Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[The Edge]

At the press conference today it was noted that it's Bruce's 100th game tomorrow.

The reporter then mentioned our good record at villa park, only four losses. Bruce then said  "four losses ain't bad, in what 100 games..."

Get lost Brucey.

To be fair 4 losses in 50ish home games isn't bad.  It's the draws that have done for us.

He loves to rewrite history

So much so he's been asked by Mel Gibson to collaborate on a new movie called "How Germany won the second world war"

[sirlordbaltimore]

I don't know what he's been on but he looked very fresh faced this morning after looking like a mess recently.

He's right though, our home record is pretty impressive.

[A Northern Soul]

Classic Bruce today. “what threat do you think Sheffield Wednesday will bring?” “erm Barry Bannan used to play here, he’s done well for 3 or 4 years; erm they’ve got 1 or 2, 3,4 or 5 top class players; erm Forestieri is a good player - if he plays he will cause us problems”.

Brilliant preparation - he’s ready for them. Oh, and Forestieri is suspended tomorrow...

[Rudy Can't Fail]

He does deserve credit for the home form. For far too long we've been shocking at Villa Park. It may only be in the Championship but winning is a very nice habit to have no matter the division.

[paul_e]

The home form is good, but his away record is piss poor.

Just league games:

Home Played 45, won 27, drawn 13, lost 5 (definitely 5, Ipswich, Barnsley and Reading in his first season and Sheffield Wednesday and QPR last year)
Away Played 44, won 15, drawn 9, lost 20

[Clampy]

Classic Bruce today. “what threat do you think Sheffield Wednesday will bring?” “erm Barry Bannan used to play here, he’s done well for 3 or 4 years; erm they’ve got 1 or 2, 3,4 or 5 top class players; erm Forestieri is a good player - if he plays he will cause us problems”.

Brilliant preparation - he’s ready for them. Oh, and Forestieri is suspended tomorrow...

I doubt he should be telling the opposition before a game where he thinks their strenghts are. Besides, he got the Jedinak call right the other night so he looks at the opposition like most managers do.

[paul_e]

Classic Bruce today. “what threat do you think Sheffield Wednesday will bring?” “erm Barry Bannan used to play here, he’s done well for 3 or 4 years; erm they’ve got 1 or 2, 3,4 or 5 top class players; erm Forestieri is a good player - if he plays he will cause us problems”.

Brilliant preparation - he’s ready for them. Oh, and Forestieri is suspended tomorrow...

I doubt he should be telling the opposition before a game where he thinks their strenghts are. Besides, he got the Jedinak call right the other night so he looks at the opposition like most managers do.

I agree with the sentiment but the fact that he doesn't know that Forestieri is banned is hard to find excuses for, it's just poor and a comment of "forestieri is a good player so we're glad he'll be missing this one" wouldn't be giving anything away or out of line with comments he made in the past so it's fairly clear that he either didn't know or was winging it in the press conference, neither does anything to address the multiple concerns that the 'mad' fans have.

[Clampy]

Maybe it slipped his mind, who knows. It's what happens on the pitch which is most important. What he says at press conferences don't really bother me enough to pull apart random quotes.

[Mister E]

The home form is good, but his away record is piss poor.

Just league games:

Home Played 45, won 27, drawn 13, lost 5 (definitely 5, Ipswich, Barnsley and Reading in his first season and Sheffield Wednesday and QPR last year)
Away Played 44, won 15, drawn 9, lost 20

Winning a third of the away games is acceptable, I'd suggest. It's the 20 defeats that really puts the away record into some sort of context.
And, at home - as you say - the draws kill us.

[paul_e]

The home form is good, but his away record is piss poor.

Just league games:

Home Played 45, won 27, drawn 13, lost 5 (definitely 5, Ipswich, Barnsley and Reading in his first season and Sheffield Wednesday and QPR last year)
Away Played 44, won 15, drawn 9, lost 20

Winning a third of the away games is acceptable, I'd suggest. It's the 20 defeats that really puts the away record into some sort of context.
And, at home - as you say - the draws kill us.

I'd say 1 in 3 away from home is the very minimum we should be looking at and is probably only play off standard at best.  In a 46 game season I think you need at least 26-27 wins to be in the mix for automatic promotion, if you only get 8 of them away it's puts a lot of pressure on you to win almost all of your home games. Ideally you want to win about half of your away games (11-12) then you're left look for 14-15 wins at home and anything more than that just nudges you towards the title.

[hipkiss92]

Classic Bruce today. “what threat do you think Sheffield Wednesday will bring?” “erm Barry Bannan used to play here, he’s done well for 3 or 4 years; erm they’ve got 1 or 2, 3,4 or 5 top class players; erm Forestieri is a good player - if he plays he will cause us problems”.

Brilliant preparation - he’s ready for them. Oh, and Forestieri is suspended tomorrow...

I doubt he should be telling the opposition before a game where he thinks their strenghts are. Besides, he got the Jedinak call right the other night so he looks at the opposition like most managers do.

Playing Jedinak in the playoff final would suggest otherwise.

I think he just likes Jedinak.

[RussellC]

Classic Bruce today. “what threat do you think Sheffield Wednesday will bring?” “erm Barry Bannan used to play here, he’s done well for 3 or 4 years; erm they’ve got 1 or 2, 3,4 or 5 top class players; erm Forestieri is a good player - if he plays he will cause us problems”.

Brilliant preparation - he’s ready for them. Oh, and Forestieri is suspended tomorrow...

That's shambolic if so. I've often wondered exactly how much tactical preparation Bruce puts into games. If he doesn't even know that one of their best players is suspended tomorrow, it's fairly damning in my opinion.

[chrisw1]

Classic Bruce today. “what threat do you think Sheffield Wednesday will bring?” “erm Barry Bannan used to play here, he’s done well for 3 or 4 years; erm they’ve got 1 or 2, 3,4 or 5 top class players; erm Forestieri is a good player - if he plays he will cause us problems”.

Brilliant preparation - he’s ready for them. Oh, and Forestieri is suspended tomorrow...

That's shambolic if so. I've often wondered exactly how much tactical preparation Bruce puts into games. If he doesn't even know that one of their best players is supposed tomorrow, it's fairly damning in my opinion.

Yes, doesn't look good at all.  I'd expect non league managers to know if key opposition players were suspended.

[The Edge]

Classic Bruce today. “what threat do you think Sheffield Wednesday will bring?” “erm Barry Bannan used to play here, he’s done well for 3 or 4 years; erm they’ve got 1 or 2, 3,4 or 5 top class players; erm Forestieri is a good player - if he plays he will cause us problems”.

Brilliant preparation - he’s ready for them. Oh, and Forestieri is suspended tomorrow...

That's shambolic if so. I've often wondered exactly how much tactical preparation Bruce puts into games. If he doesn't even know that one of their best players is suspended tomorrow, it's fairly damning in my opinion.

"I don't really do tactics"

[mr underhill]

Look 99% of football managers have the brain power of a daffodil - it's just meaningless bollocks. I don't rate the guy as AV manager, but I couldn't give a shiny shite about stuff like this in the weekly charade that is a pre- match press conference. The only thing about Bruce that counts are results and  his aren't good enough.