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Author Topic: Bruce Sacked at last (now official)  (Read 2114685 times)

Offline Drummond

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3270 on: August 06, 2017, 11:27:57 AM »
We wanted the 3 points so I don't see what the problem was. In fact it was a better tactic than floating the ball in to Hogan who was dwarfed by the giants in the Hull defence all game. Those crosses were meat and drink to the Hull backline.

I agree, it creates a bit of chaos in their defence for the last couple of minutes, you just need to make sure you get people around him to capitalise.

He kept winning the headers he went for...

Shame his head is square though.

Offline olaftab

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3271 on: August 06, 2017, 11:40:55 AM »
We need to win 25 plus games anyway we can. I want us to win in style if possible.

Offline itbrvilla

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3272 on: August 06, 2017, 11:44:16 AM »
We wanted the 3 points so I don't see what the problem was. In fact it was a better tactic than floating the ball in to Hogan who was dwarfed by the giants in the Hull defence all game. Those crosses were meat and drink to the Hull backline.
Here is an idea... why don't we play to the strengths of the players we sign e.g. /Hogan (a Brucie signing)?

Offline SoccerHQ

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3273 on: August 06, 2017, 11:47:30 AM »
No team wins 25 championship games 3/4-0.

Newcastle won 23 games last season by a single or two goal winning margin.

Brighton 22 times.

Fulham do play some top football at this level in fairness which is why we need adam on this thread quickly to restore parity by pointing out what a disgrace to the game they were last season in barely crossing the halfway line at VP last season. ;)

Offline ktvillan

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3274 on: August 06, 2017, 11:54:18 AM »
I just want us to win loads of games. Couldn't care less what the style is because winning football is all that matters and when we win games regularly the fans are happy.


I don't think anyone is really disagreeing with that.

But you don't think that playing better might make that winning thing happen more often?

I don't think we played that badly yesterday though. We had enough chances to have won it easily.

I would agree and in the first half if Kodjia had been playing I'm convinced we would have been 3 up by half time. However what concerns me is the dropping back in the second half- Whelan apart I thought the midfield disappeared until after the equaliser had gone in. Some other worries is still the inability to get a telling cross in from set pieces, the tactical naivety of hoofing it up to Samba for the last ten minutes, the weakness in challenging for 50/50 balls and the poor timing of substitutes. Positives included Johnstones performance, Green's impact and Onamahs ability to find space.


I don't think we dropped back, Hull just came out flying in the second half because they were probably told they were appalling in the first half. In hindsight, we maybe should have put Green on earlier to counter that.

Exactly, the manager of team behind at half time will generally tweak things because he has seen where it are going wrong. If you're in front and playing well then the tendency is to say more of the same. The key is taking more advantage of your periods of dominance. We should have been further ahead at the break making us less vulnerable to their reorganisation.

But a genuinely good manager would be trying to anticipate those tweaks from his opponent and preparing for them.  So fine to say more of the same until it's obvious it's not working , but surely then make some changes yourself and do whatever plan B or C is.  Figure out what's changed the dynamic and address it.   Bruce just seems to stand there in a daze second half and then makes some apparently random substitutions.  There are some good foreign and British coaches in the Championship now and they seem to be constantly out thinking Bruce.  But then even the likes of Warnock are.  We did play some good dynamic stuff first half, and it may not be by design but we do seem to end up frequently trying and failing to defend a 1-0 lead a-la McLeish.   Bruce doesn't appear to know how to fix that.  As for his post match comments the thing that stood out for me was "we go again".  Ye Gods.   

Offline kippaxvilla2

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3275 on: August 06, 2017, 12:18:18 PM »
He reminds me a bit of MO'N in the one trick pony stakes.  I recall a game under him against Spuds at home.  First half an hour we killed them mostly from the right.  Redknapp made one tactical change and completely nullified us and we didn't win the game. 

Bruce is similar.  Where are the plans b and c once an opposition manager spots his teams shortcomings.  Inevitably when he does make a change it's too late to make a difference.  Yesterday was two points lost as far as I am concerned.  Hull are a really poor side.

Offline aj2k77

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3276 on: August 06, 2017, 12:34:41 PM »
Newcastle won 10 games by a single goal and only 5 of those were 1-0. The bottom line is you have to score goals to get promoted, there's very few exceptions.


Offline aj2k77

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3277 on: August 06, 2017, 12:38:47 PM »
Has anyone figured out yet why Bruce signed Hourihane, Lansbury, Bree, Bjarnasson and Hogan in January and what his plans were for them?

Offline QuintonVilla

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3278 on: August 06, 2017, 12:38:49 PM »
He reminds me a bit of MO'N in the one trick pony stakes.  I recall a game under him against Spuds at home.  First half an hour we killed them mostly from the right.  Redknapp made one tactical change and completely nullified us and we didn't win the game. 

Bruce is similar.  Where are the plans b and c once an opposition manager spots his teams shortcomings.  Inevitably when he does make a change it's too late to make a difference.  Yesterday was two points lost as far as I am concerned.  Hull are a really poor side.
I said the same about O'Neill yesterday. He never knew how to change a game either and his subs and timing of them were mostly terrible. The difference is O'Neill was a lucky and popular manager, fans mostly let his garbage hoofball slide because he scraped out wins and because they liked him. Bruce is not popular with the fans and his style of play does nothing to excite people or really get them on side.

Offline saunders_heroes

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3279 on: August 06, 2017, 12:47:18 PM »
He reminds me a bit of MO'N in the one trick pony stakes.  I recall a game under him against Spuds at home.  First half an hour we killed them mostly from the right.  Redknapp made one tactical change and completely nullified us and we didn't win the game. 

Bruce is similar.  Where are the plans b and c once an opposition manager spots his teams shortcomings.  Inevitably when he does make a change it's too late to make a difference.  Yesterday was two points lost as far as I am concerned.  Hull are a really poor side.
I said the same about O'Neill yesterday. He never knew how to change a game either and his subs and timing of them were mostly terrible. The difference is O'Neill was a lucky and popular manager, fans mostly let his garbage hoofball slide because he scraped out wins and because they liked him. Bruce is not popular with the fans and his style of play does nothing to excite people or really get them on side.

Under O'Neill we never gave up and often scored late goals to win us points. We scored some cracking goals under him too, let's not forget that.

Online Chris Smith

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3280 on: August 06, 2017, 12:48:02 PM »
He reminds me a bit of MO'N in the one trick pony stakes.  I recall a game under him against Spuds at home.  First half an hour we killed them mostly from the right.  Redknapp made one tactical change and completely nullified us and we didn't win the game. 

Bruce is similar.  Where are the plans b and c once an opposition manager spots his teams shortcomings.  Inevitably when he does make a change it's too late to make a difference.  Yesterday was two points lost as far as I am concerned.  Hull are a really poor side.
I said the same about O'Neill yesterday. He never knew how to change a game either and his subs and timing of them were mostly terrible. The difference is O'Neill was a lucky and popular manager, fans mostly let his garbage hoofball slide because he scraped out wins and because they liked him. Bruce is not popular with the fans and his style of play does nothing to excite people or really get them on side.

So when fans were singing his name during the exciting spell in the in the first half yesterday when we made enough chances to win the game it was because he is unpopular. You live and learn.

Offline kippaxvilla2

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3281 on: August 06, 2017, 12:49:51 PM »
He's a nice fella and has proved himself at this level and we really need to go up this season so in that sense I really hope he succeeds. 


Offline paul_e

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3282 on: August 06, 2017, 12:50:51 PM »
It's annoying when you hear fans say 'Bruce told them to sit back once we went 1-0 up'. It's absolute bollocks. No manager in their right mind would tell their team to defend for 80 minutes. The fact that we had chances to increase the lead rubbishes that theory. It's just another lazy stick to beat Bruce with.

but If Bruce doesn't want them to do it then he needs to stop it.  "He's not telling them to sit deep" has been a consistent line from some on here for months and it might be right but that doesn't mean he's blameless.  He's the manager, he needs to start managing the game by making changes when things start to go wrong rather than waiting until the opposition equalise/take the lead.

I agree that he didn't tell us to sit deeper, there was 25-30 minutes after the goal where we still getting players forward, the problem was they worked out how to stop it and nullified us for half an hour until we brought Green and Onomah on and started seeing players looking for space.  However Onomah in particular was looking for players to run in behind defenders and show some movement but we didn't bring him on until we'd taken off the player who was doing it so he linked fairly well with Green but Gabby and Elmo had no idea how to play with him.

I want Bruce to do better because we can't afford to get stuck in this league again but he's making silly mistakes, ignoring what's happening in front of him and doesn't seem to know which of his attacking players will suit playing together.

Offline ktvillan

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3283 on: August 06, 2017, 01:10:41 PM »
Has anyone figured out yet why Bruce signed Hourihane, Lansbury, Bree, Bjarnasson and Hogan in January and what his plans were for them?

All managers make duff signings, or players that end up not fitting in, but to make a whole transfer window of it is quite something.  Yet sadly it's not the first time it's happened at Villa e.g. the Sherwood close season and the RDM close season.

Offline Leicester_Villian

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3284 on: August 06, 2017, 01:27:45 PM »
Bruce should be sacked now .....
1) The team is his, he has made the signings
2) he has had a pre season
3) Team selection is baffling
4) No out and out striker on bench yesterday - RHM or Davis
5) Football is in the dark ages
We MUST be promoted this season but I don't see it happening under Bruce ....we have the players at the club but they are not used correctly

It may just be one match but there was little improvement last season ....lets act before we are adrift which come end of August we will be

Get Dean Smith in from Brentford !

 


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