Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[The Edge]

1st Season - Good start followed by very bad spell and squad re shape (which we can see now was pretty cobbled together), followed by very good spell followed by disappointing finale. Overall, half decent and steadied the ship, happy to keep him.
2nd Season - Poor start after more squad re shaping with some good if not long term signings. Picked up and went on a largely good run until after Wolves at home. A borderline disasterous end of league campaign and some unspectacular play off performances ultimately resulting in failure. Overall, a solid if largely unspectacular campaign which came up short.
3rd Season - a clusterfuck of a transfer window (McGinn aside) admittedly not helped by the off field uncertainty but despite the season before petering out I was happy to see him start the season under the circumstances. After a good first game it's been pretty much a disaster since and we have a unbalanced squad for which there is no excuse. Should have gone after Sheffield Utd, then after Sheffield Wednesday etc. The boat has sailed on this one and the quicker we make the change the better.

I think we could all point to our own particular turning point regarding Bruce. The play off final was bad but Ipswich away with them down to 10 men for the whole 2nd half when we barely laid a glove on them was the last straw for me. As for the owners I cannot believe that his pre Sheff Wed press conference went unnoticed. "Forestieri will have to be watched closely he's a danger for them" In my opinion that comment alone should of caused his dismissal as it amounted to total dereliction of duty for a professional football manager.

[DB]

Yes, the shitty end of last season followed by the brainless transfer window followed by the shitty start to this season is ultimately why my patience has run out personally.

Sums it up for me too

[Clark W Griswold]

Bearing in mind he's been in the job 2 years now...
6th place last season Derby 70 points from 46, 1.63 points per game average (it's questionable whether 6th place is good enough by the way)
Our last 25 league games, 38 points (1.52 per game). This season, 10 games, 14 points (1.4 per game). Throw into that we've only won 1 of 5 competitive other games as well...

[paul_e]

I've never had a turning point as such.

My view is that if you're a manager you have 2 ways to approach your targets, you either go shit or bust or you account for failure and focus on not only trying to meet your targets but also on making them easier next time.

If you take a shit or bust approach then you have success or failure, there's nothing in between. Bruce has failed twice having taken this approach.
If you account for  failure and focus on building a team that you can largely keep together and develop then you mitigate missing your targets and get a bit more wiggle room, there are still red lines you can't cross but they're not so demanding.

All along I thought Bruce was a club wide acceptance of shit or bust, and when it became clear we weren't getting anywhere near the playoffs in his first season he should have been sacked (in my opinion) and replaced by someone with a remit to focus on the younger members of the squad and getting them experience and then to spend the summer filling the squad out with other 20-25 year olds with the right technical skills, etc and a focus on coaching. If we'd done that we might well have missed out on the playoffs last season but we'd have a more balanced squad now and wouldn't have constant rumours of an FFP points deduction floating around.

[Phil from the upper holte]

“We’ve lost twice in ten games and we could quite easily have won three or four of the draws. We’d then be sitting in a different position.”

If it had been that fucking easy we should have fucking done it. But we didn't and actually we were more likely to lose 3 or 4.

If my aunt had bollocks she'd be my uncle

[Clark W Griswold]

I'm happy to give anyone a fair crack, add to the fact that he's a likeable sort with a good promotion record I was quite patient. You can't assume that he will have the same success again however, he had got us to where we needed to be by that Wolves home game but since then we have gone further backwards and have ended up pretty much at the point we were at when he first started, in terms of performance and league position.

[exigo]

Can't wait to see next week's instalment from Bodymoor.

Hoffenheim training technology

[tomd2103]

I've never had a turning point as such.

My view is that if you're a manager you have 2 ways to approach your targets, you either go shit or bust or you account for failure and focus on not only trying to meet your targets but also on making them easier next time.

If you take a shit or bust approach then you have success or failure, there's nothing in between. Bruce has failed twice having taken this approach.
If you account for  failure and focus on building a team that you can largely keep together and develop then you mitigate missing your targets and get a bit more wiggle room, there are still red lines you can't cross but they're not so demanding.

All along I thought Bruce was a club wide acceptance of shit or bust, and when it became clear we weren't getting anywhere near the playoffs in his first season he should have been sacked (in my opinion) and replaced by someone with a remit to focus on the younger members of the squad and getting them experience and then to spend the summer filling the squad out with other 20-25 year olds with the right technical skills, etc and a focus on coaching. If we'd done that we might well have missed out on the playoffs last season but we'd have a more balanced squad now and wouldn't have constant rumours of an FFP points deduction floating around.

The play off final was mine, although I understand why he didn't go given the circumstances.  It was clear the club needed to go in a different direction and everything that has happened since then has reaffirmed that view. 

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Excellent table on the previous page, Paul_e. Anybody looking at that can see that inconsistency is our main problem. Start putting the end of last season and this one together, 38 points from 75 is more than enough to sack Bruce whatever happens in the next two games.

[tomd2103]

Excellent table on the previous page, Paul_e. Anybody looking at that can see that inconsistency is our main problem. Start putting the end of last season and this one together, 38 points from 75 is more than enough to sack Bruce whatever happens in the next two games.

I think it also shows that under him, we have been heavily reliant on players having hot streaks of form, only to return very sharply to mediocrity once the form wears off.  There hasn't really been anything in terms of the kind of approach and style that allows teams to put together a strong level of consistency over a season. 

[robleflaneur]

Excellent table on the previous page, Paul_e. Anybody looking at that can see that inconsistency is our main problem. Start putting the end of last season and this one together, 38 points from 75 is more than enough to sack Bruce whatever happens in the next two games.

I think it also shows that under him, we have been heavily reliant on players having hot streaks of form, only to return very sharply to mediocrity once the form wears off.  There hasn't really been anything in terms of the kind of approach and style that allows teams to put together a strong level of consistency over a season.

I think that it's even more fundamental than players in or out of form.As you say there isn't a style which develops consistency.The approach seems get it forward quick to an isolated striker,usually sailing over his head ,or get it wide as soon as possible and hopefully he will beat his opponent and get a cross in.Not difficult to defend against.
Playing through midfield and runners off the ball rarely feature,it's why Jack comes deep to get the ball, and if the other team get on top,there's no attempt to keep possession and take the heat out of the game.If everyone was still playing 442,Bruce would be happy,but now he's too dependent on bits of individual skill.

[Mister E]

Can't wait to see next week's instalment from Bodymoor.

Hoffenheim training technology

God, that’s good!

[in exile]

Am I right in thinking there was no presser for tonight's game?

[mr underhill]

just read last week's, it'll be the same

[curlytailavfc]