The Official Steve Bruce Thread | Page 89 | Vital Football

The Official Steve Bruce Thread

Three transfer windows, spent more than two of the three teams above us, unimaginative play, now losing some of the players who could have kept us up, unable to consistently beat the top teams around them

there is nothing left to support him here

get shot
 
pvb1968 said:
I'd take allardyce or warnock over Bruce.
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Why though...Bruce is tied with Warnock for promotions from this tier and the football is no different. Don't know fat Sam's promotion record off the top of my head, but again football is no different.

We'd be sat here discussing the exact same things, only the name would be different.
 
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I'm not 100% but I'm certainly on the side of it would be incredibly harsh to sack Bruce now after turning us around and getting so close. He deserves the chance to improve us further with the slide halted.

We can't ask for loyality (Grealish) if we don't show any. Can't only be a business when it suits us.
 
Platt-itudes said:
Who was the last manager that had a Villa team playing real attacking football. Certainly not any recent ones - maybe have to go back to MO'N, and that wasn't pretty stuff but effective. The last time we were in this division we had sir GT who again was not pretty but effective. Are we expecting too much? SB has built a good spirit and used the loan system excellently, yes they will go back but with the blossoming young ones and another shrewd loanee or two next season, i back Bruce. Can't believe so many want to gamble on young foreign managers again, (Remi Garde anyone?) and since when did David Moyes play attractive football. Big Sam i like but it would be like for like with SB plus more money payouts and upheaval. Stick with SB he will have learnt a lot from Saturday even at his tender age and i expect us to really go for it next season.
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Glad to see someone else with same observations as me on the “attractive football” debate! With the exception of Man City massive numbers of fans at every club complain about their team and have this tinted memory. Perhaps the best example is this utter tripe about the “West Ham way.”
Rob Saunders’ teams were classic “boring” teams, but we look back and see Tony Morley’s goal at Everton and suddenly we were a swashbuckling all out attack team! We won the European cup because of an outstanding defensive discipline. GT’s team got everyone on their feet..... on the rare occasion that Tony Daley got 20 yards of space and actually put in a decent cross! BFR’s expensively assembled team was perhaps the most entertaining but that was short-lived.
 
McParlandTheGreat said:
51 votes in and I'm the only person who voted for Moyes :shake:

Wonder why. Did a very good job building things up at Everton. Successful in a way Bruce has never been. His teams turned us over rather too often.

At MU he was the scapegoat for the CEO failing to get in any of his transfer targets. But at least he was thought highly enough of to be offered the job in the first place.

Think he would be a good fit. Past history with Wyness and Round. He'd be totally on board with what they're trying to do. Including getting the youth progressing into the first team. No way would he go for ageing cast offs. Think he would bring the determination of Warnock with a much better playing style. Jack would flourish.

Don't get me wrong. He's not the only way to go. But I think he should definitely be on a shortlist. Things aren't working here and I think we need a new approach; what that is may depend a lot on what the finances really are, and who can work within them. If they are tough, maybe a Dean Smith is the realistic choice. But don't discount Moyes.
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I think Moyes at Everton was partly due to time (he almost got relegated several times in the early days and under today’s culture would undoubtedly have been sacked). He did well there, no doubt, but as with any manager, needed time to build. It also shouldn’t be forgotten that his most successful years were with a certain Mr Round as his right hand man.
 
EndOfTimes said:
Baggies, stoke and swansea will be two of top five next season

it's going to be a bigger scrap than the one we've just fucked up
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I disagree I think we're better placed to win automatic promotion than previously and we couldnt have asked for 3 weaker teams to fall into our league.

- Swansea IMO look physically weak and based on that I think they will struggle (Clucas and Fer are decent but will they stick around?)
- Stoke will lose their best players, I just can't see them hanging around and are rudderless, it will take a shrewd appointment for them to make a strong bid for automatic placement
- WBA Darren Moore looks suited to the job and on the paper probably have the strongest of the 3 squads that went down in terms of players likely to stick around and help them back up...... But how severe are their money issues?

Boro are the team to worry about and even at that you can't see them running away with the league especially once dangerman leaves.

I really feel like the shock of dropping is much more dramatic than in previous years. These are hardly glamour clubs I can't imagine teams will be lining up to play for them and the ones that do will want more cash and what will that do if they can't get out at the first attempt.

One of those 3 will panic like we did in Season 1 and next thing you know you've spent nearly 40M on 3 strikers and you're not convinced by any of them.
 
CDX_EIRE said:
- Stoke will lose their best players, I just can't see them hanging around and are rudderless, it will take a shrewd appointment for them to make a strong bid for automatic placement
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They have appointed Gary Rowett. Is that shrewd enough or will he struggle? His record at Small Heath and Derby suggests he may get a tune out of them.
 
Old Trafford, 1989 I think, we are still in the away paddocks thousands of us, game has ended we are waiting for police to let us out, Tarzan give us a song, Tarzan Tarzan give us a song , all goes quiet then a red Indian type war wobble bellows out, very funny and it happened at other away games. God's knows what happened to him.
 
Maybe "attractive football" is a far too loose term. Maybe what we want is positive, or effective football. Or both.

What gets me, and I think a lot of us, down is what we saw in the final in the first half. Retreat into a defensive shell, as though we can't think beyond stopping the other team scoring. It's happened time and time again, and I think Bruce has to take the responsibility. It's no use after the match saying "we were too defensive". Once or twice you can say it's a bad day at the office. But it's become a feature of the way we play.

Is it that Bruce hasn't the confidence to adopt a more positive stance, or at least the lack of confidence feeds through to the players? We are capable of playing far better than that. We had a good game against Wolves, but was it the first goal which gave us the belief to do it?

Both Wolves and Cardiff had belief. That's why they kept going, and the odd day off didn't matter too much. Fulham I'm not so sure about. If we'd played higher up the pitch and pressed them more, I think we had the players to win the match. Having Barney on the pitch might well have helped. Is it that Bruce doesn't really play to the strengths of his players?

With critical players leaving, we have to get the best out of what we've got. Don't think Bruce's record on that is too good.
 
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