Steve Bruce

[DaveAV1]

23 minutes ago, Tommo_b said:

General consensus after ONE game into the new season is he should be sacked

General consensus is that nothing has changed from the last 36 games of last season. 

[hippo]

2 hours ago, villarocker said:

Hull's defence played like strangers first half. Not surprising given the fact they had lost 4 of their back 5 this summer. On the contrary, we'd changed only 1 of our back 5 and brought in a player who is undoubtedly the best centre back playing in this league. I said to my Dad at half time that - if they can sort themselves out at the back - Hull are going to make us regret not scoring more in that first half. It was a typical, predictable Villa. Nothing new and any other team watching that will know what to do to us, just like last season.

Bruce baffled me on Saturday and seemed to have been out-smarted by a man new to the English game, which is worrying. I don't think we've worked on the areas that needed improving, in the summer, and last season's problems will still be faced. I really hope I'm wrong because this cycle of changing the Manager every season isn't good. I just fear Bruce isn't up to the task. 

Think youre over complicating it. Had we got that second goal I just couldn't see a way back for Hull. its our inability to put the ball in the net that cost us.

[Tommo_b]

1 hour ago, DaveAV1 said:

General consensus is that nothing has changed from the last 36 games of last season. 

And we come to that conclusion after one game of a new season against a side just dropped down from the premier league, it absolutely beggars belief. 

[Zatman]

13 hours ago, Davkaus said:

He won promotion less than 18 months ago 

18 months a long time in football. Same time Ranieri won the title, Pep was going revolutionise English football and Pearson and Moyes still had a good reputation

[DaveAV1]

1 hour ago, Tommo_b said:

And we come to that conclusion after one game of a new season against a side just dropped down from the premier league, it absolutely beggars belief. 

Well it's hard to ignore the fact that the game panned out like so many others did last season. Bright start, create some chances, convert one and then drop deeper as the half goes on. Opposing teams manager recognises what's happening and changes things up at halftime, encouraging his team to play more on the front foot. Our manager doesn't react to what was already happening towards the end of the first half and doesn't react once the second half is underway and we're no longer controlling the game. 

I believe that would be a fair summing up of Saturday's game. Taken in isolation yes I'd be happy to take the positives of the first half and hope we build on them. However if you can also use the above summation for a large number of games the previous season then confidence that anything is going to dramatically change is somewhat lowered. The first sign of madness is continually doing the same thing and expecting a different result. 

[romavillan]

15 hours ago, DaveAV1 said:

 Cloughie lost out to player power, he didn't have time to fail. Our Brucie is being given plenty of rope to hang himself, and some of his decisions on Saturday did nothing to prevent the hangman from forming the noose. I've said I'll try to stay supportive for the first few games, and will always be during a game. But he doesn't make it easy to say much in his favour on here.

Well, to be fair he did go and tell the current champions they were a bunch of dirty cheating ass-hats and he didn't have Taylor to help dig him out of that particular hole.

Any talk of Bruce in the same thread as Bruce is a bit odd but I agree, it's certainly getting to the point when it's going to be hard to say that he hasn't been given time. he's getting on for 40 games in charge, 2 transfer windows and a pre-season. It'd be great if he is successful here, I'd prefer that to more upheaval and starting again all over again in the middle of a season. As it stands though he's going to have to pull something pretty special out the bag now if we're all of a sudden going to start scoring more goals. 

[sne]

13 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

The first sign of madness is continually doing the same thing and expecting a different result. 

Well yes.

But since Bruce is rich and famous that would make him eccentric rather than mad.

So instead of cutting his ear off he is playing Bacuna in CM.

 

[bobzy]

22 hours ago, terrytini said:

If you thought the starting line up fine, that's fine.

I didn't and don't.

I don't think starting with just 2 creative players is fine. I don't think it's enough. I think it means we won't score enough goals. We didn't score enough goals.

Every team will miss loads of chances, "should've been xyz" is meaningless for me.

As he said himself, it's a recurrent theme. Yes it is !!!

Yes we created chances first half. And Hull were poor. How many more chances might we have created had we had more creativity on the pitch ?

In game after game - IMO - he picks one too many defensive players and in game after game limits us to too little forward commitment.

 

Our lineup was fine, we created plenty of chances.  We didn't take them.  We didn't win the game.

We played (unless I am mistaken) 3 defenders, 2 wing backs, 2 deeper central midfielders, an attacking midfielder and 2 strikers.  That isn't defensive.  The play style may not have been great, you may have wanted to go more gung-ho and swapped out Bacuna for Green and played 3 forwards, sure - but it's not defensive.

Bruce's failing in this particular game was not doing something soon enough to stop Hull's momentum immediately after half-time.  Personally, I don't know what that should've been, but that's the part where it went wrong.

[DaveAV1]

12 minutes ago, romavillan said:

Well, to be fair he did go and tell the current champions they were a bunch of dirty cheating ass-hats

Well his diplomacy skills were always suspect, even if he may have had a point. I can see though that perhaps the more sensitive members of the squad, I'm sure there were loads in that Leeds team,  may have taken it a little to heart......

[terrytini]

33 minutes ago, bobzy said:

Our lineup was fine, we created plenty of chances.  We didn't take them.  We didn't win the game.

We played (unless I am mistaken) 3 defenders, 2 wing backs, 2 deeper central midfielders, an attacking midfielder and 2 strikers.  That isn't defensive.  The play style may not have been great, you may have wanted to go more gung-ho and swapped out Bacuna for Green and played 3 forwards, sure - but it's not defensive.

Bruce's failing in this particular game was not doing something soon enough to stop Hull's momentum immediately after half-time.  Personally, I don't know what that should've been, but that's the part where it went wrong.

Ok. 

I don't agree.

[TheStagMan]

2 hours ago, Tommo_b said:

And we come to that conclusion after one game of a new season against a side just dropped down from the premier league, it absolutely beggars belief. 

No it doesn't what beggars belief is that after a bunch of new players, and a pre season, the same frailties are there. They do not seem to have been addressed.

[bannedfromHandV]

2 hours ago, Zatman said:

18 months a long time in football. Same time Ranieri won the title, Pep was going revolutionise English football and Pearson and Moyes still had a good reputation

And yet we still sing about winning the european cup........maybe that's irrelevant now as well given that it was considerably longer than 18 months ago

[tom_avfc]

43 minutes ago, bobzy said:

Our lineup was fine, we created plenty of chances.  We didn't take them.  We didn't win the game.

We played (unless I am mistaken) 3 defenders, 2 wing backs, 2 deeper central midfielders, an attacking midfielder and 2 strikers.  That isn't defensive.  The play style may not have been great, you may have wanted to go more gung-ho and swapped out Bacuna for Green and played 3 forwards, sure - but it's not defensive.

Bruce's failing in this particular game was not doing something soon enough to stop Hull's momentum immediately after half-time.  Personally, I don't know what that should've been, but that's the part where it went wrong.

I actually agree with you but we definitely didn't play a formation like that at all. We played a back 4, Whelan sitting deep with Bacuna and Lansbury slightly ahead of him, Gabby and Emo on the wings and Hogan up front.

We should have had the game won in the first half, he should have brought Green on sooner and even then we still should have won the game if Green had taken the easiest of chances.

[DCJonah]

47 minutes ago, bobzy said:

Our lineup was fine, we created plenty of chances.  We didn't take them.  We didn't win the game.

We played (unless I am mistaken) 3 defenders, 2 wing backs, 2 deeper central midfielders, an attacking midfielder and 2 strikers.  That isn't defensive.  The play style may not have been great, you may have wanted to go more gung-ho and swapped out Bacuna for Green and played 3 forwards, sure - but it's not defensive.

Bruce's failing in this particular game was not doing something soon enough to stop Hull's momentum immediately after half-time.  Personally, I don't know what that should've been, but that's the part where it went wrong.

It's this kind of stuff that's made me lose faith. I think it's a key part of being a manager. Let's be honest most people with an ounce of football knowledge could select a half decent formation and starting 11. 

It's being able to maintain a working plan or adapting things wether in response to the opposition or in response to what's not working for you. And in these instances this is where I think he lets himself down on too many occasions. 

 

[Keyblade]

34 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

It's this kind of stuff that's made me lose faith. I think it's a key part of being a manager. Let's be honest most people with an ounce of football knowledge could select a half decent formation and starting 11. 

It's being able to maintain a working plan or adapting things wether in response to the opposition or in response to what's not working for you. And in these instances this is where I think he lets himself down on too many occasions. 

 

I was thinking about this earlier. Surely that's one of the main requirements of a manager along with man management? If you're not reacting to the flow of the game, what exactly are you really doing on that touchline?

[DaveAV1]

1 hour ago, sne said:

Well yes.

But since Bruce is rich and famous that would make him eccentric rather than mad.

So instead of cutting his ear off he is playing Bacuna in CM.

 

If I was more arty I could get on my high horse about comparing Steve Bruce with Vinnie Van G. Then again SB has been compared to both Vinnie and the great Ron Saunders in the last few hours, perhaps we just don't understand his genius?

[dn1982]

1 hour ago, bobzy said:

Our lineup was fine, we created plenty of chances.  We didn't take them.  We didn't win the game.

We played (unless I am mistaken) 3 defenders, 2 wing backs, 2 deeper central midfielders, an attacking midfielder and 2 strikers.  That isn't defensive.  The play style may not have been great, you may have wanted to go more gung-ho and swapped out Bacuna for Green and played 3 forwards, sure - but it's not defensive.

Bruce's failing in this particular game was not doing something soon enough to stop Hull's momentum immediately after half-time.  Personally, I don't know what that should've been, but that's the part where it went wrong.

It's strange how Bruce bangs on about experience then puts Bacuna in CM. It worked to start with but then when they uppped it he never had the nous to get in the game. We got over run and sat deeper. They started getting on top just before half and Bruce with all his experience should've been prepared for it and reacted before they scored. Bacuna has been hung out to dry but we all know he's a limited footballer who tries but isn't good enough surely this is noticed by Bruce? We could easily have changed shape with those on the pitch to try to get back in the game. Bruce needs to react quicker or he won't get the chance to do it much longer. We can't afford to make the same mistakes as last year. 

[AvfcRigo82]

You just need to watch SB's interviews Since June.

Since we signed Terry all his interviews seem to be full of down beat, low ebb and small touch of a lack of interest beginning to set in.

Pissed his cannot offload players and did not realise the full depth of the problems until now etc. Does not bode positiveness.

I will see how we are after 5 games and how the mood is then.

The gauntlet already out for him it would start to appear so I would say that SB needs a minimum of 12 pts from the next 4 games, playing decent football for 90 minutes and not just 45 when we are 1-0 up and also too see games out with a winning goal margin of atleast 2 goals each game.

I am sorry but the squad he has at his disposal now should be doing a hell of a lot better.. the manager needs to make sure they do so.

[Demitri_C]

6 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

You just need to watch SB's interviews Since June.

Since we signed Terry all his interviews seem to be full of down beat, low ebb and small touch of a lack of interest beginning to set in.

Pissed his cannot offload players and did not realise the full depth of the problems until now etc. Does not bode positiveness.

To be honest I have not sensed any of that from his interviews. 

problems? I mean I understand he has players like elphick richards etc but he has been given a hell of  aload of money to sign players he has been backed. Some clubs have much bigger problems in terms of getting players in and players they dont want. 

6 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

I will see how we are after 5 games and how the mood is then.

The gauntlet already out for him it would start to appear so I would say that SB needs a minimum of 12 pts from the next 4 games, playing decent football for 90 minutes and not just 45 when we are 1-0 up and also too see games out with a winning goal margin of atleast 2 goals each game.

I am sorry but the squad he has at his disposal now should be doing a hell of a lot better.. the manager needs to make sure they do so.

This part I agree with. If 5 games in and its the same I think it might be worth reviewing his position as he hasn't addressed the failures from last season. 

[omariqy]

I always wanted Bruce but 37 games later it's dawned on me that at best he may get us in via the playoffs. At best. We have by far the best squad in the league.