M_Afro

He played ok tonight to be fair. There were at least 5 or 6 who were much worse.

Good job at doing absolutely nothing. Well done Scott

Harsh to blame him tonight. Hutton messes up for the first goal. Nyland was stuffed whatever he decided to do there. The second goal was totally unstoppable. If anybody was at fault it was Chester. Hutton was awful all night to be frank!

He grew into the game. Needs more time on the pitch. Set up a golden chance which Hogan just decided to duck under!

Great performance from him. Shame about the rest!

Awful until the last 15 minutes when he was good. He needs to try and do things much more quickly. When he does, he is too good at this level.

God bless Sir Doug. Lived life to the full. Rest in peace

JT brings a bit of hope but that is one massive risk. Will get my support of course but I am stunned. Very risky indeed. I hope he can cope because he is in a cauldron now, the likes of which he will have never experienced. Good luck Delano, you may well need it!

Don’t want Rodgers but do want Smith or Wilder.............ha ha ha ha. Rodgers not good enough for nearly winning the premier league with Liverpool and winning everything with Celtic. Two of the biggest clubs in the world. I think he is also younger than both of those two. He has a pretty good record everywhere but one club! Most importantly of all he has real presence. The other two have never had to deal with big personalities. Rodgers had Sterling, Sturidge and Suarez eating out of his hand. Just remind me what Smith and Wilder have done in the game? Actually no need. I already know the answer!

This in its entirety! We are Aston Villa. If we do not think big as supporters then we may as well give up. This is a big job requiring a big personality. We need confidence, experience, proven ability and big big balls. I am sick of being afraid of every team we play. Let’s show them that we are AVFC and they are not in our league. That starts with getting your attitude right and that stems from the manager. Brendon all day long. He would transform this club and I am sure he would come. Go get him board

Blimey. I am glad K Mac only does this once every 3 years! He has actually managed to pick a more negative line up than Brucie! Oh well, what the heck........0-1 Villa. COYVB

Don’t underestimate the draw of English football. It is the best place to be. I read a BBC article yesterday where Carlos Carvahal had turned down Sporting Lisbon just on the off chance an English club came calling. He was not available until September for family reasons and consequently had had to turn down some approaches from English clubs too. He said that he was gutted! Would actually not be at all surprised if he turned up at Villa!

Steve Bruce does not have the right mentality to manage a club like ours. It is too big for him. I remember Wyness saying that Bruce is so scared of losing that he cannot sleep. The man is crippled by fear and this just manifests within the team. There cannot possibly be an excuse for keeping him anymore. That said, a small number of our fans need to grow up. Throwing a cabbage as a protest is moronic. It is a pre meditated action which just makes it worse. Some of the comments on social media are also appalling. People must realise that not only is this antisocial and unnecessary but it has a negative impact on the team. They are ultimately hurting themselves. Our next appointment is massive. We need a big man with a bigger ego. Someone with experience of managing a big club. Villa are still a huge attraction and the right person is out there. Let’s just hope that the key decision makers get it right. I would be starting a dialogue with Celtic straight away if it were me.

If they had wanted it enough, he wouldn’t need to!

Fair play for stepping up. He is not to blame. Why did nobody else show any courage? The lack of bottle is a reflection of the manager. Least courageous manager we have ever had

Should still be enough to beat this shower!

I would like to think that if he is going in the international break, then that decision has already been made. What happens over the next two games is largely irrelevant. They may be leaking stuff just to try and keep him motivated by dangling a carrot. We need the points so let’s hope for two wins followed by a swift p45

If Smith is the only option then I would rather keep Bruce and I have never wanted Bruce at the club! This next appointment is massive. We cannot afford to take a risk just because he is simply not Bruce. We need someone who has worked at a big club and dealt with high profile players. I am not sure who that is, although I would love Rodgers, but there must be loads of better options. Why take the risk? Bruce must stay until a suitable replacement has been identified.

He is as good as gone. The new owners have not invested all of this money so that Bruce can stumble through match after match of total incompetence. They will pull the trigger soon, regardless of what happens between now and then. They are shrewd business men. Bruce will not go until the replacement is lined up. I bet he is sacked and replaced in very short order. He may as well stay until the right person is secured.

Why do people use the loss of his parents as an excuse? I started a new job on 2nd July. My Dad died two weeks later after a short illness. He was much younger than Steve’s parents. I had to crack on and make it work because I have a 3 year old son and a wife to support. I miss my Dad, a massive Villa fan, like mad but I get on with it and I am doing a really good job. My Dad would be proud of me and that drives me to succeed. Bruce was failing well before his parents sadly passed away and that has nothing to do with our predicament in my view. Time for us to draw a line under this mans tenure and move on, simply because he is not and never has been good enough. If managers were rated in decency and humility he would be right up there. Sadly for him they are just ancillary measures. What really matters are performance and results. He is failing on both.

This is a real test of our new owners and our supporters. The Dr was a fool but I think/hope the new guys are more clued up. Nothing they will have seen will have convinced them that Bruce is the answer. They will definitely fire him at some stage, probably very soon. The big test is replacing him with a suitable candidate. We need to be brave and think about the medium term. Any manager must bring a strategy that will lead to a sustainable future. Our job as supporters is to get behind the new man, even if choppy waters await. We must recognise progress even when results may not follow immediately. I always thought Houllier would have done this job for us had it not been for ill health but the fans were not patient enough with him. We must not make that mistake again. Over to the new owners. Young, progressive manager who will go into every game expecting to win please. No more Bruceasaurus Rex rubbish!

We will probably win. This is a better balanced, more attacking team. It really annoys me that he has to wait until we play the worst team, at home before going for it! We should be going after every team in this league, home and away. Win, lose or draw this must be his last game. He is a total coward! His team selections undermine and degrade the biggest and best club, in the Championship, by a mile. We are the Man City of this division and he approaches most games like we are Huddersfield! Infuriating!!!!

Hopefully this will be the last time I have to post on this thread. In my mind this is some of the reasons why yesterday was so wrong: Generally a much better balanced defence, although Hutton and Taylor both need to work much harder to stop crosses coming in to the box. Hutton is also too slow now. He cannot defend one on one. Elmo or Bree should both be picked ahead of him. Playing Jedinak has got to stop. He is only capable of sitting in front of the defence. This just creates pressure. We need more energetic midfielders who can press and keep the ball away from our box. Even when Jedi wins the ball he almost always gifts it straight back to the opposition in an advanced part of the pitch. He must be replaced by Connor or Birkir. Generally we need to play much higher up the pitch. Abraham was terribly isolated yesterday. We have better attacking players than any other team in the division. We need to press high up the pitch which will also push their defence back and relieve the pressure on our defence. Elmo is useless in an advanced position. He cannot/doesn’t try to beat his man. His crosses are awful. Right back or nowhere. How he can be picked ahead of El Ghazi is anybody’s guess! We need to try and win every game. We are capable of beating anybody, home or away. We cannot afford to give teams like Blackburn (or anybody) the respect that we do. We need to pick attacking teams, employ attacking tactics from the start and just go for it. Bruce is so scared of losing that it is detrimental to our chances of winning! Albert and Elmo must never be picked ahead of Bolaise, El Ghazi or Kodija. Neither offer much in attack. They get praised for their tracking back but if they posed any threat going forward they wouldn’t need to track back so much! We need to make changes much earlier in games. Tactical changes were needed before halftime yesterday. It was clear that things weren’t working and yet Bruce did nothing about it. His approach is much too formulaic. We need a manager who can outwit his opposition. This never happens with Bruce. Every week he comes up against a manager with inferior resources and yet he never significantly gets the better of them. He is a good man Steve and I want a good man in charge of our club but being decent is not enough. He is not capable of fulfilling the most simple managerial requirements. It is time for him to go. A few months ago I posted a message saying how important it was that we made a good start this season, particularly with our kind fixture list. We have failed. Our start has been pathetic. He must go now!

Hutton is terrible at defending

Last team selection from this fool I predict. Awful, defensive, cowardly selection. Don’t deserve to win. Sacked in the morning, sacked in the morning.....