Steve Bruce - officially confirmed (as Sheffield Wednesday boss)

[Ads]

Why are you complaining about the line up at Forest? Elphick missed two sitters, as did Hogan. They couldn't have complained if they'd been shoveled 3 or 4. I know you like to complain about nigh on everything, he's a coward, that players ghastly and all that, but I cannot "fathom" what you're on about in respect of the line up.

[nick harper]

Why are you complaining about the line up at Forest? Elphick missed two sitters, as did Hogan. They couldn't have complained if they'd been shoveled 3 or 4. I know you like to complain about nigh on everything, he's a coward, that players ghastly and all that, but I cannot "fathom" what you're on about in respect of the line up.

Agree, until the sending off, there was only one team likely to score the second. Football is fine margins and results accentuate the negatives. 3-1 wouldn't have flattered us.

[LeeB]

There is no way on earth we'd have lost that game with 11 men.

[pauliewalnuts]

Things have been underwhelming thus far, to say the least, but I don't think changing the manager is going to solve anything. We've tried that several times in the last five or six years.

To enable him to do what we need him to do, we are going to have to give him time.

Yes, he makes mistakes, yes, certain errors have been directly attributable to him, but really, changing manager any time soon would just be one more step towards turning into the new Leeds (of recent years) - risible and desperate.

[tomd2103]

Things have been underwhelming thus far, to say the least, but I don't think changing the manager is going to solve anything. We've tried that several times in the last five or six years.

To enable him to do what we need him to do, we are going to have to give him time.

Yes, he makes mistakes, yes, certain errors have been directly attributable to him, but really, changing manager any time soon would just be one more step towards turning into the new Leeds (of recent years) - risible and desperate.

Agree with that.  I still maintain that the first thing he needs to do is find a formation that makes us balanced and fluent.  I would argue that up until the end of the window, he just hasn't had the personnel to do that.  When we tried to get more attacking options in the side, it left us weak in midfield and when we tried to bolster the midfield, we looked very light up top. 

He's now got a more balanced squad though and needs to be given time to find a way of playing that is going to work.

[SheffieldVillain]

I'm slightly confused as to how you achieve 'consistency of team selection' when we've had our (latest) full new squad for one game.

However I dont buy it as an excuse, it was Bruce's decision to change keepers, the entire midfield and swap Hogan for McCormack and Ayew.

What, you think he was wrong to change the midfield and bring in a striker who might, just might, score some goals? Because you can't have it both ways. Either he had a consistent line-up and carried on with the same squad which had been proven inadequate, or he bought in players which is going to mean changing the line-up.

Changing eight players, most of them first team players is naturally going to need a bedding in period. That's not an excuse, that's just the way it is. Only a complete loon would have carried on with the squad we had.

[KRS]

I seem to remember Bruce saying something along the lines of not being able to play the way he wanted with the squad he had at his disposal pre-January window and he managed to squeeze out some results where others had failed. Having had what most of us would describe as a good transfer window and that it will take time to integrate these new players, what boils my piss is that Bruce doesn't seem to have a plan (formation and tactics) in place for when these targets were secured. I'm presuming most of the players were of his choice, or at the very least had a strong say in who we signed, so to be seemingly clueless as to how best utilise them (including playing some of them out of position) doesn't really make sense to me...the fact that he didn't sign another centre half then switching to 352 only seems to support this.

[ChicagoLion]

The next excuse will be bedding in the new system 3 5 2.

[Dribbler]

The next excuse will be bedding in the new system 3 5 2.

When is an excuse not an excuse? When it's a valid reason.

[ChicagoLion]

The next excuse will be bedding in the new system 3 5 2.

When is an excuse not an excuse? When it's a valid reason?

Good question, I will get back to you.

[Dribbler]

Im aware of the recent transfer business, yes.

However I dont buy it as an excuse, it was Bruce's decision to change keepers, the entire midfield and swap Hogan for McCormack and Ayew.

Yes, personally i'd have kept Tish and Westwood in there for this game... oh yes, wait a minute... they've left.

Bruce has been with us for a decent run of it now and I for one see no improvement whatsoever. There was very little improvement in performances either lets be honest in the good run points wise we had at the start of his reign.

'No improvement whatsoever'... really? Well points wise we certainly improved to start with, but i agree regarding overall performances, i actually think we played some good stuff under RDM at times, and we've played worse under Bruce in the main, given a few exceptions. The biggest improvement now is the squad and the squad balance.

I'm not calling for his (potato) head yet but I do think he is seriously underachieving as a manager so far at the club. Our budget dwarfs most other clubs in this division combined yet they are still making mugs of us on a weekly basis. The thought of Bruce being allowed to spend more money in the summer is bonkers.

Considering he's only actually spent money in the last month, budget is irrelevant until he's had time to show what he can do with those purchases. Plus the reason we keep doing so badly despite our budget... because we have no consistency and keep chopping and changing managers, players and systems.

The state of the team lineup v Forest, Hourihane on the right of Lansbury again ffs, if we were playing wing backs how come they were not playing at least 10 yards further up the pitch, failing to hook Grealish early on, sitting back into our own half against the might of Forest who are so potless they have loaned two of our castoffs

the mind boggles as to what tactics Bruce is attempting to deploy

My mind certainly didn't 'boggle'... maybe there's something you can get for that! (Ask the Dr  )

I could see what he was trying to do, and to an extant it was working.

[ChicagoLion]

The new system does not make sense, it takes a long time to bed in 3 at the back which will be 5, if the intention was allways to do this why go into the rest of the season with 3 centre backs including one that is made of glass and Elphick who is crap.
Players generally do not like this system because they do not get brought up playing it, the players that like it least are defenders.
So is the whole club now moving to this system?
The way Bruce deploys it is counter attacking, you would have thought with the money spent and players now at his disposal that Villa should be a team looking to out play opposition and win matches.
Enjoy the ride.

[Clampy]

He's trying something different, I don't see what the problem is. Who knows, it might have been something the players have talked about. He's tried it once so far, it might end up being the best or worst idea he's ever had. We won't know unless we give it a go for a few games will we?

[paul_e]

He's trying something different, I don't see what the problem is. Who knows, it might have been something the players have talked about. He's tried it once so far, it might end up being the best or worst idea he's ever had. We won't know unless we give it a go for a few games will we?

The problem is that he seems to have done his transfer business based on 4 at the back and has then changed to 3/5 after 1 game.

[Clampy]

He's trying something different, I don't see what the problem is. Who knows, it might have been something the players have talked about. He's tried it once so far, it might end up being the best or worst idea he's ever had. We won't know unless we give it a go for a few games will we?

The problem is that he seems to have done his transfer business based on 4 at the back and has then changed to 3/5 after 1 game.

He just wanted to try a different formation. Like I said, it's fine by me, I don't have a problem with it at all.