Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[Ads]

Why was it negative?

Who else would you have put in? Green, Grealish and Adomah all injured, Thor having played well recently and Elmo the only other wide option.

[SoccerHQ]

Despite the run, today shows that  this type of performance is allways on the cards.
He did not need to go as negative as he did and the bench left a paucity of options.
One defeat and we are out of automatic place.
Shows how damaging those 2 bad months  were.
Let’s hope this is just a blip.

Yeah, I thought that earlier. All of those wins were to give us a chance. Had we had any kind of consistency before Christmas we'd be marking time with the Dogheads now.

All teams can say that though. If Fulham had a better first half of the season instead of going into December 15th....Let's remember Cardiff were well ahead of us going into the xmas games and then they lost 4 straight games which gave us a chance to catch up.

We are where we are and considering our position after losing to Brentford I'd have signed up gladly for where we are now two months on.

[BC Villain]

Why was it negative?

Who else would you have put in? Green, Grealish and Adomah all injured, Thor having played well recently and Elmo the only other wide option.

This.  His hands were forced by lack of options - but with the money we've spent that's not really acceptable.

[taylorsworkrate]

Why was it negative?

Who else would you have put in? Green, Grealish and Adomah all injured, Thor having played well recently and Elmo the only other wide option.

This.  His hands were forced by lack of options - but with the money we've spent that's not really acceptable.

His other option would have been to change the formation and go 2 up top. With Grealish and Adomah out, I think we lack the quality of players to play 3 behind the striker.

[SoccerHQ]

Why was it negative?

Who else would you have put in? Green, Grealish and Adomah all injured, Thor having played well recently and Elmo the only other wide option.

This.  His hands were forced by lack of options - but with the money we've spent that's not really acceptable.

His other option would have been to change the formation and go 2 up top. With Grealish and Adomah out, I think we lack the quality of players to play 3 behind the striker.

We went 2 up on the hour mark and Fulham started running through this which eventually resulted in the second.

[taylorsworkrate]

Why was it negative?

Who else would you have put in? Green, Grealish and Adomah all injured, Thor having played well recently and Elmo the only other wide option.

This.  His hands were forced by lack of options - but with the money we've spent that's not really acceptable.

His other option would have been to change the formation and go 2 up top. With Grealish and Adomah out, I think we lack the quality of players to play 3 behind the striker.

We went 2 up on the hour mark and Fulham started running through this which eventually resulted in the second.

We were chasing the game at the stage, although I take your point.

Really hope if Grealish and Adomah are both injured on Tuesday that he does change it up. Cannot see us winning with that line up

[SoccerHQ]

Think we'll go two up on Tuesday. Grabban's first start.

[clash city rocker]

Why was it negative?

Who else would you have put in? Green, Grealish and Adomah all injured, Thor having played well recently and Elmo the only other wide option.

This.  His hands were forced by lack of options - but with the money we've spent that's not really acceptable.

His other option would have been to change the formation and go 2 up top. With Grealish and Adomah out, I think we lack the quality of players to play 3 behind the striker.

We went 2 up on the hour mark and Fulham started running through this which eventually resulted in the second.

No. A totally unforced error allowed their second.

[ktvillan]

Despite the run, today shows that  this type of performance is allways on the cards.
He did not need to go as negative as he did and the bench left a paucity of options.
One defeat and we are out of automatic place.
Shows how damaging those 2 bad months  were.
Let’s hope this is just a blip.

I would agree that this kind of performance and this kind of reversion to over cautious type is still very much a part of Bruce's make-up.  When he perceives the opposition is strong he seems to go a bit McLeish.  It's why despite the recent good run I'm still not convinced by him.  What we do next will tell us a lot about whether the 7 game run was a turning of the corner or whether it was a case of meeting opponents at the right time and riding our luck a little.  Let's hope yesterday is just a blip.

[Chris Jameson]

Villa win seven on the trot and it’s thanks to Steve Agnew. Lose one against a good side with our two main attacking threats unavailable, Bruce is to blame.

Bruce out.

[ktvillan]

I'm not sure people are blaming Bruce for losing per se, more for the approach he took which seemed to be fear of losing and damage limitation.  Maybe his hand was forced by the absence of Grealish and Adomah, maybe he could have been bolder with his reaction to the forced absences.  He does seem very reluctant to give our own younger players a chance.   

[Sexual Ealing]

2-0 down with 15 minutes to go and we were pinned to our 18 yard line. He’s finally got some credit in the bank but yesterday was woeful.

[Chris Jameson]

Are the younger players actually any good though?

[Monty]

I think Bruce's approach is just what it is, and without certain players it's likely to be exposed. He becomes very reliant on luck - if Bjarneson had scored, had we got a break, then maybe who knows etc - and yesterday it just ran out.

It's limited, but promotion is within those limits if we get certain key players back.

[Mister E]

Are the younger players actually any good though?

Well, many people earlier in the season (after the Wigan demolition, for example) thought that some were worth giving some gametime to. Of all of them, O'Hare does look pretty decent and RHM needs to either be given a chance to shine or to be moved on.