Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[ChicagoLion]

On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being Guardiola tippy tappy total football, and 10 being full on Pulis hoof ball, I'd rate Colin at about an 8, and Bruce about a 6.  I'd rather have had the 8 and promotion than a 6 and staying put in this league for another year.  Bruce's football whilst not being out and out hoof ball, is quite often mundane, inflexible and ineffective.

I think the main difference was,  that we had better players.
Which says it all.

[john e]

Warnock is like Bruce and lots of other British old school managers

They sometimes do enough to gain some short term success but in General don’t build anything worth watching,it doesn’t last, there’s no planning for the future and it fades away into relegation

I wouldn’t want Warnock or any of the old school dino’s at Villa he’s everything about football I can’t stand even if he did get Cardiff up

[ktvillan]

It's difficult to criticize when the team is occupying an automatic promotion spot for the bulk of the season, and then actually go up, however ugly the football.  Our football wasn't as ugly (thought not exactly riveting either) but then we spent very little time in the top 2, and eventually missed out.  So there was room for criticism.  In short shit football can be somewhat acceptable in the short term as long as it does the job, and if there is little or alternative.  As for things that don't bear thinking about how about newly minted Cardiff coming shopping for some of our better players?   

[paul_e]

If Bruce isn't responsible for anything why is he being paid so much money to manage the club?

Doesn't this go for the players as well ? EVERYBODY is culpable for success and mistakes. That is the whole point

No it's really not, a manager is responsible for the team and making sure that he's making the best use of it. A player is responsible for his own fitness and performance but that's it. I've criticised plenty of players who aren't performing well but if they underperform and the manager keeps selecting them and doing nothing to help them do more then he's at fault. Too many times under Bruce players who weren't suited to a role or who were in poor form got selected game after game. The players can take some blame for that but Bruce is the one who played them instead of giving them a rest or dropping them.

[ChicagoLion]

It was the players.
It was family illness.
It was injuries.
It was better teams in the division.
It was being given too much money.

It’s like the NRA after ever school shooting, everything is the problem accept the gun laws.

[sirlordbaltimore]

No it's really not, a manager is responsible for the team and making sure that he's making the best use of it. A player is responsible for his own fitness and performance

It's weird that the Wembley failure only seems to have been put at Bruce's door then.

Because if anyone can tell me with a straight face that any of our so called 'name' players put in a performance that was warranted i'll not believe it.

But it's 'Bruce blew it', 'fist face failed', blah blah fucking blah from the usual suspects.

Not, 'Terry was rotten', 'Snodgrass was a carthorse', 'Hutton had a mare' etc

I dare say someone will chime up now saying 'Bruce's tactics'. Like he went out telling the team to play like they were shitting themselves for the first 45 minutes.

[ChicagoLion]

There really is no point.
Any way I hope you and your dad had a good holiday.

[sirlordbaltimore]

There really is no point.
Any way I hope you and your dad had a good holiday.

Brilliant.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Practice makes perfect. Over the season we rarely practiced. It's why we needed a very special performance against Fulham and why few were surprised we never delivered.

[Clampy]

The only one's who can come out of the play off final with any credit are Grealish and the fans.

[Fasth56]

No it's really not, a manager is responsible for the team and making sure that he's making the best use of it. A player is responsible for his own fitness and performance

It's weird that the Wembley failure only seems to have been put at Bruce's door then.

Because if anyone can tell me with a straight face that any of our so called 'name' players put in a performance that was warranted i'll not believe it.

But it's 'Bruce blew it', 'fist face failed', blah blah fucking blah from the usual suspects.

Not, 'Terry was rotten', 'Snodgrass was a carthorse', 'Hutton had a mare' etc

I dare say someone will chime up now saying 'Bruce's tactics'. Like he went out telling the team to play like they were shitting themselves for the first 45 minutes.

I don't know if you attended many away matches in the last couple of years, but the Wembley performance was reminiscent of quite a few, namely Norwich, Leeds, Cardiff, Brentford and quite a few others that I have managed to erase from my memory for the poor football produced and the lack of belief that we could go to places like these and give them a game. One man is culpable for the performance and how we played, that man is Bruce.

[Clampy]

As for the final overall, I've mainly forgotten about it now. I'm more intrigued/curious as to what happens in the next few months.

[SheffieldVillain]

No it's really not, a manager is responsible for the team and making sure that he's making the best use of it. A player is responsible for his own fitness and performance

It's weird that the Wembley failure only seems to have been put at Bruce's door then.

Because if anyone can tell me with a straight face that any of our so called 'name' players put in a performance that was warranted i'll not believe it.

But it's 'Bruce blew it', 'fist face failed', blah blah fucking blah from the usual suspects.

Not, 'Terry was rotten', 'Snodgrass was a carthorse', 'Hutton had a mare' etc

I dare say someone will chime up now saying 'Bruce's tactics'. Like he went out telling the team to play like they were shitting themselves for the first 45 minutes.

You really are scraping the barrel when you're making up things that people might say in the future.

For a start, yes - Jack Grealish had a good game. I'm sure you won't believe it but then you also didn't believe that any Villa player would get in the Cardiff team earlier in the thread, so hey ho.

There are plenty of references to poor individual performances in the playoff final throughout the forum. You might find that the majority of references on this thread are connected to Bruce mainly because it's a thread about Steve Bruce.

[SamTheMouse]

For years and years now, we've been appointing old fashioned managers, letting them build a squad in their image, then having to dismantle it and start again every time there's a change of staff.

It's a much maligned concept in GB, but I think we need a director of football and a "project". Start targeting talented young players, and appoint forward-thinking managers to coach them. Define a style of play for the club, and recruit the personnel to fit it, rather than the other way around.

[paul_e]

No it's really not, a manager is responsible for the team and making sure that he's making the best use of it. A player is responsible for his own fitness and performance

It's weird that the Wembley failure only seems to have been put at Bruce's door then.

Because if anyone can tell me with a straight face that any of our so called 'name' players put in a performance that was warranted i'll not believe it.

But it's 'Bruce blew it', 'fist face failed', blah blah fucking blah from the usual suspects.

Not, 'Terry was rotten', 'Snodgrass was a carthorse', 'Hutton had a mare' etc

I dare say someone will chime up now saying 'Bruce's tactics'. Like he went out telling the team to play like they were shitting themselves for the first 45 minutes.

I recall seeing criticism of Hutton and Terry over the goal, I saw criticism of Adomah, Elmo, Hourihane and Grabban for having little impact, I saw criticism of Snodgrass for being well below par.  I think Grealish, Johnstone and Chester all delivered and Jedinak did the job he was picked for so they all escaped criticism, which is fair.  To come o n the 'Bruce Out' thread and complain that people are posting about the performance in the final as a reason for wanting him out is a bit odd though, it's almost as if you've been shocked to find criticism of him in here.