wilko154

Christ, this is absolutely embarrasing. Protesting against a manager 7 games into the season whilst 5 points off the top... we aren't playing well but we are hardly going to be helping the players with something like this. Don't stay away from Villa Park, get to the ground Tuesday and get the atmosphere going, we need to get behind them and ensure we get 6 points on the board this week.

A must win game for Bruce and a must win game for Aston Villa. We need to start getting points back on the board as we have dropped far too many this season. This is certainly not going to be a walk in the park as it was two seasons ago, Rotherham are looking better this season as was proved in their win against Derby on Saturday. We need to start playing the game on the front foot, let the midfield get forward and help out the strikers whilst letting the wingers get involved instead of sitting in front of the full backs. Nyland Hutton Chester Tuanzebe Taylor Hourihane McGinn El Ghazi Grealish Kodjia Abraham Defence needs to stay the same, we've changed it too much this season. Get some consistency at the back and we will begin to look more solid, along with helping Nyland get used to playing with a settled side. Hourihane needs to come back in, we miss his tracking back and hassling players in the middle of the park. In saying that we need to let him off the leash and get forward. Hourihane and McGinn are both players who can go box to box all game, dropping in when the other drives forward letting Grealish play ahead in a free role where he performs best. On the wings Elmo and Adomah offer very little. El Ghazi, Kodjia and Bolasie are all players who bring something to the team each time they get the ball. Bolasie to come on for the last 30 minutes and get some more minutes under his belt. Abraham looked far too isolated on Saturday but linked up well with Kodjia, we need to ensure that El Ghazi, Grealish and Kodjia all play closer to him and get him into the game. In saying this no doubt Bruce's love children Elmohamady & Jedinak will both start.

Thought he did fairly well, made some decent saves again. He will get better at coming off his line, it's the same thing that Johnstone struggled with in his first season. Unfortunately for Nyland he's come in to a defense that is a shambles, it's changing in front of him every week and he's having to adapt to it each week. When Johnstone had Terry in front up him, organising the whole defense as a unit as well as organising Johnstone; he improved massively. That being said the defense looked more settled yesterday. Tuanzebe looked good and will improve with games, he needs to build a partnership with Chester. Right backs and left backs in the correct positions was an improvement, who would have thought it.

Kodjia, El Ghazi and Bolasie on the bench and we play Elmohamady at right midfield... I don't get this...

Realistically we are only 5 points off the top and with the squad we have we should be able to beat every team in this league, there aren't any teams I 'fear' this season. In saying that, with Bruce at the helm and the team playing the same type of football week in week out we will be lucky to beat anyone. We need to change the manager as soon as possible before the gap opens up any further. In our last 5 games we've taken 4 points out of a possible 15... we should have claimed at least 10 point from those games which would see us at the top of league. Unfortunately it's only going to get worse before it gets better.

Well.... Listen.... Why does every sentence start like this? ?

Can we close this thread now? If this was going to happen it would have been done and dusted by now.

De Laet now set to join Melbourne... Never given a chance at Villa, despite being the best player in pre-season and the team having a centre back at right back. A failing from Bruce yet again. https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/steve-bruce-set-sanction-loan-15145511

Yeh it's an old interview rolled out from the end of last season. I don't know why they film content like that and wait until the next season to release it.

I think Bruce is just getting the players prepared for the master plan which he will unveil after the international break Nyland Elmo Chester Hutton Jedinak Grealish Bolasie Kodjia Davis Abraham El Ghazi

That's a lot of speculation there. Without knowing the facts we can't be pointing the finger at Bruce deliberately picking the defence apart in an effort to sign Terry. The facts are our defence is poor and we neglected to sign a much needed centre half during the summer. Bruce gambled on Jedinak being ready to fill in at centre back, and so far it hasn't paid off. I would hope that have offered Terry a contract now and it is now up to him whether he takes it or moves to Russia. This would possibly the best scenario as we then have 6 months to line up a loan to buy or straight buy in January.

Abraham is magic, he wears a magic hat, and when he see's the matchball, he say's i'm having that, he scores them with his left foot, he scores them with his right, and when he's playing Birmingham, he scores all f*ckin night

This I don't see us signing a centre back at all unfortunately. It doesn't take two weeks to sign a player that currently doesn't have a club at all, especially over an international break. Happy to be proved wrong, but I think we are stuck with what we have until January.

Game week so the lineup I am hoping for... before we hear about injuries/fitness etc... Nyland Hutton Chester Tuanzebe Taylor Bjarnasson Grealish Hourihane Bolasie Abraham Kodjia Straighten the back four out, players in their proper positions. Taylor back in to regain some form and have a left footed player on the left side. Bjarnasson in, with some legs in front of the defence he can help to get forward as well when required. I don't know much about the Blackburn side this season but if they are an aerial threat you could throw Jedinak in to shield the defence. Hourihane in for McGinn, he worked well with Grealish last season. McGinn took a knock before the internationals and looked poor, we have missed Hourihane's tracking back so far this season. If Bolasie isn't fit then El Ghazi or Adomah can slot in nicely. Kodjia is a real threat at the moment and looks good when playing wide left.

The question here is... if Tuanzebe is indeed shit at centre back... why would we then play him out of position at right back. We have four right backs at the club... I get what you are saying about the VT narrative on Bruce, it does come across that everyone on his back, but let's be honest when you are going into games with 4 players playing in the wrong positions he's hardly helping himself. I'm with you on getting Huth (& Collins if we can afford it) in as if Bruce is not going to play Tuanzebe or Bedeau at centre back I would rather see one of those two playing there over Jedinak.

I would also bring in both Huth and Collins in this scenario. Maybe sign Collins till the end of the season and Huth until January when we can sort this mess out.

Huth would certainly do a job for us, he's big and physical. That alone is the main reason we are playing Jedinak there currently as Chester is not that type of defender. Huth will obviously be a lot more comfortable there as he has played at centre back his entire career. I don't understand why people are saying he is past it, he won the Premier League two seasons ago. Granted he missed all of last season, but if he passes the medical and can begin full training straight away then he should get up to speed fairly quick. Obviously between Terry and Huth there is no doubt that we should have tried harder for (or be still trying for Terry). His fitness is less of a gamble and he has the added benefit of being a dressing room leader, something we seem to be missing this season. I honestly can't believe that we have let the centre back position get into this state, and I also can't believe we haven't resolved it with free transfer early next week to get them up to speed ready for the games to begin again. It's a massive oversight by both the club and Bruce and theres no doubt it will end up costing us even more points this season.

He's been at Villa one month today and we've already made him a shadow of his former self... thats impressive even for us! On the plus he was carrying a knock last game which he should now have shaken off. I think he would suit playing next to Hourihane over a DM as tracking players back isn't one of his strong points. Box to box and getting tackles in he is superb at.

Think he will re-sign with us based on the Daily Mail article. If he is as fit as he say's he is then he could slot straight in. Be interesting to see how he gets on today. I don't think it's about money for him, more about finishing what he started last season. With a mentality like that it's exactly what we need at the club. Realistically we have added a massive amount of attacking threat and pace to our squad, a tightened defence is now the missing link to promotion this season and Terry can be a massive part of that. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6144031/JOHN-TERRY-EXCLUSIVE-Im-not-ready-retire-plenty-left-tank.html

Anyone wanting Villa to lose or Terry not to sign purely for Bruce to be sacked need to give their heads a wobble...

I take it back he's playing golf in London with Kevin Pietersen I don't think this one is happening...

Terry will be a better option at centre back than Jedinak, we need to get by until January when we can sort this mess out. As someone mentioned previously, Terry was good enough last season so I don't understand why people are now saying he's past it 3 months on...

The first day in a while that JT hasn't posted an Instagram story... could it be because he is currently at Bodymoor... Think we will see him holding a new shirt by the end of the day...

Imagine we lose to Blackburn heavily. The board decide that they've had enough and sack him. They then have 3 days to get a manager in and some time with the team before the next game. Another 4 days and we have another game. We've missed a massive opportunity to make the managerial change over a two week break.