wilko154

Any manager going into the season with this squad should have achieved these results as an absolute minimum: Hull (a) - Win Wigan (h) - Win Ipswich (a) - Win Brentford (h) - Draw Reading (h) - Win Sheff Utd (a) - Draw Blackburn (a) - Win Rotherham (h) - Win Sheff Wed (h) - Draw 21 points which would now see us 3 points clear at the top of the league... Now we look at it if we had sacked Bruce at the international break and brought in someone else, minimum results should have been: Blackburn (a) - Win Rotherham (h) - Win Sheff Wed (h) - Draw 16 points, two points off top but in the playoff places and a team on the up. The longer this goes on the further behind we go. It's all well and good saying 'it's a long season ahead', 'there's plenty of points to play for' but the last two weekends have seen results go in our favour and we haven't capitalised on it. If we have any chance of going up we need to change things NOW

Has he gone yet?

Poor yet again... I almost find myself not even caring anymore. Until Bruce goes this isn't going to change, he's tactically clueless and has no idea what his formation or best 11 is. He's spent the summer adding to his side with McGinn, Abraham, Bolasie, El Ghazi but has no idea where he is going to play them all... surely you buy players to suit your formation and style of play?! It seemed as though we changed formation every 15 minutes yesterday... 4-4-2 to start with. Abraham and Kodjia both similarly static up front, both are the same type of player making it seem as though we have 10 men on the pitch. Grealish out on the left after playing some of the best football of his career in centre midfield last season. Jedinak at centre back after being shambolic all season. 4-1-4-1 before half time. The change of formation made sense and we were crying out for the change, but instead of McGinn and Hourihane taking up centre midfield with Grealish in front, Bruce dropped Hourihane into defensive midfield?! Second half we went back to 4-4-2, the formation that for 40 minutes in the first half hadn't worked at all, for the reasons stated above. Grealish moved back outside and again went missing from the game. 78 minutes rolls around, 2-1 down and Bruce takes off Kodjia and puts on a winger and again switches to 4-1-4-1, one striker on the pitch and now a defensive midfielder (who is not really a defensive midfielder) It's an absolute shambles. If Bruce isn't gone tomorrow morning then I just don't know what to say anymore. We are throwing our season away yet again. I'm going to Bristol on Friday, and not even looking forward to it one bit... We need to make a this change as soon as possible, the board can't wait until the next international break to do it.

Correct

Lee Martin

We don't need to spend big, we've pulled in some big names on loan for this season and now have arguably the best squad in the league. Looking down at the pitch on Tuesday night we had Kodjia, Abraham, Bolaise, Grealish, McGinn & Hourihane all playing together. If Bruce can't get us promoted with these players then he will never get a club promoted again. There are no excuses for not being promoted this season, and then the FFP restrictions are lifted. If not we only have ourselves to blame.

If I remember correctly James Collins is the king of hoof ball football so should slot straight into a Steve Bruce team...

I want to know who the hungry international we brought in during 2012 was...

Like I said, after a clean sheet why change the defence. Also Jedinak would be the better option against Nuhiu or Fletcher who are both big and physical strikers.

Woud go with this as I think Wednesday have the potential to overrun a two man midfield Nyland Elmo Chester Jedinak Hutton McGinn Hourihane Bolasie Grealish Kodjia Abraham No need to change a defence after a clean sheet, and Jedinak against Nuhiu or Fletcher would be the best option.

Wasted out on the left, needs to be played through the middle to influence games.

The best left back in the league he is not...

Thought he was poor as well, but would benefit by having some experience in front of him (Bolasie), like he had last season with Snodgrass. For me he needs to be starting each game there now with Bree the option to replace him and challenge him for the first team slot.

Good result, and a better performance but far from perfect still. To be fair to Bruce his team selection was spot on, Jedinak played as they had a target man up front that they looked to all game and he dealt with him very well. This is exactly the type of change he should be making when required. Tactically I am not keen on the 4-4-2, a 4-2-3-1 would have suited the players in that side a lot more and created a lot more attacking intent. Kodjia and Abraham work very well together, but are too similar and static at times meaning the midfield struggle to find players to build up the play. The 4-4-2 is also taking Grealish out of the position he has excelled in and stops him running at defences through the middle as he did to great effect last season. Nyland - 6/10 - Solid perfomance from him, he didn't have a lot to do but was good when called on. Came out for a few crosses which was good to see, and dealt with a horrible backpass well. Slowly improving. Hutton - 6/10 - Decent enough performance from him, a pretty typical Alan Hutton performance. Solid at the back, hassled their wingers enough to stop them going past him. Going forward he is all intent with no purpose, but you have to love him for that. Elmo - 6/10 - Thought he was fairly poor last night, but gave himself an extra point with a fantastic cross to Bolasie to kill the game off. As we saw last season though he does have off games. If I was James Bree I would be seeing an opening coming up at RB soon. Jedinak - 7/10 - Played very well, dealt with all of the long balls forward as you would expect. He will get caught out against teams playing the ball on the floor but last night was the perfect game for him. Chester - 8/10 - Solid as always, dealt with everything perfectly. McGinn - 9/10 - Superb last night, a typical battling display wins the majority of 50/50's and is always a threat going forward. Linked up very well with Hourihane and between the two of them they ensured our midfield wasn't overun. Played a cross field ball in the first half with the outside of his foot which was sensational. Looked back to his best last night after a few shaky performances. Hourihane - 7/10 - We've missed him in the middle of the park. Pure energy for 90 minutes, harries players at one end and then pops up at the other end to help out play though the middle or out wide. For me he's like a Petrov, you miss him when he's not there. Linked up well with McGinn and it looks as though it could be a very good partnership. Grealish - 6/10 - Quiet game from Jack but played in the wrong position. Played on the left he doesn't see enough of the ball and can't impact the game in the same way he does through the middle. If he were to be played ahead of McGinn and Hourihane we would dominate possession through the middle. Glimpses if what he can do when in posession out wide though, and did well to create Abraham's goal. El Ghazi - 6/10 - Another quiet game, nothing seemed to come off for him first half and lost his patience with a stupid challenge to pick up a booking. Wasn't really helped much by Elmo behind him, and we looked a lot better on the right when Bolasie came on. Glimpses of what he can do and he's not afraid to take on a man. Kodjia - 7/10 - Linking up well with Abraham and looks back to his best taking on players. Rolled a player easily in the first half and should have scored, fantastic pass to set up Abraham. Not sure if anyone noticed the Rabona cross he tried in the second half... everything that's wrong with him as a player, he could have easily slotted it across the box to put us 2-0 up. For me he needs to played out on the left as he can be too static up front alongside Abraham. Abraham - 8/10 - Exactly the striker we have been crying out for. Brings the ball down well and is physically imposing, great with his feet. Took his goal well and looks as though he will bag a load this season. Bolasie - 7/10 - Looking like he will soon be on the pace. Constant threat in the time he was on the pitch and will terrify defences. Adomah - 6/10 - Did well when he came on, chased down every ball and moved up top when required. Bree - 6/10 - Did enough when he came on.

Agree with the above... Hourihane McGinn Grealish This should be our midfield for 80% of games this season. Bjarnasson can then come in for either Hourihane or McGinn when needed as he is also an active box to box midfielder. Jedinak and Whelan can be used in the defensive midfield role in games where we tactially need a player in there (for example Jedinak against SHA last season), or come on for Hourihane or McGinn late on in games to shut up shop.

He pretty much can guarantee goals most games though... He scored 11 goals in 46 appearances last season with 2 assists, the first centre midfielder since David Platt in 90/91 This season he's scored 2 goals with 2 assists in 9 games, yet only played 390 minutes (effectively 4.5 games) Without Hourihane in the side we are missing out on goals, as of yet McGinn hasn't started chipping in with any. As I've said numerous times though, Hourihane and McGinn should be playing together as our midfield with Grealish ahead of them, its almost the complete midfield.

I've been saying this for the last two years... we should be able to play 99% of teams off the park in this league, with this squad. Unfortunately we seem to bypass the midfield again and again with long balls to strikers who aren't target men.

Nyland will only get better with a settled defence in front of him. He's started his time at Villa with a CB at RB, a DM at CB and a RB at LB. He needs time to develop and gel into a new team as much as the rest of the players, possibly even more so as a goalkeeper. We will see both Nyland and Tuanzebe improve over the next few weeks as long as they are consistenly playing together.

Will add this to my list. 1996 so 22 years old! Don't know how I've never heard of a film with Matthew McConaughey, Samuel L Jackson, Kevin Spacey, Sandra Bullock, & Kiefer Sutherland!

Currently catching up on some films i've missed over the years. Just finished Mud, what a great film! McConaughy is superb as usual! Can anyone give me any other good one's he's in?

Disagree with that... not the dropping Kodjia part, they should both be in the first 11. Thought he was very good when the ball was played to feet, linked up well with Kodjia and was unlucky not to score. Unfortunately, yet again we are playing long ball football, bypassing the midfield and hindering a striker we have brought in. It happens again, and again. Abraham was visibly annoyed with the way the balls were being played to him and I'm sure he will make his feelings known before tomorrow night.

I would have been more dissapointed with Abraham if he wasn't screaming at McGinn after that, he would have been through on goal one on one with the keeper.

The players on the pitch are the ones not winning games... shall we arrange protests against each of them as well? Maybe we could have a protest against Nyland on Saturday for conceding too many goals this season? Next home game we could protest against Grealish for not assisting enough goals this season? Protest against Adomah for not being as good as he was last season? Or we could get behind the team for 90 minutes, and make your feelings known on the final whistle if things havent improved. The owners don't need protests to know that the football isn't good at the moment, they will be watching.

So you want to lose two home games in order for the manager to be sacked. This is exactly what is wrong with some of our fans. I'm not happy with Bruce at the moment, but I hope he can turn it around this season.

Jacks problem at the moment is that he is having to track back to do some of the work that he shouldn't have to be doing. When he's doing this it stops him playing attacking creative football. We looked like this on Saturday: Abraham Grealish Adomah McGinn Elmo Jedinak Each time McGinn dropped in to help Jedinak out (whose legs have now gone), Grealish was having to drop in to play the centre midfield role or track all the way back to help out. We need to play like this: Abraham Kodjia Grealish Bolasie/El Ghazi Hourihane McGinn We now have two players with legs doing all of the tracking back and driving forward sat right behind Jack. Alongside him he has two attacking wingers, instead of two wingers set out to cover our full backs. Automatically he now has options ahead, left, right and with a Hourihane or McGinn pushing forward he has at least one right next to him. He's a special player and he needs to be given that free role in the middle of the park to do what he wants, he automatically draws two players to him every time he gets the ball leaving space for the other players around him.