Steve Bruce - officially confirmed (as Sheffield Wednesday boss)

[nick harper]

Can someone tell me why, if us being shit away from home isn't because of the tactics chosen by Bruce, we've changed the midfield and attack almost completely (across the last 5 games) and yet players who have never played this way before are suddenly playing exactly like the players that weren't good enough?

If someone can explain that to me in a way that absolves Bruce of any responsibility then I'll accept the idea that we should give him at least until november/december to see where he can take things and if things are shit on the way then so be it but I just don't get why so many people are willing to separate us being shit from Bruce and put it down to anything else.

What the club has needed to do for a long long time is decide what it wants to be.  We have some fans who will see 3-4 passes and want to scream 'get it forward' and others who want us to be the barcelona of the midlands and plenty more who fill every space in between.  Then there are more still who couldn't give a shit so long as we score a few goals and win a few games.  There's just no expectation of what we're going to be so we don't know what type of manager we want so we just go for flavour of the month style appointments.  I don't see how Bruce is any different to Lambert, Sherwood, etc in that regard.

I actually agree Bruce does have to take a lot of responsibility for the poor performances.  He had the mitigation that he was working with someone else's team devoid of any quality in midfield.  Even so, he should have done better. 

Last night was diabolical.  But to not take into account the fact that two players arrived this week, one from abroad and having not played for several weeks and third last week with 70mins football under his belt is a bit silly.  We have invested heavily, Bruce now has his team.  It's unreasonable to demand instant success but there needs to be massive improvement between now and the summer for him to deserve another season.

To be fair, he was in a no win situation on that. If he'd played Bacuna and Gardener and eased the new players in as substitutes and we'd lost, he'd have been crucified. I was excited to see the new players in as were we all, but it was probably the wrong call given the amount of change in the transfer window.

He should have made a change at half time and after an hour. It was clearly not working.

[Toronto Villa]

I predicted we'd go straight back up yes.

I still think there is enough time to make a playoff run. And if fall short I still believe we will have set in place a playing style at the club that can be carried into next season.

[Ads]

It's difficult to see the away form changing. We've played some pretty rank aides in Cardiff, Wolves and Brentford and conceded 5 without reply. We were OK second half against Cardiff and deserved a point. We were rank against Wolves and worse against Brentford, although 3 sitters were missed that would have changed the game perhaps, as that's what goals do.

[Rico]

I believe that Bruce may have just about given up on this season, and has used the transfer window to start to assemble a squad that can mount a challenge next season. (That's the hope that I'm clinging to anyway). What he needs to be careful of is allowing us to get dragged into a relegation scrap again. If that scenario happens I don't think he'll be our manager at the start of next season.

We really need to get some momentum going though, because it's all getting a bit toxic .

[john e]

I thought we would come straight back up as well,  no problems

I remember when people used to go on about us doing a Leeds or a Sheff Wednesday and staying down for years, I used to think they were crackers, absolutely off their heads and told them so

unfortunately i actually consider it a possibility now

[QuintonVilla]

I predicted 9th at the start of the season, even that looks optimistic. We won't finish top half.

[Des Little]

£77 million and we are mid table.  Beggars belief.

[passport1]

I wonder what it will cost our glorious leader to get us to the top 5 in Europe if its £77m to get to mid table Championship. I daresay he has an equation he can Tweet to us to explain.

[PaulWinch again]

Well let's hope he learns that middle three of the midfield won't work in that combination. Lansbury needs to be a creative force, as does Hourihane.

[kippaxvilla2]

Is this an appropriate time to mention that we are only two places better off than what Gollum predicted at the start of the season.

[Bottom Right 89]

As much as I wanted to smash the screen in after last night's performance, in the cold light of day I think differently. We have through the course of a season completely overhauled our squad and gone through a change of coaching staff, the players we've bought in will come good but we need to cut Bruce some slack, to change a losing culture like we have is going to take time. This season is now effectively a free go to find our best team in the games remaining to challenge for automatics next term.

[BC Villain]

It literally looked as if no planning went into that game yesterday and that we decided to try and get through on a whim.  It was almost Sherwood-like planning where we just hoped to "get away with it".  That's one of the reasons we've ended up in this league to start with.

Cardiff, Wolves, Preston and now Brentford have quickly realised that all they need to do against Villa is bully us and we crumble.  There was no organisation, no-one showing leadership and trying to get others back into position, nobody was trying to get anyone going after the goals.  We were like rabbits stuck in the headlights, as was Bruce.  What was the point of changing something at 3 0 down with less than a quarter of an hour to go?

I can honestly say that it was one of the worst performances I've seen from a Villa side, ever.  Which is alarming given some of the bilge we've churned out since 2010.

[Tayls_7]

As much as I wanted to smash the screen in after last night's performance, in the cold light of day I think differently. We have through the course of a season completely overhauled our squad and gone through a change of coaching staff, the players we've bought in will come good but we need to cut Bruce some slack, to change a losing culture like we have is going to take time. This season is now effectively a free go to find our best team in the games remaining to challenge for automatics next term.

That basically mirrors my own feelings. I made the typical mistake last night of anticipating a vastly improved performance based on the euphoria of new signings. Watching Brentford school us hurt like a bastard. Being more pragmatic today I still see our future being much brighter under an astute chairman who seems to be organising the club from top to bottom for better days ahead. We'll get there we just need to get behind him now.

[cheltenhamlion]

My issue with his post game comments last night was his moaning about their mental fragility. I could buy that when he first took over and had to use lots of players long used to losing. But not now.

The only player on the park last night that spent any time around our first team last season was Hutton. It doesn't explain why this new bunch dissolve like a Berocca in a pint of water at the first sign of adversity.

[Bottom Right 89]

My issue with his post game comments last night was his moaning about their mental fragility. I could buy that when he first took over and had to use lots of players long used to losing. But not now.

The only player on the park last night that spent any time around our first team last season was Hutton. It doesn't explain why this new bunch dissolve like a Berocca in a pint of water at the first sign of adversity.

I sort of agree but then i would suggest that there is also an added pressure for any player coming to our club which a lot of them are not prepared for. When they're big fish in little ponds there is no pressure, all of a sudden they have 100k twitter followers that analyse every touch they make in a game and 30k+ on a Saturday demanding results. Confidence can easily disappear with a few bad results at Villa Park.