TheStagMan

You're a brave man posting that - so I will answer respectfully You are certainly in a small but stubborn minority. Oddly, I and many other #BruseOut'ers were not opposed to his appointment, thought it made sense and were willing to accept last season as a consolidation and stabilization exercise. We haven't changed our manager for a year. Its not like we are chewing them up and spitting them out. But after 12 months we should be seeing something - some plan, some glimmer of improvement. Honestly - look at the last two performances and tell me what has improved. His record may suggest that, his performances, interviews and actions however do not - lets not even talk about results....; It cannot possibly do more harm than good. We *are* that bad. Anyone who thinks that this is a team that is coming together is deluded. The players were arguing with each other today. Arguing. On the pitch. They are everything! Frankly we are at the tipping point. There is not plenty of time to improve, not if we want to get promoted. If we dont get promoted this season, the likelyhood is that we are staying down here. The squad is very good. Most Championship teams can only dream of a squad like ours, including some that are challenging for promotion, but it is not balanced, we list to the right very heavily. We also have more rightbacks than the rest of the league put together. This squad though is easily good enough for promotion. Yep, plus there isn't a transfer window for four months..... so we cant change the squad..... Has he? - all I heard was excuses and him blaming everyone that he can think of? The two times when he suggested he *might* have got something wrong, he immediately followed up with an excuse as to why it wasn't his fault though. I am surprised he hasn't blamed Brexit yet. I'm sure he does want that. I wan't to woo Anne Hathaway. Doesn't mean that I am going to be able to make it happen though.

You would think so, wouldn't you, but what could it be? EVERYTHING has changed. New owner, new management, new squad, many staff laid off...... The only person who has been there throughout is Gabby. Ah, hold on..... I think it is more down to s succession of shit decisions and circumstances. If Houllier did not pretty much die on us, I think we would have done quiet well, Lambert should have done OK, tactics Tim was just lunacy, Garde was shat on from a great height and RDM was just rubbish. If we consider ANY of the championships top managers, they would relish the change to manage at this club with this squad. They would not consider it to be too big and scary for them, they would be energized and pumped. Not one of them would stay up all night worrying about losing.

Holy f***ing crap!

Well, that was utterly shit. I went out to mow my lawn, the strimmer ran out of wire, my mower wouldn't start and then it started raining. So how was the game???? Bugger.

Right, I have had enough of this shit, not wasting another 45 minutes. Going to go and mow the lawn.

Nothings gone wrong, this a necessary first step to the recovery of Aston Villa. Come on, Bruce has only had a few games this season, it is unfair to criticize him for this. I find it hilarious that people are just looking to find fault with the performance because they simply don't like him.

What, you mean they have a manager who has a plan for how to play the game, and the players are carrying it out? He must have been there fecking years, had multiple pre-seasons and several transfer windows to get a team of professional footballers to follow instructions and follow a game plan like that.

Must be the players fault. Can't be Bruce's

Who have also had better possession, and strung more passes together and had a shot on target.

He just needs more time. Don't worry.

Nice. Plus alcohol to take away the pain of being a Villa fan. You got this.

Nice. Bit of peppercorn sauce with it?

We will. And you know what, I hope you are right and I am wrong. Sadly I don't think I will be though.

The problem is that the two decent performances were the abberation, so no one should get their hopes up based on them. I will continue to criticise as long as performances are poor, and I will acknowledge (and maybe even praise) when they are good. For me, Steve Bruce has done the job he should have done when the Cardiff and Reading performances are the abberation. Our last game was more at the Cardiff/Reading end of the spectrum than the Norwich end. Bear in mind our two good performances were against the team that everyone tonks, and a team a division below us - not saying they weren't a good wins, but am saying that is why I want to see more evidence than just those two games showing that we are fixed. This weekend should give us some more indication.

Rubbish. If the did that then most people would happily accept that he has got it, turned a corner and we are on the up. Unfortunately what is more likely to happen is that we scrape wins and draws and this argument continues. Unfortunately we could be 15 points adrift having lost six games on the trot and there will still be people saying it's not his fault and he needs more time.

Yes, it won't work when the opposition team immediately fall about laughing.

WHAT?????????? There are numerous posts about this. I have written at least twice what I would like to see from him, what I would find acceptable. I'm reading your posts TRO and fair play for sticking to your guns but my word - how you have such faith in Bruce is beyond belief. It is almost like you are either not reading people's posts and think people have just got it in for Bruce and therefore ignore their opinions or you are not understanding how desperate our situation has become. If you think Bruce can turn this around I think you are going to be very disappointed by the next few months.

I would prefer to be in league with someone who knew what he was doing and was good at it, but each to their own.

Hmmmm, Elphick and Turkey, I'm sure there is a joke in there somewhere......

Seems fair.

Absolutely not. What would that achieve? If we are nowhere near promotion then why persevere with someone who is clearly not up to the job? As I keep being told, managers need time to get the team playing how they want so if we end up writing off this season I want to see someone else come in with a plan and start getting the ream/squad used to that plan and adapting to it. Why waste half a season that could be used by the new man, rather than him having to wait until the summer? Steve Bruce has to have us challenging at the top of the table by the end of September, or he has to go, no ifs, buts or maybes.

There is a whole world of difference between being motivated by not wanting to lose and being unable to sleep at night because of it.

Behave, there is absolutely no comparison between that and the guff that Bruce is coming out with. If that is the best counter argument you have then you should stop trying my friend.

**** me. Is Wyness Mental? Seriously. He respects a man who admits he is so shit scared of losing he cannot sleep at night. THAT IS NOT A POSITIVE!!!!!!!!! Find me any other manager anywhere in football that would say that. Anywhere? Thankfully that article does include the dreaded full support of the board so it shouldn't be long now.

We stopped playing defensively and attacked. We played with a player capable of holding the ball up, which allowed other players to get in on the act and push forward. We played less defensively. You are right, something clicked. However - we were playing a Norwich team that are demonstrably out of form, having been tonked by both Sunderland and Milwall before and since (although they did OK against QPR), and Colchester are a division below us. But they were good performances, and instead of taking that momentum and pushing on, our manager went three at the back and invited pressure. Once again we looked lost. We have a lot of attacking players, but we are playing them in a defensive setup. Will something change over the next few games? I doubt it. Let me turn this back on something you said above - you are not sure anything is going to magically change over the next 5 games - so why give him more time, surely the sensible reason for giving someone more time, is because you can see things coming together, you can see a plan and you can see how things will turn round. I'm sorry, but as much as I want to see that, it just isn't there to see. I want to see a formation that utilizes our players talents to the best of their abilities. I want to see a 4-3-3 with either Davis or Hogan spearheading the attack, and the likes of Hourihan running in behind. I would play this against stronger teams where we need a bit more strength in midfield. I would like to see a 4-4-2 when Kodjia is back, with either Hogan or Davis next to him against weaker teams where we absolutely take the game to them. I do not want to EVER see 3 at the back for Villa again. I do not want to EVER see Gabby or Hutton in a Villa shirt again. I do not want to EVER see Micah Richards on a football pitch again (at least this one is likely). I do not want to hear bullshit excuses coming out of Steve Bruce's mouth. I do not want to EVER hear our manager blaming the fans for their expectations being too high. Which they are perfectly entitled to do Frankly no, and it is something that puzzles me. When we signed him, as I have said before I was on-board with it, I thought he would be a solid choice to get us promoted, for whatever reason he just isn't cutting it here. Maybe it is too big a job for him, maybe football has moved on, maybe he had better coaches before, I don't know. What I do know is that he is not saying or doing anything that makes me confident he will continue that trend here (did we get the correct Steve Bruce?) - and regardless of what he has done before, he needs to go.