Melon Donkey
I am a little bit perplexed
Give your head a wobble !
The Official Steve Bruce Thread
- Thread starter VitalFootballAdmin
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Give your head a wobble !
Liononthebed
Vital Reserves Team
I don't think everyone thinks he had a shocker considering it was a tuff opening away game.
I think it would be fair to say it was probably the best defensive performance so far, with a great win, also Tommy scored.
Think your unfair and biased towards the guy.
garygaryshaw
Vital Football Hero
Sorry but Elphick has the turn of an oil tanker. Off the top of my head I can think of numerous mistakes he has made
He was fucking awful at Hull. Left the ball for their goal then on at least 3 occasions got caught out by bad positioning and let them through - luckily other players saved his arse.
I can think of half a dozen games off the top of my head from his first season when Elphick had shockers as well - the vast majority were calling for him to be dropped when he was playing regularly.
Why would I be biased? I could just as easily throw that back at you.
He was fucking awful at Hull. Left the ball for their goal then on at least 3 occasions got caught out by bad positioning and let them through - luckily other players saved his arse.
I can think of half a dozen games off the top of my head from his first season when Elphick had shockers as well - the vast majority were calling for him to be dropped when he was playing regularly.
Why would I be biased? I could just as easily throw that back at you.
1958Villan
Vital Football Hero
Shouldn't these posts be in the Elphick thread?
I don't get the way a player is being castigated because he's made a few errors over a couple of seasons, while the manager is given a freebie by the same people, for making the same mistakes every week. Now that is bias.
garygaryshaw
Vital Football Hero
When a CB makes a few glaring errors over 3 years that cost us several points then he isnt going to rate very highly in my mind. As stated before, the majority of people on here were calling for him to be dropped previously.
I'm not giving Bruce a freebie so not sure what argument you are trying to start here. I've mentioned numerous times Bruce has made a mess of the defence this Summer. Its now reached the point where some are criticising every single decision the Manager is making to try and justify why he should be gone. In my mind the mistake he made was not bringing in another CB before shipping Elphick out.
david-avfc
Vital Football Hero
And Jedinak has been even worse, which is the point.
Bruce should have identified centre back as the first priority when the transfer window opened. He has signed a striker, 2 wingers, 2 goal keepers, a youth right back and a midfielder so he has clearly had opportunities to bring players in but he refused to address centre half. Not only has he refused to address the situation but he has actually made it even worse by binning one of the only players in the squad capable of playing that position. You can debate whether you think Elphick is any good or not all you like; but he has in the past and still is currently playing as a centre back at this level which is more than can be said about the other available options in our squad because we literally have no one other centre backs in the squad apart from Chester.
garygaryshaw
Vital Football Hero
Well the debate I was having was whether Elphick is any good, not if we should have signed another CB!
As I've mentioned numerous times, we should have got at least 1 if not 2 new CB's in. I thought Axel was supposed to be one of them, but apparently not.
northamptonvillan
Vital 1st Team Regular
The point being made on this thread is that Bruce (who clearly didn't rate the player) should have released Elphick at the beginning of the transfer window, instead of showing a model professional a complete lack of respect.
He then should have purchased two centre backs asap and played them in the preseason. My grandma could have worked that out. He has been negligant and clearly his decisions and lack of tactical ability have left the team vulnerable and lacking in belief in both themselves and him.
Many of us have lost faith in his ability to move the club forward which is why we think it's time for change.
Thomas Holte
Vital Football Legend
garygaryshaw
Vital Football Hero
No, some are trying to tell me that Elphick is a decent player and has been playing well for us. I disagree. If Elphick was playing instead of Jedi I think we'd be having a similar debate - that Elphicks mistakes are costing us goals and Bruce should have signed another CB to replace him.
Throughout the window I thought like others did, that we must have someone lined up. Now I'm hoping we get JT back - although that is looking less likely each day. If Bruce keeps playing Jedi there, I think he'll be out of a job by early October
JW1985
Vital Champions League
I think he was stupid to let Elphick go with no replacement. Even if we'd not loaned him we'd have needed another centre back though. Bruce was one on the best centre halves of the early 90s so how he's allowed the defence to get to this state is beyond me. I thought that was the point of him. "well the football will be dull as dishwasher but he'll get you organised". What's the point of him if he can't even do that?
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Thomas Holte
Vital Football Legend
Being organised but not pretty to watch is what Pullis, Allardyce and Warnock do only they do it a lot better.
They demand and get 100% effort and commitment from their teams while Bruce turns red in the face on the touchline as his players cock a deaf'un.
McParlandTheGreat
Vital Champions League
Brentford.
McParlandTheGreat
Vital Champions League
Bit ironic, but at the start of the transfer window when we were in the sh*ts there was talk of Jedinak being encouraged to leave (for a low or non-existant fee) to save on his wages. That would almost certainly mean that Elphick would be running the defence, possibly with Chester, but possibly not if Chester had been sold.
1958Villan
Vital Football Hero
Bruce fucked up the defence a year ago, not this summer. What he did this summer was fail to correct the fuck up he'd committed last year.
And just in case you don't understand what fuck up I'm refering too, it goes like this, signing Samba and Terry on one year contracts, while selling Baker and keeping Elphick whom he didn't rate.
Now I know you probably didn't rate Baker but, he was an improving player, who would have improved in leaps and bounds with Terry in the squad. The only thing I can see about Baker that Bruce hated is, he plays on the leftside of defence and Bruce does seem to have an aversion to people who are leftsided.
He's just signed two wingers who both prefer playing on the right so he can piss them both off by having them play on the left. Last year he converted Adomah to leftwing from rightwing and played Green on the left when he's a natural on the right. I assume thats all so he can squeeze his mate Elmohamady into the team.
What about Bruce's fuck ups every fucking game, not just in the transfer windows?
He plays a rightback in midfield, a rightback at leftback, another clubs youth player at rightback, a midfielder at centreback as well as rightwingers on the left and the wrong formation to get the best out of our lone forward.
He then moans about performances every post match but, never fucking well does anything about it for the next game.
The manager sets the tone for the team, the system they play and the intensity they play at.
He is the first one who needs criticism for the performances.
JW1985
Vital Champions League
There's no point bringing up Baker. He wanted to leave to get 1st team football. There's plenty of reasons to want Bruce out, I want him gone but I'm not going to blame him for things out of his control. Baker wanted to go, we'd have kept him if he'd been ok with being the next choice after Terry and Chester I'm certain.
Without signing another centre back in more annoyed about us loaning out Suliman then Elphick. Elphick was never going to get better, Suliman would improve just being around the 1st team squad and being on the bench. I've said this before but it really does sum up the culture of the club at the moment that we'd rather try to develop a 33 year old midfielder into a centre half than the England youth International captain who is a centre half into a better player. And before some smart arse comes in moaning about how you can't play young players in the championship I'm not talking about him starting week in week out. I'm taking about them being part of the squad and being on the bench.
Without signing another centre back in more annoyed about us loaning out Suliman then Elphick. Elphick was never going to get better, Suliman would improve just being around the 1st team squad and being on the bench. I've said this before but it really does sum up the culture of the club at the moment that we'd rather try to develop a 33 year old midfielder into a centre half than the England youth International captain who is a centre half into a better player. And before some smart arse comes in moaning about how you can't play young players in the championship I'm not talking about him starting week in week out. I'm taking about them being part of the squad and being on the bench.
1958Villan
Vital Football Hero
Or loaning in another clubs 20 year old U23 reserve centreback and playing him in front of our own youngsters and experienced fullbacks.
Many clubs have 20 and 21 year olds who have played over 100 senior games, especially in Scotland, Austria and The Netherlands. We have 22 and 23 year olds who never get a seat on the bench, unless there's a massive injury crises.
Not blaming Bruce for that, it's been the culture at this club for decades, apart from the odd youngsters who I think we can all put names too.
