tomav84

it is indeed part of the game. weird day all round across the leagues, some very strange results around and a good few bets lost (mine included)

i havent posted a lot...but have read many of the 100s of pages on this thread, and this is the best ive seen on this thread so far in my opinion

i agree however i feel we are only a dropped 2 or 3 points at home to sheff wed (or similar in future games) from said hysteria starting up again. as i said yesterday, i counted 3 'bruce outs' in the first page alone of the ratings thread of the blues game

anyone who wins promotion deserves a crack...players and managers. i often cite bournemouth in this situation, they are still playing with a lot of the players from the championship and even league 1 days cause they gave them a shot and largely have delivered

Will be all good until the dressing room is lost becuase they dont see what they did as an error. Or when they try and pass the ball from the back 4 becuase they were too scared of clearing their lines and regrouping for fear of being labelled a 'turnover tart' and consequently lose the ball in a much more dangerous area. All the while, the game is being lost because the coaches are too busy counting turnovers to analyse the game/team fitness and condition/opposition tactics etc But i'm fine with point 1, although it's moot because we dont get to watch training sessions so how are we to know that the coaches are not doing this or similar. whether we agree with what we see on the pitch or not, we must respect the fact that these guys are far, far more qualified to coach these players than you or I. If it were that easy, trust me i would be out getting my coaching badges rather than stuck in this office

Well you never know what comes next...every managerial change is a roll of the dice. The fact is that numerous fans want Bruce out now (3 clear examples in page one of Sunday's ratings and reactions thread alone) and i would just be interested to see the stats to see if its the majority, or just a vocal minority on the basis that I've yet to meet a fan in person that wants him gone, yet there are plenty on here and social media. Christ there were plenty hoping we would lose the boro game if it meant him going...had we lost and we had sacked him would we have gone on the run of form that we did? Who knows...all i know is as long as promotion is a possibility, keep him in. It's not pretty, but he's getting the results to stay in the hunt

trouble is i think a lot of folks are in the middle...i honestly couldn't answer that question because i wouldn't say I'm happy with him, bit not exactly unhappy either

i'd be more interested to see this poll...think there would be a few more "no"s than people think

sorry...no. he was hopeless and the fact he's still out of work says it all

met too and it's definitely a bit of both (yeah I'm stating the obvious). should we have flooded the midfield more on saturday? yeah probably, but still this would probably have at best resulted in a 0-0. i dont think we have the personnel to beat these teams at the moment which is shocking considering what we've spent...and there are many parties at fault for that one. the players definitely need to find another gear from somewhere. i have a genuine fear that blues will approach sunday week like a cup final and ours will approach it, well, similar to how they have approached many other games this season

the way i see it, in terms of playing and non playing staff overall we are not ready to go up right now. i am happy for him to stay for now, because at this rate we will either make or narrowly miss out on playoffs. however way you look at it, that is progress on last season. if along the way a bloke comes along that the powers that be honestly thinks will take us to the next level, then fantastic. i guess what i mean is that only a year ago we had genuine fears of being relegated again, and i just think that it's too soon for the club to have another upheaval, even though there is a chance it might be to our benefit. i for one dont hate the championship. any team on any given day can beat each other (see blues friday evening) and i'm not quite ready to go back to having our arses handed to us week in week out by man city + co. that being said, i do want us to go up eventually - but only when we're ready, which right now we are not. i just dont believe a change of manager would turn us into cardiff or wolves. make no mistake, i dont see bruce as faultless. i was at cardiff and 6 or 7 wouldnt have flattered them, and i take no pleasure in seeing wolves tear us apart like that - believe me, it does pain me to see how far away we are. i think i'm just waiting to see how the season pans out before calling for his head when there are no obvious candidates to replace him.

Think it's more a case of looking at the likes of wolves and cardiff and realising we're more than a managerial change away from the premier league. i have accepted we're in this league for at least a couple of seasons yet, and if by some miracle we go up this season we'll be coming straight back down. i think the villa ship is quite steady at the moment. no, we're not as higher as we would like but still we're a point off playoffs and a 4 game winning run was ended by a team that have been building for promotion for a little while now and are ready for the next step. we are not, and this (in my opinion) is not bruce's fault. sorry to use your words against you, but too many folks see the risk in keeping bruce and not see the risk in replacing him

such a roll of the dice though. Could you imagine the backlash if we hired another remi garde and it didnt work out? At least a lot of the folks saying bruce out currently probably agreed it was the logical choice in the first place. I'm sure for every wagner or nuno there are plenty of gambles that didnt work out. equally it might just be that those clubs just suit them. ranieri classic example...sometimes it just clicks i suspect that there is a manager out there that can do a better job than bruce, but i'm bruce in until that's proven!

Not here specifically, but i see where they're coming from cause it was the case with the likes of veretout and gil

then the defeats previously are more down to the players than him? sorry, you can't have it both ways

think palace had better stats in de boer's last game. there's only 1 stat that matters for me every time

the funny thing is, i am yet to meet in person a villa fan that wants him gone! me and all my pals just cant see anyone better that we could realistically get and who we genuinely think would improve us.

so obviously moyes, that's worth a tenner for sure

as palace have proven, one result doesnt change the manager's future either way. someone leaked the hodgson story to the press that's why you rarely hear of it, but i would be amazed if the board havent at least started a shortlist. de boer would have been sacked eventually (maybe not the next day) but in a week or 2 even if they beat burnley 5-0 sunday in keeping with the current theme of the thread, 3 points every time, and 3 more saturday, and the one after that etc etc etc...no matter who is in charge, or who is on the pitch.

not a chance, and howe's only attempt at managing a club other than bournemouth did not end well. i live in the area and the guy has a job for life even if they go down (the exception being if they suddenly looked like going down to league one maybe)

This playing style is something that I'm cynical about. Who has decided on what the style should be and is it a style proven to be effective? Also, will the same style of play beat every team in the league? No, it won't...you have to adjust based on the opposition. Perhaps I'm confusing style with tactics but i interpret 'style' to be something along the lines of the Barca style under a couple of different managers (not sure how they play now cause it's been a while since i watched a game) but they had the players to execute this style. The opposition knew exactly what they were going to do, they were just powerless to stop it cause the lads executing this were just too damn good. For example, the defence would be surrounded by a mob of opposition attackers they would be like 'not to worry' - pass, pass, pass and danger was quickly turned to attack. As long as we have the likes of Hutton in the team (who i like btw, before I'm mistaken for scapegoating the bloke) then aside from screaming 'Villa Engine' at them from the sidelines at the top of your voice i really cant see anything changing and the ball will continue to be hoofed up field as hard as they can. And what if we did sack Bruce, and a good managerial candidate is turned away cause he doesn't agree with this style? And Moyes is appointed just because he does? Who makes the decision to change the style? Its coming across as team management from the boardroom to me...perhaps i've misinterpreted it. I like the concept - but for me it's an idea better suited to teams like Stoke, Southampton, or Everton - established premiership teams with no real danger of going down who need a plan to take them to the next level.

I doubt...he was crap at burnley and the fans were glad to see the back of him. he'll do well at bournemouth and bournemouth only in my opinon

i remember those 3 games a few years ago when we beat newcastle 4-0, derby 6-0 then blues 5-1...not that long ago ;-)

This post is not meant as a dig to anyone, but just out of interest...what would it take for those firmly with two feet in the 'Bruce out' camp to switch to 'Bruce in'? Whilst i accept that one performance shouldn't drastically change an opinion, for better or worse, lets say that we go to Bristol and turn them over comprehensively, and follow it up with some impressive performances and results, how many would it take for opinions to change? I'm sure I've seen posts saying they would still want him out if he took us up as he isn't the right man to keep us there, which to me sounds odd...i think if you have been promoted, you deserve the right to play/manage in your new division (see Bournemouth, who had much the same team out when they played us in their first game). FWIW, I was leaning towards 'out' after the Cardiff game but back on the fence now after Norwich...

you also didnt mention mckormack. we have spent more on players than several premiership teams and are in the bottom 3 of the championship after scraping a mid table finish last season. the return on investment so far has been shocking