wilko154

He needs a player like Davis next to him up top to bring him into the game, the way we play its useless leaving him up on his own. Unfortunately for him Bruce is now just using him as legs to chase down in the last 15 minutes. Started to come into the game a bit at the end, his touches improved slightly, but overall not enough time to establish himself.

Superb tonight, he's very much the dirty footballer that goes largely unnoticed in games. Gets around the pitch and restricts the opposition from moving the ball between midfielders and the forwarders.

Agree with this, he brings players into the game and keeps the possession for the team. His passing accuracy was around 85% when he went off. Massive find from Bruce (whether it was luck with Kodjia out or not), but it makes you think what sort of an impact a fit RHM could also make as he was last season touted as the next big thing from our academy.

Take back my pre match comments, we were magnificent tonight. Perfectly managed by Bruce throughout the game. We played some decent stuff at times, and then when the inevitable onslaught at the end came around we defended brilliantly. Against a better side we may have needed to take a few more of the chances we had, but 2-0 away from home you can hardly complain about too much. Terry, Hutton, Hourihane, Whelan and Davis all superb tonight.

Disappointed and we havent kicked off yet, its going to be a long night. Criminal that a) Hutton is starting at left back even though Taylor is back and b ) Grealish, Lansbury & O'Hare haven't made the bench. Pretty annoyed that we haven't had the balls to go 4-4-2 and give Hogan a go as well.

He's injured anyway

Can't wait for this game tonight... which means it will be a thoroughly depressing, dull game where we set up to not concede... Not that I'm a pessimist My choice of side would be: Johnstone Elmo Chester Terry Taylor Snodgrass Whelan Hourihane Adomah Hogan Davis For me 4-4-2 is the way to go here against what their fans are describing as a make-shift defence. It's last chance saloon for Hogan but I think he will massively benefit from having Davis next to him to bring down the inevitable long balls forward. The two of them together along with Adomah & Snodgrass should be able to do some real damage and alleviate the pressure on our own back 4. A bench consisting of at least 3 or 4 of Onomah, Jedinak, Grealish, Lansbury & O'Hare and we should have too much for Preston.

Unchanged from last week then

Sheff Utd are actually a very good side, first time I have watched them this season.

Brilliant description there. What happens if we go up this season? Come March 2019 do we have a combined maximum loss of £63m again as it will be 2 Championship & 1 Premiership seasons? Or do promoted clubs have an allowance to catch up with the ridiculous money being thrown around the Premiership?

Realistically though a 40 million fine would be preferable to dropping points and losing out on promotion... This 40 million fine has been incurred from 2013/14, if QPR had established themselves in the Premiership it would have been a minor insignificance now. 40 million fine to be paid in 2021/22 after establishing ourselves in the Premiership with Tony Xia? I would take it

Back fit... I hope our social media team stop calling him 'The Beard' this season, it's embarrassing.

I would say Chelsea vs Arsenal is a rivalry Blues vs Villa is a derby

Chelsea don't really have a rival in the sense of a local derby. QPR & Fulham are probably their closest rivals and that is nothing like Villa vs Blues. I understand where you are coming from though, Terry is used to pressure and this will be nothing to him.

Can anyone give an out of 10 on Designated Survivor as I may start it this week?

Yeh I take that back I haven't taken too much notice of their results the last few weeks! Not quite as confident now

Unfortunately you are quite right here, a change won't happen and so there is no point continually discussing it. We've had a run of 4 games in which we have won yet people in this thread are still on the managers back, not prepared to believe that he has found a winning formula. As soon as we lose a game the knives are sharpened and back out for him. He got it wrong Saturday, the players didn't turn up and we were beaten by a better team who have spent a lot of money. On to the next one at home next weekend where we can take 3 points against a weak Fulham side

The over reaction here is quite impressive, we had a poor day yesterday and unfortunately Wolves were really good. A few weeks ago they played poorly themselves against Sheff Utd and lost 2-0... everyone in this league has a bad week To say we are miles off target for promotion is a bold statement when we are only in October, 1 point off the playoffs and 5 points off the automatics. We now have 2 winnable games and then a 6 pointer for a playoff place against Preston Yes we lost a game, but we've come off the back off an 8 game unbeaten run. No need to panic just yet

Interesting read if true, 4-4-2 it is! http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-boss-steve-bruce-13758375

Really hope Bruce doesn't bottle this and play defensively, after watching his interview he seems concerned by their attacking trio. If we adjust our tactics to match their strike force, playing 3 at the back or dropping a CDM in, then it will reduce the attacking intent of our own side and pile some more pressure on us. In this league we shouldn't fear any team, our squad is more than capable of beating anyone without having to adjust our tactics.

Back in full training! Make or break time for Mr Grealish

Give the bloke a chance, he's been out of the team for a couple of week's due to the way the current side is playing but it doesn't mean he won't break back into the team this season. If anything the competition for a place in the team should bring out the best in the players who have found themselves outside of the starting 11. See Conor Hourihane for evidence of this this season. I actually think Lansbury could do a similar, possibly better job than Whelan in a midfield two.

I had the same letter, it say's that they will honour the promotional offers currently active and so you will continue paying what you are paying until the end of the 12 months.

You clearly weren't at the game today. You say 'Before playing us, they had played and lost seven games without scoring'... well know they have played and lost eight games without scoring. They were a well set up team who came to Villa Park with a game plan, unfortunately their game plan was aided by the referee's inability to issue yellow cards early on in the game. We had more possession but found it hard at times to break down Bolton with 10 men behind the ball, but we still came away with 3 points in spite of this. I'm pretty certain a 4th win in a row and 8 unbeaten games is generating a fair amount of confidence at the moment. Just because we are Aston Villa doesn't give us the divine right to beat teams at the bottom of the table by 4 or 5 goals.

So are you saying when we play badly we should slate Bruce... but when we play well we should all be silent and wait for him to fail again? No one thinks this is what Bruce planned, they are just happy that we are beginning to look like a serious football club again. Bruce get's a lot of stick, and early on in the season rightly so, but the players had to take a look at themselves as well. They are now performing well together under some decent tactics from Bruce and long may it continue.