Woody1000

Looked good mate, we have an extra player when we attack with him in the side

Must win tomorrow, not an easy game by any means but a side we need to be defeating in our home games to have a good chance of staying up.

Assuming Benrahma is pretty much a done thing, I would only be open to any more signings as long as they are significantly adding to what we have already. I know we’ve all been sick of the ‘Fulham’ comparison, but just buying squad players now for the sake of it just seems daft to me.

Pleased with the result, but felt we looked a bit off the pace for long spells. Trying to be optimistic, I’ll put it down to players bedding in etc. Heaton will win us at least 10 points on his own this season, that save from the header was outstanding.

Is he locked in Delphinho123’s basement ala Julie B until the morning?

I know the way that Delph left the club left a bitter taste, but let’s not try and re-write history and try and make out that Delph was some clogger - he was quality for 2 seasons at least! There’s a reason that Man City came in for him, and in our side we had then it wasn’t to weaken us!! As for Jack, he just continues to exceed and exceed mine and I think everyone’s expectations. I honestly believe he could play for ANY club, he’s that good. I really think we need to enjoy this season with him because unfortunately I think it could be his last in a Villa shirt as this lad is good enough to be winning the big trophies.

Collar on the home? Well that’s saved me £60 Don’t know why, but I hate collars on football shirts

Is it just where I cannot get my head around modern transfer fees, or can we seriously not buy a better DM from the continent for £30m?

This is it, it’s nearly here...... I believe, without a shadow of a doubt, that this is the game that sends the message out that we are ready to take our place back in the Premier League. DS will set us up to play positive, but sensible football and I can see us winning comfortably tomorrow night. I believe he will start with Hourihane with Whelan to come on and see out the last 15 minutes.

I might be getting carried away, but I’m convinced that he’s taking us up THIS year. We are far from perfect, and I know the defence is leaky to say the least, but we’ve got so many goal threats all over the pitch and on the bench, and he seems to have found the way to tap into that very early doors. I’m so pleased for him, he deserves this!

I’m really excited about what Dean and ROK can bring to the team. If I’m really honest, I’m not that worried about promotion this season as I feel reassured that for once we seem to actually have a plan, and seem to be getting the right people in place from top to bottom. I have a feeling that a lot of under-utilised players like Lansbury, and Bree are going to flourish under DS, as well as boys like Hepburn-Murphy and O’Hare, which gives us some real options. There is the obvious history with Scott Hogan too, if he can get him firing then a trio of Abraham, Kodjia and Hogan all firing is the strongest in the division for me. People talk of our defensive woes, but for me a back 4 of Hutton, Chester, Tuanzebe and Taylor should be enough to get us through to January where we can reassess our options, I hope we don’t continue trying to put square pegs into round holes playing players out of position, especially at the back. The defence doesn’t overly concern me, especially if we start approaching more games on the front foot under Smith, which I’m assuming it is hoped he would bring. I think given time Nyland will be a capable GK, he’s still settling in to life in England, and has come in at a difficult time. I just have a really positive feeling about everything that we’ve done in the last couple of months, the last month especially! Finally, things are looking up!!

Tell you what, if you lose Saturday then have the decency to come back on here after. That is some of the most arrogant stuff I’ve ever read from a football fan, never had a problem with Fulham before this week but that’s rapidly changing!

As it’s getting closer to the match, I really hope we smash them. The general feeling from them that they are some sort of ‘Barcelona-lite’ and how ancient our team is, I don’t know why we’re even bothering to turn up! They were on a good run, but I feel that they’ve run out of steam and we are going to punish them!

While I’ve had my doubts about Bruce as manager (tactics/selections), he has got us to Wembley and for that he deserves a lot of credit, especially considering the personal problems that he has had this season re his parents. i just hope he sets us up a bit more like we have in big home games this season, and not like we have in the big away games. It’s a big pitch at Wembley, bigger than Craven Cottage, and I feel that the atmosphere and everything that comes with Wembley suits us more. It’s definitely a big equaliser against the fact that Fulham play ‘prettier’ football than us. I just hope that Fulham’s season has run out of puff. I feel that whatever happens Saturday, Bruce has definitely earned the right to still be manager come August.

If they have any ambition to get promoted this season, then he has to be sacked tomorrow. Yes he's had injury problems, but we just do not play well on anywhere near a consistent enough basis to win promotion. You can't scrap out the 35-40 results you need for that.

I'd say a manager who has shown to improve a side better in 12 matches than another has with his side in 12 months is light years ahead. You're just trolling now.

We are 7th, outside of the playoff places. You can say we are on-track all you want but we are not. If the season finished tomorrow then we are not in the play-offs. You can state how many points are up for grabs still, but we can just as easily lose as we would win. We have 1 victory against a side in the top half of the league so far, the current top 2 have beaten us easily (away fixtures granted), You may want to dispute this but everything I have said so far in this post is fact. I'm sure we will pick up a number of victories this season, my worry is that when we have to play away at sides in the top half of the table, we will see all too many performances like yesterday/Cardiff, and that is the reason why we will not be getting promoted this season. And as for you mentioning how many points are still up for grabs, that is probably the reason most of us would like Bruce removed from the club now - it would give another manager a chance at actually getting us promoted.

So what you're saying is that we don't have arguably the best squad in the league? It's his squad, he put it together so for the outlay do you not expect more? I'm saying that they should be making easy work of this division, as I'm sure that if a few of our rivals had that sort of money at their disposal, they would be making a much better go of things than we are.

I hate this term of supporters "bed wetting". I think we should top of the league because of how we are backed in line with our competitors, not just because we are Aston Villa and have any right to be. I am not in the 'Bruce out' way of thinking because of any fear of relegation, I am in it because of the squad that HE has assembled, and it's a squad that cost and costs far more than everyone else in it besides Wolves, but yet he just has excuse after excuse after excuse. Even the games we win, we don't look convincing. Oh and one other thing how many of you could honestly say, hand on heart, that if we played Wolves 10 times over, yesterday wouldn't happen at least 7 times! It's not the defeat itself, it's the manner of it! He waited until we were 2-0 down with 10 minutes to go before he made any sort of change to actually affect Wolves' dominance of the game.

I've calmed down somewhat from last night, but my thoughts are still the same. We are not getting promotion with Bruce in charge, and it's not like he's some young progressive manager/coach who has a long-term plan, or is trying to introduce a new style of play - I'm pretty sure that we will be in the exact same position as we are in 2 years time if Bruce is still in charge, buying or getting free transfers for players too old for the PL on over-inflated wages for the EFL, hovering around mid-table/playoff places, getting turned over whenever we play away at a 'good' side. I could understand us holding on if we had some sort of long-term plan, or even the rough outline of a plan, but it seems to be going nowhere. My other concern with Bruce is that if by some way he does get us up, I don't believe he's got a chance of actually keeping us there.

If Dr Xia and the board have any ambition for promotion, then he has to go. We will finish in the playoffs at best under Bruce, but that is too much of a gamble to take imo. No tactics, no penetration, we seem to beat certain teams off the back of simply having better players at our disposal. Tonight s game has summed up Bruce for me - overrun in midfield, so he swaps a striker for a striker. Clueless.

Garbage.

One little concern for me over Bruce's promotion record is that he has never actually won the title, he has had two 2nd place finishes and the other 2 were via the playoffs. I'm not trying to find a stick to beat him with, and I wouldn't be dismayed about going up in 2nd place, but it does worry me that he doesn't have that knack for getting a team right to the top, even if it's from an "aim for first to finish second" point of view.

I am done. We are showing no signs of improvement and he seems completely clueless. We are 2-0 down and he decides to use up a substitution changing right backs. How he has got 4 promotions from this division is beyond me. I don't know who the right man is, but Bruce has not brought any style whatsoever. If he is not removed within the next 24 hours, then I do not believe the club actually want promotion!

Gary Gardner would be playing for a Top 6 PL club and England right now had he not got the injuries, he was that good. I accept that he isn't good enough for our team, even in the lowered position we find ourselves in currently, but I don't understand the contempt that a large number of our fans talk about him with both at the ground and on social networking, he seems a nice lad. Very unfortunate.