The Official Steve Bruce Thread | Page 148 | Vital Football

The Official Steve Bruce Thread

I get that people have a difference of opinion on here, but we must accept that the football we are currently playing will not cut it in the PL. Who is the person most responsible for the level of football we produce?

Steve Bruce might be annoyed with the performance last night but he has the responsibility to get it right and ensure that we are ready for the PL. He has a finite time to get it right.

This is not anti-Bruce, this is the reality that he faces. Why do you think he was disappointed with the way we played last night. He knows that we have to improve in all areas. I hope he achieves it, but I'm not that confident he can as the evidence does not support it. We have runs of good results but never a level of consistent high performances.
 
The players are responsible for their performances.

90% of these players would not cut it in the premier league, you're correct.

The new owners will need to back Bruce big time when he takes us up.
 
Christ almighty, we are only three games into a season. Three competitive games! And we have won them all. The bloke cannot win with some. Bruce's job does not depend on entertaining football, it depends on winning games something he has been very good at doing at Villa, so good you have to go back decades to find a Villa manager with a better win ratio.
 
SB is old and wise enough to know that if things don't go well the new owners will be looking elsewhere. I'm hoping it will give him the will to go for it more, when we listen to after game comments he is clearly as frustrated as us supporters, so not sure why we continue to get below par performances like last night. But we are winning so it will suffice for now in a result based Industry. Still think of that wolves game last season and know we have the ability to play like that so its frustrating.
 
Puzzled as to why people are making statements based on last night's match. It wasn't part of the great scheme of things. Bruce treated it as an extra pre-season, for quite good reasons. He wanted players who hadn't played much to get more game time. He wanted to see how certain players and certain formations performed. The performance was the result of what was essentially a makeshift team. We won, which is good for moral, but it wouldn't have mattered much if we'd lost.

What we take from the match is that we are still in the cup, and Bruce has a better idea of what he's got. Given his intention to use the squad more, that matters. As an indication of where we're going this season, it's just not on the radar.
 
DeanoVilla said:
The players are responsible for their performances.

90% of these players would not cut it in the premier league, you're correct.

The new owners will need to back Bruce big time when he takes us up.
Click to expand...
Not convinced he will yet. He needs to be backed now with a couple of quality signings who will make a difference. Someone who is comfortable on the ball, has a first touch, can hold up play, can score goals - Pirlo & Drogba - surely not too much to ask !!
 
Villa1955 said:
Another "I won't accept that" from Bruce, how many times are we to hear that. His team, his tactics = his fault. I do hope I'm wrong, for the sake of all those long suffering Villa park faithful, but another season of dreary dire football, he doesn't change. I stand by my prediction, out by Christmas, or best case scenario, we scrap our way thru, with this hard to watch football.
Click to expand...
?????
 
It's all irrelevant, because our ideas count for shit at the end of the day. Our billionaire owners have backed him publicly and will keep him until they see fit.

To my mind there is no point sacking Bruce unless they have a better alternative. I will still moan when we don't play well and Deano will point out the stats that prove Bruce is the most successful manager we have had since the war.

To me, football is and always has been an entertainment industry, an escape from reality. We all would like to have Pep rather than Mourino, unless Pep becomes Arsen and then we will demand change. That unfortunately is and always will be the nature of football.

We all see the game differently and this would be a very dull forum if all opinions were the same. As long as everyone recognises that my ideas are always correct and nobody else's opinions matter, my world will continue to be perfect :taz:

Onwards and upwards fellow Villains :utv:
 
Villa1955 said:
Another "I won't accept that" from Bruce, how many times are we to hear that. His team, his tactics = his fault. I do hope I'm wrong, for the sake of all those long suffering Villa park faithful, but another season of dreary dire football, he doesn't change. I stand by my prediction, out by Christmas, or best case scenario, we scrap our way thru, with this hard to watch football.
Click to expand...

I presume I'm one of the 'long suffering Villa Park faithful' that you're referring to Villa 1955. Well I enjoyed last season more than I have for many a year. Yes, there were crap performances but there were also many great results combined with more than decent performances both home and away, something which we haven't seen for many a season. We've lost just five bloody games at home since Bruce arrived at the club but read your post above and you'd think we'd finished in the bottom half of the league playing 'dreary dire' football every week. Sorry, that's just not the case, however you try to spin it. Bruce frustrates the life out of me at times but he deserves more credit than the barrage of criticism he seems to inevitably get from some no matter what he does.
 
Have to agree with the camp saying that last season was the most enjoyable season since the early days of MoN. Yeah, we serve up a ton of crap performances, but to say it's all dire is quite the over-exaggeration.

Does Bruce need to get more from the team from a tempo perspective, yeah he does. Can anyone say he's doing a crap job? Not at all, we were 1 game from winning promotion last season (that could have been a completely different result if Fredrick's is given a red for his blatant stamp on Jack in the first half).

First time since the 90s that we've won our opening 3 matches I believe I heard last night, I'm good with that. Results matter in this business, get them and he stays and I'm happy, fail to perform and I'm upset and he's gone.

Again, anyone who says they'd rather us play Barcelona football and lose is just looking to argue for arguments sake
 
The spirit Bruce has engendered within the ranks is superb . Yes the football isn't always great but where is it !? We came within a whisker last year and we are up and running again .
Get behind Bruce again and let's crack on.
 
"Merd" said:
Not convinced he will yet. He needs to be backed now with a couple of quality signings who will make a difference. Someone who is comfortable on the ball, has a first touch, can hold up play, can score goals - Pirlo & Drogba - surely not too much to ask !!
Click to expand...
Drogba is currently part-owner and player out here in PHX. I’ll have a word...:grinning:oh and I think Pirlo kept his penthouse in Manhattan so that one is up to you....
 
Not sure we came within a whisker of promotion as we were never in the final. But I do now think if we had beat Fulham we would have been in a lot more shit now so maybe it was a blessing in disguise.
 
gator said:
Not sure we came within a whisker of promotion as we were never in the final. But I do now think if we had beat Fulham we would have been in a lot more shit now so maybe it was a blessing in disguise.
Click to expand...

If we had beaten Fulham Gator nothing short of buying Barcelona enbloc would have kept us in the Premier league this season.
We werent ready and that is why we didnt finish in the top three.
 
wittonite said:
If we had beaten Fulham Gator nothing short of buying Barcelona enbloc would have kept us in the Premier league this season.
We werent ready and that is why we didnt finish in the top three.
Click to expand...
Absolutely plus we would have been stuck with Dr Who which would have been frightening.
 
First, can I stress I am in the pro Bruce camp before I say the following.

It is a big if a cop out saying 'we were one game away' because in truth we wasnt. We finished 4th and I cant remember how much but something around 8 points from promotion - yes we got to the play off final, but you could finish 6th and about 20 points off auto and you could do that.

I still want Bruce, we need stability but the truth is Bruce took a short term gamble of getting the likes of Snodgrass and Terry, and it failed, it was close, but it failed.

We now need (and seem to be) go down a route of planning for the future.

We have brought in the likes of McGinn, and have kept the likes of Grealish.

We now need to play a system and a gamevto suit their strengths.

To me, so far , we havent. We are playing the same type of football we played with Snodgrass and co.

So far, we have scraped three results, but that will not continue unless we start doing it. It is still early, we still have players to come in, so it may come and I am not panicking

But if we are still playing this "knock it around slowly at the back and then knock it 30 yards into the channels to try and win a set piece" football by Mid Sept, i will predict we will be in mid table and Bruce will be gone.

I dont want that !. In Green, Grealish, Mcginn, Bjarn and a few others we have a midfield to scare the bloody life out of every team in this division.

We need to start using that
 
We need a CB who can step out with the ball , not just knock it sideways .
We also need a CF who can hold the ball up and interlink with the midfield .
 
You must log in or register to reply here.