Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[sickbeggar]

Dunno, when teams appoint a head coach mid-season it doesn't hint that things are going well in training and i'd imagine a few noses have been put out of joint by his arrival. Possible caretaker manager if results continues sliding? Could be.

[VinnieChase84]

He’s absolutely safe as houses I’m afraid. We don’t go up and he will go but that’s down the line for now. A progressive manager, Gregory type apt now could still get us up. Under Bruce we have no chance. He will bemoan injuries etc blah blah blah and completely distance the narrative as far away from the shite we have to watch as possible. He’s had over a year and about to get his 3rd transfer window. The lack of style and play is shambolic in that time period.
Dean Smith for me would be an ideal fit. He knows style and also systems to play. He would walk to villa park if given the opportunity and it’s that PRIDE and PASSION that I would like to see in the dugout.
Bruce spent £15m in Jan on players that hardly kick a ball for us. This alone is worth shooting for. If I was Dr Tony or Keith I would expecting answers on why another £15m of investment isn’t being used let alone benign worth half that value now in the market.
I won’t boo the lads, I won’t stop going every week, I will cheer every week but by god Bruce don’t half make it feel like a chore. I am hoping to god we get a couple of loans and somehow scrape into play offs.
 

[SoccerHQ]

Would people keep Bruce if the alternative was giving Pulis a six month deal?

I look at our squad and think that would actually be a logical move although could only imagine the reaction.

We have a tight well drilled defence (when Jedinak isn't in there) and we have some quick players in the final third when they're all fit. Squads with those characteristics are usually ones Pulis gets a tune out of.

Managers like Dean Smith would be better to be appointed during the summer I think.

[VinnieChase84]

Would people keep Bruce if the alternative was giving Pulis a six month deal?

I look at our squad and think that would actually be a logical move although could only imagine the reaction.

We have a tight well drilled defence (when Jedinak isn't in there) and we have some quick players in the final third when they're all fit. Squads with those characteristics are usually ones Pulis gets a tune out of.

Managers like Dean Smith would be better to be appointed during the summer I think.

I’d keep Bruce over any short term fixes (a la Pulis)
When he leaves it HAS to be a longer term dynamic apt. Someone like Smith or in the ilk of Wagner, Marco Silva.

[DB]

It does looke like his methods are looking out dated. The Wolves approach as an example. This league is so random though, anything could happen in 2nd half of the season

[sickbeggar]

Trouble is gambling is what got us into this position. We came down with an awful awful squad and instead of building from there we all panicked when RDM didn't have us in the top 6 in October. I think RDM would have pulled us round,though things would have been tough til christmas. The whole club was suffering from the hangover of being crap for years and at times the football under RDM was good, but the confidence wasn't there. Personally i think we've wasted a year on Bruce and starting from scratch with a manager trying to build something rather than an instant promotion is the way to go. Pullis doesn't look any less of a temporary firefighter than Bruce imo. May get us up but you wouldn't bet against us being managerless in the bottom 3 of the prem this time next year.

[Ads]

RDM was more likely to have relegated us. Absolutely no evidence that he was anywhere near turning us round. It's why we were in the bottom 3.

[sickbeggar]

don't agree, we played well at times but the confidence was shattered, and he had no luck at all. I give credit to Bruce for turning that around quickly but he was always always going to with his tactics. The trouble is we're still at that point - be hard to beat, play for a draw, don't lose or take chances etc... and it's just not good enough for promotion in this league

[Ads]

We were shocking. Getting turned over and feebly surrendering left right and centre. Utter bilge and he was rightly canned.

[ktvillan]

I agree with all the criticisms of Bruce, but I think most sets of supporters probably feel the same about their managers.  The same criticisms crop up over and over again - not learning from mistakes, playing players out of position, no plan B and often a shit plan A, poor substitutions, not being able to see what everyone else can see, lack of movement, dire football, negativity, tactical ineptitude and so on.  All these things should not be difficult to address for any coach with a modicum of intelligence, common sense, nous and leadership.  The fact that so many managers fail at these things repeatedly says a lot about the "pool of talent" available.  Almost inevitably ex-journeymen players who lack the intelligence, charisma or looks to go into punditry - or anything else for that matter - but can make a killing doing a bad job over and over again.  For example the likes of Gary Megson and Bryan Robson had to prove they were utter rubbish at various clubs before other clubs finally cottoned on and they stopped getting offers.  See also most ex-Villa managers.  Pardew is probably on the same path.  By which time they probably never need to work again anyway.   The point is that while Bruce is gulity of all the above and more, he's by no means the worst - which probably explains his relative success at this level, before being badly found out when up against managers who know what they are doing.  The trick is finding someone who doesn't fall into those categories, as Wolves seem to have done.  But then Boro probably thought they'd done so with Karanka and that ended badly.  I honestly think clubs could do a lot worse than hiring someone from outside the game but with the necessary leadership qualities that work in other walks of life.   But then what are the chances of finding the next Arrigo Sacchi working down the Bullring in Footlocker?   Which reminds me of his famous quote when his credentials were questioned: "I never realised that in order to become a jockey you have to have been a horse first.".  Maybe not but plenty of donkeys seem to have made the transition into football management.

[sickbeggar]

nice revisionism there. we won 1 drew 7 and lost 4. the problem was turning the draws into wins not the losses

[Ad@m]

We were shocking. Getting turned over and feebly surrendering left right and centre. Utter bilge and he was rightly canned.

What an absolute load of shite.

We lost the best part of 15 points by battering teams and conceding late goals to end up drawing. RDM was unlucky in a lot of respects (how many games did we hit the bar/post/etc) but he ultimately lost his job because of the defensive frailties we kept showing and him chucking the towel in at Preston.

Bruce sorted the defence pretty quickly but at the cost of being eye-wateringly boring on the promise he was a promotion expert. Now he's fucked that up at the second attempt I just don't see any merit in keeping him.

[SoccerHQ]

I was at Preston. We were terrible that day. Performances were generally getting worse under RDM. Very lucky to get a point at Ipswich and also really poor for an hour v Newcastle.

It was the right decision to let him go, he didn't have the urgency to turn around the club.

[Clampy]

Would people keep Bruce if the alternative was giving Pulis a six month deal?

I look at our squad and think that would actually be a logical move although could only imagine the reaction.

We have a tight well drilled defence (when Jedinak isn't in there) and we have some quick players in the final third when they're all fit. Squads with those characteristics are usually ones Pulis gets a tune out of.

Managers like Dean Smith would be better to be appointed during the summer I think.

Criticising Bruce's style of play then suggesting Pulis is a tad baffling.

[PaulWinch again]

We need, as a minimum, a couple of plans for how to attack teams. At the moment our goals tend to come from one individual doing something good/remarkable. Bruce has demonstrated in his time he has no clue what to do if plan A, playing into a target man, doesn’t work. That is a huge indictment of his lack of tactical nous. If you want to see the lack of planning or development just look at our throw ins.