Steve Bruce

[omariqy]

48 minutes ago, TrentVilla said:

I agree on all points.

Just to add though, only 3 of the 11 players who started on Saturday pre-date Bruce.

 

And one of them was his captain at Hull. 

[AJ]

I hate the manager roundabout. Having to discuss, fire, and eventually replace a manager is a setback and a fail on Villa's part. I get more grief than joy out of this, and I hope many others feel the same.

But, Bruce has to go. With the squad and expectations we have, the performance at Cardiff was so poor, it could have been considered espionage. It was poorer than anything last year, when we should be on the way up. His post interview sounded like he had given up, and when people give up, they lose interest. When the manager loses interest, then what is the point of having him? We wont get promoted with Bruce.

We must get promotion this season. If we don't, with FFP and lower parachute payments, I fear we will cement ourselves as a Championship team, just like Leeds, Forest, and Wednesday.

[TrentVilla]

Just now, omariqy said:

And one of them was his captain at Hull. 

And another his personal restoration project.

[TRO]

15 minutes ago, TrentVilla said:

He might. But I don't think that is what's intended, the point is that Warnock is no tactical genius but still showed Bruce up. It's not a compliment to either of them.

look, you know I have supported Steve Bruce through thick and thin, but I think he is slowly hanging himself.

I am not sure ALL of the criticism is fair, but he is responsible......and just like I thought RDM was not given enough time..... we cannot run with poor results or in Saturdays case a game where the basics were missing from so many.

I honestly believe Steve Bruce can see it.....But I am now of the opinion he does not know ( in the boundaries of reasonable resource) how to fix it.

I see managers like Neil Warnock get performances out of Zahore/Laing/Hoilett etc......it seems a far away land for us.....ours just seem to get worse.

I think a decision one way or the other needs to be made to keep our season alive.

Edited August 14, 2017 by TRO

[LakotaDakota]

14 minutes ago, TrentVilla said:

He might. But I don't think that is what's intended, the point is that Warnock is no tactical genius but still showed Bruce up. It's not a compliment to either of them.

He is showing lots of people up.

Rotherham were down when he joined but he managed 1.5 points per game there.

Cardiff were going down, he spent nothing, signed some pensioners & free agents and has managed an average of 1.62 points per game since then (39 games) which would put them right around the play-offs rolled into a full season.

This is with Rotherham & Cardiff, Both teams with a losing culture and looking doomed to relegation yet he appears to waltz in, have a nice chat with a bunch of crap players and they turn into the hardest working team in the division.

Bruce is on about 1.48 with us despite us paying more in wages per year than both the rotherham & cardiff teams combined actually cost

[jacketspuds]

Warnock took out of form, pretty crap Championship level players, and has got performances out of them.

Bruce has taken in-form Championship players, most notably Hourihane and Hogan, and has managed to strip all confidence and ability out of them by playing tactics designed for a group of players with very different skill sets.

He doesn't really know how he wants us to play and, subsequently, what players he needs to play this way.

He has to go regardless of the outcome tomorrow.

[Dom_Wren]

I posted this Feb 23rd, just seems weve not addressed any of these things!

 

Heres one thing i dont get, I dont see any of the principles of football in our play. week one you work on defending, role of pressuring, covering, balancing defenders, functionally what you want your 1-11 to do when the ball is in XYZ position. Shape in denying space, transition of each line as a unit, getting into players, backpressing, defending the counter attack etc...

 

Once all the defending is done you work on penetration, breaking lines, playing in between opposition units, getting on the half turn, driving, mobility to find space. Speed in transition when you win the ball. If thats not open, you work on creating width thru #7/#2 and #11/#3, giving support and depth to each player to switch the point of attack, working on playing at a speed of play that the opposition cannot handle, bouncing the ball and setting it to underneath players, getting players who want to get on the ball in the team.

 

I see none of this, I cannot tell you why, but my best guess is they are either not being taught this, or are not following instructions.

[ozvillafan]

2 hours ago, jacketspuds said:

He doesn't really know how he wants us to play and, subsequently, what players he needs to play this way.

For me, that one line sums it up.

Buying the best or most expensive players available to you means nothing without a clear plan of how you want to use them.

Surely the plan comes first - but it's hard to tell with Bruce!

[Czechlad]

I just hate to see Tony give Bruce the players he wanted, then just get a new manager in who did not want these players. This is how we will end up with another bomb squad of overpaid players. This is literally the same path we took after O'Neil left, and then we were relegated after a few seasons. This is completely plausible if we keep getting new managers, letting them sign players and push out players, and then not get promoted. Next thing you know it's 2020, and we are facing relegation since FFP destroyed us as a club. 

[Kiwivillan]

1 hour ago, Czechlad said:

I just hate to see Tony give Bruce the players he wanted, then just get a new manager in who did not want these players. This is how we will end up with another bomb squad of overpaid players. This is literally the same path we took after O'Neil left, and then we were relegated after a few seasons. This is completely plausible if we keep getting new managers, letting them sign players and push out players, and then not get promoted. Next thing you know it's 2020, and we are facing relegation since FFP destroyed us as a club. 

Or we sign the players to a philosophy we want and get a manager to apply that and get results. Bruce doesn't even do tactics and that's forever apparent 

Edited August 15, 2017 by Kiwivillan

[AJ]

NOT a Steve Bruce doco.

[peterms]

7 hours ago, MikeMcKenna said:

New manager, new owner, new players, new coaches. Imho it is nothing to do with an innate AVFC cultural issue. On paper we have one of the best squads in the Championship but the last 10 months has proved we have a manager who doesn't know how to get the best out of them. Xia has invested but via the wrong manager. 

I don't think it's innate, as in there being some sort of curse.

There may however be things stemming from the constant change of manager which affect the club as a whole.  For example, if there's always a group of players around who the previous manager brought in and the current one doesn't want and is trying to get rid of, and if the approach to training and tactics regularly changes, then it's easy to see how the place may feel confused and unsettled.

Seven managers in seven years is really not a basis for building anything.

Maybe if the players and coaching staff didn't change so  much, things might be less unsettled,  but a new manager understandably tends to want to bring in thier own people.  Hopefully a new manager will improve results, but I imagine it will take some time to make the place feel less like a merry-go-round.

 

[DCJonah]

4 hours ago, Czechlad said:

I just hate to see Tony give Bruce the players he wanted, then just get a new manager in who did not want these players. This is how we will end up with another bomb squad of overpaid players. This is literally the same path we took after O'Neil left, and then we were relegated after a few seasons. This is completely plausible if we keep getting new managers, letting them sign players and push out players, and then not get promoted. Next thing you know it's 2020, and we are facing relegation since FFP destroyed us as a club. 

That's why you hire a coach with the strict clear idea that he mainly has to work with the squad we've assembled. Most managers at this level would love the chance to have a squad like ours. 

[Villarocker]

I dread to think what the team will be tonight. I can see him going very defensive given the fact we could have conceded 7 or 8 last Saturday and Reading were in the play offs last season. 

Reading played against 10 men for over 90 minutes on Saturday and only scored one goal. We shouldn't fear them at all and go at them but I can't help but feel Bruce will go all defensive and we will cling on to a 0-0 draw and what he will think is a good point.

[theboyangel]

It will be another mishmash selection in the hope something works.

i'm getting the impression Bruce doesn't put much thought into team selection and just takes a punt with all fingers and toes crossed, hoping he stumbles across a winning formula.

last game in charge for Bruce tonight imo. 

 

 

[praisedmambo]

I turned after Saturday. He can have 2/3 more games to surprise me with two wins. Then I may give him a couple more but I am very worried. We create nothing. 

[VillakevBromsgrove]

The football if you can call it that we play is slow, predictable and went out with wimbledon,  We have no flair players, little running off the ball to create space and when we do the players we have do not look to find the player, the team are playing as a defensive unit like rabitts caught in the headlights. what Sherwood did was take the shackles off and say have fun but unfortunately he had minimal talent to work with. Any good manager worth his salt can get these players playing better with confidence and a game plan, Bruce unfortunately has not inspired the players or even got them playing as a unit with a plan in 10 months and must go now before he screws up the whole season, he may win a few games and even get us going on a run by nicking 1 - 0 victories but this is not sustainable in todays game as shown last year. We need a team and system that gets us looking like we can win 3 or 4 nil and forces the opposition onto the back foot.

[villabromsgrove]

If Bruce scrapes a win tonight it will be against the run of play, and will be the most damaging three points that Villa have picked up in ages. If Bruce is sacked now and we bring in the right positive manager/coach, we can still aim for promotion this season. If Bruce somehow scrapes a win, we're stuck with his losing brand of football for the next few games at least. By then our chances of promotion will have been ruined.

I don't feel good hoping for a loss tonight, but for the good of the club a loss will be the only positive result.

[Kentish Villan]

I noticed O'Hare played last night which indicates Bruce has no intention of including him for tonight's game. Great tactic not to include one of our most talented youngsters in any capacity. 

[Stevo985]

2 minutes ago, Kentish Villan said:

I noticed O'Hare played last night which indicates Bruce has no intention of including him for tonight's game. Great tactic not to include one of our most talented youngsters in any capacity. 

Oh come on.

There's plenty to be angry at Bruce about. Plenty.

But players as young as O'Hare are still developing. Playing reserve games is part of that. 

He played in the last two games, and he'll play in plenty of games going forward if he keeps his performance levels up.

 

Bruce shouldn't be slated for letting a young player play football.