Steve Bruce - officially confirmed (as Sheffield Wednesday boss)

[Clampy]

My only concern about Bruce thus far is that he had Westwood's name  on the team sheet and Tshibola on the bench. He must really be woeful in training or Westwood is a brilliant hypnotist.

Like someone else said earlier, i'd have brought on Tshibola for Westwood on about 70 minutes. We needed a fresh pair of legs in the middle at the time.

[aj2k77]

I imagine Westwood to be the ultimate yes man, will do anything asked, always attentive, turns up bang on time, leaves bang on time, never skips his duties, will do anything for his managers because he knows that he is nowhere near good enough to be playing for Aston Villa.

[paul_e]

In more measurable terms, we had:

1 shot on target (that was the goal)
48% pass completion (114 out of 237)
We had a player beat his man twice all game (Ayew and Kodjia once each)
Our starting striker won 1 header all game (Gestede won 2 in a matter of minutes)

So we couldn't pass around them and we couldn't dribble past them and we couldn't play hoof ball and try to do something with the scraps.  As said we offered NOTHING going forward and the solution offered was Gabby on 81minutes and Gestede on about 86.  If that had meant a dominating display at the back I'd be less upset but they had one cleared off the line and missed 2 sitters as well as their goal and a 3-1 win wouldn't have flattered them in my opinion.

It's far from being a bad result but the performance was dire.

[The Edge]

Whats that Fergie line someone mentioned the other day? The more we train the luckier we are or something? Seems applicable here.

"The harder I try the luckier I get"

[paul_e]

Good lord, yet more unhinged garbage. Give it a rest, Paul, please.

Oh Jimbo please do be quiet if you can't be civil.

[The Edge]

I think we are becoming a tough nut to crack for teams. Thats a good start for me.

Great point.

[aj2k77]

48% pass completion is atrocious.We passed to them more times than each other.

[paul_e]

Regarding the Liverpool thing, context is everything.  Last season we were a team in free fall with a manager who, it appeared, had lost interest after being given no support in the window and knew his days were numbered and we came up against a team who had fairly recently taken on one of the best managers in the world and were just coming round to his style of play and fitness levels.  All in all it made a bit of a perfect storm for a shit performance and that's what we got.

Yesterday we were on the back of our first away win for 15 months, our first back to back wins for even longer, had a new manager 'bounce' in our favour and were playing a side that is mid-table championship quality and it was a game where you'd expect the players to be up for it to give the fans a boost and I never really got the impression that they were, rather I got the impression that they saw avoiding a defeat as the only priority.

[paul_e]

48% pass completion is atrocious.We passed to them more times than each other.

Exactly,  I don't think I've ever seen us have below 50% before.

[simboy]

We are four games into his tenure. The point at which Bruce started was pretty low. We were conceding goals late in the day, clearly weren't fit physically or mentally. Since he's joined we've conceded three goals - two penalties [with the liability now being removed] he's got a central defensive pairing that looks stronger without Elphick and the keeper looks far more confident.

We were a basket case when Bruce arrived, having spent very good money on players that were overpriced and quite frankly their clubs saw us coming a mile off.

I am not saying we are the finished article and playing flowing football currently, far from it. The problems are there for all to see, a midfield that is less than inspirational , RMC being at the end of his career, a lack of creativity anywhere on the park, Westwood starting etc etc.

But its baby steps. Make us more difficult to beat initially, that's the key. Give a group of players and the support a bit of belief, give the club confidence again. Winning will follow. Win a few and get to the January window. Let him start to build the squad in his own way. It's far too early to be judging him at the moment.

Incidentally I didn't think the game yesterday was one of our best performances, but we got out of it with a point. I'm not too sure we would have under RDM or Garde, thank god we will never know. 

 

 

[paul_e]

We are four games into his tenure. The point at which Bruce started was pretty low. We were conceding goals late in the day, clearly weren't fit physically or mentally. Since he's joined we've conceded three goals - two penalties [with the liability now being removed] he's got a central defensive pairing that looks stronger without Elphick and the keeper looks far more confident.

We were a basket case when Bruce arrived, having spent very good money on players that were overpriced and quite frankly their clubs saw us coming a mile off.

I am not saying we are the finished article and playing flowing football currently, far from it. The problems are there for all to see, a midfield that is less than inspirational , RMC being at the end of his career, a lack of creativity anywhere on the park, Westwood starting etc etc.

But its baby steps. Make us more difficult to beat initially, that's the key. Give a group of players and the support a bit of belief, give the club confidence again. Winning will follow. Win a few and get to the January window. Let him start to build the squad in his own way. It's far too early to be judging him at the moment.

Incidentally I didn't think the game yesterday was one of our best performances, but we got out of it with a point. I'm not too sure we would have under RDM or Garde, thank god we will never know. 

I think it's important to note that, despite some of the responses to me on here, the bold bit is something I've said repeatedly.  My point in all of these posts isn't to suggest that i think we should repalce Bruce or anything remotely like that, it's simply to point out that he needs to find a way of getting us to create chances in open play because yesterday we never looked like doing that.

[Clampy]

We are four games into his tenure. The point at which Bruce started was pretty low. We were conceding goals late in the day, clearly weren't fit physically or mentally. Since he's joined we've conceded three goals - two penalties [with the liability now being removed] he's got a central defensive pairing that looks stronger without Elphick and the keeper looks far more confident.

We were a basket case when Bruce arrived, having spent very good money on players that were overpriced and quite frankly their clubs saw us coming a mile off.

I am not saying we are the finished article and playing flowing football currently, far from it. The problems are there for all to see, a midfield that is less than inspirational , RMC being at the end of his career, a lack of creativity anywhere on the park, Westwood starting etc etc.

But its baby steps. Make us more difficult to beat initially, that's the key. Give a group of players and the support a bit of belief, give the club confidence again. Winning will follow. Win a few and get to the January window. Let him start to build the squad in his own way. It's far too early to be judging him at the moment.

Incidentally I didn't think the game yesterday was one of our best performances, but we got out of it with a point. I'm not too sure we would have under RDM or Garde, thank god we will never know. 

I think it's important to note that, despite some of the responses to me on here, the bold bit is something I've said repeatedly.  My point in all of these posts isn't to suggest that i think we should repalce Bruce or anything remotely like that, it's simply to point out that he needs to find a way of getting us to create chances in open play because yesterday we never looked like doing that.

Although last week we could have ended up winning the game 3-0 had Ayew and Adomah put their chances away.

Yesterday was always going to be a tough game and maybe we should have created more than we did, but to call it one of the worst performances of the last 5 years is over the top to say the least.

[paul_e]

We are four games into his tenure. The point at which Bruce started was pretty low. We were conceding goals late in the day, clearly weren't fit physically or mentally. Since he's joined we've conceded three goals - two penalties [with the liability now being removed] he's got a central defensive pairing that looks stronger without Elphick and the keeper looks far more confident.

We were a basket case when Bruce arrived, having spent very good money on players that were overpriced and quite frankly their clubs saw us coming a mile off.

I am not saying we are the finished article and playing flowing football currently, far from it. The problems are there for all to see, a midfield that is less than inspirational , RMC being at the end of his career, a lack of creativity anywhere on the park, Westwood starting etc etc.

But its baby steps. Make us more difficult to beat initially, that's the key. Give a group of players and the support a bit of belief, give the club confidence again. Winning will follow. Win a few and get to the January window. Let him start to build the squad in his own way. It's far too early to be judging him at the moment.

Incidentally I didn't think the game yesterday was one of our best performances, but we got out of it with a point. I'm not too sure we would have under RDM or Garde, thank god we will never know. 

I think it's important to note that, despite some of the responses to me on here, the bold bit is something I've said repeatedly.  My point in all of these posts isn't to suggest that i think we should repalce Bruce or anything remotely like that, it's simply to point out that he needs to find a way of getting us to create chances in open play because yesterday we never looked like doing that.

Although last week we could have ended up winning the game 3-0 had Ayew and Adomah put their chances away.

Yesterday was always going to be a tough game and maybe we should have created more than we did, but to call it one of the worst performances of the last 5 years is over the top to say the least.

I've already said, in a earlier reply:

I can accept that I may be slightly over selling how poor we were but in 2 recent local matches we've not descended to their level (as often happens and is acceptable) but rather we've failed to step up to it and that worries the hell out of me.

My concern is that because Bruce has won a couple of games and people like him his tactical naivety is being ignored, much like it was with Sherwood.  Does anyone think RM as a right midfielder (not winger, he sat too deep for that) was a good decision?  Does anyone think that making no change for 35 minutes in the second half despite them being totally on top was good management?  Does anyone think that playing Ayew as a standard left sided midfielder is a good idea?

I'm not saying this will go the same way as Sherwood did (it won't Bruce is a far better manager than that moron) and I don't expect us to suddenly be playing tiki-taka but I do expect us to try to find a way to win a game that's winnable and I don't think we did that yesterday, instead we sat as a 4141, barely got forward and just gave the ball back to them for 90 minutes, with a brief respite to score from a free kick.

The result was ok and was definitely a point gained rather than 2 lost but just because their equaliser came in the 71st rather than the 86th it doesn't make it better and at least in the games where we did that under RDM we could look back on chances to score a 2nd and say if only.

[SoccerHQ]

We played the game in a similar way to how we used to approach them under MON.

Those were of course the days when we were big premier league spenders and finishing in the top 6, so a much bigger gulf than there is now between the two teams.

Aside from the 5-1 performances home and away games were always pretty iffy but we stuck in those games and came up with a late winner. The November 2007 late gabby winner game had pretty much the same pattern as yesterday bar the late goal.

Bruce is getting the basics right. It isn't pretty to watch but it's much needed, we need to learn as a club how to grind out results and wins again. We have been one of the worst clubs in English football over last 5 years for doing that.

No one with a straight face can say you can do that overnight.

Man. United over the last couple of years have themselves lost that art and Mourinho hasn't exactly magically transformed them into a winning machine so far.

[john e]

its a similar scenario to Sherwood for me, not that I'm comparing the two as managers because Bruce is obviously far more experienced, just the feelings about the appointment

 when Timbo joined there were quite a lot of high profile posters who were dead against it, for some very good reasons,
however he turned the team around very quickly and got us playing probably the most exciting football we have seen in the last 5 years, kept us up and took us to Wembley twice

so what did those who were set against him do during that time, well they enjoyed the ride, got excited when we won and supported the team, loved the trips, but I dare say they never changed their opinion on Sherwood,

the following season their fears were realised and I suppose they were proved right, for what its worth I still think Sherwood is harshly treated by many on the site but that's just my personal opinion on him
I had a massive argument with VID when he argued that anyone with a nounce of talent could have kept us up that season, when I thought he performed a miracle, but again that's just differing opinions
I actually feel that Sherwoods job keeping us up was a lot harder than Bruces job getting us up in the play offs with this squad but there you go

now we have Bruce, I have the same feelings as many did about Sherwood, for different reasons but never the less I never wanted him
so we go 4 games undefeated, we become difficult to beat, we win two on the trot and he stops the rot,
what do I and those who don't want him do, we love the wins and support the team, we get excited when we score and enjoy the turnaround

does it change my mind on Bruce... no

I still don't think he's good enough to manage Villa,
 if he gets us up and I admit that's a possibility with the squad and resources he has but he will do it playing the same football Hull city and Blues played, because that's what he does,
 if we do get to the prem we will be playing the same football as Hull City and Blues did, that might be good enough for some but not for me, and he hasn't even done it yet
I understand beggars cant be choosers but I think we could have done better

like Sherwood, we will look back (in anger) when we have gone to square one again and wish we had made a better appointment for the long term rather than a quick Sherwood type fix

I will support the Villa love it when we win and hope that Bruce can get us up,

 but I don't like his Neanderthal football, his tactics are on par with Sherwoods, he's no football genius, but maybe can get things done by improving the basics and grinding out results, I think that's as good as it gets and that might (a big might) well be enough for some

 but for those thinking he will change I think you will be extremely disappointed to find he cant

Bruce like Sherwood will ultimately prove to be a mistaken appointment that will set us back even further
but in the short term like those who disliked Sherwood as manager I will enjoy the ride