Steve Bruce

[mikeyp102]

Disappointing result and for me only one person to blame.

After putting in 2 promising performances and scoring 8 goals, why change formation?

352 did not look comfortable at all and seemed an act of desperation. Should've kept at 4231 as we look good like that. 

Showed in small patches that if given the chance to play the ball on the deck and attack teams we are so much better. 

Once back into the game it really looked like he was happy for a draw.

Sinoly not good enough tonight. 

[Wezbid]

3 hours ago, DCJonah said:

We now have to average just over 2 points a game for the next 41 games if we want automatic promotion. 

Has anyone seen anything to suggest that's likely to happen?

No we don't, nobody knows what total teams will need and there are about 12 top teams this season. Teams will be taking points of each other more than ever. Suspect (suspect, not know) the points needed to go up will be lower than usual since teams will be beating each other more than ever. 

Away to Bristol City isn't easy, we had chances to take the 3 and so did they. 

Edited August 26, 2017 by Wezbid

[TrentVilla]

No chance he will get us up.

[TrentVilla]

"Blah blah blah, excuse, blah blah blah, I've not had millions to spend, blah blah blah, it was a mess when I arrived 6 weeks ago, blah blah blah" - Bruce in every interview I seem to hear.

Sick of listening to him  

[Wezbid]

What I would say is that, I could take not winning the game if we carried on with what was previously successful. But it changed, and got safe.

3 away games playing safe and getting draws = 3 points. 

3 away games going for it, you'll be unlucky not to win at least one = 3 points. 

Just go for it. Better to go out swinging than with a whimper. Although, we had our chances. 

Bruce is fearing for his job and on the defensive, you can hear it in the interviews. He doesn't want to lose but he forgets that not winning is the bigger deal. 

He's signing good players but the more he talks the more he leaks that the job and expectancy is more than he expected/can take. 

I genuinely think Bruce reading this forum would be good for him and us. Not for any selection purposes, just to see that people would rather see us going for it regardless of whether we are home or away. 

I actually think he's a good manager and the players do seem to like him but he got himself into a situation of his own making. Hull went up scoring a shed load playing attacking football so I don't buy he's just a defensive manager. 

Take the shackles off yourself and the team, if you don't, you'll be slowly sealing your fate. 

[Wezbid]

9 minutes ago, TrentVilla said:

"Blah blah blah, excuse, blah blah blah, I've not had millions to spend, blah blah blah, it was a mess when I arrived 6 weeks ago, blah blah blah" - Bruce in every interview I seem to hear.

Sick of listening to him  

Have to agree. Playing that card when most managers would kill for a budget to bring in Snodgrass for a season, alone, never mind all the other players over the last 10 months. The budget excuse can wash in the Prem but not after the freedom he's had to bring in so many players. 

No wonder Xia is starting to get a bit snippy when he's still going on about balancing the books after bringing in Snodgrass. The books are far from balanced, he's been allowed to bring in loads of players whilst we've barely got rid of the bigger names/wages (not his fault but it hasn't stopped Tony letting him bring in players). 

[StefanAVFC]

Really poor.

I'm upset about us as a side.

We can smash 4 past Norwich at home. 4 against Wigan with our youngsters with a sprinkling of experienced talent.

Then we go ultra defensive away at Bristol city.

So much potential wasted.

[Lerner's Driver]

59 minutes ago, TrentVilla said:

"Blah blah blah, excuse, blah blah blah, I've not had millions to spend, blah blah blah, it was a mess when I arrived 6 weeks ago, blah blah blah" - Bruce in every interview I seem to hear.

Sick of listening to him  

I'm mostly of the opinion that he probably won't get us up either, but whilst we're not losing he is just about hanging on and in this particular moment, it's still not impossible that he could achieve it. I've never enjoyed listening to him though.

The repetition of ideas, even within the same sentence, is indicative of a man playing for time and it grates. There's no clear philosophy, he just spouts generalisms. "It's my biggest challenge", "we have to improve", etc on a loop.

On balance, I too am sick of listening to our manager, but... I don't really look forward to listening to many of them because most of them are making it up as they go along. Only a handful ever have 'it' (the club and themselves), fully composed and coherent throughout a season.

That said, if we all gave up simply because we were sick of listening to other people, this place wouldnt exist for a start!

 

[DCJonah]

3 hours ago, Wezbid said:

No we don't, nobody knows what total teams will need and there are about 12 top teams this season. Teams will be taking points of each other more than ever. Suspect (suspect, not know) the points needed to go up will be lower than usual since teams will be beating each other more than ever. 

Away to Bristol City isn't easy, we had chances to take the 3 and so did they. 

Well the last few years it's been around 90 points for second place. I doubt it will change that drastically. 

[DCJonah]

7 hours ago, bobzy said:

The last 2 league games?

So you think he will consistently get those sort of results from the next 41 games? 

[Keyblade]

Anything short of 2nd place is a failure for this squad imo. We are absolutely stacked for this division, and that's without Jedinak, Grealish and Kodjia (!) to come back. Failure to do so will be 100% down to Bruce, there are no excuses. There's absolutely no reason to go into games defensively with this squad. That would be like Man City going away to Burnley or Swansea and playing 10 men behind the ball for a draw/nicking a win. It's preposterous. 

Bruce has the biggest job of his career, with the opportunity to resurrect a sleeping giant and what does he do? Approach every game apprehensively like he's trying to avoid relegation or something. It really boggles the mind. I think people are right when they say he's a dinosaur. It's like he can't break away from his 2002 ways. I bet there are a bunch of progressive managers looking at him and this squad right now like FFS man, give me a stab at this. Why do we always seem to attract the cautious, chickenshit managers?

[dn1982]

Can anybody tell me what Elmo does that Adomah can't? This sums Bruce up for me. Adomah is a player that can give you 9/10 performances. He will win you games on his own. He will also have a mare and look crap so can perform 4/10. Where from what I've seen so far Elmo will give you a 7/10 every week.  And that's Bruce all over. It seems Bruce sets up not to lose then hopes the 7/10 performances get enough wins. How can you go away and play 541? What message does that give a bunch of players. You're setting up not to lose. We should with our squad be saying We are Aston Villa We are going for the title. Try to stop us. I just can't see Bruce changing and that I fear means one thing. 10 pts from 10 games again and a new manager. Let's hope 6th is still in sight by then. 

[Spoony]

3 hours ago, StefanAVFC said:

Really poor.

I'm upset about us as a side.

We can smash 4 past Norwich at home. 4 against Wigan with our youngsters with a sprinkling of experienced talent.

Then we go ultra defensive away at Bristol city.

So much potential wasted.

This is what annoyed me. We had the momentum after two excellent performances where we finally went for it, and then we went defensive again? If we fielded the same side as against Norwich, went for it and lost I'm sure most sensible Villa fans would have been forgiving.

What continues to annoy me is that we should be the big swinging dick of this league and we should be turning up with swagger and arrogance and looking to destroy teams from the outset. We have the best squad in the league by far and we should be parading them around as such.

[Villarocker]

7 hours ago, villabromsgrove said:

Is anyone satisfied with the team that Bruce chose and the way he set us up tonight?

A five at the back would/could have worked if they didn't play as a flat back five. It's supposed to be three at the back with the wide two bombing forward and that could well have worked if they did so. Maybe they were told to stay flat (Bruce's failure) or bomb forward (players' failure) who knows?

I wasn't happy with the line up until I'd convinced myself it must be a back four with Chester at right back because of injuries in that department. However, once the game started and we played that flat back five I was screaming for him to change it because it killed any hope of us being an attacking threat. He changed it at half time and the second half showed enough attacking threat from us to make me believe that, had we played that way from the beginning, we probably would have won that game. Bruce has to take responsibility for that. 

He simply has to stop being so defensive if he wants to continue in this job. If he doesn't make us more attacking, he certainly won't gain enough points to even trouble the play-offs. 

[Mark Albrighton]

Dr Tony saying September will be crucial for us. 

We've got six games in September. Brentford, Boro, Barnsley, Forest, Burton and Bolton. Four of those being at home.

Then it's another two week break until the Wolves game. That would take Bruce to roughly the same point RDM got to (let's not get into the 30+ games he had last season discussion).

Maybe if we don't achieve a certain points total by that point, Tony will essentially copy what he did last season. It was too late last season so not holding out too much hope.

No idea what he will be expecting from those 6 games in September, but if we're serious about promotion I'd say Bruce would have to achieve around 12 points, as a minimum.

Edited August 26, 2017 by Shropshire Lad

[Rodders]

so we could mask our incompetent chief's incompetence by having more home games, in which to make up for said incompetence we have to be perfect and win all 4 home games.  We need 14 points from 18 to get back towards on track, that would have us at 19 points from 11 games .Still less than 2 points per game, but in the right direction - to get that is 4 wins and 2 draws. Minimum. There is no slack now after dropped points v hull and the 1 from 9 shitshow that is our travels. 

 

Less than 19 points by then and we're hemorrhaging more opportunities the longer we keep captain coward. 

[Dave J]

9 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

As long as Gabby is not playing, he is not too bothered. lol

Promotion yay !! and he never kicks a ball in anger for us again = double yay!!

[Eastie]

Fair result but a poor result for a club targeting promotion - we look good when we attack and shit when we sit back - poor poor management to change a winning formation and Bruce to blame for 2 points dropped- I was incredulous when I saw his selection .

we were playing Bristol city ffs not Barcelona - let the players play their game and they are so much better - get the shackles off them .

Xia is saying September will be massive - we have 7 games of which 5 are at home and only Barnsley and burton away - we need to pick up at least 13 points from 18 this month or we will be out of touch with the leaders and Bruce will be gone in my opinion .

The xia tweet suggests to me he's got to the end of September to get results !

[Dave J]

10 hours ago, AshVilla said:

You realize that we need to get promoted this season right?

I do yes - and I did say that Ashton Gate is a difficult place to get a result at this moment - in the grand scheme of things I thought both teams looked ordinary and a million miles away from being a promotion outfit.

i guess without the Reading/Cardiff debacles we might  view this point a little more favourable ?

[theboyangel]

Disappointed with how we were set up last night as it was clear three at the back doesn't suit us and hasn't been effective when previously attempted 

What surprised me more was the personnel used in the back three.

Using Terry, Chester and Samba restricted us making a formation change without having to play one out of position (resulting in Chester, our best CB playing right back until half time).

If Bruce had used either De Laet or Bree as the 3rd CB then a switch in formation would have been less of an issue. Both have played in both positions in recent games.

Furthermore, it just further shows that Bruce stumbled across the winning formula for our previous two wins but couldn't/wouldn't stick with the same set up.... 

Frustrating and a missed opportunity to have a go at a championship team that blows hot and cold - 2 points dropped for sure due to lack of managerial nous.