dn1982

You could say this thread is as predictable as our football.

Yeah i Don’t thinks selling Hogan or anyone else benefits that much this window we may aswell gamble then sell in summer if we don’t go up.

Hogans fee would’ve been spread across his contract. So say £10m is £2m a season over 5 years don’t think it was that’s high but. Then if you sell him for £5m that’s goes on the balance sheet for that year so in effect you’re up for the year but down overall. That’s what I read but like most FFP is baffling and if you’re creative can be sorted out.

Haven’t Bruce and Smith won exactly the same? Nothing? Has Bruce ever won a Championship? I know he has promotions but I don’t remember a Bruce side running away with this league or any other. Smith has his team playing football that Bruce can only dream about. What could he do with better players?

Managers rarely get sacked when doing well. Rowett and Blues being a case in point but the one difference is I think Rowett got his team over for me we are underachieving. Bruce won’t go anywhere whilst we are in the playoffs but come January Xia will have a stark choice gamble or cross your fingers. I can see us dropping out by Jan after this tough run.

The reason I never wanted Bruce and would change him now if we could get the right man is our promotion season should be a momentum builder. We should be playing entertaining fottball dare I say it like wolves. We maybe still limp up under Bruce but going to Villa Park is a chore still. WE had 6 years of struggle and it’s affected the fans and club. Now we huff and puff most games. We’ve no actual style. No pattern of play. We seem to rely on just having better players. If we had a manager that got us playing entertaining attacking football Villa Park would be packed and buzzing. We’d go up with momentum and a belief. If Bruce gets up I’ll,have little confidence he can keep us there. WE circled the drain for years I don’t want to go up and do the same again.

I can see us being 7/8th after the Bristol game. If we are but still in the hunt for the playoffs will Bruce be sackable? Top 2 was the target and we are falling well short at the minute. I can’t see us getting up through the playoffs playing the way we are so if we drop out I think Bruce’s position should be looked at very closely.

We’ve already got a young kid upfront so id rather we get an experienced striker too. Ulloa would be ideal and we’d be able to get him in the summer. We need to have a striker who can hit the ground running.

SO you missed out the whole We look better with Davis upfront but highlighted the hoof ball bit? Then named a left winger to prove a point about a striker not scoring?? How many have our strikers scored.??

Just because we’ve got the Scottish Cafu it’s not like watching Brazil!!

Fans that say we don’t play hoof ball seem to forget we’ve started playing better with a battering ram upfront. No one says we play long just direct and smashing a ball up to Hogan against a Big centre half doesn’t work. It doesn’t always work with Davis. We aren’t a possesion team and Hogan would probably be better in a 2 instead of playing on his own as he did at Brentford. Ultimately though Bruce bought a player that doesn’t suit his style so something has to give.

It would’ve been been good to see him play with Keinan. His confidence is obviously shot but I think there’s still a good player in there aswell.

We struggle against good passing sides that’s all. Brentford are a cracking passing team but we’ve better players. Reading are similar. Hopefully our bigger squad will help us over Xmas.

I’m sure most of those records have been debunked. If you pick a sample that suits you can prove anything that’s why you should never take stats at face value. Most fans set Bruce the target of automatic promotion. Bruce sets himself a target of 2pts a game. At present we are just short of both. Bruce will get all the plaudits once he gets us promoted no matter how we achieve it even if we finished 6th. I thought we were Bruce’s big chance and he’d relish it and get us playing better football then he’s done previously but he’s reverted to type. I think he’ll get us up probably in 2nd. I also think he wont last 12 months after that because of our expectations and his style.

The ony way Hogan will have any success in a Bruce team is playing off of a big man.

Totally agree but then why did Bruce sign him?

No because that’s how the tops of leagues go. It’s just we aren’t used to being at the top. The Sheffield Wed game hurt us this month and makes December even harder as we can’t afford many slip ups.

I think that’s whine not wine

I love people who quote stats on one thing but then dismiss them on another. Bof’s table backs up what I’ve thought and what I’ve said. We need to do better against our rivals to have a chance. December is a massive month and if we can come through it well we may be able to look at automatic with a bit of confidence. A bad run though and it’ll be the playoffs.

I think we could easily be a better team but Bruce limits his players. We have better players than most. I’d say our squad is probably the strongest individually but we aren’t a good footballing team. We have better players than last year So we are a better team. I don’t think we will get any better as a team under Bruce this is It style wise hopefully we have enough players having runs of form to see us through. Just imagine how good we could be if our players knew how to attack as a team not just defend as one.

Because they were low on confidence and with out 7 players? but I don’t think he was just on about this game. It’s what we do.

But can we under Bruce? I don’t think we can. We had a fresh Kodija last year and the football was awful but the results were decent. That’s a all we will get with Bruce. This is as good as it gets. Let’s hope it’s enough.

Tonight’s football and result is what we get with Bruce. December is a very tough month and will show if this style is good enough to get us up. One thing for certain is this style means Bruce won’t be here long term.

Good win Crap game. Our passing and movement is still awful but if we keep grinding it out who cares!!

And winning from behind! That’s massive for us