Villarocker

So, if you had to watch his mistakes over and over and over again and sit right behind the dugout, at no point would you shout something abusive at the manager?

He really isn't! He should never have played for us again after the abusing us fans away at Preston in RDM's last game. He's shit and that's why Bruce demoted him to third choice. Why Bruce made him first choice is anybody's guess!

Mark, I don't like to see people suffer abuse either but, let's be realistic here, if he doesn't like it he could walk! I bet that he stays, takes the abuse and walks away with a pay-off before quitting and walking away with nothing. Hence, the abuse can't get to him that much.

I don't hate him - I hate his football philosophy. Right now, he is purely guessing and hoping for something to click ala Davis/Adomah last season. He's playing players here, there and everywhere in the hope he finds a winning formula but this time he's screwed up because he's neglected the defence, his key part of the team. Bye Steve, thanks for steadying the ship now take a boat and sail off into the sunset with pay-off in hand.

That was bollocks! Can't beat Ipswich away = difficult Vs 10 men. Lead 2-0 at home Vs bottom side in the league and we struggle to a draw and that was against the run of play. Don't give a fook what anyone says, they are either not playing for him or his tactics confuse the fook out of them.

Only if the player makes a genuine attempt for the ball.

So he's gone from screwing the back four by having a RB at LB, having a DM at CB and a CB at RB to now having a AM at LM and a CM at RM with a LM at DM. If EA made FIFA with a "lucky dip" selection option, it still wouldn't come close to what Steve Bruce does. In fact, maybe that's a new idea for the makers of FIFA - The Steve Bruce selection?

Spending the money we've spent, paying the wages we pay, we should not be just one place above our screaming neighbours. Not because they are well-dwellers but because of their financial circumstances and huge difference in quality between squads. What happened to Bruce's belief that you need 2 points per game to get out of this league? We are currently sat on 1.4 points per game - that alone proves he's not hitting his own targets! We'd have to win the next 6 games in a row to hit the 2 points per game mark. Can anyone see that happening? If the owners have any ambition at all they need to see the bigger picture here and get rid. Bruce doesn't know how to set up an attacking team and with our defence being so poor we need to attack because we need at least two goals per game to have a chance of winning.

Bruce's "winning" strategy has been to get us into the lead and then defend it at all costs. It was ugly but effective. Trouble this season is, our defence is so poor that we find ourselves either 1) Conceding first, which means we then chase the game and leave ourselves open to the counter attack or 2) We score first but we can't defend the lead like we did in the past. The managers philosophy on how to win games has been destroyed by the managers failure to ensure a good enough defence. That's why he needs to go!

If we had a manager that hadn't left the defence so poor and without adequate cover the owners wouldn't need to be looking elsewhere because their club would be sat top of this league now.

I watched us last night and we hardly tried to close down the opposition in their third - the ball came forward way too easily!

To have it any other way would surely involve careful planning on the managers part? We've seen how he plans for opponents that aren't eligible to play against so what else could we expect?

Bruce needs to go 4-3-3. It was the lineup last season and needs to continue. Nyland Elmohamady Tuanzebe Chester Hutton Jedinak (or Whelan) McGinn Bolasie Grealish Kodjia Abraham

That was a sweet goal and one to be remembered for a very long time. There's just something special about a goal when it goes in off the underside of the crossbar. The swerve on it as well just made it that little bit more spectacular. Well done JM! My favourite goals from Villa Park have to be Saunders' long range effort and McInally v Millwall - both stunning goals too!

Does anybody know if he actually wanted to go to Spurs? See, I personally think that he wouldn't want that and would rather have stayed with Villa and play Premier League football with us, especially with the new owners taking over. Even after the takeover, Bruce went on record, just prior to transfer deadline day, saying that we didn't now need to sell Jack but anything could happen because "his head had been turned" by Spurs. I have a feeling that Bruce was planning on life without Jack and brought McGinn in as his replacement. Then, when Jack didn't have to go, I think Bruce was kind of hoping the move would still happen in order for him to get his hands on the transfer fee. Maybe Jack now feels unwanted by the manager/club and that's affected his performances this season? To be fair, he's nowhere near the player he was last season. But, hopefully, a change of manager will spark him back to life.

I don't dislike him - I dislike his management! We went a long time without losing after scoring first. Trouble is, with such a frail defence, we will often concede first and that's where our troubles will lie. Steve, thanks for steadying the ship but, unfortunately, that's all you were capable of and now it's time for you to move on so that someone more modern thinking can come in and take us back to where we belong.

Axel plays well at Blackburn, gets dropped against Rotherham and then again against Sheffield Wednesday. Rotherham will be relegated hence Jedinak looked ok but put him there against a better team and we concede two. I'm not saying Jedinak messed up for the goals but there's no doubting we were better defensively last season when he didn't play there. We don't need John Terry, we just need anyone who is used to being a centre back. Bruce should be relieved of his duties for gross negligence in leaving the defence so inexcusably frail.

Hey Trent, my son is 5 next week and I'm planning on taking him to his first game soon. Please let me know what your son thinks of it and what you think you could have done differently to maybe help him enjoy it more, if he seems bored. I'm thinking maybe a tablet with Blaze and the Monster Machines, Go Jetters, Paw Patrol on it etc just in case the game fails to deliver the required entertainment levels .

That's assuming he even has a plan! Will he pick a team planning on how to defend against Forestieri? Does he even pick the team? If he does, does he even know who is definitely unavailable to the opponents we are playing? It's utterly embarrassing that he made those comments about a player that is suspended from the game. It's like him going into a pub, reading a sign at the bar saying they have run out of Guinness and saying "can I have a pint of Guinness please". The barman looks at him bemused and says "We've got no Guinness sir, there's actually a sign just here that says that" and then, after serving him to a John Smith's says to the barmaid next to him "what a numpty!"

It makes me laugh how before every game he tries to highlight the dangerous players the opposition have. In this case he says "they've got 1,2,3,4 or 5 quality players" I mean, come on, that's just trying to deflect flak before it's even been earnt! This, to me, showcases exactly what the problem is with Steve Bruce - he worries too much about the qualities of the opposition. That results in him going into games with too much caution. He should be concentrating on the qualities that WE have and let THEIR manager worry about how to defend against US!

The stats are we are 7th in the league and only 5 points off the top. If we can be so disappointed and be where we are, surely when we get better (we must do, right?) we will start to see that gap close and that can only have us close to automatic promotion?

Totally agree with all of this post. Dropping Axel after a good performance will do nothing for the lads confidence. We can only assume Bruce still has intentions of playing Jedinak at centre back and that will undoubtedly lead to mistakes during the season. Let's hope they're not costly mistakes!

To be fair to Bruce, it's not obvious to pick someone we don't have

Also relevant - I see no changes!

"That's the way it is" reminded me of that 80s song by Bruce (coincidence) Hornsby and The Range. Something's will never change - ain't that the truth!