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Author Topic: Bruce Sacked at last (now official)  (Read 2113486 times)

Online paul_e

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #7215 on: October 15, 2017, 09:08:24 PM »
If we keep losing one in 9 we will be promoted.

Modern man is a delicate beast.

If we keep losing 3 in 12 and drawing 4 more then we won't be.  Right now we're not good enough to be promoted and that's the only thing that really matters.  It's a knife edge whether we push on into the playoffs or fall back into midtable and when we've been in this situation before (coming up to last Christmas) we completely fell apart, which is why people are worried.

Offline sickbeggar

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #7216 on: October 15, 2017, 09:34:56 PM »
well lets look at our marvelous run shall we

Lost vs wolves away currently 1st
won vs  bolton home currently 24th
won vs burton away currently 22nd
won vs forest home currently 14th
won vs barnsley away currently 19th
drew vs Boro home currently 11th
drew vs brentford home currently 18th
drew vs bristol c away currently 4th
won vs norwich home currently 7th

So basically 1 win, 2 draws and 1 loss to anyone in the top half of the table.. Now forgive me but if we're going to go up we will eventually have to win a few games at teams not in the relegation zone.

Offline robleflaneur

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #7217 on: October 15, 2017, 10:33:40 PM »
Apart from the absence of decent football,it's the response and therefore remedy to a poor display that I find disillusioning.Bruce told the Evening Mail that the defeat wasn't down to tactics or formations.We didn't hunt down the ball enough,pass the ball well.It's always the players' lack of application or drop in form that's the problem.We have no right to expect a promotion that's a formal procession but we have the right to expect a manager who is confident and adept at tactics and formations.

Offline Allan C

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #7218 on: October 16, 2017, 11:29:09 AM »
well lets look at our marvelous run shall we

Lost vs wolves away currently 1st
won vs  bolton home currently 24th
won vs burton away currently 22nd
won vs forest home currently 14th
won vs barnsley away currently 19th
drew vs Boro home currently 11th
drew vs brentford home currently 18th
drew vs bristol c away currently 4th
won vs norwich home currently 7th

So basically 1 win, 2 draws and 1 loss to anyone in the top half of the table.. Now forgive me but if we're going to go up we will eventually have to win a few games at teams not in the relegation zone.
Brilliant point  I’m not in the country right now but I’ve read the reports, seen the highlights and read all the posts on here. We were outplayed by Wolves!!!  Wolves!!’ I love a Villa win like everyone else but the teams we’ve beaten shouldn’t even be in this already poor league. Bruce must go

Offline Ad@m

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #7219 on: October 16, 2017, 12:41:58 PM »
What is it they say about lies, damned lies and statistics?

You can make the stats show whatever you want, but watching the team since Bruce took over (especially over the past two months) has shown that with a handful of notable exceptions victories have rarely been comprehensive and have generally been against poor quality opposition with a significant degree of backs to the wall defending at the end.

Losing against Wolves was as predictable as it was disappointing.  Even in the apparently comprehensive wins of the likes of Barnsley and Burton it was obvious that as soon as we came up against a decent side, on form, that we'd be found wanting.

Which is exactly why despite recent results Bruce still hasn't won over large chunks of the fanbase.

Offline Clampy

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #7220 on: October 16, 2017, 01:24:26 PM »
At the end of the day, we're not going to win every game.  Like Bruce said after the match on Saturday, it's up to us now to go on another run. There's no reason why we can't do that just because we got beat by the league leaders. That said, we do need to have a Bradford moment at some point, when we went up there and beat them 4-2 last time we were down in this league. It really made everyone sit up and take notice. I'm pretty comfortable with where we are at the moment though.

Offline exiled on the wirral!

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #7221 on: October 16, 2017, 01:30:10 PM »
There were times last season and at the start of this season when I didn't know when the next chance was coming from let alone a win. With the return of Kodja, the signing of Snodgrass and the emergence of  Davis I feel there is always an attacking threat now which we didn't have before. Yes, Saturday wasn't great but I can't see why we can't go on another run and really cement our place in the promotion picture.

Online PaulWinch again

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #7222 on: October 16, 2017, 01:31:28 PM »
I think the loss in isolation isn't a problem, but the nature of the loss is. It illustrated everything that Bruce struggles with. He set up the team wrong, he did nothing to change the very obvious flow of the game, and then the first change he made was a standard striker on and striker off. He doesn't appear to be able to tactically adjust when things aren't going his way. Plus having Hourihane sit deep and Whelan going box to box (extremely ineffectively) was mad.

Offline tomd2103

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #7223 on: October 16, 2017, 01:44:26 PM »
I think the loss in isolation isn't a problem, but the nature of the loss is. It illustrated everything that Bruce struggles with. He set up the team wrong, he did nothing to change the very obvious flow of the game, and then the first change he made was a standard striker on and striker off. He doesn't appear to be able to tactically adjust when things aren't going his way. Plus having Hourihane sit deep and Whelan going box to box (extremely ineffectively) was mad.

Problems which are exacerbated when playing away from home.  Our current record this season away from home is Played 6, Won 2, lost 3 and drawn 1.  Either that is going to have to improve or we are going to have to have a near perfect home record if we are going to be in the promotion picture.   

Online Brend'Watkins

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #7224 on: October 16, 2017, 01:46:26 PM »
We don’t press, we have very little pace and little movement. This has been the situation since before Bruce came. He should be aware of all this but clearly has done little to address it. This annoys me no end watching not just on Saturday but for most games.

Offline old man villa fan

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #7225 on: October 16, 2017, 02:06:20 PM »
Results are fluctuating but our performances are pretty consistent. We have not been able to slowly improve our play over an extended period. This is what really worries me.

I get the impression that Bruce thinks that having good players is enough and doesn't press home this advantage.  The problem with this division is that nearly all teams are capable of being able to pull out a David v Goliath performance every so often, especially at home.  The way we play almost sets us up for this.

One of what should be the easiest thing in football to organise a team to do is press and deny space. It makes poorer teams look and perform better. How often do we see that from Villa. It is almost an arrogant approach in saying we don't need to do that. Surely that must come down to the manager and his instructions to his coaches on how he wants to play. We allow teams to come on to us and it costs us. We cannot afford to let teams get lucky once in a while when we need to be averaging two points a game.

Online paul_e

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #7226 on: October 16, 2017, 02:27:17 PM »
The thing is you don't have to press teams, it's a bit of a 'flavour of the month' right now but it isn't essential.  What's more important is that you don't let the opposition have the ball where they want it.  Against us, for example, crowd around Davis and get into Kodjia early.  Get both of those right and the rest of our team will be too deep to have an impact.  That's not about pressing, it's about having a plan to deal with how teams play.  That's what we're really missing and it's where Bruce doesn't learn.  Against Brentford in January Ryan Woods was the best play on the pitch by a mile because we let him have time and space to run the game.  Against Brentford a month ago we did exactly the same thing and it turned out similar but they didn't have the same cutting edge to punish us.


That's the real problem with us right now, once we get a decent result or 2 our style gets fixed and teams can analyse that and find things to work on but we never do that to them, you never see the subtle changes to the shape to isolate the slow defender or to get Davis/Kodjia playing wider to stop a full back wander up field so often.


For example given they were play a back 3 I'd have got Davis to drift to the right, Kodjia to drift a bit deeper, pushed Adomah higher up the pitch and got Snodgrass to step inside a little.  By having 2 wide forwards like that they either have to keep the wing backs deep or push the wide centre backs out on them.  Either way you're creating space for us to work with and disrupting their plans by making them worry about how they counter us.  Bruce never makes those adjustments.

Offline Risso

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #7227 on: October 16, 2017, 02:28:12 PM »
Results are fluctuating but our performances are pretty consistent. We have not been able to slowly improve our play over an extended period. This is what really worries me.

I get the impression that Bruce thinks that having good players is enough and doesn't press home this advantage.  The problem with this division is that nearly all teams are capable of being able to pull out a David v Goliath performance every so often, especially at home.  The way we play almost sets us up for this.

One of what should be the easiest thing in football to organise a team to do is press and deny space. It makes poorer teams look and perform better. How often do we see that from Villa. It is almost an arrogant approach in saying we don't need to do that. Surely that must come down to the manager and his instructions to his coaches on how he wants to play. We allow teams to come on to us and it costs us. We cannot afford to let teams get lucky once in a while when we need to be averaging two points a game.

It's just so clear that he doesn't really know what to do with the players for the best, other than putting out the strongest 11 and hoping everything goes OK.  When things are going badly, he has a complete inability to do anything about it. 

Online Rudy Can't Fail

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #7228 on: October 16, 2017, 03:13:57 PM »
The one thing that I find so tragically predictable with Bruce is that if we go in at half time not leading by a couple of goals you just know the opposition manager will make the necessary tactical changes and get the result. Bruce seems to be tactically out thought by anybody and everybody.

Offline Ads

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Re: Bruce out?
« Reply #7229 on: October 16, 2017, 03:17:19 PM »
The one thing that I find so tragically predictable with Bruce is that if we go in at half time not leading by a couple of goals you just know the opposition manager will make the necessary tactical changes and get the result. Bruce seems to be tactically out thought by anybody and everybody.

We've let a lead slip once this season.


 


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