Steve Bruce - officially confirmed (as Sheffield Wednesday boss)

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Strange how 3-5-2 has been condemned as some sort of spawn of Satan formation, as though of itself it condemns a manager. Stranger still when you note that Chelsea, 10 points clear at the top of the PL, have been using it for the majority of the season. Now obviously they have much, much better players but that isn't the point when it is the fact of the formation not the players that is being ridiculed.

It hasn't worked for us, Bruce has said as much himself, but that doesn't mean that trying it was a crazy, off the wall, aberrant experiment.

Just about everybody could see that it was doomedd to failure before kick off.  No decent wing backs and therefore no balls into the box for the forward players.  Comparing it to Chelsea is utterly irrelevant.  It was a terrible decision, and got what it deserved, ie nowt.  Your post is like saying "now I know that putting my hand in the oven when it's on is going to hurt, I won't be stupid enough to do it again".  It was a dreadful deciion from a bloke who has sadly lost the plot.

The post was nothing of the sort, it was just a response to people condemning the formation when it was the performance that was the problem. Would Kodjia have learned how to link with others just because there were no wing backs, for instance? We had more possession and many more attempts on goal but didn't make anything of them. That is down to the players themselves.

What concerns me is Bruce was saying in the week it's his favoured formation having used it at several clubs. Then he makes a team selection like that of a novice, they lose their two centre halves, things are not going to plan and yet he fails again to change things around.

My expectations of Bruce were never high as he himself admitted, he "doesn't like tactics" but I was expecting to at least to win ugly. Now I don't know what to think. Maybe as somebody suggested on here, he watches the game from the stands, gets to see the bigger picture because right now he's doing nothing from the dugout.

Any other manager looking at our play and results must be thinking how the hell are Villa managing to mess up given the players they have. I'd imagine there'd be plenty lining up to be given the chance to fix things should we decide to look to replace Bruce in the summer.

[Ads]

Bruce stated his preferred formation was 442.

[Monty]

Bruce stated his preferred formation was 442.

That's not particularly reassuring either.

[paul_e]

Strange how 3-5-2 has been condemned as some sort of spawn of Satan formation, as though of itself it condemns a manager. Stranger still when you note that Chelsea, 10 points clear at the top of the PL, have been using it for the majority of the season. Now obviously they have much, much better players but that isn't the point when it is the fact of the formation not the players that is being ridiculed.

It hasn't worked for us, Bruce has said as much himself, but that doesn't mean that trying it was a crazy, off the wall, aberrant experiment.

Just about everybody could see that it was doomedd to failure before kick off.  No decent wing backs and therefore no balls into the box for the forward players.  Comparing it to Chelsea is utterly irrelevant.  It was a terrible decision, and got what it deserved, ie nowt.  Your post is like saying "now I know that putting my hand in the oven when it's on is going to hurt, I won't be stupid enough to do it again".  It was a dreadful deciion from a bloke who has sadly lost the plot.

The post was nothing of the sort, it was just a response to people condemning the formation when it was the performance that was the problem. Would Kodjia have learned how to link with others just because there were no wing backs, for instance? We had more possession and many more attempts on goal but didn't make anything of them. That is down to the players themselves.

Yep, it's all down to the players and nothing to do with the manager, we should replace the lot of them again in the summer.

Facetious baiting out of the way it's all part of the same problem, the players aren't being trained properly, changing the system and forcing them to learn that from scratch when there were so many other obvious issues to handle first is why it's a panic move.  You're sort of right that the formation itself isn't the problem, it's more that it's indicative that Bruce doesn't appear to know what he's doing and is firmly into the 'see what sticks' phase of management that almost always fails.  That's the problem, he shit himself because we got battered by Brentford and is flailing about for anything to stop us going on a horror run.  I want a manager with his sort of experience to be much calmer than this.

[Risso]

He clearly doesn't know which way to turn right now.

[amfy]

Bruce stated his preferred formation was 442.

He said that's how you play to get out of this league. Look at the teams that have done it, and the teams that are doing ti, and that is how they play.

[Risso]

Bruce stated his preferred formation was 442.

He said that's how you play to get out of this league. Look at the teams that have done it, and the teams that are doing ti, and that is how they play.

So why has he tried everything except that?

[PeterWithesShin]

Didn't he also say that the players we were signing in Jan were identified as the players to play 442 and add pace etc?

[aj2k77]

Yes Chelsea play 3-5-2/5-3-2 but they spent pre season drilling the players as to what it entails. We threw it together in a panicky few days. After our usual money up the wall trick.

The answer to this problem is all on the training field. We won't solve this current problem with more money. We've signed a lot of the divisions better players. The talent is there, is the mental fortitude from those above?

[clash city rocker]

We can't take the few chances we create and we can't defend competently.  So the coaching staff....yep I know...could start working on those two areas to start with before we get into the complicated things like tactics. Well tactics may not be complicated for other teams but they are for us. On fact everything seems bloody complicated for us. A simple game ? Not at villa park it isn't.

[SoccerHQ]

RDM did exactly the same v Newcastle....played 3-5-2 (didn't Adomah and Amavi play wing backs that day) and it seemed the players had only been told an hour before the game and so we spent the first half clueless as to how to play it.

Bruce did get Hull playing it to good effort...I feel we should keep it for away games where we have more space on the break but don't think it's the solution for home games. We have been unbeaten playing 4-3-3 after all.

[Steve67]

He's made a rod for his own back now. He's got the players he wanted but won't play them they way WE want because he's not getting it to click. Therefore gone all defensive to try not to lose, rather than to go all out for the win. He can't keep changing formation every other week as it smacks of panic and not knowing his best team.  I don't really want him sacked unless THE most amazing candidate is available, who ever that may be. We need to get through what is left of this yet another dire season and hope we've finally bottomed out. It's utter shite at the moment despite the money spent but we could be a really good side with another couple of tweaks in the summer.

[Chris Smith]

Yes Chelsea play 3-5-2/5-3-2 but they spent pre season drilling the players as to what it entails. We threw it together in a panicky few days. After our usual money up the wall trick.

The answer to this problem is all on the training field. We won't solve this

That's not right actually, they changed a few games into the season because of a couple of losses. It worked for them, it hasn't for us.

[aj2k77]

Yes Chelsea play 3-5-2/5-3-2 but they spent pre season drilling the players as to what it entails. We threw it together in a panicky few days. After our usual money up the wall trick.

The answer to this problem is all on the training field. We won't solve this

That's not right actually, they changed a few games into the season because of a couple of losses. It worked for them, it hasn't for us.

Fair enough, players at his disposal and quality of coaching will be a lot higher than here.

[manic-road]

Yes Chelsea play 3-5-2/5-3-2 but they spent pre season drilling the players as to what it entails. We threw it together in a panicky few days. After our usual money up the wall trick.

The answer to this problem is all on the training field. We won't solve this

That's not right actually, they changed a few games into the season because of a couple of losses. It worked for them, it hasn't for us.

Chris that is correct, Chelsea didn't start the season in a 3/5/2 or 5/3/2 at all. Due to injuries and suspensions they had to change it and got results so they stuck with it.