M_Afro

We lost it in the second half when he and Whelan, who both played really well, tired. Bruce should have freshened it up then. I really like this guy. He is what we have needed for so long. Needs to play alongside Bjarneson in my mind though.

Played a right back at left back, a centre back at right back, a centre mid at centre half, a wing back/full back as a winger and a right winger as a left winger. When they started to dominate the centre of the park at around 55 minutes he took off a left winger and replaced him with a left winger totally ignoring the real issues we were confronted with. When we went 2-1 down he did what he always does and brings all the forwards on and launches long balls up the field. During that period Brentford should have scored 3 or 4. They didn’t and we fluked a last minute goal. Our defence looked vulnerable every time they attacked. Credit to the goal keeper who kept us in it. I am sick of us playing square pegs in round holes. Our entire left hand side is unbalanced by playing right sided players down there. We are desperate for a centre half, he signs one and then plays him full back whilst a midfielder played centre half. We have a million right backs, no centre half’s and he plays our new centre half right back. You could not make it up! Apart from that, I think he is doing ok ?

I totally agree about the number 9. With the players we have and the tactics we adopt, a number 9 who can hold the ball up is essential. How many times does our centre forward appear isolated with a large gap between midfield and defence? It is The biggest failure of Bruce that he does not see this!

In a nutshell for me. He is such a poor player! He had a purple patch of scoring goals last season which covered a multitude of sins.

Maybe we should give him a chance. He has only played twice for goodness sake!

My point is not confused at all. You seem to infer that development can only occur in young players! Development is an on going process that never stops. When you invest significant financial resources in a player, surely you owe it to the player, the club and the supporters to then invest the time and skills to develop and improve the player. How many players has Bruce really improved? I do not agree with the Grealish argument. He is a young and talented footballer that would always have improved. Bruce himself said, only yesterday, that the main impetus for the improvement in the attitude shown by Jack was the injury he suffered last pre season. I also do not see why you have to sacrifice overall performance to develop players. They can be developed on the training ground and only when they are ready, be introduced into the team.

One of the things that annoys me about football these days, is the disposable attitude we have towards footballers. Bruce really seems to make his mind up about certain players quickly and does not appear to have the skills/patience to work with the players to improve them. Players like Taylor, Bjarneson, Lansbury, Bree et al were all fairly big investments for the club. They have all, at times, previously shown the ability to perform at a level consistent or better than the level we find ourselves at and yet they have not come close to replicating that with Bruce. Why is he so incapable of developing players?!

This kid has got serious talent. He is easily the best of our young players (in my opinion of course). He could do some real damage at this level............now! Only two caveats; he must be played in a team that suits his style of play and he must stay fit!

Having Bruce as manager is like playing tennis with both hands tied behind your back. We have some real talent at Villa and yet collectively we are significantly lesser than the sum of our parts. Who else to blame if not Brucie! I know we won but the results will soon begin to keep pace with the performances. Woeful.

Agreed. They have got a top, top manager. I think they will do very well this year. Early days but they could yet do a Wolves

Did he though? The goal at the start of the season, as stated by him, was two points per game and automatic promotion. We fell reasonably short on both of those. Warnock achieved this with a much worse squad and lower budget. He maximised his asset. Bruce has fallen well short of doing the same with us. He is the King of inventing arguments to lower expectation. He is now using what happened over the summer to dampen expectations again. It’s as if he is a new manager taking over a crisis club! He conveniently ignores the fact that he has signed a load of players who he does not play because he has no faith in them, for example, Lansbury, Hogan, Bjarneson, Bree and Taylor. How much did that lot cost? More than Cardiff have spent in the previous 5 years probably

Just cannot get excited about his teams. He just seems to muddle his way through, hanging on, in spite of his inadequacies! I genuinely think that a better manager could get us to play much better with exactly the same resources. Anybody who genuinely thinks we have played well in more than a handful of games since Brucie took over does not understand football. We will not get promoted this season if he remains in charge. I have said the same in each of the past two seasons and I was right. Nothing has changed now. Hope he proves me wrong.........but he won’t

Don’t think we are finished in any way yet. Still expect to see us loan at least 3 more. Probably a left back, a winger and a striker. We will then be stronger than last season in my view. Good times ahead hopefully ?

Reminds me of a young Andy Townsend. Now that would do nicely!

Not heard that? What’s wrong with his attitude? Always seems to try hard when he plays.

If Bruce is going to stay as manager (please don’t let it be so) he must finally see that you cannot play Brucie Ball without a big lump up front! Kodj, Hogan and Grabban may all be better players than Davis but Davis is easily the most suited to our turgid style of hoof balls! If you insist on persisting with this please at least have the foresight to do it properly! I know we won but we make it so, so very difficult. Chuffed with the result but I remain unconvinced by the failings of an otherwise likeable man.

It’s so important that we get off to a good start this season. We have had horrible starts to our other two Championship seasons. The fixture list has been very kind to us. We have a reasonably settled squad and a manager who has been in post for a long time. We should be confident and taking the bull by the horns tomorrow. I hope this is so! Make it happen Brucie. Show some courage or step aside and let someone else give it a go. There is nothing to fear but fear itself.

Way too much negativity on here. We have new very rich owners. Owners who appear, at first sight, not to be crazy Chinese people! We still have most of our key players from last season. We still have a month to improve the team with loan signings. In my view, we are in a better position than this time last year. Believe people. We have as much chance as anybody else. It’s very open this year!

We can still loan players up until the end of August but no permanent deals after next Thursday. So, all in all, Thursday means nothing to us from a buying perspective as we are likely only loaning but it is very significant in terms of sales!

Can’t Control

With the squad that we have we should definitely be finishing in the top 6, probably the top 3. With a few carefully chosen additions, namely a GK, CH, pacey attacking midfielder and a target man we should definitely finish top 2. Anything less will be a failure. Surely people must be running out of excuses for Bruce now!

Can’t believe he is going to be number 1. One for the future surely? Think we will also sign an experienced keeper.

Not so sure. These guys want a return on their investment. They need fast promotion. If Steve does not deliver, which I firmly believe he will not, then he is gone. I really hope I am wrong because I obviously crave success as much as any other fan.

Have you seen any progression in our play over the past 12 months? Happy to be illuminated!

Absolute guarantee that Bruce will get the boot before Christmas. He is incapable of learning from his mistakes. It is so predictable. Let’s hope we are not too far behind when the new owners see the light. I also would not let him buy any players. We will be saddled with a load of crap when he finally goes. Loans only for Steve please.