Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[olaftab]

Whilst the manager will pay the price for his teams failures which is how it is, he has gone from watching his team take the leaders apart to struggling to beat a very shit Norwich side. They couldnt even string 5 yard passes together today. That must be frustrating for whoever the manager is.

No. What happened after the Wolves game was that other teams took notice of how we were playing and easily found a way to nullify us and Bruce is/was not smart enough to do anything about it.

[wittonwarrior]

Wittonwarrior that’s is the best tongue in cheek post I have seen unless your id has been stolen by a SHA or Tesco bags fan.

I just dont think changing mangers will achieve hianything.   The one name who people would jump for is Dean Smith, but you  know what we would ruin him.  Villa is an extremely difficult club to manage the expectation  is sky high.  Not everything  that goes on player wise will be down to Steve Bruce.  In my opinion the likes of Steve Round, Wyness and the board  would  have all agreed shit or bust and unfortunately its touch and go as to whether we can achieve it this season. 

[AsTallAsLions]

Whilst the manager will pay the price for his teams failures which is how it is, he has gone from watching his team take the leaders apart to struggling to beat a very shit Norwich side. They couldnt even string 5 yard passes together today. That must be frustrating for whoever the manager is.

No. What happened after the Wolves game was that other teams took notice of how we were playing and easily found a way to nullify us and Bruce is/was not smart enough to do anything about it.

That is exactly what's happened.

[Toronto Villa]

Whilst the manager will pay the price for his teams failures which is how it is, he has gone from watching his team take the leaders apart to struggling to beat a very shit Norwich side. They couldnt even string 5 yard passes together today. That must be frustrating for whoever the manager is.

No. What happened after the Wolves game was that other teams took notice of how we were playing and easily found a way to nullify us and Bruce is/was not smart enough to do anything about it.

Part of it has been shutting down Jack Grealish which shows in his lack of production these past few games. Reading were just too shit in every department to do anything to any of our players.

[Clampy]

Whilst the manager will pay the price for his teams failures which is how it is, he has gone from watching his team take the leaders apart to struggling to beat a very shit Norwich side. They couldnt even string 5 yard passes together today. That must be frustrating for whoever the manager is.

No. What happened after the Wolves game was that other teams took notice of how we were playing and easily found a way to nullify us and Bruce is/was not smart enough to do anything about it.

So teams took notice of how we playing after one game and not since August?

[SoccerHQ]

Snodgrass and Adomah have also dipped since that Wolves game.

Albert great first half of the season with his goals and Snodgrass was brilliant in the period after xmas for a couple of months.

Both out of form/tired/whatever so suddenly teams can go doubling up on Grealish again and nulifiy him.

Plan B is available now in Kodjia. I'd give him a start on Tuesday as he adds unpredictability to us.

Don't understand why Grabban has suddenly gone out of favour again unless he's dipped in training. I thought we looked far more threatening upfront with him than Hogan who again has reverted to his normal form here.

[Sexual Ealing]

Whilst the manager will pay the price for his teams failures which is how it is, he has gone from watching his team take the leaders apart to struggling to beat a very shit Norwich side. They couldnt even string 5 yard passes together today. That must be frustrating for whoever the manager is.

No. What happened after the Wolves game was that other teams took notice of how we were playing and easily found a way to nullify us and Bruce is/was not smart enough to do anything about it.

So teams took notice of how we playing after one game and not since August?

It doesn't really matter. We've spent enough money to expect that the coaching staff can deal with that.

[olaftab]

Whilst the manager will pay the price for his teams failures which is how it is, he has gone from watching his team take the leaders apart to struggling to beat a very shit Norwich side. They couldnt even string 5 yard passes together today. That must be frustrating for whoever the manager is.

No. What happened after the Wolves game was that other teams took notice of how we were playing and easily found a way to nullify us and Bruce is/was not smart enough to do anything about it.

So teams took notice of how we playing after one game and not since August?

No. It happened every time we had a good run that’s why we were not able to sustain long runs like Fulham and Wolves have done. This is down to Bruce. He lacks tactical dexterity to change and maintain success when he has achieved a short run of successful results. His successful results have mostly come to him accidently rather than clever coaching and tactics.

[Steve67]

This bollocks from Round about the Villa way.  What is it? Bottling it when we go second in the league?  Too disruptive now to bring a new manager in?  Yes. probably, and I don't think it's the right thing to do while we still stand a chance of play off action, but I think Bruce is completely to blame for our demise.  He has thrown all of the eggs in one basket with signing older players, no sell on value.  We have no pace, a lack of energy and will end up in serious shit next season when the money stops. Terry has been great but his legs are going quickly.  Elmo, Taylor are slower than me.  Hourihane has flattered to deceive.  10 goals but lacks presence. Unless we go up through the play offs, and I seriously do not think that we will, we are in trouble due to our approach this season.

[JUAN PABLO]

What  people fail to note is that Steve Bruce in the 18 months he has been at the club has had to turn the whole mentality around, has  had to recruit probably players given his own ideas he would not have gone for and has had to endure an  awful high expectation. 

There is not the calibre of manager around like in the days of Ron Saunders, Shankly, Bertie Mee etc. 

Lets not become a Leeds and sack manger after manager just because we cannot reach Mecca in a season.

Steve, is that you?

dont be so stupid

Its Calderwood

[robleflaneur]

It's probably better to think of the Wolves game as an exception.The reality is that we are 5 points behind third place,7 points behind and played a game extra compared to Cardiff and a mere 16 points off Wolves.One offs are not important in the league,consistency is and that's why it's nearly 800 pages in just over a year on this thread.
The best case scenario for Bruce is to win the play offs.Would the board have the nerve or intelligence to sack him then ?As some people suggest in that scenario,give him to Oct /Nov to see if he can handle the Prem.And then we would be scrabbling around for second choices or the revolving door managers...Pardew,Hughes etc.
Sacking him now might not leave us with many choices as I've just mentioned,however I would bite the bullet and see if a Terry/Agnew partnership works in the short term.In the short term under Bruce we have got 4 points from playing 5 bottom half sides.

[Malandro]

It's probably better to think of the Wolves game as an exception.The reality is that we are 5 points behind third place,7 points behind and played a game extra compared to Cardiff and a mere 16 points off Wolves.One offs are not important in the league,consistency is and that's why it's nearly 800 pages in just over a year on this thread.
The best case scenario for Bruce is to win the play offs.Would the board have the nerve or intelligence to sack him then ?As some people suggest in that scenario,give him to Oct /Nov to see if he can handle the Prem.And then we would be scrabbling around for second choices or the revolving door managers...Pardew,Hughes etc.
Sacking him now might not leave us with many choices as I've just mentioned,however I would bite the bullet and see if a Terry/Agnew partnership works in the short term.In the short term under Bruce we have got 4 points from playing 5 bottom half sides.

Great post. I agree with every word.

Just get rid now, I'd take a gamble with Agnew/Terry - they know the squad. They are not Bruce.

[cdward]

Talk of getting rid of Bruce now is utter bollocks.
He hasn't failed, his mission was to get us promoted. It is still possible.
Until it is mathematically impossible, he is going nowhere.
I will judge him on the whole season including play offs.

[Taylor]

It's probably better to think of the Wolves game as an exception.The reality is that we are 5 points behind third place,7 points behind and played a game extra compared to Cardiff and a mere 16 points off Wolves.One offs are not important in the league,consistency is and that's why it's nearly 800 pages in just over a year on this thread.
The best case scenario for Bruce is to win the play offs.Would the board have the nerve or intelligence to sack him then ?As some people suggest in that scenario,give him to Oct /Nov to see if he can handle the Prem.And then we would be scrabbling around for second choices or the revolving door managers...Pardew,Hughes etc.
Sacking him now might not leave us with many choices as I've just mentioned,however I would bite the bullet and see if a Terry/Agnew partnership works in the short term.In the short term under Bruce we have got 4 points from playing 5 bottom half sides.

Or alternatively we do go up via the play offs, buy a couple of decent players to compliment Kodija, Grealish, Snograss, and end up in the top half of the Premiership. FFS we are fourth in an extremely tough league, just look at the current Prem table, none of last years promoted teams are in the bottom three. There is no way that Xia will sack Bruce now, and neither should he. Please get a grip.

[PeterWithesShin]

Our incompetence is making it a tough league. It's actually quite an easy league as the majority of sides are shite, which is why most seasons the decent ones go up pretty comfortably and don't fall back on "well that's the Championship".