagner after RDM we didn't and as a result I think that ship has probably sailed.

[PieFacE]

1 hour ago, TrentVilla said:

 

 most worrying of all is I can't see any kind of a plan.

 

This is my issue. i'm not sure what we're trying to do on the pitch. 

[Morley_crosses_to_Withe]

I like the idea of Smith or Wagner, but I'm concerned a job like this, at a basket case club like ours, would be just way too big for them. It would come too early in their managerial careers. I also think with Wagner that he'd be crazy to come here. There's surely no expectation at Huddersfield and if he gets them promoted then that'll be seen as a massive overachievement. If he came here then promotion would be the bare minimum.

What this job requires is a battle hardened manager with vast experience and numerous promotions on his CV like, erm, Steve Bruce. So my concern is now that I don't know where on earth we go from here!

Edited February 27, 2017 by Morley_crosses_to_Withe

[Jareth]

Swapping Bruce in the summer and starting again is as good as giving up on promotion before the new season has even begun. Who can say with any confidence that they think a new manager and yet another squad overhaul is going to get us promotion? I just can't see that working. 

[Villan_of_oz]

15 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

Think Bruce needs to do some dissecting in the squad. If it was me I'd get rid of Johnstone and bunn, release Hutton, sell Amavi ( his heart isn't in it anymore despite how good I think he can be) and get rid of Gardner. (I'd say gabby too but no one is stupid enough to take him off us)

he also needs to look at all the players out in loan and see if any improve what we already have (e.g Gil, veretout)

i personally think we need only about four players to be real beasts in the league next season. The most important signing for me is goal keeper and where a large part of the budget should go.  A left back, rb and cm are other positions I think we need. Hopefully RHM or Davis can step up and be back up options to hogan and the kodj

This post makes a lot of sense

[dont_do_it_doug.]

We had lost 6 out of 7, the other of those being a 2-2 draw after being 2-0 up.

What kind of performance were some of you expecting? A scrappy 1-0 win is about as good as it gets under those circumstances. Sure we need to step up a gear from here, but if you can't enjoy the relative highs of winning a game of football then the lows simply aren't worth it. 

Derby didn't play us off the park either, utter nonsense. Take the win and unless you've already made up your mind about Bruce, he has earned a reprieve and it's on to the next one. 

Edited February 27, 2017 by dont_do_it_doug.

[Nigel]

52 minutes ago, TrentVilla said:

We could and would argue should have got Wagner after RDM we didn't and as a result I think that ship has probably sailed.

The funny thing is it would/will take the likes of Wagner a time to install his methods. We are not really known for our tolerance of waiting for future successes. There is nothing to show me that Wagner would survive to show what he could implement long term.

The funny thing is I wonder how many would be screaming for the loss of the obvious choice of Bruce?

On a separate note wasn't there rumblings that he had decided to stay at Huddersfield rather than coming here....that does show a modicum of sense at least!

[Nigel]

I'd agree with those who say that the weekends victory was lucky. We were horrible to watch.

If you took that game on its own, especially with the backdrop of recent results it's easy to say that we are going nowhere fast. 

However personally I have seen fragments of improvements in this team over the last few games, albeit fleeting, at least there's hope that this horrible period can be turned around.

i thought we had it nailed against Barnsley in that first half before they scored (and we imploded) same with periods against Forrest and others that have slipped my memory atm.

Now I'm not saying we are anywhere near where we want to be, for the most we are strangers on the pitch, strangers without a seeming plan with the mental strength of a newly relegated side. 

However I'm hanging on to those few moments and hoping we can string a few more together aided by the comfort of a few wins confidence.

its vital that we avoid the massive upheaval that a new manager will bring medium term....we simply need to go up next year and the best way to do this is to start a season with the same manager IMO.