Steve Bruce

[Stevo985]

17 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

Well, according to many posters, it was impossible to expect Bruce, the promotion maestro, to get us up from that position last season. So are we expecting a new manager to do what Bruce could not do, or are we fated to remain in this division for another season.

That's not quite fair. 

We were in a much different position this time last season than we are now. 

We're much better set up and settle now, which makes it all the more frustrating that Bruce doesn't look like he can do it.

 

I think this is a key week for Bruce. If he's in charge for the next game then our eggs are in his basket.

[TheStagMan]

26 minutes ago, villan_007 said:

Spin this.....Aston Villa the least amount of away wins in all 4 leagues over the past 5yrs. 25 away wins in 5 yrs. 

Blame bruce though.

Spin this at the same time. Steve Bruce has the highest win ratio of any villa manger since John gregory.

It's a funny old game.

And yet, despite that, he is still shit. 

[Dr_Pangloss]

9 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

Why on earth would would we view a draw at Bristol City anything but points lost.

One thing Bruce has achieved is to dampen down our expectations.

There's a fallacious belief among many that we will go up just because it's Steve Bruce. Even one of the commentators said "if you give him time he will take you up". He simply isn't demonstrating those credentials here and as I've long suspected he is not the guy to come in to manage a big club with big expectations, all of his success has been at vastly smaller clubs than ours. Automatic promotion IMO is absolutely impossible under him, simply based on our terribly negative football and shambolic away form. 

Realistically we need promotion with the first two seasons of going down, I'd imagine that financially this club will be in an horrific position if we do not go up this season. Parachute payments under our 'package' will last for three years, next season the payment will be halved on this season (to around £14m-15m). So that in itself is a massive drop in income and this squad is massively leveraged, big payments have gone out for other players which will still be being paid and the salary bill is going to be huge for this level. It's going to get fairly ugly IMO should we not go up. 

Another thing, I really despise this narrative Bruce is spinning around having no money to spend. He spent what? £15m on Hogan alone? That's bigger than most Championship club's budget for the season. He had money to spend on Bjarnsen, Lansbury, Hourihane, Bree, Whelan etc. But crucially, look how much has had to for wages. Terry is on a good premier league wage here. Lansbury and Hourihane are most likely on quite a lot given their contractual situations at previous clubs. Other players dropping down from the Premier League like Taylor Elmo, and Whelan will be on a pretty penny too. Like a lot of old school managers Bruce is great at spin and leveraging his press networks, not too dissimilar to MON in that respect.

[turvontour]

28 minutes ago, villan_007 said:

Spin this.....Aston Villa the least amount of away wins in all 4 leagues over the past 5yrs. 25 away wins in 5 yrs. 

Blame bruce though.

Spin this at the same time. Steve Bruce has the highest win ratio of any villa manger since John gregory.

It's a funny old game.

3 away wins in 2 years is more worrying. 

[skarroki]

12 hours ago, DCJonah said:

RDM got 5 points from the first 5 games. 

Bruce gets the same after 11 months with the team and two transfer windows. 

We also got knocked out the cup by a league 2 team and 3 of those 5 RDM got were against the one of the worst teams in championship history. RDM won 0 of the following 5 so let's see what Bruce does over the next 5 games

[villan_007]

8 minutes ago, turvontour said:

3 away wins in 2 years is more worrying. 

Indeed. Bruce has been here 10 months and it continues. Its weird

[mikeyp102]

30 minutes ago, Nigel said:

We have to see the next result to see how good of a result this actually was. 

A win after the break will mean this is a half decent point, considering both teams home/away forms.

However anything less than a win and we have big problems.

I hope that once we have a few decent away performances, and the pschhological mindset is altered, that he will start to open up more and go at teams far more! 

We have to take away the pressure of winning every home game because this will catch up with us at some point!

Do you think a draw to Bristol was a good result? I certainly don't, they were poor. Their best defender was going to be our fourth choice. They were there for the taking we just didn't attack until the second half.

If we had play the same formation and way we did against Norwich we would have won and confidence would have lifted for future away games. However, by changing the formation, Bruce is stopping confidence. He's basically saying I don't trust you to play attacking football away from home so we are just going to sit back and not lose.

[Straggler]

We played three at the back. Three at the fricking back after back to back wins with 4 at the back. Did Bristol pose a particular threat that forced the change? If they did it is not apparent from the game or from the post match comments. Have we played well with three at the back under Bruce because I sure as hell can't remember it. Last one I remember was fulham away last season and that was an absolute disaster. 

I said after the last game that Bruce had stumbled onto a winning strategy and his future rides on if he is smart enough or brave enough to stick with it. Simple answer is that he is not brave enough. It was a moronic decision to change the formation like that no matter how quickly he rectified it.  I know I'm not the only one who was saying in pre season that if he plays 3 at the back it will signal that lessons have not been learned and here we are again. 

Stupid is as stupid does. Goddam three at the goddamned back should be a sacking offence by now.

[Eastie]

2 minutes ago, Straggler said:

We played three at the back. Three at the fricking back after back to back wins with 4 at the back. Did Bristol pose a particular threat that forced the change? If they did it is not apparent from the game or from the post match comments. Have we played well with three at the back under Bruce because I sure as hell can't remember it. Last one I remember was fulham away last season and that was an absolute disaster. 

I said after the last game that Bruce had stumbled onto a winning strategy and his future rides on if he is smart enough or brave enough to stick with it. Simple answer is that he is not brave enough. It was a moronic decision to change the formation like that no matter how quickly he rectified it.  I know I'm not the only one who was saying in pre season that if he plays 3 at the back it will signal that lessons have not been learned and here we are again. 

Stupid is as stupid does. Goddam three at the goddamned back should be a sacking offence by now.

This . It's not the players that cannot handle the expectation of a big club it's the manager who cannot handle it !

wyness in a recent villa talk interview on YouTube said Bruce told him he rarely sleeps in the season through fear of losing games - that is him in a nutshell .

his approach is don't lose rather then go and win .

Edited August 26, 2017 by Eastie

[KHV]

The team lacks pace especially with Samba and Terry starting in a back 3. The midfield is also quite pedestrian. I'm struggling as to why he went 3 at the back. Everyone else knew that it was a piss poor idea as soon as the line up was announced. I just don't know how he arrived at that decision.

[Eastie]

1 minute ago, KHV said:

The team lacks pace especially with Samba and Terry starting in a back 3. The midfield is also quite pedestrian. I'm struggling as to why he went 3 at the back. Everyone else knew that it was a piss poor idea as soon as the line up was announced. I just don't know how he arrived at that decision.

Fear of losing rather than desire to win !

[RimmyJimmer]

13 hours ago, DCJonah said:

Hound him out? Comments on an internet forum. Get a grip.  

My irony meter has just exploded  

[KHV]

Just now, Eastie said:

Fear of losing rather than desire to win !

Your never going to be promoted with that attitude though. The club is on the brink of collapse without promotion, you'd think we would be going all out.

[Delphinho123]

He's living a charmed life. Although I think the squad is unbalanced in areas, it is strong and there is no way we should finish outside the top 6.

I said it in the ratings thread, but he almost sets us up to lose.

We are so much better than Steve Bruce. 

[TRO]

So Steve Bruce gets the hook.

who is this manager, who gets us playing like we all want them to play?

who is this guy, that is going to get teams to roll over to us?

look, if it means promotion, i am all for it.....but its not JUST about getting rid its about who are we getting.

i am not really happy with the contribution of the experienced players so far, and a bit surprised if i am honest.

I hear the calls of the way we are set up and the negative approach......for me he has tried every conceivable option.....and yes i accept that some of it is not working.

At present i am disappointed with the start.....but for the life of me, i do not see who this nailed on successor folk allude to is.

It could conceivably get worse.....the players may like him and all want out when he goes.

i understand the frustration, that many posters illustrate.....i don't get this removal of Bruce and the introduction of mystery manager as necessarily the solution.

i guess if it was someone beyond our wildest dreams, i would have to think again.

 

[Nigel]

46 minutes ago, mikeyp102 said:

Do you think a draw to Bristol was a good result? I certainly don't, they were poor.

By itself no, thats why i said we have to view it in context!

Quote

Their best defender was going to be our fourth choice. They were there for the taking we just didn't attack until the second half.

If only football were played on paper hey....we wouldnt even need to turn up!

Seriously what has Baker got to do with anything? He was one of the best defenders in the league last year.

Quote

If we had play the same formation and way we did against Norwich we would have won and confidence would have lifted for future away games. However, by changing the formation, Bruce is stopping confidence. He's basically saying I don't trust you to play attacking football away from home so we are just going to sit back and not lose.

We tried that same formation against Cardiff and Reading, didnt end up too well.  We are short on confidence away from home, no matter what lv of confidence you think we have from the last 2 results. You can see it in our play. We need to get over this mindset before we can start to confidently go at teams. He tried to do this with the new formation, didnt work so he changed it quite quickly. TBH i thought he handled that quite well.

[AntrimBlack]

1 hour ago, villan_007 said:

Spin this.....Aston Villa the least amount of away wins in all 4 leagues over the past 5yrs. 25 away wins in 5 yrs. 

Blame bruce though.

Spin this at the same time. Steve Bruce has the highest win ratio of any villa manger since John gregory.

It's a funny old game.

You obviously do not know the rules, Villan. You cannot look back at previous seasons - only the four games this season. 

Bruce can confirm this for you.

[Eastie]

10 minutes ago, TRO said:

So Steve Bruce gets the hook.

who is this manager, who gets us playing like we all want them to play?

who is this guy, that is going to get teams to roll over to us?

look, if it means promotion, i am all for it.....but its not JUST about getting rid its about who are we getting.

i am not really happy with the contribution of the experienced players so far, and a bit surprised if i am honest.

I hear the calls of the way we are set up and the negative approach......for me he has tried every conceivable option.....and yes i accept that some of it is not working.

At present i am disappointed with the start.....but for the life of me, i do not see who this nailed on successor folk allude to is.

It could conceivably get worse.....the players may like him and all want out when he goes.

i understand the frustration, that many posters illustrate.....i don't get this removal of Bruce and the introduction of mystery manager as necessarily the solution.

i guess if it was someone beyond our wildest dreams, i would have to think again.

 

It could get worse but there's a good chance it could get better with a manager who uses modern tactics and play progressive attacking football .

Its a chance I would take as I feel Bruce has blown his chance for me .

Jokanovic for me .

Edited August 26, 2017 by Eastie

[terrytini]

Fear of the unknown is no reason to avoid it.

[sne]

Think it's safe to assume this is what we'll get under Steve Bruce.

40 League games in now and he still doesn't know what he want's, or at least how to achieve it.

Rather than being able to fix the problems he just keeps signing new players and changing formations hoping to paper over the cracks and stumble over something that works.

He's not working towards a goal, he's just trying to keep his head over water.

We are wasting our time with him.