Steve Bruce - officially confirmed (as Sheffield Wednesday boss)

[martyn ellis]

Tactically I really feel that playing Grealish, Kodjia and Ayew together in the same team is bound to cause problems. All three of them, in their different ways, love to have the ball and love to keep the ball, which usually means attempting to beat half a dozen players from the opposition and ending up where they started, often having lost the ball. In that kind of setup there is no penetration, no urgency, no drive, no defence splitting pass and so no service to anyone who may be in a position to score a goal. The number of times last night where any one of them would receive the ball, slow the game down in attempting to beat any number of players before even thinking about a quick incisive out ball was staggering. There may be those who disagree but there was little effective service to anyone last night.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Completely agree, Martyn. I mentioned last night how the three were showboating. It gave Norwich plenty of time to get back and was usually followed by a short pass back and another even further back before being hoofed up the pitch. Absolutely pointless football and those three are as guilty as any for the crap performances.

[paul_e]

Tactically I really feel that playing Grealish, Kodjia and Ayew together in the same team is bound to cause problems. All three of them, in their different ways, love to have the ball and love to keep the ball, which usually means attempting to beat half a dozen players from the opposition and ending up where they started, often having lost the ball. In that kind of setup there is no penetration, no urgency, no drive, no defence splitting pass and so no service to anyone who may be in a position to score a goal. The number of times last night where any one of them would receive the ball, slow the game down in attempting to beat any number of players before even thinking about a quick incisive out ball was staggering. There may be those who disagree but there was little effective service to anyone last night.

It's not that simple, I don't think any of them are inherently greedy, I just think they don#t know how to play together so they're all trying to do it by themselves.

I agree with the problem I just don't think blaming the players or suggesting we can't play 3 of our best players together is the right approach.  Look at how Grealish oinked with Benteke, that invovledlots of quick interchanges and was exactly what Grealish did at lower levels, it's only this year where he's held onto the ball more when there were passes on.  Watch Kodjia for Bristol City and in his better games for us, he played a lot of 1-2s and kept the ball moving, right now we're incoherent so he's not sure what to do, so he keeps it and tries to make things for himself.

[Ads]

I was surprised at that comment too because I thought we were lucky not to get hammered when we played Wolves.

the problem with Leeds is that we never looked like scoring

Apart from when Gardner and Adomah went through on goal.

[He wears a magic hat]

Bruce has so many issues to deal with in terms of balance in the side.

Non of our strikers seem suited to playing a sole striker role but if he goes down the road of playing two strikers it exposes the midfield. As it is we only have one stand out midfielder in Jedinek but as good as he is at his job he is a very one dimensional player and isn't suited to a 4 man midfield.

If he risked 442 who would play alongside Jedinak and who would play in the wide areas adomah is an obvious choice on the right but who on the left, Grealish, Ayew, Bacuna neither of which would set the world alight in that position. That would mean potentially leaving Grealish out of the side completely and I don't think I'd want to see that.

That's without the headache of the defence when injuries and suspension take effect.

In short Bruce is firefighting and I wouldn't be surprise to see a few more poor performances between now and the end of January.

Until he has time to bring in players that fit the system he wants to play It isn't really fair to judge him

[Jon Crofts]

Just listened to that interview and he sounds extremely pissed off, doing well to hide his anger. Let's see what happens at the weekend but it's comforting to know he saw last night in exactly the same way as us fans.

It's not like that was a first though is it, we've been as bad as that many, many times the past few years and still nobody has addressed it, getting angry is one thing, actually putting a stop to it is entirely different. I really hope that anger is channeled into actions like binning Agbonlahor and transfer listing Westwood & Elphick for starters. Action speaks louder than words and we need more than just a change of formation.

[ChicagoLion]

Bruce has so many issues to deal with in terms of balance in the side.

Non of our strikers seem suited to playing a sole striker role but if he goes down the road of playing two strikers it exposes the midfield. As it is we only have one stand out midfielder in Jedinek but as good as he is at his job he is a very one dimensional player and isn't suited to a 4 man midfield.

If he risked 442 who would play alongside Jedinak and who would play in the wide areas adomah is an obvious choice on the right but who on the left, Grealish, Ayew, Bacuna neither of which would set the world alight in that position. That would mean potentially leaving Grealish out of the side completely and I don't think I'd want to see that.

That's without the headache of the defence when injuries and suspension take effect.

In short Bruce is firefighting and I wouldn't be surprise to see a few more poor performances between now and the end of January.

Until he has time to bring in players that fit the system he wants to play It isn't really fair to judge him

exactly as I see it.
I can make a case for only 5 outfield players Amavi Chester Jedi Grealish Kodja.
The rest either don't fit or not good enough.

[adrenachrome]

Meaning Evil

Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce has admitted his lack of trust in the 4-3-3 formation he used against Norwich City last night.

Villa went down 1-0 to the Canaries at Carrow Road to leave Bruce fuming after the final whistle.

The attacking talent he has at his disposal has seen Bruce tinker with formations since taking the reins in October.

The manager made attacking changes to try and salvage something from the game after Nelson Oliveira’s 62nd minute strike.

Bruce introduced Albert Adomah, Ross McCormack and Rudy Gestede but none of them were able to greatly improve on the efforts of the men they replaced.

And Bruce, who is already plotting changes for the visit to QPR on Sunday, told BBC WM: “We leave ourselves a little bit bare and we leave ourselves open. The one thing I’ve learnt very, very quickly is that if we do that then we are not comfortable with it.

“It’s the reason I’ve never really played 4-3-3 before and it’s the reason why we’ve done that is because if we leave it open, then we do leave ourselves exposed and that’s a worry for us.

“But, look, we can talk about tactics and we can talk about making changes, this, that and the other - but whatever we’ve done tonight isn’t good enough, simple, not good enough.

“For large periods against Leeds it could have went either way. Tonight, I couldn’t remember us creating a chance, I couldn’t remember us crossing a ball and I couldn’t remember us doing enough to win the match.”

[brian green]

Completely agree Jon.  The manager and the coaches must address how the players are failing.  Raging at them achieves nothing.  If they cannot follow basic instructions they have to go.  Getting angry is just a form of managerial showboating.  If Ayew for example, tries to beat the opposition three at a time but screws up before he tries to do it again he must be told.  If he still does it replace him.  Coaches coach, managers manage.  Anger does not come into it.  Be angry by all means but don't let it cloud your judgement.

[KevinGage]

I was surprised at that comment too because I thought we were lucky not to get hammered when we played Wolves.

the problem with Leeds is that we never looked like scoring

Apart from when Gardner and Adomah went through on goal.

That Gardner chance should have acted as a template. We broke at pace, got a 3 on 2 and then never tried it for the rest of the game.

Leeds weren't at the races for the first 60 minutes and there was space to exploit.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Just listened to that interview and he sounds extremely pissed off, doing well to hide his anger. Let's see what happens at the weekend but it's comforting to know he saw last night in exactly the same way as us fans.

It's not like that was a first though is it, we've been as bad as that many, many times the past few years and still nobody has addressed it, getting angry is one thing, actually putting a stop to it is entirely different. I really hope that anger is channeled into actions like binning Agbonlahor and transfer listing Westwood & Elphick for starters. Action speaks louder than words and we need more than just a change of formation.

Jon, after last night I'm clutching for straws, any straws that can give me just the tiniest bit of hope that we've got ourselves another dud. You're damn right though, actions most certainly speak loader than words, even Sherwood could talk a good game.

I wonder if it's any coincidence that things have gone down hill since the arrival of Colin Calderwood? Maybe with Bruce delegating more our little prima donnas are missing the love and affection of Uncle Steve. God knows but yesterday was a disgrace.

[Clampy]

Just listened to that interview and he sounds extremely pissed off, doing well to hide his anger. Let's see what happens at the weekend but it's comforting to know he saw last night in exactly the same way as us fans.

It's not like that was a first though is it, we've been as bad as that many, many times the past few years and still nobody has addressed it, getting angry is one thing, actually putting a stop to it is entirely different. I really hope that anger is channeled into actions like binning Agbonlahor and transfer listing Westwood & Elphick for starters. Action speaks louder than words and we need more than just a change of formation.

Jon, after last night I'm clutching for straws, any straws that can give me just the tiniest bit of hope that we've got ourselves another dud. You're damn right though, actions most certainly speak loader than words, even Sherwood could talk a good game.

I wonder if it's any coincidence that things have gone down hill since the arrival of Colin Calderwood? Maybe with Bruce delegating more our little prima donnas are missing the love and affection of Uncle Steve. God knows but yesterday was a disgrace.

Things gone downhill since Calderwood has been in? We've won 2, lost 2 and drawn 1. How is that downhill?

[ChicagoLion]

I think losing Baker has had an impact.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Just listened to that interview and he sounds extremely pissed off, doing well to hide his anger. Let's see what happens at the weekend but it's comforting to know he saw last night in exactly the same way as us fans.

It's not like that was a first though is it, we've been as bad as that many, many times the past few years and still nobody has addressed it, getting angry is one thing, actually putting a stop to it is entirely different. I really hope that anger is channeled into actions like binning Agbonlahor and transfer listing Westwood & Elphick for starters. Action speaks louder than words and we need more than just a change of formation.

Jon, after last night I'm clutching for straws, any straws that can give me just the tiniest bit of hope that we've got ourselves another dud. You're damn right though, actions most certainly speak loader than words, even Sherwood could talk a good game.

I wonder if it's any coincidence that things have gone down hill since the arrival of Colin Calderwood? Maybe with Bruce delegating more our little prima donnas are missing the love and affection of Uncle Steve. God knows but yesterday was a disgrace.

Things gone downhill since Calderwood has been in? We've won 2, lost 2 and drawn 1. How is that downhill?

Our performances appear to have gone downhill

Before CC:
Brighton - Best we've probably looked since Bruce arrived

With CC:
Cardiff - Poor
Leeds - Poor & clueless
Wigan - Shite
Norwich - Utter shite

See the pattern?

[Clampy]

Just listened to that interview and he sounds extremely pissed off, doing well to hide his anger. Let's see what happens at the weekend but it's comforting to know he saw last night in exactly the same way as us fans.

It's not like that was a first though is it, we've been as bad as that many, many times the past few years and still nobody has addressed it, getting angry is one thing, actually putting a stop to it is entirely different. I really hope that anger is channeled into actions like binning Agbonlahor and transfer listing Westwood & Elphick for starters. Action speaks louder than words and we need more than just a change of formation.

Jon, after last night I'm clutching for straws, any straws that can give me just the tiniest bit of hope that we've got ourselves another dud. You're damn right though, actions most certainly speak loader than words, even Sherwood could talk a good game.

I wonder if it's any coincidence that things have gone down hill since the arrival of Colin Calderwood? Maybe with Bruce delegating more our little prima donnas are missing the love and affection of Uncle Steve. God knows but yesterday was a disgrace.

Things gone downhill since Calderwood has been in? We've won 2, lost 2 and drawn 1. How is that downhill?

Our performances appear to have gone downhill

Before CC:
Brighton - Best we've probably looked since Bruce arrived

With CC:
Cardiff - Poor
Leeds - Poor & clueless
Wigan - Shite
Norwich - Utter shite

See the pattern?

Not really, not enough to point out that it might be Calderwood. I'd say we've just not played as well as we should.