Steve Bruce - officially confirmed (as Sheffield Wednesday boss)

[old man villa fan]

But the squad was not good enough to cope with the loss of our only scoring striker. We were relying on a contract rebel, a washed up Gabby and a player that couldn't be arsed to train. You could argue Bruce did well to get us that close in the first place with such a woefully unbalanced squad.

I wonder what RHM's and RM's attitude would have been like if Agbonlahor had not have been brought back into the team.

Bruce has got to stop chopping and changing the team and playing players out of the natural position.  Playing a winger on the opposite side so that he can cut in is one thing but playing midfield players who have limited ability and clearly one footed is another thing. 

I am concerned about Grealish as he looks as though he doesn't know where he is supposed to play.  I think he needs a spell out of the team and to come back when we have a settled improved side.

Like others, I am not sure why Bruce has gone to three at the back when we only have three fit central defenders.  If it was in his mind, another central defender should have been brought in during the transfer window.

Bruce is making some strange decisions and I can only think it is due to pressure on him starting to mount.  He needs to start bringing some organisation to the team, one of the main attributes he was hired for.  His substitutions on Saturday were bizarre, considering the need to keep it tight.  To use 3 substitutes at that stage of the match, completely disrupted our play.

He now has two very good forwards and has to set the team up to play to their strengths, which means more front foot football.  That does not mean long ball from the back.  We need to be playing at a higher tempo.  faster in our thinking and faster in the passing.

[Chris Smith]

I think we have a natural tendency to micro analyse what happens at our club, so we attach significance to each step along the journey rather than wait to see where that journey ends. This isn't a criticism! I do it as do most fans at most clubs. However, a byproduct of that is that we can lose some perspective.

I think we will only be able to properly judge Bruce when he has had time to implement the style he wants with players he has picked. We have bumbled along so far with an unbalanced squad and a midfield not fit for purpose. He has taken the first steps to rectifying that and we will now see where that takes us.

I was chatting with another season ticket holder today at work who is very much at the pessimistic end of the spectrum but we both broadly felt that he had to be allowed time to either succeed or fail and that we could only start drawing any real conclusions at the end of the season.

[pbavfckuwait]

Give him time, but that time to me would be at the end of the season if it continues as it is, lower half of the table finish, or just scrapping into the top half with the money invested, to me states 'not good enough for where we want to be" bye bye.

[manic-road]

Steve Bruce is one of a small group of managers that I never wanted at the club
the others would be Alardyce, Pulis, Warnock, Mcliesh, I realise Pulis is the manager of a team in the top half of the prem but I still don't want him

so I'm not going to lie and say i will be sorry to see Bruce go whenever that may be

it doesn't matter if we were in the top 6 or the bottom 6 i just don't like the football those mangers play and the old fashioned British up and at em throw a load of cash around and hope for the best type of systems they all play, i recognise that they can all do a job, but its not the sort of job i want to see at Villa

i accept other people see things very different to me, but asking me to accept Bruce and give him a chance is like asking a demorcrat to give Trump a go, and it would be exactly the same with the other managers mentioned

the problem is i still support Villa so i still want us to win every game and still get pissed of when we lose (Saturday being the latest example) because of the above its probably harder for me than most on here who can throw their wholehearted support behind Bruce,

but i cant be a hypocrite and pretend i want him to be given more time because i don't,
 i want him away, if that means taking another risk on another manager then so be it,
 sometimes you've got to keep taking the risk until it comes right and not keep on prevailing with something that in my humble opinion will not work long term for Aston Villa

i was the last man standing on here with Lambert, i also supported Houlier, Garde and Sherwood so i haven't got a track record of any sort of wanting managers out,

but many of you can remember what it was like having Mcliesh in charge, you wanted Villa to do well and supported the team whilst the whole time thinking the managers appointment was a big mistake, well its exactly like that for me now

i respect all the views of posters calling for stability and stating his promotional record,
but he is not an unknown quantity where we can see how he develops we know what he is and what he can do, and for me i'd rather go with someone else






So who would you like to see in the job then if you want Bruce out? After just being in the job for a few weeks and getting the start of  a new team in personally I think it would be ludicrous to change yet again after a short period in charge. I have never known us get rid of so many managers in such a short space of time we need a strong figure running the team not everything will smell of roses but we can't keep moaning about the manager after a few weeks in charge.

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

"Even if you're the best player in the world and you're being attacked by three players, you lose the ball,": Ralf Rangnick, manager of 2nd place RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga.

I share his thoughts. So why don't we do it against Championship opposition? If you press the opposition, like teams do to us, then you panic and lose the ball. Brentford did exactly that to us, whilst we gave them all the time in the world.

(There's an article on the rise of "Germany's most hated club" on the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38802113 - wasn't here talk one time of Red Bull being interested in us? May be wrong, or just BS)

[mr underhill]

red bullshit?

[Tony Erdington]

Give him time, but that time to me would be at the end of the season if it continues as it is, lower half of the table finish, or just scrapping into the top half with the money invested, to me states 'not good enough for where we want to be" bye bye.

ABSOLUTELY, because with a stupid owner (lerner) and successive wannabe managers (rabbits in headlights) has got us where we are now, to P45 Bruce at the end of the season, because he only succeeded in getting us into the top half of the league would just carry on the lerner style, Steve Bruce is a good football manager, and I for one wil support him.

[Chris Smith]

"Even if you're the best player in the world and you're being attacked by three players, you lose the ball,": Ralf Rangnick, manager of 2nd place RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga.

I share his thoughts. So why don't we do it against Championship opposition? If you press the opposition, like teams do to us, then you panic and lose the ball. Brentford did exactly that to us, whilst we gave them all the time in the world.

(There's an article on the rise of "Germany's most hated club" on the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38802113 - wasn't here talk one time of Red Bull being interested in us? May be wrong, or just BS)

It is a system that relies on everyone knowing their roles, working as a unit, trusting each other and requires sustained coaching to achieve. You cannot just impose it on a new midfield after a few sessions of working together.

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

"Even if you're the best player in the world and you're being attacked by three players, you lose the ball,": Ralf Rangnick, manager of 2nd place RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga.

I share his thoughts. So why don't we do it against Championship opposition? If you press the opposition, like teams do to us, then you panic and lose the ball. Brentford did exactly that to us, whilst we gave them all the time in the world.

(There's an article on the rise of "Germany's most hated club" on the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38802113 - wasn't here talk one time of Red Bull being interested in us? May be wrong, or just BS)

It is a system that relies on everyone knowing their roles, working as a unit, trusting each other and requires sustained coaching to achieve. You cannot just impose it on a new midfield after a few sessions of working together.

Maybe. But is it that hard to tell someone to close another player down quickly?

[ClaretAndBlueBlood]

"Even if you're the best player in the world and you're being attacked by three players, you lose the ball,": Ralf Rangnick, manager of 2nd place RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga.

I share his thoughts. So why don't we do it against Championship opposition? If you press the opposition, like teams do to us, then you panic and lose the ball. Brentford did exactly that to us, whilst we gave them all the time in the world.

(There's an article on the rise of "Germany's most hated club" on the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38802113 - wasn't here talk one time of Red Bull being interested in us? May be wrong, or just BS)

It is a system that relies on everyone knowing their roles, working as a unit, trusting each other and requires sustained coaching to achieve. You cannot just impose it on a new midfield after a few sessions of working together.

Maybe. But is it that hard to tell someone to close another player down quickly?

no but the whole team needs to do it as a group, if players do it in isolation, teams will be able to pass the ball around them

[brian green]

In that sentence Chris you have defined why I hate the concept of the team "gelling".  It is all about hard work, coaching, training, discipline and stability.
There is no reason why we cannot do what Leicester did, but it is all down to everybody at the club, including the players, knowing what they have to do and doing it to the very best of their ability.  No more scouts living in Australia, no more managers ring fencing their careers, no more jammed gates, no more shishka pipes, no more agents trawling clubs for loan moves.  Just hard graft.

[passport1]

When Lord Ron was interviewed a while back and was asked the most important thing he replied " shape".

I'll stick with that.

[Jimbo]

Hard graft and a change of attitude.

Not "We're Aston Villa and hopefully you're going to let us play football against you, elegantly, if you don't mind," but "We're Aston Villa and we're going to get right up in your shit no matter how small and gritty a club you are, and we're going to win ugly at all costs because winning is all that matters."

See every single club's determination to give us a bloody nose, and raise it.

[Risso]

When you hear Steve Bruce wittering something unconvincing about giving 5-3-2 a go it's hard to have confidence that he has a set way he wants this team to play. Or that he has bought players with a defined style of play in mind.  Looks like he's been playing Championship Top Trumps and buying players just for their stats rather than where they'll fit in and play as a unit.

[paul_e]

"Even if you're the best player in the world and you're being attacked by three players, you lose the ball,": Ralf Rangnick, manager of 2nd place RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga.

I share his thoughts. So why don't we do it against Championship opposition? If you press the opposition, like teams do to us, then you panic and lose the ball. Brentford did exactly that to us, whilst we gave them all the time in the world.

(There's an article on the rise of "Germany's most hated club" on the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38802113 - wasn't here talk one time of Red Bull being interested in us? May be wrong, or just BS)

It is a system that relies on everyone knowing their roles, working as a unit, trusting each other and requires sustained coaching to achieve. You cannot just impose it on a new midfield after a few sessions of working together.

Indeed it is, it's also a system that you can train poor quality players to perform to a decent level.  If Bruce had wanted to get us playing that way he had enough time before the window opened to get the squad he had working that way.  If you sign players and they join a squad all setup to play a certain way and where everyone knows their role it's much easier to find your own place and get up to speed.  That's the problem Villa have had for years, if we want to change style our managers think with the cheque book to buy a solution rather than put in the work in training to make their own.  Bruce is no different to the rest of the useless fuckers in that regard.

All the talk of sacking him meaning more upheaval is rubbish as well.  If it happens the interview should go as "This squad should be good enough to get out of this division so we'll let you trade 3-4 in and out but if you take the job you need to work with what you have in the main".

When you hear Steve Bruce wittering something unconvincing about giving 5-3-2 a go it's hard to have confidence that he has a set way he wants this team to play. Or that he has bought players with a defined style of play in mind.  Looks like he's been playing Championship Top Trumps and buying players just for their stats rather than where they'll fit in and play as a unit.

Absolutely agree with that last line, when McLeish signed Nzogbia it felt like it was because he'd wanted him at Blues and when he had the extra credibility he went back to get him.  This time round Bruce has said similar about Hogan and I get the feeling the Lansbury deal is down to him wanting him at Hull and going back for him now.  There's some sense in signing players you like but it doesn't feel like Bruce has really thought about why he needs them or how they fit in.