Steve Bruce’s Aston Villa side lost 4-1 at Sheffield United on Saturday.
Steve Bruce has taken responsibility for Aston Villa’s demoralising defeat on Saturday.
The Villans were thumped 4-1 away to Sheffield United in a game which saw Bruce’s side trail 3-0 at the break.
It capped a difficult week on the pitch, after Aston Villa were eliminated from the Carabao Cup on Tuesday by Burton Albion.
Bruce wrapped up the signings of Yannick Bolasie and Tammy Abraham in the final week of the transfer window, though neither were included in yesterday’s squad.
Instead, the veteran manager claims that he included a number of players who hadn’t trained in the days leading up to the trip to Brammall Lane, something he says was a mistake by him.
He told Aston Villa’s official website: “To be fair, four or five of them have put themselves in contention where they haven’t trained all week. I think that was pretty evident. So I made a big mistake there.
“But I take the responsibility. It was my call and I got it wrong.”
The pressure is certainly on Bruce, with former Villa hitman Stan Collymore insinuating on Twitter afterwards that he wanted a change of manager.
But it’s far too early for that. Bruce remains an excellent football manager and his record of promotion proves it.
With a bit of time, he can certainly turn this around – and Bolasie and Abraham can definitely help.
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