Steve Bruce - officially confirmed (as Sheffield Wednesday boss)

[mattjpa]

Experience is over rated, we've currently gone for the manager with the most experience at achieving our goals and thats not exactly going how we'd have liked. For me whats more important is somebody who can come in and combine a modern approach with getting what the club is all about, for me Bruce gets the club but his methods are outdated.

He got promoted in May 2016 and his methods have become outdated within nine months?

To be honest I think his methods were outdated last season too, Hull stumbled across the line and fair play to them for that but the teams that missed out on promotion in place of Hull last season are the ones currently up there chasing promotion while Bruce is mid table with a torn fan base.

Does it not occur to you that if they were chasing promotion last year they had a massive head start on us.  Bruce came into what is widely considered a dysfunctional club with a disastrous team.  It's hardly a comparison with teams who were flying in the division last season.  He has just started to put his stamp on the team, the next few months are the time to judge him not 2 games post transfer window.

Unless a manager has won his last 5 games he will always have a torn fan base because there will always be a percentage of football fans that dont live in the real world. There are man city fans wanting pep out, united fans who wanted mourinho out 5 games ago, baggies fans who want pulis sacked. West ham fans wanted allardyce sacked because he didnt get the west ham way....the list goes on. Quite how you have come to the conclusion thtat his methods are outdated I have no idea - He has so far experimented with 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 5-3-2 and 3-5-2. he has hired fitness coaches as well as young and upcoming first team coaches like clemence and calderwood.

You have answered your own question there, why is an experienced manager with 4 promotions experimenting with 4 different formations in 16 matches if his methods are not outdated? He's throwing formations together in the hope that one of them clicks rather than putting any thought into picking a formation that will click.

Off the top of my head....Inheriting a defence that shipped goals, inheriting a weak midfield, inheriting a woefully unfit squad, a 12m striker that couldnt be arsed turning up for training, injuries/sickness to Baker, Adomah and more importantly Jedinak, Men coming back from international duty on the other side of the world,an unprecedented 6 signings in january and two of our best players going to AFCON.

Saw this quote - direct from sky sports article this week "Pep Guardiola is renowned for his flexibility when it comes to formations - but this season he has already tried out eight different systems in just 26 games at Manchester City"

[dave.woodhall]

I'm trying to work out how not getting promoted is a bigger success and proves you're a better manager than getting promoted.

Well I clearly didn't say that. If you have seen anything in our matches that make you believe that Bruce is the man to get us out of this division then fair play because I haven't seen a single thing.

What did you say then? So far I've seen a couple of good months and a couple of bad. It's not as good as I'd hoped but someone with his track record of success deserves time to put things right.

Couple of good months? Come off it! I'd agree that any manager needs time but we need to see signs that we are progressing and all i'm seeing is that we are stagnating, Unfortunaty I think we'll see the Bruce experiment as a wasted 6/12/18 months.

24 points from his first twelve matches. Is that good enough for you?

[LukeJames]

I'm not disputing the fact we had the new manager bounce when he first came in, we were still awful to watch though and it soon wore off.

[dave.woodhall]

Wins don't count if they're not the right type of wins then.

[paul_e]

Off the top of my head....
Inheriting a defence that shipped goals - and he's not fixed it
inheriting a weak midfield - and rather than try to work with them he decided to sign an entire midfield
inheriting a woefully unfit squad - every manager says this but I honestly don't see us as being any fitter now than we were when he arrived
a 12m striker that couldnt be arsed turning up for training - that appears to have only happened since Bruce arrived and coincides with Bruce deciding to rehabilitate a striker who had taken the piss just as much.
injuries/sickness to Baker, Adomah and more importantly Jedinak - every team has injuries
Men coming back from international duty on the other side of the world - people being full internationals in the championship is a nice problem to have so long as they deliver in the 35-40 games where they're not jet-lagged or travelling
an unprecedented 6 signings in january and two of our best players going to AFCON. - First bit, this was his choice, 2nd bit as above

answered in line but what I'm getting at here is that any manager who joins a club to repalce a sacked manager will have problems to deal with, it's why they got the job and fixing those problems is the core part of the job for the first year.

I've been a little harsh on purpose because he's paid a fortune to fix the problems and improve us, he really doesn't need to have excuses made for him, and most of those are excuses not explanations.

[LukeJames]

Wins don't count if they're not the right type of wins then.

Putting things in my mouth again that I didn't say. If we had kept up that win rate then the way we play becomes secondary and we wouldn't be having this conversation.

[dave.woodhall]

Wins don't count if they're not the right type of wins then.

Putting things in my mouth again that I didn't say. If we had kept up that win rate then the way we play becomes secondary and we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Therefore it was a couple of good months, and there was no need for me to "come off it".

[old man villa fan]

I'm trying to work out how not getting promoted is a bigger success and proves you're a better manager than getting promoted.

Well I clearly didn't say that. If you have seen anything in our matches that make you believe that Bruce is the man to get us out of this division then fair play because I haven't seen a single thing.

What did you say then? So far I've seen a couple of good months and a couple of bad. It's not as good as I'd hoped but someone with his track record of success deserves time to put things right.

Couple of good months? Come off it! I'd agree that any manager needs time but we need to see signs that we are progressing and all i'm seeing is that we are stagnating, Unfortunaty I think we'll see the Bruce experiment as a wasted 6/12/18 months.

24 points from his first twelve matches. Is that good enough for you?

It was a good start and more than just a new manager bounce. He identified problems and seemed to have solutions.  What I do not understand is how he has let it slip. One player out of what he considered his best team away at AFCON should not have been insurmountable.

[Risso]

Rowett would be a big no from me, he's not what we need at all.

I think he'd do a good job. Genuinely interested to know what you think the problem with him would be?

He's got no profile outside the championship and we'd be a huge step up.  As I said, if we were to replace Bruce it needs to be with someone too good for where we are rather than with someone who has done ok at this level.  Gambling on an up and coming manager is fine if the club is stable and has a solid foundation for that guy to come into, we don't have that and I think the sheer weight of the job would be too much for someone like Rowett.

Cheers, all decent points.

I think we all just need to get comfortable with the fact that we're cursed, and whoever we try, is doomed to failure.

We've tried the up and coming British manager in Lambert, the respected continental manager in Houllier, the up and coming foreign manager in Garde, the not-actually-a-manager-Adebayor-saluting-brain-donor manager in Sherwood, the something to prove ex Premier League guy in di Matteo, and now the old school meat and 4-4-2 veg British manager in Bruce, and they've all been found massively wanting.  What else is there left to try?  They all have stuff on their CV that they could be proud of, and fairly recent relative success in most cases, but for all of them it's gone to ratshit at Villa.

Not sure therefore, that Rowett would be any worse.  He did at least, get an absolute basket case of a club like Blues into the top 6 or so, and wasn't too Pulis-like in going about it.

I'd still like to see Bruce do well, as he seems like a genuinely nice guy, but it's starting to look like he's massively lost the plot, with shit formations and even worse substitutions, all the time repeating the same tired cliches after yet another poor result.

[itbrvilla]

Rowett.... Everyone would be complaining about his style of football or lack of.

[Risso]

Rowett.... Everyone would be complaining about his style of football or lack of.

It all depends on results.  Even the Stripey twats have piped down about Pulis now he's won a few games.  I am so sick of losing games, that any sort of style of play that ends with us putting the ball in the opposition's net more times than we concede would do me.

[paul_e]

Rowett.... Everyone would be complaining about his style of football or lack of.

I have no idea how he plays, I've seen his team play once and I was too busy being frustrated by us sitting off them to notice if they were any good.

[Ads]

Rowett plays counter attacking football home and away.

[LeeB]

If we were in the business of replacing Steve, which I have no interest in whatsoever I might add, my pick would be Dean Jones.
That's without the fact he's one of us, the occasions I've witnessed his modestly assembled team they've played with skill and conviction, and appear to be very well organised.

[PeterWithesShin]

If we were in the business of replacing Steve, which I have no interest in whatsoever I might add, my pick would be Dean Jones.
That's without the fact he's one of us, the occasions I've witnessed his modestly assembled team they've played with skill and conviction, and appear to be very well organised.

He got Herbie going well but has been dead a while so it's a no from me.