Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[Marlon From Bearwood]

All season long we've looked at the 3 home games in April (Cardiff, Leeds and Derby) and visualised 3 epic promotion battles played out in front of a packed, rocking VP. Unfortunately the last few weeks have robbed us of that.

However, despite feeling flat this morning let's remember things can change quickly in football and there's still a great chance to hit the play offs in-form, with momentum, a fit Kodjia in goal scoring form and a demoralised Cardiff awaiting us at Wembley.

[Risso]

If the team can't be arsed, neither can I.  I'd rather put the effort in to doing something I know I'll enjoy.

[Damo70]

Bruce has a lot of faults.  One of them is common in under achieving managers - stubbornness.  A clinging to something or somebody despite repeated failure in an attempt to justify making the mistake in the first place.  A classic example is Scott Hogan.  He was bought, like so very many of our acquisitions without full examination of what we were buying.  At best we were buying a player who needed a team set up around his particular skill set and which contained players willing and able to service him.  At worst we were buying a player who lacked pace, flair and the ability to jump high enough to reach the balls pumped upfield.  Yet Bruce continues to hammer the square peg he bought into the round hole he expects him to fit.
It is right across the spectrum of management that Bruce shows lack of flexibility.  The Bruce Way for the best part of two seasons has been to grind out an okay product and hope it is enough.  Like a Victorian doctor prescribing laxatives.

Or like the doctor in Blackadder who's answer to everything was to prescribe leeches, even for homosexuality.

"It's always leeches with you, your just a quack"

"I'd rather be a quack than a ducky"

[papa lazarou]

Bruce has a lot of faults.  One of them is common in under achieving managers - stubbornness.  A clinging to something or somebody despite repeated failure in an attempt to justify making the mistake in the first place.  A classic example is Scott Hogan.  He was bought, like so very many of our acquisitions without full examination of what we were buying.  At best we were buying a player who needed a team set up around his particular skill set and which contained players willing and able to service him.  At worst we were buying a player who lacked pace, flair and the ability to jump high enough to reach the balls pumped upfield.  Yet Bruce continues to hammer the square peg he bought into the round hole he expects him to fit.
It is right across the spectrum of management that Bruce shows lack of flexibility.  The Bruce Way for the best part of two seasons has been to grind out an okay product and hope it is enough.  Like a Victorian doctor prescribing laxatives.

Can't argue with that Brian. It would be interesting to know how many times this season Johnstone has booted the ball upfield to the forwards and how many of those first or second balls we have won. If it's more than 2% I would be surprised. Yet it continues, game after game with the inevitable result. A complete waste of possession.

[brian green]

It always brings to the front of my mind p l the question  is the manager telling Johnstone to lump it forward or is the manager telling him/them to stop lumping it forward but they carry on doing it anyway?  A bit like the team K Mac put out against Spurs. Not so much an Aston Villa side as a message of defiance.

[PeterWithesShin]

It always brings to the front of my mind p l the question  is the manager telling Johnstone to lump it forward or is the manager telling him/them to stop lumping it forward but they carry on doing it anyway?  A bit like the team K Mac put out against Spurs. Not so much an Aston Villa side as a message of defiance.

I assume you mean Southampton in the LC?

[Risso]

It always brings to the front of my mind p l the question  is the manager telling Johnstone to lump it forward or is the manager telling him/them to stop lumping it forward but they carry on doing it anyway?  A bit like the team K Mac put out against Spurs. Not so much an Aston Villa side as a message of defiance.

I assume you mean Southampton in the LC?

No, I think Brian was right with Spurs, when he "rested" every single one of the foreign new recruits and played all of the shit like Richardson:

[brian green]

No, through the fog of dementia peeping over the horizon, don't I mean the infamous Gabby eight touch game?  Perhaps I am wrong.

[ktvillan]

I'm no fan of Bruce or Bruceball but I can't see the owner getting shot of him before the end of the season. While we still have a chance of going up they will stick with him, and I think it's the right thing to do, despite the disappointment of throwing away several opportunities to challenge for top 2.  Even if we go up, it will have been by the skin of our teeth from a poor league, and his PL record is poor, so I do hope that wherever we end up they have seen enough to know he is not the future and get rid.     

[PeterWithesShin]

Could well be, the shit selections and performances all blend into one.

[paul_e]

I don't think he'll go before the end of the season and I don't think he'll go if we get promoted.  If we don't get promotion he'll be gone within a day.

My vote is yes because he's had more than enough last chances now and has shown himself to be exactly what I thought we were going to get which is a manager who puts the best players he can on the pitch and hopes for the best.  The quality he has available is enough that we win a decent number of games and can be competitive but because we're so reliant on individuals he doesn't change the team around much until forced to and dips in form by key players completely nullify us.

I'm fed up of watching us play as if the players only met on the way to the ground, we don't play like this at any other level so it's clearly something to do with the first team training, which points the finger directly at Bruce and his coaches.  Whether it's that we try to keep the players fresh by doing very little training or that the training isn't good enough I don't know but after 18 months of Bruce it's clear that he doesn't see any way to change it, which is why you get the 'what can I do about it?' post-match interviews.  Before the season started I called it as 5-8th so we are still slightly ahead of what I expected and I don't think that will change but given I thought the squad were easily top 2 standard it's still a case of dragging us down rather than pulling us up.

[mcgrath_85]

In the very slight chance we now get promoted playing the way we play, Bruce should by no means at all be leading us out in the Premier league. It's an absolute no brainer. I can see the media outcry now if 'hard done by Bruce' was to get the boot after achieving promotion. Joke.

I also think, that Grealish, Johnstone and Chester are the only premier league class players we have in our matchday squad. The others would have to go! And that includes John Terry.

Unfortuantely though, all I can see is another year in the chamionship. Happy Monday everyone.

[Brassneck]

I just look at the way that teams like Wolves and Fulham have played, as did Newcastle, Brighton and Huddersfield last season. All played with no fear and took the game to their opponents.

As somebody previously alluded to, it is not the amount of losses that have cost us, it is the amount of times we've failed to win and been held. It hasn't just been this season, it was very similar last season as well.

The above mentioned teams hardly ever, if ever, played for draws. They always took the game to the opposition. With Bruce, he relies on being cautious, unadventurous and dependent on "a bit of quality up front" as he calls it. I think this is a fair way to play when you are Hull, Blues, Wigan etc and have restricted budgets. However, given the quality of the players at his disposal, I think that Bruce could and should be a bit more aggressive when setting out his Villa teams.

I think most of us accepted that the football wouldn't be great under Bruce (and in general, this has been the case). By the same token, our attitude was that if that was what it took to get up then so be it.

We have been consistent (consistently average) from the day Bruce came in. I've seen little progress from those first few months under Bruce last season. He has an excuse for everything. First he argues that his remit was to avoid relegation last season WHAT??? Then he claims that he made too many changes during our bad run in January & February 2017. This season he claims that he has achieved what he set out to because we are "there or thereabouts" (read "thereabouts")

In hindsight (which is always easy to say), I would have preferred to have stuck with RDM. I know he had his faults and was a tad gung ho. However, he would have soon cottoned onto the fact that Jedi couldn't form part of a two (which was our biggest downfall in those first 12 games last season) However, at least we would have failed in an exciting manner rather than this tedious plodding style under Bruce which sees almost every performance merge into one big uninspiring bore.

I really like Bruce as a man but I've had it with him as a manager. I've seen nothing to convince me that anything will change next season. We have 4 "levellers" in the derbies against Blues & WBA which will be difficult enough without going into them in "Bruce style". The league will be more open at the top next season as I can't see any stand out teams (unless if WHU go down). Next season is really a make or break for me. After that, many players will be out of contract and we will not be able to afford to replace them like for like. We need to stop showing these teams so much respect and be more positive when approaching games. Wolves are quite prepared to throw men forward whereas Hogan is always an isolated figure sandwiched between 2 big centre halves who will always out jump him.

Bruce stumbles on a formation and then when it goes wrong, he changes it again. He came here claiming 442 was his preferred line up. He was then pushed into playing 433 by injuries and playing staff available to him and now this season it's been 4141. Peronally, I think 433 is our best line up, even now and the thought of Kodjia, Hogan/Grabban, Adomah/Green next season is quite mouthwatering at this level. We're hardly likely to see that with Bruce at the helm.

For me, I'd like him gone in the summer. Should we fluke the play offs, I'd be half prepared to give him a shot at the PL but this would need to be reviewed carefully all the way through. Who I'd replace him with is a big question and the honest answer is that I don't know. Every option is a massive gamble and there are no stand out candidates. I'm not convinced with Dean Smith, despite the football Brentford have produced for these past 2 seasons (and possibly beyond).

For me, I have no confidence in Bruce changing or improving on what he has achieved so far. I wouldn't want to take the risk again next season and would much sooner take a risk on someone who is prepared to be more adventurous.

[AsTallAsLions]

A handful of games ago the majority were saying they feel an affinity with the players again.... A few bad performances and everyone is shit and the feeling is one of can't be arsed. I'm not criticising any Villa fan here, we've been pretty poor and disjointed for a large amount of games this season but we are approaching the business end now and potentially 3 games from being promoted and possibly avoiding a financial calamity for the club, if there's ever a time to give it one last push and stick behind them then it's now.

Talk of sacking the manager is daft, it's not going to happen. We have more chance of going up providing a united front rather then apathy. The performances are flat, we can see that, we've been nothing but a streaky side under Bruce, runs of 10 or so unbeaten then patches of 6/7 of poor results, we need to ride this patch out and come out the other side again all together because financially we are fucked if we don't go up. I don't get all this defeatism.

If I was the manger, my advice right now after too many abject performances and seemingly ill-preparation would be to focus all energy on park the bus tactics + penalty practice. Because realistically that is now what this team needs to do to gain promotion, after the damage done by the last 4-5 results/performances.

[Walmley_Villa]

My issue is that we never look like being a consistent machine that wins matches. We seem to make hardwork of most games. The lack of energy and drive (especially after Cardiff's defeat the night before) is worrying as is Adomah and Snoddys lack of spark.