Reivax_Villa

Yh i agree The wide players will have to work harder this late into the game to find the ball to Davis. Scott Hogan could run into the channels

Hogan is too much of a risk to be starting. Make him prove himself from the bench.

He's only 19/20 He is going to be a top player

Bruce lacks tactical flexibility and has a very pragmatic approach to the game. Amongst footballing people Bruce is held in high regard due his career as a player and manager. Currently the only factor that has kept him at this job is his previous success in this league. The reality is that his time here has been a failure. He has been unable to set us up in any way to attack. This is point is even outlined in this podcast from 3.20 He has spent money on Hogan, Bree Lansbury but he does not know how to use them in the right way. Our best players are the players that were here before he joined. It is only a matter of time before he leaves. I am not proud of this current team or even by the way we play.

Interesting perspective, one i cannot disagree with. Maybe it will talk a lot more time to know the impact Round has had to the first team. I did mention that he has done good things behind the scenes but as you stated he may not be entirely responsible to what happens to the first team. Fair point I guess if you look at Southampton it took them several years to establish something at their club, so i do see where your coming from.

Ultimately it is a big season for this football club because if we do not achieve our objectives for this season, Tony would need to re-strategise on how he wants to proceed with this club in the future, especially with our current finances. Rongtian He is currently Tony's eyes and ears at this club, so everything that is happening at this club is being fed back to him. I am concerned that if we revamp our board/Management who on earth has the credibility to fill us fans with hope. Many of us fans do not know that side of football so whoever we appoint we would just have to hope again.. that this will work..

Very interesting point. For someone in his role it could potentially take longer establish something that we can all admire. But I am worried about the lack of identity that this club has had since his arrival, yet a football agent was able to create something formidable in Wolverhampton over the recent summer.

A total change in philosophy and team cohesion in 12 games is not just good form, its a combination of high level coaching & recruitment.

It is all down to the recruitment The recruitment of the manager and the players to fit into his style. We have not recruited well for years now.

Well i remember watching a video of his in pre-season, complimenting Steve Bruce and then under the same breath mentioning something about communicating with younger managers being an issue. From that moment I knew that if we were to appoint another manager it would be no different to what we have now.

I see your point and I agree. But my point is slightly different by saying that now is the time to build a style and philosophy not when we are promoted. Look at what happened to Palace when they tried to change their style, they reverted back to direct football. If we get promoted under this way of football, we will be very limited to our style, choice of manager and choice of player in the market. i.e Burnley, Brighton The mentality that Wyness has of slugging it out in this league for promotion and then changing our style once we are promoted is friggin backwards..

He came in not knowing how difficult this would be. He is still a good chairman and I am proud that he owns this football club because he has a lot of desire for this club and he is a genuinely nice guy. The problems stem from him being wrongly advised from the moment he stepped into this football club. I believe now he has taken the time to learn more about the game by mixing it with different managers, agents, coaches across the world. I do not think that he will make the same mistakes again. As i said in the Round thread, if we do not get promoted I would not be surprised if he overhauls our management.

Jorge Mendes. Football agent with an endless contacts list & financed by a big budget.

Say if we get promoted this season. Are you guys worried of what a Premier league season would be like under this team and management? I want promotion but a season in the Premier League with Whelan, Adomah and Bruce does not excite me..

From all of the online content that I have seen of his day to day role here. It does appear me that he has brought some real structure to the scouting network, data analyst, football psychologist and youth development. But this Wolves match has made me wonder, what football philosophy has he tried to implement in a year of being here and how has he tried to build this with our current management and coaches? I remember him speaking about this blackbox of data and this will allow us to assess our current players and find players that fit into this group but this has not been the case. We have signed players because Bruce knows them well or Round and his data team have selected a specific player i.e Bjarnsson. I am worried because despite Round building some sort of structure to this club the key components are missing. I.e Management, players and Identity. Recently this new marketing buzz word called the "Villa Engine" has been touted. It has taken a year to come up with this yet we do not know what this consists of? // My thought is that when Xia joined, he was advised on the right footballing people to bring to this club because he never had any inside football knowledge. Hence why he appointed RDM with a degree and Round that also has a degree. Xia probably thought he had the right credentials to help bring this club back to the promise land. Xia strikes me as someone that has been using his own time to understand the game better and even building up his own contacts in this footballing industry. I would not be surprised if Xia decides to have a massive overhaul at this club next summer if we do not succeed in getting promoted this season, Round being one of many casualties.

We lost to the best team in the league.. They had a whole summer to become the best team in the league. I don't blame Bruce because he is limited in his approach. He cannot become a better manager he can only motivate the players. I blame the ownership for appointing him without any real thought of what they wanted to build here. Bruce is going to have good spells and bad spells at this club. The football will not be any different. This is something that we have to accept until Xia has had enough because Wyness and Round are not going to sack Bruce. I just hope that neither of them have any say in the next selection process.

I am absolutely gutted.. Steve Bruce is not a terrible manager in fact, he is a good manager at this level. The reality is that we won 4 games on the trot and he was nominated for manager of the month that is fact. What i will say is that Bruce is a not good enough to manager to match the ambitions of this football club or the supporters. The management of this club should have known this. We have signed ineffective journeymen to get us promoted this mirrors our manager. We have thrown most of our money into this league and this could result in a few more seasons in this league. - We lost to Wolves, a team that have two - three champions league quality players. Their chairman set out a plan last summer and right now they seem to be making the most out of it. They appointed a head coach not a manager but a Head Coach who has managed teams at Champions League level. He has had a summer to coach his team into a style of football and purchased quality players to suit his philosophy. They have built a team that can compete in the Premier League. We have signed players that could challenge for promotion. In fact they could compete for a mid table place in the premier league right now. The loss is more painful because it is our local rivals and it is a reminder to us all at the level this club is. - Where do we go from here? Keeping Bruce and we may get a playoff spot but will this result in promotion? I just feel like we have really fu***d the rebuilding process at this club.

This is painful

I would not mind us switching to a 4-3-3 after the hour mark

Its a game of two very different styles. Wolves have played some nice one touch football but they have not really took their chances. We have made it tough for Wolves and they are running out of ideas. We need to be more clinical. Kodjia needs to show that he can be a big game player for us. I am pleased with this half. I am worried about the three yellow cards that we have.

Wolves are a very good side. But we are a solid organised team. Let's see how effective their football is to break us down. They cannot compete with our physicality and toughness.

Tough game against Portugal u-23's this evening Lets hope that we can rough them up a bit.

I did not know that he was still part of our backroom staff.