Re: The Steve Bruce thread

[deadbuzzardalive]

Disagree. Jedinak is the only steel we got IMO. Gardner is soft and slow. Lansbury is a highlight player and not much else from what I can see. Hourihane is alright, but more a creative cm than a grafter. Grealish is soft and pish. Adomah spends half the match on his arse.

Hourihane had the best defensive stats from midfield in the league before he we signed him (he still might). And reading a Barnsley forum there's plenty of references to him protecting the back four. I think a lot of Villa fans might have looked at his goals and goal assist stats and slighty misunderstood the type of player he is. He certainly offers steel, statistically probably moreso than Jedinak.

[Guest]

Disagree. Jedinak is the only steel we got IMO. Gardner is soft and slow. Lansbury is a highlight player and not much else from what I can see. Hourihane is alright, but more a creative cm than a grafter. Grealish is soft and pish. Adomah spends half the match on his arse.

Hourihane had the best defensive stats from midfield in the league before he we signed him (he still might). And reading a Barnsley forum there's plenty of references to him protecting the back four. I think a lot of Villa fans might have looked at his goals and goal assist stats and slighty misunderstood the type of player he is. He certainly offers steel, statistically probably moreso than Jedinak.

You might be proven correct, however what I've seen from him he doesn't look like a grafter or tough/steel player at all. I like the look of him, but he seems to be more about pressure, intercepting and breaking up, vision and passing than tackling and physical attributes. I think I've got him figured out. Fwiw I like him alot more than Lansbury from the little I've seen of them anyway.

[deadbuzzardalive]

Another thing I saw mentioned on the Barnsley forums is that he got off to a slow start there. Although I don't think he's been that bad for us.

[Cha Ching]

Managers have good and bad spells. Most will come through those and learn from them. In some cases, there's no way back from a slide bar a fresh start. Think Hughes at QPR, Mourinho at Chelsea and VanGaal at Utd. Good managers but things went wrong terminally at those clubs for them. Unfortunately for Steve Bruce we seem to be in a very similar slide to the one that got him sacked at Sunderland.

[De Kuip]

4 Bet agree with 95% of your post until I saw Amavi in your line up.
*Shudders

Yup, he frustrates the life out of me at times, I just think there is a player in there somewhere and as I said play them till they start winning, that means they will all have improved and be doing their jobs correctly. Anyway, what's up with this Oscar Borg dude, potential or ready to roll?

Ah, now, Oscar Borg.

Another player that has fallen foul of the Aston Villa curse - too many players either join us and instantly look crap, or they get a serious injury - Oscar suffered the latter and has not kicked a ball in anger for the last 6 months - only now staring to do that in fact. It's highly likely that even though there were high hopes for him maybe even getting a first team start in 2017, that certainly won't be the case for the part of 2017 that is this season.

It's a real shame as he looks the business, has pace as well as excellent positional sense and tackling, marauding forward from the LB position. He's actually been compared with Gareth Bale who of course started at LB for Soton, as he's also a dead ball specialist. This was one of the youngsters I was really excited about and getting that injury is just an absolute pisser - especially as it's at that crucial time in his development. We can only hope he makes a full return to form and potential, and I tell you what, if he lives up to his early promise, we'll be saying "Amavi who?" in no time at all. Definitely - rehab depending - a real prospect for 17/18 season.

[4BetLite]

Sounds promising matey.
Our injury record is incredible and like everything else villa.. if it can go wrong it will.

I can't wait to have Saturday's that lift the whole week for us instead that dreaded feeling of another upcoming game which affects everything in our house till the next game,then repeat!

[deadbuzzardalive]

22 points from the play-offs now... Only six from the relegation places.

[Boldfinger]

22 points from the play-offs now... Only six from the relegation places.

At least we have something to play for then. Lol
Oh how I wish for the heights of mid table mediocrity.

[De Kuip]

OT I know but the blouse getting hammered by QPR at the sty is funny as fuck.  Still there was a late consolation for the home crowd*



*If the 17 people left in the noses'' stands classes as a crowd

[deadbuzzardalive]

One win in twelve, and they're still four points ahead of us. What they're doing at the moment is pretty nornal for them.

[Boldfinger]

I think we have players that given time will make us a good team heading for the top half of the table then with a pre season under their belt we will be a decent team next year. Blues have nothing extra they are at their level and can get no better.

[achilles]

One win in twelve, and they're still four points ahead of us. What they're doing at the moment is pretty nornal for them.

It does sum up just how badly we are doing at the moment though!

[deadbuzzardalive]

Yes, we have survival to play for and that's it. Depressing that we won't have anything positive to play for now until August. Season feels pretty hollow now.

[Trotters]

The noses are turning against Zola now. Even as recently as their previous game, the majority seemed to still be behind him as they could see a style of play coming together and some decent football being offered. But getting a slap in the face like that at MonkeyWorld on the back of 1 win in 12 ain't gonna go down well*





* lol

[deadbuzzardalive]

It did cross my mind that if Bruce were to become available they might go for him. But I'm coming to the conclusion that whether we like it or not Bruce isn't going anywhere and will be here come the start of next season regardless of what happens this season.

[achilles]

It did cross my mind that if Bruce were to become available they might go for him. But I'm coming to the conclusion that whether we like it or not Bruce isn't going anywhere and will be here come the start of next season regardless of what happens this season.

That may well be but there has to be an improvement otherwise it is all rather pointless?
Unless I see a vast improvement, certainly in playing style and much more togetherness (i.e. teamwork) I will not be renewing my season ticket!

[deadbuzzardalive]

I could be completely wrong, just feels like they've no intention whatsoever of letting Bruce go.

[achilles]

I could be completely wrong, just feels like they've no intention whatsoever of letting Bruce go.

Don't get me wrong that is not a bad thing to set out to try and do but ultimately results/performances will play a part!

[deadbuzzardalive]

If we start next season poorly he'll probably find himself out of a job. Although I personally would make the change much sooner.

[achilles]

If we start next season poorly he'll probably find himself out of a job. Although I personally would make the change much sooner.

That is exactly what we did this season with RDM and look where we find ourselves so whoever starts next season has to be the manger to take us to promotion full stop, no changing!

[Trotters]

Arsene Wenger has dropped hints. Christ if I was our Tony, I'd move hell and high water to get him.in.

[achilles]

Arsene Wenger has dropped hints. Christ if I was our Tony,  I'd move hell and high water to get him.in.

Don't agree, he has done it all now, he doesn't need or want the hassle with us, we need a dynamic motivated manager someone perhaps like Wagner?

[deadbuzzardalive]

The Wenger that went to Arsenal is exactly the type of manager/person that this club needs. I wouldn't say no to him now of course, but there's little to no chance of that happening, he'll probably end up somewhere like Paris Saint-Germain.

What we need to do is find the next Wenger. I actually quite like the idea of taking a chance on someone like Vieira, but I don't think we'd take the risk, and I doubt he'd manage us, at the moment.

But if Round is as forward thinking as me makes out, he needs to show it with the next appointment I feel. As we need someone to implement all these modern ideas that he talks about.

[Dions_Bald_Head]

After those couple of tweets from Dr Xia I'd say we're just blowing hot air here - he's against making changes & he seems happy with Bruce's character (& he didn't sack RDM purely because of the results).

As I've said on the other thread, as long as DR Xia stays with us even if we go down again then I say stick with Bruce.

[achilles]

After those couple of tweets from Dr Xia I'd say we're just blowing hot air here - he's against making changes & he seems happy with Bruce's character (& he didn't sack RDM purely because of the results).

As I've said on the other thread, as long as DR Xia stays with us even if we go down again then I say stick with Bruce.

That won't happen as the supporters won't let that happen, there is absolutely no way Bruce would be in charge next season if we got relegated but I did say that Villa would never be so stupid as to appoint McLeish as manager!

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