ciggiesnbeer

I am delighted. Keep ramming it down my throat Bruce. We are playing some pleasing stuff as well. I am liking the attack! attack! attack! philosophy. I have no idea whats got into him but long may it continue.

I go back and forth with Bruce. I think he is that kind of manager. Right now he is at his best. Knows what he is doing, doesnt make it complicated. Really how can any of us complain about his recent run of form? The game against Preston was completely dominant. Heck Sky called it a "Masterclass in tactics by Steve Bruce." And yes, yes we have played some good attractive football the past few weeks. Its direct or on the counter, but thats ok so do a lot of exciting teams. At his worst he seems paralyzed by fear and unable to figure out how to set us up for attack. In some ways I still am not so sure that is his focus. I think he is most comfortable when the defence is well marshalled with a good holding midfield in front of them. Then he just plays two up front and lets the players quality do the rest, usually on the counter. Anyway. "Bruce In" again for me (I have flip flopped twice and probably will again).

It is. But I am glad the club is aiming for something. A style, a recogniseable identity of football. Even if it ends up looking silly I am glad they are showing ambition by trying it and telling us that.

Not sure what happened but I am happy to be proven wrong. Good job Steve Bruce. Long may it continue.

Not on current form. I dont think you can survive in the premier league by surrendering possession. This is the root of my cricism of Bruce. If he somehow changes and starts focusing on modern football, then sure.

Good selection today. I am not going to criticise the man after that. For today anyway

A modern manager who plays progressive football. That almost certainly means someone from overseas, I am fine with that. I just want my team to play good football. No more of this "knows the league, safe pair of hands" stuff. Lets focus on playing well and ingraining it in the club. Thats job 1. There is no point in getting promoted just to endure more seasons of dinosaur football before inevitably getting relegated again because we play out of date weak football. Next time we go up lets stay up and with a modern setup.

Villa play crap looking football under Steve Bruce. Stats can't dissprove what we have all seen with our own eyes.

I genuinely beleive better. We have some skillfull players in this team. No management at all is better than whatever player krytponite Bruce brings to the table.

We could even try this new fangled "keep possession and pass the ball" malarky. You never know it might just work!

Agreed. He has been poor for us but I feel he has been played completely the wrong way. Like many of our players tbh. When we get a new manager who is hopefully progressive then I think we will see a different better Hogan.

It is genuinely amazing. Our staggering multi year nose dive surely has to rate up there in terms of improbability, it maybe higher than Lesta winning the league.

The only thing left to change is the fans. Bruce & the team are working hard to drive away as many of the current ones as they can, so its certainly possible.

You would think not, but this is Aston Villa so you never know. The team is really pulling out all the stops to try and get us relegated again this season. Its horrifying to watch.

Looks like Bruce has hit the "yup, all I can do is lose" phase earlier than most of our recent managers. I am fickle I know but a change would be fine with me. We have to change something and the manager is the only button left.

Fair post but lets not use Newcastle's manager as a comparison here. They have been fortunate to somehow get a manager that is easily good enough for any top half Premier League team, in the Championship there is nobody anywhere near his skill level and not likely to be again for years. Thats not a moan or a pop, its just Benitez is a very very unusual case and Newcastle fans are smart enough to know how lucky they are to have him.

Fair.

I actually thought it made sense. Strengthened the midfield gap left by grealish and brought on fresh legs to try and hassle them, catch them on the break if we got the chance. I have a LOT of problems with the way we came out in the secnd half but the subs I thought were logical.

$%^%^@!!!!! ^&*^&*STUPID ^&!!!R%$#^$%#45%^$%^$%^!!! F#CK %#^&@#

As an aside may I say how wrong I was about Dr.X & Twitter? I thought it would be a disaster but it is actually a real pleasure to have questions which could have just hung out there be answered from the very top. It really is very welcome.

I dunno, after 18 games he still has the best win rate of any of our last six managers. Before we kick his arse out of bed we might want to think who would be coming in.

Its not just us though, I have seen other clubs fans & the press think he is good an all.

To be fair that description from a Sunderland fan could have been from any of our last 5 managers clubs and we would all have similar pattern recognition and think "oh no, here we go again". He has had some bad games recently and is rightfully getting some fan criticism but he has also been promoted from this division four times. He is not going to get much slack because we are all sick of losing.

Yup. All football fans are deluded or blinded to their own club to a certain extent but there is a fact about us. We really have spent a LOT of money the past ten years and have not just got below average results , but in fact ended up far worse for it! Its not paranoia or doomsaying to be more than a little twitchy about that fact. We really have had a rotten time and I think most of us just want that time to end and us starting being a normal club that gets results roughly in line with the investment put in.

Now you mention it. Thats true! I am still behind him but he messed up today. Hopefully he can adjust and learn going forward.