Steve Bruce

[jacketspuds]

I know it's easy to say this but we should be looking for a progressive, forward thinking manager. Bruce is an old school clogger who, when he leaves, will leave us in a mess for the next manager to have to sort out. There's no consistency with signings or football philosophy and no doubt Dr Tony will have to play the next manager with bucket loads of cash to rebuild the squad yet again.

[sne]

We played very well for 30 or so minutes against Hull. And the big positive was that we committed more players going forward into the box. We actually looked dangerous for a spell.

But then we became cautious and they adjusted and closed down our right side. Since we virtually had no left side due to the way we set up and the players we used we lost hold of the game that was ours for the taking. The passing through the middle we've seen a bit of during the pre season was no where to be seen. Sadly.

We still managed to hold on for half time, but the second half was just like what we've gotten used to see under Bruce and in the end we resorted to hoofing up towards our immobile CB/targetman.

Just like with many of our previous managers he fails to be proactive and only makes adjustments after it's already too late. The subs are usually too late, but the biggest thing is that almost every game the opposing manager sees patterns in the game and makes adjustments that changes the game, while Bruce pretty much just have the players drop a bit deeper, hit longer balls and tries to hold on.

I just can't see it being enough. And something has to change.

I doubt Bruce will change, so...

Edited August 6, 2017 by sne

[Guest av1]

6 minutes ago, KSV said:

He can do the job. How did you not see 'improvement' in yesterdays game? Without 4 of our best players (probably 1 more striker to come) we played Hull off the park. 

Mate if you think we played Hull off the park yesterday then we are never going to agree I'm afraid. 

With the term 'played off the park' in mind though. I do remeber Brentford, Forest, Fulham, and even Burton Albion playing us off the park last year. 

And who are our 4 best players that we missed yesterday? Kodjia granted, who else?

Grealish hardly featured last season. (Dispite Bruce's claims)

Adomah is inconsistent and is now surely back uo to Elmo.

Jedinak and GW will rotate. 

'Without our 4 best players' is stretching it mate.

14 minutes ago, KSV said:

Yes we faltered a little 

If you consider being sh#t for 11 months "faltering a little" how long before its a crisis? 10yrs maybe?

[Jareth]

4 minutes ago, av1 said:

I can't agree with that in this instance mate. 

If Bruce came in and had a poor selection of tools at his disposal, and with that had to muddle along picking up results until he could effect change, then i would agree with you. 

If in pre season he tried to implement a new style of play, or overseen a massive rurn around in playing staff, again, i would agree with you. 

But none of that has happened, infact nothing has happened. Whelan comes in for Jedink, Terry comes in for Baker, and Elmo for Adomah. Yes the individual quality may have increased, but its like for like in terms of the tactics that failed last season. 

When nothing changes I'm not sure how you can clean the slate. 

But do you remember all those times a fit Jedi played and we tended to win? We now have cover. What value did we get last term from our squad? Not a lot. What do you think to having a straight fight for places between Elmo and Adomah? I don't think Bruce is a tactical mastermind, but he has gone and got us a squad that will in a blunt enough fashion, do what worked best last season. I suppose I have to agree, he ain't a great manager, but I do have faith in his tried and tested plan for promotion, and I think I am coming to realise that what Bruce does best is to go out and get those players that you need in order to do an old fashioned job. 

[Jareth]

2 minutes ago, jacketspuds said:

 no doubt Dr Tony will have to play the next manager with bucket loads of cash to rebuild the squad yet again.

Bruce has actually made back 20 mill for Tony when Amavi goes.

[jacketspuds]

17 minutes ago, Jareth said:

Bruce has actually made back 20 mill for Tony when Amavi goes.

Net spend has nothing to do with it. We will be left with a squad of players that were signed by a manager that seemingly doesn't seem to know what to do with them. Hourihane and Bjarnason are 2 examples of this.

To be honest it's not just under Bruce that this transfer shambles has hit us, it's been going on since Sherwood's first full summer in charge. I just don't think Bruce is the man to get us out of this league.

[Jareth]

8 minutes ago, jacketspuds said:

Net spend has nothing to do with it. We will be left with a squad of players that were signed by a manager that seemingly doesn't seem to know what to do with them. Hourihane and Bjarnason are 2 examples of this.

To be honest it's not just under Bruce that this transfer shambles has hit us, it's been going on since Sherwood's first full summer in charge. I just don't think Bruce is the man to get us out of this league.

Well it's that old chestnut, hopefully we will get promoted, and should that happen I imagine we'll all be pleased. Either way it goes I also hope there'll be none of this I told you so nonsense, we only have faith after all.

[villabromsgrove]

If we are to be promoted this season Bruce has to swap his preferred tactics for a more attacking brand of football. Wyness has said this quite clearly only a couple of days ago. Dr Tony has perhaps hinted at this in his latest tweet.

We have the players to play a more attacking game. We will be the slightly better team potentially in most of our matches this season. What we need from our manager is the strength of character to change the footballing habits that he has made his own over a long managerial career. Can he do it? Will he be prepared to give it a try, or will he ignore what everyone around him seems to have realised and try to defend his way out of this division?

It's up to Steve. He's a really decent likeable bloke and is well regarded among his peers, but can he step out of his comfort zone in order to get the very best out of his players and our Villa team?

[AVFCDAN]

Whether you support Bruce or not it's very hard to see us winning 'most' games this season to put us in the top 2, we just don't have that mentality.

[vreitti]

12 minutes ago, AVFCDAN said:

Whether you support Bruce or not it's very hard to see us winning 'most' games this season to put us in the top 2, we just don't have that mentality.

Agreed. Bruce quite clearly isn't able to instill that sort of mentality onto the players. This is (imho) largely due to his negative and cautious approach to games. We have the squad to play a more expansive brand of football, but Bruce simply doesn't want to leave his "comfort zone" or style, that's earned him promotion before. Sadly the league isn't what it used to be, even though I personally think it's going to easier this year than last.

[jackbauer24]

I've been very much on the fence with Bruce but yesterday he scared me so much with one decision that it really pulled in to focus my fears about the coming season.

Bringing on Samba as just a big guy to lump it to shouted of a lack of any tactical nous at all. If you're going for that desperation then why take Hogan off who would benefit from any trouble caused by the big guy? It is arguably the worst decision I've ever seen a manager make at Villa Park. I've disagreed with substitutions before but that's normally because I think we should be going for it or adding players to the midfied to regain control but putting on a massive clogger of a defender as a striker in the first game of the season is frankly laughable. If he'd put on a defender to play for the draw I'd have been annoyed but it's at least a valid decision, if he'd putan attacking midfielder on (Hourihane) I could see the argument due to lack of options. But Samba is a striker is marginally better than bringing on Bunn in that role!

In itself it's not a reason to call for Bruce to be sacked but it has amplified fears that he doesn't have a clue how to get the best out this squad. Suppose we'll know for sure in the next few games.

[The Fun Factory]

Thing is RDM came into Villa playing an expansive brand of football which didn't really work. Bruce was brought in to steady the ship and he never going to have a really attacking side, that is not in his DNA. 

[HAL]

has five games to show he has somekind of plan or he should get sacked. we cant afford another season down here

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

1 hour ago, jacketspuds said:

I know it's easy to say this but we should be looking for a progressive, forward thinking manager. Bruce is an old school clogger who, when he leaves, will leave us in a mess for the next manager to have to sort out. There's no consistency with signings or football philosophy and no doubt Dr Tony will have to play the next manager with bucket loads of cash to rebuild the squad yet again.

I actually started wondering if this is actually one of the considerations for the tightening of the purse strings (In addition to FFP).

As in "You've had enough money to spend, we need results now" as well as not spunking a tonne of money on players which may not suit our system going forward.

[Tommo_b]

What's a forward thinking manager I keep hearing about? 

[Demitri_C]

6 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

I was disappointed with yesterday.

My reaction to the lineup wasn't good, but I think both gabby and Hutton justified their inclusion in the first half (the less said about Bacuna the better)

I thought the formation first half worked really well and we created a lot and in reality should have been clear by half time. but this is Villa, we don't do that.

 

Second half was dreadful. My biggest criticism of Bruce remains, and that is a lack of willingness to change things early when it clearly isn't working.
It was obvious after 5 minutes of the second half that Hull had come out of the blocks and we needed to do something different to counter it. Yet I knew a change wouldn't come until about 70 minutes, and that's what cost us the 3 points. 

When the changes were made they were decent enough. It wasn't enough to win us the game this time, but it easily could have given we missed two very good chaqnces. But even so, it weathered Hull's pressure and put us back on the front foot, which makes it all the more frustrating that we didn't do it earlier.

 

So positives are the first half was genuinely good. We were by far the better team and if we do more of that we'll go far. Negatives are the same old Vila crept in second half and that's Beruce's main task now, stop that happening.

I would say with regards to subs, bruce waits until the inevitable we concede then waits a further 10 mins before making a sub and when he does they are bizarre as shown ywsterday with the samba and onomah partnership up top.

I am not a football manager but even i know that was a idiotic move

[Morley_crosses_to_Withe]

As someone has already said - it's fine margins.

The second half started badly, but you have to wait to see if it's a natural ebb and flow of the game rather than a full on turning of the tide. Five minutes into the half is not long enough, ten maybe, but Bruce already had people warming up and being readied for a change, but Hull managed to score before he could make the switch. 

He then changed it up and we grew back into the game. We started to pin Hull back and we were an Andre Green missed open goal away from being 2-1 up. He REALLY should have scored, and if did then we'd probably be here talking about effective in game management, but he didn't, so here we are saying Bruce hasn't got a clue. 

Those are the fine margins. 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

18 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said:

Thing is RDM came into Villa playing an expansive brand of football which didn't really work. Bruce was brought in to steady the ship and he never going to have a really attacking side, that is not in his DNA. 

As blasphemous as this may seem.

Sticking with RDM may have worked out better long term.

At the time I was mostly pissed off because I wanted us to go up that season.

If It was a case where I was sure we werent going up it may have been different.

[Keyblade]

20 minutes ago, Tommo_b said:

What's a forward thinking manager I keep hearing about? 

Someone whose bright idea to get a winning goal isn't to take off your poacher and put on a slow CB to play up front for starters?

Edited August 6, 2017 by Keyblade

[DCJonah]

2 hours ago, Spoony said:

I can't bear this endless manager out talk. Bruce was and is definitely the correct man for the job. I honestly don't think we would ever support a manager. In all my time of supporting Villa, I don't think there has been a manager who we have all got behind.

Same at every club where expectations are not being met. 

I thought Bruce was the man for the job, that opinion has now changed. Getting behind someone just for the sake of it isn't the answer.