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Author Topic: Bruce Sacked at last (now official)  (Read 2113034 times)

Offline The_ads

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3840 on: August 13, 2017, 09:43:09 AM »

Excellent post. Nail on head


There should be absolutely no surprises that we are in this situation.

The team were eye bleedingly painful, boring and tedious to watch for pretty much all of last season.
We said many times, we have not had a SINGLE game where we have looked dominant and assured and even pleasing to watch. We had a few minutes here and there and we even had a couple of good 45 minutes, but never a full game.

The run in last season was painful. As painful as the slow decent into this division the previous year.

The writing was on the wall. This is the way Steve Bruce's teams play football.
There is no alternative. He has no alternative.

To suggest that by giving him 10 games to see if he can turn this round is like expecting him to have some kind of miraculous transformation, where the scales drop from his eyes and he suddenly realises that the modern game needs a different approach to what he has always delivered.

The writing was on the wall in pre season, where we laboured against low standard opposition in exactly the same way we did for most of last season.

But of course, pre season is just about fitness, so it didn't really matter at alarm bells were starting to tinkle in the distance, did it?

The writing was on the wall last week in the season opener. 1-1 at home, and he takes off one of the most prolific strikers in this division, and replaces him with a midfielder. Not another striker so that we can on to try and win the game, but seemingly to hold what we had.

And then incredulously, with 4 minutes of stoppage time to play, he decides to revert to 1970's pub football by 'throwing on the big centre half up front ' and lumping the ball up to him in the desperate hope of a knock down.

The cup game in midweek saw us squeak past 4th division opponents. The football we played in the second half was nothing short of embarrassing.

But of course, the weather was bad, and it 'was a leveller'. Yes, it levelled us down to 4th division quality football (but we weren't even that good!).

And yesterday was just a fecking disgrace, no two ways about it.

The writing has been on the wall for months.
He ain't changing. His 'style' and approach ain't changing.

Unless someone at the club has the balls to pull the trigger on this footballing dinosaur very,very soon we should resign ourselves to being bored to tears every week, and probably remaining in this division for at least another year.

I just hope and pray the writing is on the wall for Mr.Bruce.

Offline SoccerHQ

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3841 on: August 13, 2017, 09:45:49 AM »
I'd just go out and pay 2-3m compo to get a proven manager in this division.

We waste enough of that on rubbish players. Getting in a good manager would be far more beneficial in the long term.

Jokanovic and Mark Warburton are two of the better footballing managers at this level, they've both got teams in the top 6.

If that sort of move fails then I'd give up tbh!

Offline Monty

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3842 on: August 13, 2017, 10:01:42 AM »
This is Mick McCarthy talking about his last game

"“Hecky (Paul Heckingbottom) got his tactics right against us,” said McCarthy. “We played 3-5-2, having done really well with that in our two previous games, but if I’d have been up against us today I’d have gone 4-3-3 against it. He did and they had the better of the first half. We were lucky to get away with it. They were doubling up on our wing-backs and having a field day.

“Bart (keeper Bartosz Bialkowski) has kept us in the game, certainly with the save just before half-time when he (George Moncur) was one-on-one. He should score, but we’ve got the wizard in the nets. He’s unbelievable. I say wizard, he’s more like an octopus at times!

“That’s just the norm from him, We may have got relegated without him last year. He was just outstanding.”

There was a tactical reshuffle at the break as McGoldrick and Waghorn replaced Myles Kenlock and Tristan Nydam.

“I was tempted to change it beforehand, but I wanted to see the half out and thankfully we did,” said the Blues boss. “I was always going to go 4-4-2 at half-time.

“The subs deserve credit. They’ve sat on the bench and watched it thinking they should be playing. Didzy (McGoldrick) was desperate to play. Their response was brilliant. I’ve just said to them that you don’t win games without having a squad and players who can come on and make a difference. That’s nice"

I was scared when we were linked with Mick, but how many people on here thinks that Bruce can react to the opposition like that?

Let me be absolutely clear and say I still really do not want him as our manager. Nonetheless I agree with the post - that's what a basic, jobbing football manager should sound like.

Offline Matt Collins

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3843 on: August 13, 2017, 10:02:59 AM »
I always thought one way or another Bruce would sort us out and get us promoted.  With his experience & Xia's cash I thought it would be pretty nailed on.

Last season our lack of progress and any sort of cohesive game plan started to give me doubts, but I thought after a full summer and a few additions it would start to click, maybe not pretty but effective.

But it was our obvious lack of progress in preseason that really set alarm bells and changed my thinking.  Pretty much all our old failings were still there and still no obvious game plan or signs of turning this round despite a few more signings.  It was only preseason so maybe not time to panic, but the fact nothing had changed was obvious for all to see.

I still think our squad is ok and it could possibly be turned round.  But two games in it is hard to see this.

I still have mixed feelings about sacking him right now.  I can't see any way we would get a decent manager to jump ship two games into the season and the likes of Moyes have lost their appeal.  I think Allardyce would get more out the squad than Bruce has but I just couldn't face seeing him as Villa manager.  It's easy to say go and hunt out the next Wagner, but for every success like him there must be doezens of failures - look at Garde & Solskear etc. 

We're in a difficult position with no easy answers.  I don't think there's any prospect of us sacking him until we're several games further into the season.  But I'm interested to hear who people think we could realistically attract right now in our current position?

This is exactly how I feel.

Offline Legion

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3844 on: August 13, 2017, 10:23:15 AM »
Some excellent earlier posts. Very well written and heartfelt. For me perhaps he should have been replaced at the end of last season and someone else given the opportunity to rebuild. Again. The recent state of affairs isn't going very well, is it?

Offline SteveN

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3845 on: August 13, 2017, 10:38:48 AM »
A question for those of you who get to games home and away.  Are the views in this thread expressed by supporters who don't post here?
I didn't want Bruce from day one but that is a view based on TV, radio and the written word rather than actually watching his teams play in the flesh.

Offline Meanwood Villa

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3846 on: August 13, 2017, 10:44:13 AM »
I'd just go out and pay 2-3m compo to get a proven manager in this division.

We waste enough of that on rubbish players. Getting in a good manager would be far more beneficial in the long term.

Jokanovic and Mark Warburton are two of the better footballing managers at this level, they've both got teams in the top 6.

If that sort of move fails then I'd give up tbh!

We've got a proven manager at this level already though it's just not working out. I'm not sure how beneficial it will be to replace another manager at this stage but then again he doesn't inspire much confidence at the moment. I give up guessing what we should do for the best.

Offline Rico

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3847 on: August 13, 2017, 10:44:49 AM »
Should have been sacked for finishing 13th last season. We're not going to metamorphosis into Barcelona under Steve Bruce. He's been quoted as saying we need to be a bit more like Cardiff (should really be a sacking offence too), at the moment I wish we were a bit more like Cardiff. Scoring three goals in one match! Wow!

Mrs Rico said to me a few weeks ago that you don't seem as cocky about the Villa as usual. I replied that I have never felt so despondent as a Villa fan in all my time supporting the club. If we allow Bruce to continue the season will be over for us in the next few weeks. Mid table at best and consigned to Championship for years to come. Get rid now and at least give us a fighting chance!

Offline Pete3206

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3848 on: August 13, 2017, 10:44:54 AM »
Bruce's demeanour and comments yesterday were alarming. He's a dead man walking and the sooner Xia realises this, the better.

No 5 or 10 games to turn it around. Now please.

Online Stu

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3849 on: August 13, 2017, 10:45:45 AM »
Sack him and get who though. I really don't think it matters who we get anyway, we'll still be shit. Dunno what's wrong with the culture at Villa, the place seems listless.

Offline PeterWithe

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3850 on: August 13, 2017, 10:45:47 AM »
There's fucking ambition eh, 'we should be more like Cardiff'.

Offline Ian.

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3851 on: August 13, 2017, 10:57:50 AM »
I have not posted anything football related in ages but Bruce is doing the very best he can do, as like everyone one of our managers since MON to get himself sacked.

Offline olaftab

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3852 on: August 13, 2017, 10:58:03 AM »
Some of you said busted flush when we appointed him and you were so right. He is collecting a nice little pension nest egg and knows if he gets sacked compensation package will give him the luxury life playing golf around the world.

Offline PeterWithesShin

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3853 on: August 13, 2017, 11:02:44 AM »
Some of you said busted flush when we appointed him and you were so right. He is collecting a nice little pension nest egg and knows if he gets sacked compensation package will give him the luxury life playing golf around the world.

Hopefully his rolling contract is 1 year and not 2, which would at least mean the payoff would be lower.

Offline aj2k77

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #3854 on: August 13, 2017, 11:05:18 AM »
He's finished. Thanks to our haphazard recruitment policy yet again the team is dead in the water.

All the opposition have to do is limit us space and limit errors. Do that and keep your shape and there's no way we can get around teams.

We can't beat them for pace.
We have no one with a bit of trickery who can beat a man and make space.
We have no one with great passing ability to play it through teams.

That is why time and time again we run out of ideas and end up hitting it long. If we don't sack Bruce his next signing will be the cumbersome centre forward to ping long balls at and play off the scraps.

Brilliant, can't wait for that.

 


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