Villa v Leeds Post-Match thread

[Clampy]

After 5 years of crap football and a mess of appointing 4 different managers, yes I'm glad we're winning games and being competitive again (even if we haven't always played well), and if that makes me 'happy clappy', then so be it, as patronising as it was to say.

You carry on being miserable about the performances, and i'll carry on watching my team win and trying to get back up. In the meantime, put the razor blades away and happy new year.

[saunders_heroes]

I didn't want Bruce anywhere near the club, but he arrived, and even though the performances aren't the best the results have improved immensely which I'm pleased with. I'm looking forward to see what he does in the transfer market to undo the madness of RDM last summer. The play-offs are still getable.

[PeterWithesShin]

No they aren't. No matter how often you say it Paul, no one is saying don't say that we played crap. They are saying, well I certainly am, that some people don't seem to want enjoy winning or want to give Bruce any credit for turning round a club that had forgotten how to win.

According to many, if not most for at least one of them, we don't have a reliable goalkeeper, we have dodgy fullbacks, a crap midfield and an underperforming set of attackers. And yet despite that and not having signed any players, the manager keeps getting wins, to me that's worthy of at least some praise.

[berneboy]

No one is saying to be 'happy clappy' and act like we've turned into a hybrid of Barcelona and Brazil '70, just that some don't seem to want to enjoy winning more often than not, mainly because it's Steve Bruce. Which after 5 years of utter shit and rarely winning seems a bit weird to me.

And me

And me

And me.

[paul_e]

After 5 years of crap football and a mess of appointing 4 different managers, yes I'm glad we're winning games and being competitive again (even if we haven't always played well), and if that makes me 'happy clappy', then so be it, as patronising as it was to say.

You carry on being miserable about the performances, and i'll carry on watching my team win and trying to get back up. In the meantime, put the razor blades away and happy new year.

I purposely went with patronising because you decided to start it by saying I'm unhappy because it's Bruce rather than because I find us incredibly hard to watch right now.  The razor blades comment is pretty pathetic as well, I'm more than capable of seeing a problem with our style of play without being suicidal.  I like that we're winning games, I just don't particularly want to watch how we do it.

Look at the player ratings people post in the post match threads and all the criticism of players, most people are as unhappy as I am, but for some reason loads of people have decided to direct that at Westwood/Ayew/RM/Grealish/Amavi rather than realising we have lots of players who like to play quick attacking football and we're choosing to play a style that doesn't suit them.

I honestly think something needs to give because it can't carry on all season like this.  He either needs to accept that these players don't work for him and try to replace them in this window or he needs to find a way to get them playing somewhere near their ability playing poorly and winning is a perk not a style and my concern is that if it isn't addressed we'll regret it.

It should be no shock that I'm a big rugby fan and for anyone who was involved in the various threads when Lancaster was in charge my opinion of some of his tactical decisions even when we were winning games was fairly consistent, my argument then and now is that playing a style to get where you want to be that is not going to be good enough when you get there is a really dangerous thing to do because it's easy to get distracted by a few good results and forget the problems.  If you do that things like the 2015 Rugby world cup happen.

Fundamentally Bruce needs to find a way to stop our strikers being isolated for 60-70 minutes, either by a change of style or a change of personnel. If he doesn't believe he can do it without new signings then so be it and hopefully we'll have 2-3 new players in the next month that stop us looking so disjointed but it does need to be addressed this month or the play offs are a pipe dream.

[Clampy]

Like I've already said, we've not played great in some games and I think most people would agree with that but you're making out as if it's going horribly wrong. You're suggesting that the players might not be working for him? What utter drivel, seriously. If you really think that, I would stick to watching rugby.

[aj2k77]

We're playing pretty crap but the team is more organised and therefore giving away less free goals and we are getting the results because of it. Whilst our team is lopsided I will take grinding out results any day of the week.

[paul_e]

No they aren't. No matter how often you say it Paul, no one is saying don't say that we played crap. They are saying, well I certainly am, that some people don't seem to want enjoy winning or want to give Bruce any credit for turning round a club that had forgotten how to win.

According to many, if not most for at least one of them, we don't have a reliable goalkeeper, we have dodgy fullbacks, a crap midfield and an underperforming set of attackers. And yet despite that and not having signed any players, the manager keeps getting wins, to me that's worthy of at least some praise.

Go back and re-read what started this.  I said that I think the reason he has 'failed' (but lets reword it to not achieved anything) in the premier league is because he starts the game with a plan and he doesn't change from that if the game is going differently to his expectations.  I think it was a mistake to back off and let them get into the game so easily after our start but rather than discussing that or disagreeing with even I had people accusing me of just not liking him.  I don't get how me highlighting a tactical error shows that I somehow don't want to be happy with results under Bruce.  I am happy with the results, I'm just not convinced that how we're getting them is sustainable and I see very little evidence of Bruce doing anything to address the problems with the performances.  For some people him coming out after a bad performance and saying it wasn't very good is enough, and that's an opinion they're can stick with if they choose, but it's not for me.

Like I've already said, we've not played great in some games and I think most people would agree with that but you're making out as if it's going horribly wrong. You're suggesting that the players might not be working for him? What utter drivel, seriously. If you really think that, I would stick to watching rugby.

Bold bit - suggesting I should stop watching football because I don't share your opinion is dickishness of the highest order.


As for utter drivel why not spend ten minutes going through player threads in this forum and see what's being said about individual players.  Do you honestly think Ayew, who was our best player for his time at club until Bruce arrived, has suddenly become shit and Bruce is nothing to do with that?  What I mean by working for him is that if you want a left sided midfield who helps his fullback, sticks to his position an dkeeps things tight but can get the odd cross in then you don't pick Ayew or Kodjia there, they're square pegs in round holes and right now this forum is blaming the players who are out of position and doing a job they're not suited to for not doing it very well which I think is totally unfair.

[paul_e]

We're playing pretty crap but the team is more organised and therefore giving away less free goals and we are getting the results because of it. Whilst our team is lopsided I will take grinding out results any day of the week.

I don't disagree, I just don't think we shouldn't talk about what the lopsided problems are or absolve Bruce from any part in those problems.

[Tayls_7]

We're playing pretty crap but the team is more organised and therefore giving away less free goals and we are getting the results because of it. Whilst our team is lopsided I will take grinding out results any day of the week.

I don't disagree, I just don't think we shouldn't talk about what the lopsided problems are or absolve Bruce from any part in those problems.

Ooh, ooh. I absolve him with Papal enthusiasm.

[PeterWithesShin]

Considering I commented about Burnley I know full well what started it.

[Clampy]

By the same token, Baker and Grealish have improved under him and we just look more organised than we did under RDM which is exactly what we needed and we're also showing character getting ourselves back into games which is also good.

We were so utterly woeful last season, it was always possibly going to take baby steps to get us back to where we were and despite some unconvincing performances, we're going in the right direction hopefully. We're within touching distance of the play offs going into the new year which after the start we made is a bonus. Yes it could be better but it could be a whole lot worse. I'm more than happy enough with the job he's done so far.

[damon loves JT]

In 7.6 billion years time the sun will reach its maximum size, and its surface will extend beyond Earth's orbit by 20 percent. Our planet will be engulfed by continuous nuclear fusion and all life will be extinguished.

I want to know what Bruce is going to do about it

[aj2k77]

We're playing pretty crap but the team is more organised and therefore giving away less free goals and we are getting the results because of it. Whilst our team is lopsided I will take grinding out results any day of the week.

I don't disagree, I just don't think we shouldn't talk about what the lopsided problems are or absolve Bruce from any part in those problems.

Our problems seem to stem from not having a midfield. The only thing I can see Bruce could have done differently is playing Bacuna more often in midfield and the situation with Tshibola. Bacuna is Bacuna, very very average and often goes missing himself and lord knows what the situation is with Tish.

Controversial but I think pound for pound our performances under Di Matteo were overall a better quality but often so lacking in concentration we were kings of our own downfall. Bruce has brought concentration, organisation and maybe instills more belief in the players. We know what we are getting with Bruce, I'm happy, it's a huge step up from the laughing stock we've been.

Also not getting dicked or sucker punched fortnightly at home feels nice.

[cdbearsfan]

In 7.6 billion years time the sun will reach its maximum size, and its surface will extend beyond Earth's orbit by 20 percent. Our planet will be engulfed by continuous nuclear fusion and all life will be extinguished.

I want to know what Bruce is going to do about it

Bring Adomah on.