Always supported him up to the last 12 games of last season (especially Brighton game). He seemed to totally lose the plot and hasn't recovered since. Incidentally in the Brighton game, a must win which would have kept us up, we hardly got out of our half in the first 45 when we should have been attacking from the first whistle. He was a great defender in his time and unforturtunately has retained his defenders mind set. It's time for a change, if he had gone last Christmas I am convinced we would have stayed up.
I have voted for him to stay but it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify why.I have always been an optimist. I say this though the players need to wake up too. some look like they have just got out of bed after a night on the town.
All well and good if you can ignore last seasons failings and this seasons performances. I suppose it'll all fall into place once we get the injured players back...
Results and league positions can be deceptive, but performances are there for everyone to see. Our performances under Bruce have been negative and unimaginative for long enough to take an educated view of his abilities/ failings. It's easy to say the season has just started, but people aren't basing their opinions on just 6 games.
The problem we have is that the majority of people on this thread didn't watch this game & are going off the result & what a few say & what's been written/said in the media. This is only one game & there's a few performances this season that haven't been great, by all accounts. Yes on paper SB does do some strange selections, but surely it's done in training? So my point is that the only people who can start calling for him to go are the ones who see every game. Bloody wine, I had a point but it's not come across well at all!
The big problem with that is, last season we were up against better teams, I saw quite a few decent performances, Arsenal, Man City away, Wet Spam, QPR, Villa home off the top of my head, I know we probably played ****e v teams we were "supposed" to beat, but they're looking at us as "supposed" to beat as well. This season has just started & the players are still settling down, so unless AA deems him unfit, which will be difficult if he's not going to games, SB walks of his own accord or the players truly start not giving a **** & he loses the dressing room for all to see then he stays!
It's not difficult to understand. Bruce has been poor for over a season. I'm totally fed up with either watching 'Steve Bruce sides' or hearing them on RH (and watching on TigerPlayer later when I can stomach it). Time and again the performances have rightly been labelled 'dire', 'not good enough' etc etc. Take yesterday, how the **** can it be that we have the squad we have yet it takes us 70+ mins before we even get one shot on target? How anyone can defend these facts is simply beyond me, so wake the **** up Polly.
****ed my opinion up by writing Brighton instead of Burnley. Sadly it doesn't change my view,time he went.
I've said to everyone December last year Bruce should have gone. We had Swansea, west brim and Leicester at home. We took one point that says it all about how Bruce approaches things. Look at west brom then to now. Bruce all ways seems to get a result just as the fans are turning. We lost to the team bottom of the league 3 times last year. For me we need fresh ideas as a team that can come from 2 down against Chelsea and Man City (ok we still lost but shows the team had something), beat Liverpool and almost beat Man United should not have gone down. For me he has had enough chances and something needs to change!!
I'd maybe like to see Brucie in a general manager role. It would be a shame to lose the good stuff he brings to the job. He obviously has a handy reputation in the game, pulling power when it comes to getting players in the building and a skill at getting what's needed out of the owners. Just seems to have run out of ideas tactically. Let him manage general football matters and get a first team head coach in with fresh ideas, picking the team, the tactics, the training and telling Bruce the players he wants. Just a thought.
He's a likeable guy, no question (which might be why he's popular among our fans), but the performances over the last 20 games (this season and last) have been steadily declining. When he first took over, we had a reputation for working hard and getting good results. But when we started losing, he didn't change it. He persists with the same stuff for weeks and months, in the hope that it'll suddenly click and we'll get it right somehow. If he was at another club, he'd be gone by now, of that I have no doubt. However we've given him a 3 year deal and are seemingly sticking by him. It'll be an interesting statement of intent as to how AA will treat Steve if we're mid table at Christmas; if he sacks him with us sitting 7th/8th, as Norwich did with Neil Adams (although he resigned if I remember rightly), it'll show real ambition. If he sticks with us 9th or 11th in the table, I'd be very disappointed because I'm not sure how much more money the Allams will throw at Brucey.
All these people who think we "need to get a grip" really need to look at some of the games from last season, alot of the pundits said we were capable of finishing mid table, yet Bruce got us relegated, you can blame injuries, the other team being a better team or whatever, but it all boils down to the fact that the tactics and formations were wrong. Playing people out of position and sticking to the same tactics is the reason we got relegated. People might not like it but Bruce does'nt know his best XI, or his formation and believes the way to winning a football game is to defend. Yes we a are 2nd but the performances have being woeful. This season and last, this season we have being lucky because we are against weaker opposition.
