Steve Bruce won his first game as Aston Villa manager on Tuesday, beating Reading 2-1.
Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce has told talkSPORT (broadcast 19 October) that the first thing he had to do was make his players believe again.
Bruce is Villa’s second manager of the season, with Roberto Di Matteo losing his job after a poor start to the season. The former Hull boss has managed two games now, picking up four points in the process.
With games coming think and fast, the 55-year-old has a big job on his hands to get his players performing and climbing up the Championship table, and improving their confidence has been one of the tasks Bruce has had to undertake.
Aston Villa’s Jordan Amavi celebrates after the match with manager Steve Bruce
“When you get relegated there’s a doom and gloom and that surrounds everybody and Aston Villa are not used to it,” Bruce told talkSPORT.
“It’s all about giving the players back that confidence, that belief, that they’re still good players. For too long they’ve been hit with a stick, if you like.
“So the first thing was to just try and lift confidence levels and blow a bit of belief back into them.”
Villa developed a terrible habit of conceding late goals and throwing away points under Di Matteo, which will have killed the confidence of the players, who will have been left thinking they no longer know how to win a football match.
Aston Villa Manager Steve Bruce
Such is the problem with a lot of relegated teams, they have a losing mentality after suffering such a difficult season the year before which can be hard to shake off.
Newcastle United and Norwich City have managed to change their mentality, while Villa have struggled to become a force in the Championship just yet. There have been signs that Bruce is changing the club’s fortunes since he took over, picking up their first away win of the season thanks to a late Jordan Ayew penalty at Reading.
Now that they have that winning feeling again, Aston Villa could start to climb up the Championship and battle for promotion.
Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce gestures to their fans
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