DaveAV1

I'm sorry but I don't see how it's the same principle. Youth players need time and the manager needs to see what they can do in a first team situation. Where's the value in giving more game time to the likes of Gardner and Bacuna?

It's the thought that counts

I like many others are very concerned about what will happen if Steve Bruce continues next season. Which brings another concern to mind in my opinion. We are led to believe that the club, with Steve Round leading the way, are intending to build an on pitch identity, so that whoever is the manager, we play "The Villa Way". Please, please tell me that we appointed Steve Bruce as a quick, albeit failed, fix and that what we have witnessed over the last few months is not the board's vision of "The Villa Way".

Is it the one with three big bunnies?

I should learn to type faster!

Amavi is so defensively frail, he needs too much time on the ball. He's better further up the pitch, at least his mistakes are in less dangerous positions. Next time we're offered £25m we all know what we should do! Perhaps an early goal against will see us attack more?

I'm sure there was nothing malicious on your part. I myself like Steve Bruce as a bloke, he passes my, "would I have a pint with him", test. However I want to believe he will get us promoted, but a part of me doubts him. I'm not sitting on the fence, more leaning up it waiting to see how things develop. I'm sure though that anyone who is obsessed enough with The Villa to come in here and spout on like we all do, whatever their opinion is, wants only what's the best for the club.

I think that's a bit harsh on GH, I don't think for a moment he's waiting for him to fail, he just thinks he will. I seem to remember a post of his not that long ago when he was showing signs of putting a tentative foot on the platform of The Steve Bruce Express. To be fair I've bought a ticket but I'm concerned that we may not have enough coal to get up the hill.

I think this is a very strong reason why the board will be reluctant to sack him. They are desperate for stability and are aware also that Steve Bruce is a popular guy. I'm not suggesting it's a popularity contest, but he has lots of friends in the game and support at the moment from a lot of Villa fans, whilst a lot are undecided, me included. Remember the shit we got when Timmy was sacked? And let's face it he was, in my very humble opinion, a disasterous, clueless fraud. The club want to try to break the appoint, struggle, sack, repeat cycle, which is a very sensible aim but not at all costs. That's the tricky bit, where do you draw the line? I'm glad it's not my decision and hope that we don't have to make it and SB gets us up as Champions by this time next year.

I don't think he had any bottle or interest in the first place. He certainly couldn't be bothered to buy a midfield.

Surely the point is that Kodjia has clicked this season. Another player may or may not have clicked, we will never know. Similarly you can't guarantee that a striker will be just as good next season. There are very, very few strikers that score 20 goals per season and at this moment in time, they are out of our league. So this being the case good teams score goals from a spread of players, which limits the damage done when the star man has a drop in form, gets injured etc. Relying on one player for goals is a very dangerous game.

This is a concern I have too. For me the rest of the season is an opportunity to set out our stall for next season. If we continue to win games with the same style of play, then I think that could be a problem next season. If however we try to have more attacking intent, I don't mean Bruce turning into Pepe, just trying to score more than one goal per game, then I'd feel more confident of promotion. If we continue with the same style and fail to win many games, especially a week on Sunday, then I feel the board may feel they need to review the situation. I'm 80/90% sure Steve Bruce will still be manager come August. However we have plenty of football people at the club now and although they seem to be putting a lot of value on stability, which is a strong argument, particularly after the turmoil of the last few seasons, I doubt this will be a blind mantra and alternative solutions will be investigated.

BruceBruce? Are you implying that our manager is the managerial equivalent of Eric Djemba-Djemba? A player so good they named him twice.

That might need a bit of photoshopping . He said reclining in his glass house!

At 54, 66 doesn't seem so far away and so I'm on a mission to make 66 the new 36. I'm looking for a poster boy to lead the campaign

"Merchantable". What a thoroughly modern thinking, progressive footy fan you are young TRO. You're now a fully signed up member of the Soccerball Society (President Paddy Reilly). How is Paddy? Actually has anyone ever seen TRO and Paddy in the same room...........?

That's the perfect summary for me, exactly what I think.

If only we had a player called Max......

I think the vast majority of us would put results over performance. However never mind the aesthetics, my concern is that we don't look in control. Yes we are undoubtedly defending very well, but it seems to be very back to the wall. If we were defending 10 or 15 yards further up the pitch, then I would say that's comfortable. We would also not be leaving the striker(s) so isolated and giving the opposition more to think about than just continually attacking us. Defending so deep means that we are always so vulnerable to a mistake being punished with a goal and with us not scoring many, then that's a problem. If Norwich had been wearing the same goal scoring boots as they did yesterday, then we may have been having this discussion a week ago.

I think Steve Bruce will be our manager next season and his track record, even as recently as last season, should fill us all with confidence. However his time here does raise some questions for me. Primarily I would say that his style of play and the performances have been pretty consistent. However the results have been far from it. I don't want to return to the possession debate, I'm talking about the overall play and set up when I'm looking at the performances. So why have we had great runs of results and terrible runs of results despite playing pretty much the same every match? The only real explanation I can come up with is the Kodjia factor. Which is a concern, in that no striker maintains that form, or stays fit, for an entire season. He's got teams promoted four times in the past, so he must know how to do it, right? He is still the safest pair of hands and I can't realistically think of anyone else who could walk in and guarantee promotion. However we do need a plan B and probably plans C and D.

I renewed on the phone yesterday (took me 58 minutes!). The lad who I spoke to said that the lower Holte was almost sold out and the upper not far behind. He thought the Holte would be virtually sold out next season and they were not just taking renewals but new season tickets too. I don't know if the new ones were ST virgins or returning to the fold. Still it's all good news

With the type of run we've been on results wise, I would have hoped that confidence would have been sky high and the team as a whole would have felt more like taking the game to the opposition. Even very defensive minded teams like West Brom under Pulis occasionally cut loose and score a few. However at no point have we looked like doing that. Yes we have had the odd 10 minutes spell here and there but at no point have we put a team to the sword. I've seen us win plenty of games 1-0 in my time and despite there only being a 1 goal advantage we've looked comfortable. This isn't the case with this team. I think it's fair to say in the last few home games I've watched, if the opposition had had a striker on fire like Kodjia they would have won comfortably. Set up to defend for 90 minutes and hope Kodjia scores isn't really a game plan that has any long term chance of success. We bought some apparently good midfielders in January, we need to start using them. Good sides are strong in defence and dominant in midfield. I assume SB would agree and has a plan to get the other half of the equation right?

Reading getting a tonking isn't so bad, their confidence will be shot to pieces when we play them next week. We just need another today to calm the nerves. Well mine at least!

That's more or less what everyone said about Timmy. We're a fair minded lot on the whole.

10 games left, we just have to win the last one at Wembley