In Bruce We Trust: The Right Man for Aston Villa Job

Amid an indifferent start, it’s critical the Club and its supporters maintain the trust with manager Steve Bruce.

Steve Bruce is approaching the mark of having managed Aston Villa for 100 games. To this point he has served the team and it’s players with class, delivered results, and nearly led the team back to the Premier League. Yet, there are still many that call for the end of his tenure. This would be a huge mistake. Here are the biggest reasons why we must stick with Bruce for this season, (and hopefully more to come).

Results

The numbers don’t lie.

Since taking over the club’s managerial duties from Roberto Di Matteo in October 2016, Steve Bruce has quietly become the second winning-est manager (by percentage) in Aston Villa history.

Let that sink in for a second.

One of the oldest clubs in English football. A history that includes FA Cup victories, League Cup victories, 1st place league finishes, and European Cup victories.

Only one of the managers that have led the team to such peaks have won a greater share of their matches. Take a look at the snapshot below:

All data aggregated from Soccerbase. Source: http://www.soccerbase.com/teams/team.sd?team_id=154&teamTabs=managers

Yes, there are many factors to consider here: Number of teams played against, league played in, sample size etc., but the cold-hard numbers show that sides managed by Steve Bruce win almost 50% of their matches played, which is a great number.

Stability

To provide a more recent and perhaps more level statistical comparison, let’s take a look at the five most recent managers to have served before Bruce:

Alex McLeish

Paul Lambert

Tim Sherwood

Rémi Garde

Roberto Di Matteo

I only need to tell you one thing about these 5 to illustrate how dark these times were: The best winning percentage of those five is held by Tim Sherwood. (35.7%) This is the man whose teams featured Leandro Bacuna, Micah Richards, Joleon Lescott, Kieran Richardson, and Brad Guzan.

(Note: I am actually a defender of Sherwood as he did know how to properly identify talent in some capacity. See: Idrissa Gueye, Jordan Amavi, Adama Traoré, and Jordan Ayew.)

Bruce has been integral in providing a sense of continuity and stability after the tumult present during much of the former portions of this decade.

Attitude

I think anyone that has watched many of the Aston Villa sides under the aforementioned managers (especially the last 3 before Bruce) know that bad attitudes and inconsistency have plagued the side.

Tim Sherwood’s careless attitude toward the team in general, and specifically toward Jack Grealish, may have well seen our prized young midfielder spiral into an abysmal pit of bad decisions from which he may not have recovered. Resident hot-head Jordan Ayew did nothing to quell the attitude questions, picking up cards and getting in people’s faces at a seemingly “Diego Costa – esque” pace, while producing far fewer results that may have seen those issues forgiven.

Rémi Garde seemed like the injection that the club might need, until his almost polar opposite attitude toward the team shone through with tremendous magnification. The team looked downright lost, participating in a free-fall that could only be accompanied by the all-too-often-seen “deer in the headlights” look from the new manager.

Di Matteo seemed to be the man to right the ship. Then his Villa side won 1 of their first 14 matches before he was abruptly sacked.

So in came our current gaffer, Mr. Bruce. He led the team to a pedestrian 16-14-16 season (15-7-12 under his management) by playing conservative, disciplined, gritty football. His willingness to play the guys that gave the team the best chance to be competitive was surprisingly unpopular, and admittedly pretty boring to watch.

The same could be said of the next season in which Villa almost ascended back up to the Premier League. The team was excellent defensively, often playing conservative, proven, veteran heavy lineups, battling through injuries and the perils of another season in the championship. But the team was noticeably positive, and genuinely seemed to care, and I think that had a helluva lot to do with the man in charge.

I truly believe that Bruce is the right man to lead this team back to the PL, and clearly our new ownership agree. My only hope is that he stays at the helm for many seasons to come.