Steve Bruce

[terrytini]

2 hours ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

The performance was horrific but at this stage that doesn't really matter. We demonstrated a mental toughness and desire to bounce back that we simply didn't have under RDM, rather than fold we went got a late winner, good early signs. Performances will probably improve with more time and better fitness. 

I don't think it was horrific, I think we played poorly for periods, misplaced passes, showed a fair bit of headless chickeness, showed little composure and only rarely showed any real football ability.......... BUT that's what I've seen from every Team we have played - the trouble is every Team we play does all that and we don't win !

As you say the key bit was the improved mental toughness, hard to pinpoint, no specific or real signs of it during the game but self evident by virtue of the fact we Won, and late on at that........(I actually cant think of anything better for us to have done BTW).

Hard to over estimate how that will improve the players confidence.

I've lost track of the amount of Teams, from Germany to Chelsea, from Brazil to Italy to Leicester, whoever, that I've watched serve up dire football and still Win.  In fact, I would say the amount of times I've seen properly good performances is way, way, in the minority.

That, for me, is why the fact that we could have easily drawn again, and why there was much to moan about in terms of player quality, is irrelevant....its a bit of a truism, but unless you are a spoilt rotten Arsenal fan, any performance can be immediately excused if we win.....agreed, it can raise questions because there is always the fear that "if we aren't really playing very well, eventually the results wont come" but I've seen little to suggest that is likely to be an issue in this League, and in any event there is the alternative view that as long as results come the playing well may follow anyway.

And of course what really comes to mind is the United Team of which Bruce was a part...if in any way at all he can bring that whole concept of the 96 minute performance to us we will benefit hugely, and last night was a good start for that too.  I recall Saturday us having a last minute corner and thinking, "when he was a player they scored loads of these " and I half expected it to happen......last night was a good step towards the players thinking that way, which IMO would be 90% of the battle.

I will take at least a couple of years of 'iffy' performances if we are going the right way !

And how really really pleasant to hear Stam accusing us of not trying to play football ! Perfect ! When did we last piss off an opposing Manager ?

[VillaCas]

4 minutes ago, TRO said:

It doesn't matter who favoured him and who didn't its cosmetic and a bit of internet fun.....we don't need to busy ourselves with point scoring, we have a team to raise.

We ALL need to get behind him....there will be setbacks, we must be ready for that,.....but we mustn't get derailed by them.

When you see all those fans last night.... I see defiance of our low position, I see a manager that gives us hope, I see a team trying to respond, but I see shoots of recovery, no matter how slight.

We must unite

When I read your posts TRO, the voice in my head in always Winston Churchill

Very inspiring lolz

[samjp26]

As I've always said, the only "good performance" is the performance that wins. Nice one Steve!

[Gary Thomas]

1 hour ago, terrytini said:

I don't think it was horrific, I think we played poorly for periods, misplaced passes, showed a fair bit of headless chickeness, showed little composure and only rarely showed any real football ability......... BUT that's what I've seen from every Team we have played - the trouble is every Team we play does all that and we don't win !

As you say the key bit was the improved mental toughness, hard to pinpoint, no specific or real signs of it during the game but self evident by virtue of the fact we Won, and late on at that........

I would go further and say were were better than that tbh.  Don't know why we have to be so hard on the team.  It was a good hardworking, more organized, defensive display away from home and we scored two goals and created chances.  What do people want.

Edited October 19, 2016 by Gary Thomas

[TRO]

25 minutes ago, VillaCas said:

like a Jedi are you TRO!

Bonkers (but brilliant) haha

PS are you drunk?

just have my way of expressing things, probably drunk, some get it some don't.

I just think there are forces at work ( in the players heads)that are painting a picture that is unnecessary , not exactly sure what they are.....but I think SB will sort it out.

I'll get my coat

Edited October 19, 2016 by TRO

[TRO]

7 minutes ago, VillaCas said:

When I read your posts TRO, the voice in my head in always Winston Churchill

Very inspiring lolz

I do see the shite everyone else see's....but we have done it to death.

The club have changed personnel beyond belief....despite the mistakes ,they need a break.

Now it is our turn to be defiant and be Churhillesque.

Those fans last night really inspired me....amazing.

[terrytini]

7 minutes ago, Gary Thomas said:

I would go further and say were were better than that tbh.  Don't know why we have to be so hard on the team.  It was a good hardworking, more organized, defensive display away from home and we scored two goals and created chances.  What do people want.

Well done you have managed to make it sound like I was criticising them when I did the opposite !!

And yes it was indeed hardworking, organised, and we created chances - none of which alters what I said !!

Edited October 19, 2016 by terrytini

[TRO]

13 minutes ago, Gary Thomas said:

I would go further and say were were better than that tbh.  Don't know why we have to be so hard on the team.  It was a good hardworking, more organized, defensive display away from home and we scored two goals and created chances.  What do people want.

The results will eleviate the pressure, that should enhance the performances....its synergetic

[Gary Thomas]

17 minutes ago, terrytini said:

Well done you have managed to make it sound like I was criticising them when I did the opposite !!

And yes it was indeed hardworking, organised, and we created chances - none of which alters what I said !!

That wasn't my intention so apologies. Just saying I thought we played even better than you suggested (hence me saying I would go further). The criticism was more aimed at those saying the performance was horrific - who I suspect never even saw the game.

Edited October 19, 2016 by Gary Thomas

[AvfcRigo82]

1 hour ago, TRO said:

It doesn't matter who favoured him and who didn't its cosmetic and a bit of internet fun.....we don't need to busy ourselves with point scoring, we have a team to raise.

Point scoring????

1 hour ago, TRO said:

We ALL need to get behind him...

When you see all those fans last night.... I see defiance of our low position, I see a manager that gives us hope, I see a team trying to respond, but I see shoots of recovery, no matter how slight.

We must unite

You answered your own question.

 

As you have correctly stated it is a forum and internet fun - all full of opinions.

I had my opinion on matters surrounding the new manager and current performance of the team. I stand by those opinions still now, but at the same time they can only start to ram words the down my mouth with a result like that last night... and continued improvement and progress.

I know it was an overwhelming feeling seeing last night's result and can see your full of joy today because of it.

[PaulTheVillan]

4 points from his first 2 games is a good return. He wasn't my first choice, but I'm pleased with his start. It's clear the players aren't fully fit (not the first time we've seen that at Villa). I think we'll get through the next 2 games without being beaten.

[Guest av1]

11 hours ago, The Fun Factory said:

Early days but is saying the right things and looks comfortable in the job. Which hasn't happened for a while.

Which is arguably due to the fact that he is the first "real manager" we have had for a while. 

[Richard]

1 hour ago, VillaCas said:

like a Jedi are you TRO!

Bonkers (but brilliant) haha

PS are you drunk?

The manager has been inspired by TRO as well.  I heard in the team talk before the match he said to them "these are not the draws you are looking for"

[PieFacE]

Game 1: Bruce notices that our squad tires easy

Game 2: Bruce contains a bit in the first half, whilst conserving energy, and then tries to go for the win in the second half

Is this a Villa manager implementing tactics? 

Absolutely absurd. Didn't think Villa managers were allowed to use tactics.

In all seriousness, sounds like we were a little lucky but fair play, absolutely chuffed with the win, especially as it's an away win.

Need to build on this, 4-3-3 at home against Fulham please. 

[AntrimBlack]

1 hour ago, TRO said:

It doesn't matter who favoured him and who didn't its cosmetic and a bit of internet fun.....we don't need to busy ourselves with point scoring, we have a team to raise.

We ALL need to get behind him....there will be setbacks, we must be ready for that,.....but we mustn't get derailed by them.

When you see all those fans last night.... I see defiance of our low position, I see a manager that gives us hope, I see a team trying to respond, but I see shoots of recovery, no matter how slight.

We must unite

You put that beautifully.

[ozvillafan]

16 minutes ago, Richard said:

The manager has been inspired by TRO as well.  I heard in the team talk before the match he said to them "these are not the draws you are looking for"

Nothing to add. It was just worth repeating.

[hippo]

We are the greatest !

[BOF]

We've been struggling to win.  We've been trying to use all the strikers.  We've been unlucky in certain ways.  We've questioned substitutions.

Bruce has come in and not fallen for the striker trap.  We used 4 mids against Reading.  While they may have had the possession, it is the shots on and off target that were all but even and the attacking passing % was in our favour.  He made substitutions that made us more dangerous.  We just happened to be lucky for once, oh and the bit that matters, we won the game.

He has 4pts in 2 games and we're already looking more positively at the season.  He has given the place a boost.  "Rather be lucky than good"? I think you make your own luck sometimes.  So far he seems to be pretty lucky and fairly good.  I'll take that.  I wanted a manager whose decisions made sense.  Even had his not worked, they made sense.  It's no surprise then that they've by and large also worked.

No not everything has changed.  I'd be pretty amazed if it had within 180 minutes of football.  But I think given the small sample size, we've come a pretty long way already.

[TRO]

1 hour ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

Point scoring????

You answered your own question.

 

As you have correctly stated it is a forum and internet fun - all full of opinions.

I had my opinion on matters surrounding the new manager and current performance of the team. I stand by those opinions still now, but at the same time they can only start to ram words the down my mouth with a result like that last night... and continued improvement and progress.

I know it was an overwhelming feeling seeing last night's result and can see your full of joy today because of it.

No....i was saying any fans original view on SB is irrelevant now and none of us should involve ourselves in point scoring....not referring to you.....talking generally.

that was my point....not to ram any words down fans throats, it could be a temptation by some.......but to unify behind him.

sorry if I came across any other way.

Edited October 19, 2016 by TRO

[dont_do_it_doug.]

OK so I was actually at the game. Here's my view. 

We appeared to play in some kind of "holding pattern". He's only had 3 training sessions with the squad so it will have been almost impossible to implement his ideas fully yet, so what we did do was set up compact, two solid banks and played a defensive, counter attacking game and make ourselves impossible to break down. Then as the game wore on we pushed up the field, bought on some (talented) fresh legs and we won. We deserved to win too. 

No, it wasn't pretty. Football doesn't always have to be pretty. Individually many of them still look a yard off the pace and still lacking in confidence, but they were well structured, worked hard for each other and ground it out. The changes were perfect and came at just the right time, we'd made Reading graft themselves into the ground trying to break us down and as a result Ayew was coming on against knackered legs and he completely blitzed them. 

Despite my earlier protestations that it might be too early to judge he nailed the set up and nailed the in game management. If all we have to discuss is how "it wasn't pretty" or that "if this, this and this had happened we wouldn't have won and we wouldn't be happy", I can live with that. But make no mistake, the three points were hard earned and fully deserved. 

Edited October 19, 2016 by dont_do_it_doug.