Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[Matt Collins]

I don't agree that we routinely press high up the pitch at all. We often get 10 men well behind the ball. Which is a genuine tactic but works best when you can spring quickly into attack with accurate passing

[The Edge]

The whole debacle last night, and its aftermath of press comments, demonstrates something about the manager: it is he who sets up at team for a game; he who gives instructions and gees people up; he who chooses how the team will play on the night; he who provides game management.
on most of these criteria he has, once again, failed.
I'm sure the new investors will see through him, and soon.

Sorry, I thought we won.

Of course we did but we rode our luck against league 2 opposition. My first comment after was "well a wins a win" Then came his interview. I suppose people will interpret his words how they perceive them. For me when he said "they're only used to playing U23 football well tonight they've come up against proper football" it was spin or deflection. He absolved himself from  his responsibility. The way I see it we don't seem to have a game plan. They should have known we were up against a very physical and powerful central defence and set the team up to play around them not just throw RHM straight into the mix while setting the team out pretty much the same as against Wigan. It may be Bruce's cunning way of showing the new owners that we're desperate for strikers but in my opinion it was very unfair on RHM.

[Mister E]

The whole debacle last night, and its aftermath of press comments, demonstrates something about the manager: it is he who sets up at team for a game; he who gives instructions and gees people up; he who chooses how the team will play on the night; he who provides game management.
on most of these criteria he has, once again, failed.
I'm sure the new investors will see through him, and soon.

Sorry, I thought we won.

Indeed, and for the sake of clarity I didn't watch last night's game (I was watching Harrogate Town win their first-ever tier 5 game).
I 'watched' via the H&V match thread and followed the comments on the post-match thread.
By most people's opinion - supported by the match reports on a couple of news websites - our performance was a mishmash. More significantly, the manager's post-match comments seem to have excited much opinion, but they reflect more poorly on him than anything else.

Note that this time last year we took on a high-flying Wigan side and played extremely well, showing passion and a decent level of skill - with a highly-changed line-up. I wonder what is so different? Both were wins, but this recent one seemed lethargic and lacking in passion.

[The Edge]

I don't agree that we routinely press high up the pitch at all. We often get 10 men well behind the ball. Which is a genuine tactic but works best when you can spring quickly into attack with accurate passing

True. The counter attacking style of play can be very effective if your team is set up to play that way. But we're not.

[Mister E]

The whole debacle last night, and its aftermath of press comments, demonstrates something about the manager: it is he who sets up at team for a game; he who gives instructions and gees people up; he who chooses how the team will play on the night; he who provides game management.
on most of these criteria he has, once again, failed.
I'm sure the new investors will see through him, and soon.

Maybe he did give instructions but the players didn't follow them.

I read on here so often that Villa don't play with any discernible style or plan (as if forgetting that there is another team on the pitch trying to stop us doing just that). I disagree, when I watch us I see a team pressing the opposition high up and getting the ball quickly to our wide players. When it doesn't work it is usually down to Albert's/ Elmo's/ De Laet's poor final ball. Luckily we have Grealish and now McGinn to provide something extra, and unlock the other team's defences. It worked well enough to get us to the play off final last season, let's hope we can go that bit further this time.

We press for the first 20 minutes in a game and then seem to give up.
Our passing is poor and - last season, certainly - the wingers never seemed to have the pace or guile to get around their FB.
Our discernible style is not very obvious to me, I'm afraid.

[dave.woodhall]

The whole debacle last night, and its aftermath of press comments, demonstrates something about the manager: it is he who sets up at team for a game; he who gives instructions and gees people up; he who chooses how the team will play on the night; he who provides game management.
on most of these criteria he has, once again, failed.
I'm sure the new investors will see through him, and soon.

Sorry, I thought we won.

Indeed, and for the sake of clarity I didn't watch last night's game (I was watching Harrogate Town win their first-ever tier 5 game).
I 'watched' via the H&V match thread and followed the comments on the post-match thread.
By most people's opinion - supported by the match reports on a couple of news websites - our performance was a mishmash. More significantly, the manager's post-match comments seem to have excited much opinion, but they reflect more poorly on him than anything else.

Note that this time last year we took on a high-flying Wigan side and played extremely well, showing passion and a decent level of skill - with a highly-changed line-up. I wonder what is so different? Both were wins, but this recent one seemed lethargic and lacking in passion.

I fail to see how winning any game at any level can be a debacle, particularly with what was effectively a reserve team out. We've certainly lost enough of them over the years and what the manager did or didn't say straight after the match neither made nor disproved the debacleness of the evening. Maybe Wigan had a load of changes, maybe Yeovil had less, frankly I neither know nor care. Better teams than us have looked poor in their first League Cup match of the season.

[Des Little]

I'm sorry, but I cannot be having any comments made by someone who didn't even watch the game in any shape or form.  Utterly ridiculous.

[Nev]

Following the match thread on here, in isolation, is the worst way to follow the game, and I speak as a contributor.

Goal down - end of the world.

Goal up - best in the world.

[Clark W Griswold]

So a match that we won, that you didn't watch is a debacle. Wow, just fucking wow.

[Damo70]

The bottom line is that we have played three and won three. Despite all the uncertainty of the summer and a takeover which whilst welcome came later than would have been ideal, leaving us having a bit of a late scramble for new recruits. Would I like to see us playing a more attractive and attacking style of play? Yes, but I will take winning over entertainment every time. Obviously winning in style would be very welcome but if we win ugly, I will take that.

[Des Little]

The bottom line is that we have played three and won three. Despite all the uncertainty of the summer and a takeover which whilst welcome came later than would have been ideal, leaving us having a bit of a late scramble for new recruits. Would I like to see us playing a more attractive and attacking style of play? Yes, but I will take winning over entertainment every time. Obviously winning in style would be very welcome but if we win ugly, I will take that.

In one. 

[LeeB]

The bottom line is that we have played three and won three. Despite all the uncertainty of the summer and a takeover which whilst welcome came later than would have been ideal, leaving us having a bit of a late scramble for new recruits. Would I like to see us playing a more attractive and attacking style of play? Yes, but I will take winning over entertainment every time. Obviously winning in style would be very welcome but if we win ugly, I will take that.

In one. 

Yep, that's the fridge freezer, the teasmaid, the carriage clocks and the attractive nest of tables.

[Risso]

The bottom line is that we have played three and won three. Despite all the uncertainty of the summer and a takeover which whilst welcome came later than would have been ideal, leaving us having a bit of a late scramble for new recruits. Would I like to see us playing a more attractive and attacking style of play? Yes, but I will take winning over entertainment every time. Obviously winning in style would be very welcome but if we win ugly, I will take that.

In one. 

Yep, that's the fridge freezer, the teasmaid, the carriage clocks and the attractive nest of tables.

Steve Bruce is the living embodiment of a speedboat first prize for somebody living in a Dudley block of flats.

[paul_e]

No one is unhappy with the wins, but I think it's perfectly reasonable to think winning games whilst we're playing like this is unsustainable and, over a season, it will probably not be enough.

If we carry on with Bruce for a while I at least want to see him realise that he was a big part of the reason for us not getting promotion and start to look in the mirror a bit more.  The comments last night are getting a lot of attention because they're the same things he's said numerous times in the last 2 years and yet the problems haven't changed or ever really been properly addressed other than to throw more and more new players at it and see what happens.

[themossman]

I’d flip that and say he’s more like an Austin Allegro for someone who lives in a beach hut in the Maldives.