Is it time to apologise to Bruce?
Well the ” mass hysteria ” is well and truly over, Three wins out of three and nine goals scored has seen to that. In a short space of time Villa have gone from a boring team who scrape the occasional win to the confident swaggering side that dismantled Burton and enjoyed doing so. Steve Bruce always said he was the man for the job and now he appears to be, do the fans that booed him and called for his sacking owe him an apology?
On the face of it Steve Bruce is delivering the attacking football and climb up the table the fans demanded, so maybe a bit of humble pie wouldn’t go a miss. Scratch the surface however and there’s still some nagging doubts.
The biggest criticism of Bruce was that he wasn’t getting the best out of a talented squad. Now, he will point to the good run and say he’s doing just that, which he is, however why he took so long to see that playing players in their favoured positions will make them play better is anybody’s guess. Albert Adomah has ran riot and was our most creative player last year so why was he not even making the squad a few weeks ago? Conor Hourihane has been shunted around the midfield and now, playing as the orthodox midfielder every one knew he was, his form has drastically improved. This isn’t rocket science.
The manager was also lambasted for being tactically inept. This criticism has gone away now that 4-4-2 system is in place but again why did it take so long for him to see it. To this Bruce made a point of saying that now Kodija is fit he can finally play up two up front. Did he forget about spending over ten million on Scott Hogan in January? Another of his excuses was that he had to start the season defensive minded to dispel the losers mind set left over from relegation. He should have done this last season frankly.
We all know that the Championship is a difficult league where anyone can beat anyone but with the talent Villa have beating Barnsley, Burton away and Forest at home should be routine. Especially for a team with promotion plans. A far tougher October awaits and Steve Bruce needs to carry this run through that month and get the team firmly in the play-off positions.
Bruce and the team deserve all the praise they are getting right now and it seems as if the good times are on their way back to Villa Park but judgement will be reserved until the end of the season. Bruce will have to wait until this streak of form is turned into a regular habit before he’s due an apology for the mass hysteria