Re: The Steve Bruce thread

[deadbuzzardalive]

Bruce isn't offering us stability, he changes the team and formation each week, it's no wonder the players can't develop an understanding with each other. Things aren't going well and there's nothing to suggest under Bruce that thew will go well in the future.

As for a new manager wanting his own team, I think most would be happy to work with the majority of players already at the club with a few additions. Whoever is in charge, Bruce or someone else, we're going to see changes, in the summer.

[Saunders82]

Bruce isn't offering us stability, he changes the team and formation each week, it's no wonder the players can't develop an understanding with each other. Things aren't going well and there's nothing to suggest under Bruce that thew will go well in the future.

As for a new manager wanting his own team, I think most would be happy to work with the majority of players already at the club with a few additions. Whoever is in charge, Bruce or someone else, we're going to see changes, in the summer.

Thats basically what I'm saying too but just we should leave things as is re management, as I like to say "lets run it up the flagpole and see who salutes"

[deadbuzzardalive]

I think you'll get your wish regarding Bruce, as barring an absolute disastrous end to the season, I don't think he'll be going anywhere. Even if we lose every match I get the feeling that Wyness will stick with him and cite Moyes at Everton as one of the reasons why, Xia has also been tweeting about 'patience' today as well.

I just wonder where Round stands in all this.

[Dazzle]

I 100% believe we'll stick with Bruce, but it's clearly purely on the basis of "stability" rather than any fact based evidence. And it depends on your interpretation of "stability". We've been more or less shit, winning (I think) around 3-4 games in fixtures against teams currently above us (I think around 20 fixtures). I think all I'd ask to everyone is how convincing would you say we've looked in any of our wins, or losses for that matter? In my mind we've done nothing more than win against lower league teams (generally squeaking by) and losing to most above us. Sorry, not good enough for me.

[AstonThriller]

Well this doesn't sound too encouraging for Bruce does it?

Dr. Tony Xia ✔ @Dr_TonyXia

Still bothered about the game, not just result but some issues thought we'd solved though still positive&confident we can make the season.#UTV

Xia already pissed off. And I think he just added that part at the end to be diplomatic. I'm 100% confident that Bruce only has another four or five games to get it right. Lose at Cardiff and he'll be right under the cosh ahead of our trip to Reading.

[Guest]

Sounds like the mental stuff to me. We basically got this losing mentality and it's been here for ages.

[Guest]

Well, the best way to get rid of that is by winning matches. So Bruce better buck up or he'll be gone quick enough.

[deadbuzzardalive]

If you watch the interview that Wyness did with 'The Villa View' on youtube, he says that stability is key, but he also does say that they aren't afraid to make a 'difficult decision' if it comes to it.

Bruce is definitely under pressure, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's been told that he has to reach a certain target by a certain time otherwise he's toast. He's certainly seems nervous in recent interviews, and has been making excuses... Grealish's injury, injuries in general, FFP, I even saw a quote of his the other day where he was saying that pre-season doesn't always get you as prepared as he would like, which just seemed like another excuse to me, in case we got off to a bad start.

[achilles]

Well this doesn't sound too encouraging for Bruce does it?

Dr. Tony Xia  ✔ @Dr_TonyXia

Still bothered about the game, not just result but some issues thought we'd solved though still positive&confident we can make the season.#UTV

Xia already pissed off. And I think he just added that part at the end to be diplomatic. I'm 100% confident that Bruce only has another four or five games to get it right. Lose at Cardiff and he'll be right under the cosh ahead of our trip to Reading.

This worries me as we just can't keep on changing managers, Bruce has to change his outlook!

[The Utterer]

Just rewatched that second half.
I think a few things contributed to the crapness.

1. Our midfielders were on Yellows and Hull clearly knew this and got more physical knowing the chances were we could get a red and they might get a yellow (Which mysteriously they didn't despite some nasty challenges which were worse in my eyes to the ones we picked up yellows for although Whelan did one too and could have gone)

2. They clearly had a rocket at half time and came out fired up.

3. We appeared to think it was in the bag and came out half cocked...Clearly an Attitude issue!

Combined this is what changed the game.

Having said that we did arrest the slide after about 70 mins and actually turned the tide back on them, fair do's to Bruce for that albiet perhaps a little late.

We actually should have won with the sitter Green missed and actually the new guy from Spurs Onuoho or whatever his name is should have scored too. He was given offside but Looking at it he could actually have been level  as the Hull players leg was extended out behind him and looks to be playing him on although it was a tight one.

That sitter Green missed was shameful. I would say only 1 in 50 professional footballers would have missed that.

So really i don't feel it was too bad.... We didn't lose and apart from coming out in the wrong mode for the first 20 mins of the second half we actually should have won the game.

Hopefully the lesson will be headed not that i'm holding my breath of course!

[deadbuzzardalive]

Dr. Tony Xia‏Verified account @Dr_TonyXia
Yesterday tactically we didn't sit back, asked for all players meeting together to discuss on Monday about everyone's thoughts though.

[DelboyVilla]

Dr. Tony Xia‏Verified account @Dr_TonyXia
Yesterday tactically we didn't sit back, asked for all players meeting together to discuss on Monday about everyone's thoughts though.

Is this Xia job or Bruce's? Hopefully Bacuna stands up and says WTF was I doing on the pitch? I wouldn't pick me?

[deadbuzzardalive]

Xia's called for the meeting to happen, but said that he won't be involved. He's obviously not happy though. I've seen people suggest that Bruce should get at least ten games like Di Matteo, but I honestly think, the club will be more ruthless this time around, and if things are going badly he could be gone within five or six games, this season is crucial to our future and we can't let it slip away.

[Dazzle]

Xia's called for the meeting to happen, but said that he won't be involved. He's obviously not happy though. I've seen people suggest that Bruce should get at least ten games like Di Matteo, but I honestly think, the club will be more ruthless this time around, and if things are going badly he could be gone within five or six games, this season is crucial to our future and we can't let it slip away.

I've mentioned previously that I thought it would be 8-10 games that Bruce would be given, I think I'd revise that to 8 games maximum. If there are less than 15pts at that point I think it could be trigger time.

[Guest]

The never ending sacking race with us will never ever lead to promotion though, so I hope it doesn't come to that.

[deadbuzzardalive]

Yes, I'd prefer it if we go on a winning streak from herein and there's no reason to get rid of Bruce, because if it comes to that, it will obviously follow that we've done poorly and so will be playing catch up, we'd have to get the next appointment absolutely spot on, to stand a chance of turning things around.

Three away games coming up on the bounce, do well in those and it should give us some confidence going forward.

[FoxyAV]

We have the players, we have the top-notch facilities and we have the fan support to make a serious title challenge. We also have an ambitious and very successful owner who's shown he's willing to invest in the club. I wonder how Bruce's constant blaming of his players last season went down with the owner and I wonder how long, given the continued investment in the club, Bruce will be allowed to stay. We're now in a considerably better place for attracting a top-drawer manager and it becomes a simple matter of how many losses or draws it takes before a new manager would find it too difficult to gain promotion. Another key thing for me is how has Bruce spent his money and are the players working?

Arguably Hourihane, Lansbury and Hogan haven't done what they were brought in to do, while Bjarnason runs round like a headless chicken and Hutton is being played over Bree. Johnstone has been the only success (he kept more clean sheets than any other Championship goalie in the second half of last season) and Bree is presumably a purchase for the future. But it can't have escaped Xia's notice that Bruce isn't doing what he's being paid a lot of money to do.

[Guest]

Personally I think we looked really good first half. I know people say that we weren't all that because they just were shite, but I think we were good. So I think Bruce can get it right. The one half football matches is one problem, but maybe an even bigger problem for me with Bruce is how he picks Hutton and Bacuna, yet ignores Bree, Green and Hourihane. That is for me scandalous.

I've got to admit, I don't think I've agreed with a Villa manager on first elevens since SBL. That's pretty bonkers. They either play someone out of position, ignore youths, have favourites or some other shite.

[deadbuzzardalive]

I think part of the reason we looked so dominante in the first half, was because Hull were still in pre-season mode, wouldn't be surprised if that's the best half of football we play in a longtime.

Three games in eight days now, and interestingly they're all away from home, something which Wyness has publicly stated we need to improve upon, after which we will have a better idea of where Bruce stands, do poorly and he might be on the brink, if it goes the other way, then hopefully it will provide a springboard for a successful season.

[Guest]

I think it's rather unfair to slate the team when they are shit and not praise the team when they are good. 45 minutes of football is obviously not good enough, but I think we should give them credit for that first half.

[smetro]

Just who do we go for though ?

The geezer at Fulham would appear to be the best bet - but Im not overly confident in getting him - nor have that much confidence that he would be any good when he's here.
Sure we could jet in another remi garde type - but I just can't see the 'first team coach' type of appointment working.

I really would make terry short odds to at least become caretaker manager.

Personally I think they will give Bruce a few games after kjodia returns.

[FoxyAV]

Personally I think they will give Bruce a few games after kjodia returns.

I don't know. Maybe I don't understand how it all works, I haven't been following football all my life, but it seems a lot of the clubs we're playing in the Championship have built up what they have with careful investment, some good signings, training their players well and so on. Brighton have just bought their most expensive player ever at £6million and we're splashing double that cash on each striker and hoping something works. Bruce has some top class strikers in Hogan and McCormack and whatever has happened to the latter seems to have happened while he's been on our books. Even with Gabby and Audrey we have strikers capable of scoring goals if played correctly (and maybe Gabby's apparent turnaround in form can be attributed to Bruce?). We shouldn't have to rely on luck and Kodjia to win matches but that's what happened last season and it doesn't seem it's going to win the league. After all the managers we've had since MON left I agreed with others on here that we needed stability and a manager in who could have two or three seasons to get us playing well and back out of the league but the more I see us under Bruce the more I think we're wasting a huge amount of money, time and momentum, and he doesn't have a clue.

I have a feeling he sets up the team based on what he sees in training rather than based on who we're up against - see Gabby/Green/Hogan and Hull. Green is a winger, so play him there. Gabby is fine on the wing but with Taylor not coming forward we can give the winger more leeway to be an attacking player (unlike on the right, where Hutton had to do a lot more of the work because he was getting forward but not getting help in defence from Elmo). Hull don't have a good defence, and even the Sky commentators were talking about how it really contributed to their relegation last season. Stick Gabby up front with Hogan to give them something to think about. But no, we get a player up front who seems to play best as half of a partnership, a player out of position on the left when we have a much better option whose position that is naturally and when we do bring him on, we get a defender as a striker. It's all bollocks and isn't going to win us matches let alone the league.

And it really does bug me when the manager blames the players. That's not how you get them to do things for you and it's becoming plainly obvious we have all the players we need.

[achilles]

Just read today the following quote concerning Onomah from Bruce:

"Josh is something different that we haven't got. He's a forward runner from midfield. As you can see, he's big and strong and athletic. He will have enjoyed his debut and I think he will be a big asset to us. Josh has got something that we wanted. We are delighted we've got him. He can play anywhere in midfield - whether it is number six, eight, or ten. He can play off the front"

So Bruce bought three midfield players in January of this year and they weren't what he wanted? Does he know what he is saying or doing for that matter?

I despair!

[DelboyVilla]

Just read today the following quote concerning Onomah from Bruce:

"Josh is something different that we haven't got. He's a forward runner from midfield. As you can see, he's big and strong and athletic. He will have enjoyed his debut and I think he will be a big asset to us. Josh has got something that we wanted. We are delighted we've got him. He can play anywhere in midfield - whether it is number six, eight, or ten. He can play off the front"

So Bruce bought three midfield players in January of this year and they weren't what he wanted? Does he know what he is saying or doing for that matter?

I despair!

Well considering he played Bacuna at the weekend....that pretty much sums up Bruce as a manager?

[Dazzle]

Get him out now. This evening. It will not get better.

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