Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[Clampy]

The cup fisasco was more a Club thing  than just Steve Bruce attempting to be clever. 

Lack  of hospitality, Holte Suite closed after the game, no family fan zone, reduced sized programme, paper tickets for season ticket holders, no visits from the legends in attendance.  Even the cups that they use for beer didn't have the villa badge on. 

I am prepared to give Steve Bruce a get out of jail card over yesterday, clearly a Club decision.  Not right I know but such  is life.

Was that a serious post or a piss take?

He’s clearly saying it didn’t appear to be high on the club’s list of priorities.  I’d have thought you’d be pleased, as if the club itself aren’t arsed about going out it makes Bruce getting the chop less likely.

I'm behind Bruce if that's what you're implying. If you don't like it, then well I can't say i'm bothered, even if you are. Still, no badges on glasses, how low have we sunk?

[PeterWithesShin]

On a day the club are doing kids tickets for £1 it seems a bit daft not opening the Family Fun Zone.

[sickbeggar]

As a few others have mentioned i've been annoyed by us not taking it the cup seriously in the past, but this time meh. I would hope any manager would have done the same in the same position. If we had put a full strength side out and won, AND not suffered any injuries AND won our next league game, i wouldn't have criticised Bruce on here, BUT i would have still thought it was a daft risk to take. As for the loss affecting our morale, i don't really get that. I don't think it's gonna affect the confidence of our first team because Bjarnason played crap - he does that in league games anyway. Plenty of things to hammer Bruce for, but to me he made exactly the same decision that a manager with half a clue would have made.

[Clampy]

On a day the club are doing kids tickets for £1 it seems a bit daft not opening the Family Fun Zone.

Yeah, that was a bit saft. Also there was only the upstairs kiosks open in the Upper Holte which meant getting served was a bit of a nightmare at half time.

[Fasth56]

I'm still trying to work out how Onomah managed to get a full game, I'd have hooked him after 10 minutes. Bruce stands on the touchline flapping his arms without a clue on how to alter stuff on the pitch.

[paul_e]

Is there any evidence to back up this strange idea, that seems to have taken root in the last day, that sacrificing a cup game has a positive effect on league form?  I can think of a couple of clubs who've got to the league cup final and then struggled afterwards but it seems much more common that it happens the other way.  Given the Moscow incident I'd think that Villa fans were aware that 'saving' players for the league doesn't work (or more accurately has very little effect either way).

As for the 'what if they got injured' argument, we might as well wrap them in cotton wool and not train all week if that's a concern because we seem to pick up as many injuries in training as on match days.

If you're not bothered about the cup then say so but don't try to justify it by suggesting it's had any impact on our chances of promotion, it hasn't, we lost a game that we seemingly didn't give a shit about and it's not going to make the slightest difference other than to piss off some of the fans who went expecting to see us look like we wanted to win.

[Simon Page]

I'm still trying to work out how Onomah managed to get a full game, I'd have hooked him after 10 minutes. Bruce stands on the touchline flapping his arms without a clue on how to alter stuff on the pitch.

I don't know why he played Onomah at all. He's not our player, cup-tieing him isn't likely to make it less likely he'd be recalled and we've seen loads of him this season. It points to an exercise more in keeping with a reserve match - where the result doesn't really matter but it helps player fitness - rather than any attempt to get fringe players to a point where they can step into the style, shape and tactics of the starting 11. This is the bit where I'm not happy with Bruce. If you're going to risk sacrificing a cup run for your league priorities, at least send out a side to play in a manner that makes it more likely you can call on these players to slot in during the matches that do matter to you. Instead he seems to have opted for giving them a run-out or, as it turned out, a runaround at the hands of the mighty Posh.

[Three Spires Villa]

Is there any evidence to back up this strange idea, that seems to have taken root in the last day, that sacrificing a cup game has a positive effect on league form?  I can think of a couple of clubs who've got to the league cup final and then struggled afterwards but it seems much more common that it happens the other way.  Given the Moscow incident I'd think that Villa fans were aware that 'saving' players for the league doesn't work (or more accurately has very little effect either way).

As for the 'what if they got injured' argument, we might as well wrap them in cotton wool and not train all week if that's a concern because we seem to pick up as many injuries in training as on match days.

If you're not bothered about the cup then say so but don't try to justify it by suggesting it's had any impact on our chances of promotion, it hasn't, we lost a game that we seemingly didn't give a shit about and it's not going to make the slightest difference other than to piss off some of the fans who went expecting to see us look like we wanted to win.

100%

[sickbeggar]

I think its self-evident how it works. More games, more injuries, less rest-time between games. It's no coincidence that teams not in Europe tend to do better in the premier. I don't think chelsea would have won the league if they'd been in the CL last season. Likewise Leicester

[Simon Page]

I think its self-evident how it works. More games, more injuries, less rest-time between games. It's no coincidence that teams not in Europe tend to do better in the premier. I don't think chelsea would have won the league if they'd been in the CL last season. Likewise Leicester

Those are the only occasions where the Premier League title has been won by a team not competing in European competition in the same season.

[sickbeggar]

I think its self-evident how it works. More games, more injuries, less rest-time between games. It's no coincidence that teams not in Europe tend to do better in the premier. I don't think chelsea would have won the league if they'd been in the CL last season. Likewise Leicester

Those are the only occasions where the Premier League title has been won by a team not competing in European competition in the same season.

mebbe but how many of those teams who won the league went out of Europe early? or the FA Cup? or the League Cup?

[Simon Page]

I'll leave you to Google it, but not many. There are six proper Doubles in there and, I think, four League-League Cup doubles.

[PeterWithesShin]

A quick look and a lot more often than not the title winners have had long cup runs.

[Risso]

I think its self-evident how it works. More games, more injuries, less rest-time between games. It's no coincidence that teams not in Europe tend to do better in the premier. I don't think chelsea would have won the league if they'd been in the CL last season. Likewise Leicester

The Champions League is very different to the FA Cup.  The winner will have played 13 games compared to 6 in the FA Cup. For teams like us, it should be a valuable chance for some fringe players to get some proper match experience.

[Boz]

We were never going to win the FA cup. With that said I don't believe that winning a couple of games in the cup puts our chances of promotion at risk any more than an under-performing manager. It's a smokescreen to hide his inadequacies, just like criticising  his players one week or the fans another. His post match interview was BS (this idea of hindsight and trying out units of players)! That's his f-cking job to put together a cohesive unit with the players he chooses. Isn't that what a pre-season or BMH is for? Instead, in a competitive fixture, he manages a shambles and allows Peterborough to play us off the park! 6 of the starting line up were his signings, 7 starting the second half were his. He really doesn't know what he's doing! If ever a game demonstrated that Bruce does not know how to manage a big club it was yesterday's. He and the players looked like strangers, with little evidence of training and coaching and this with a second string team. In one game Bruce proved the Villa engine Wyness talks about does not work with Bruce at the helm! I want him gone, but I realise it won't happen while we are in the playoffs. Nothing yesterday convinces me though that he is the man to see the job done.

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