Villarocker

To be fair, they were all 13 year olds who were talking about a different season whilst playing Fifa.

Interesting stats rom this season: Brentford have taken 7 points out of 21 against the current top 7 - played 4 at home and 3 away. Villa have taken 4 points from 21 against the top 7 - played 3 at home and 4 away. Brentford lost 3 of their best players in the summer, including one of their top scorers from last season. Villa recruited a Champions League winner to bolster our defence and Captain the team. Whether you rate Smith or not, he is doing a great job at Brentord. Villa v 'Boro stats Villa have won 3 and drew 1 of last 4 visits to the Riverside. Pulis has never lost a home match against Villa - 5 wins and 1 draw. Bruce has never won at the Riverside 8 defeats and 1 draw. Villa have a good record but the manager doesn't. Why do I feel the best we will do is sneak a point? Come on Brucey - prove me wrong and get a vital win on the board!

That all comes down to personal opinion mate. He might, he might not. Sometimes it works - ala Eddie Howe. Sometimes it doesn't - ala Dyche's first promotion season. Burnley are now reaping the rewards of keeping faith with Dyche and not pushing the panic button. All I know is this, the prophets of FFP claim that this is our make or break season. If so, I believe it is more important than ever to part company with Bruce and take a chance that someone else can come in and get us beating the teams around us at the top of this league.

Another thing about those promotions, his teams did well against their fellow promotion challengers in the seasons he won promotion. He hasn't done that last season or this and, for that reason alone, I don't think he will get us promoted.

I understand your fears mate but Howe and Dyche, whilst working on those tight budgets, probably never had the quality of player that Villa have right now. Who knows what Smith could do working with the players we have? Let's face it, whoever manages us, they are not going to get better players than this to work with whilst Villa are in the Championship, well certainly not if the FFP advisors turn out to be right.

When Eddie Howe and Sean Dyche first started plying their trades I bet there wouldn't have been many in our position fighting to sign them up but they haven't turned out too bad.

Man Utd probably took Mourinho because he is a multi Champions League winning manager but it doesn't mean he will win it for them - even though he has spent a fortune on transfers. Fans are just identifying Smith as a young manager who has his cheaply assembled team of youngsters playing attractive football that has them just outside the play-offs and seeing him as someone who could maybe do a lot better with the quality of squad that we have. It might work - it might not. Nobody can be certain of that but, what people now seem to be certain of is, Bruce does not seem capable of getting our team, regardless of personnel, to beat those who we need to beat in order to get out of this league. Hence, people want change.

Just because he identified Villa's targets and his targets, which are lower, it doesn't mean he is incapable of reaching the targets set by Villa and their fans. Ranieri probably had a target of keeping Leicester in the top flight and making them a top half team but it didnt stop him winning the Premier League.

This is the key thing for me, where Steve Bruce is concerned. For me, he and his coaching staff have shown no development of a playing style since they have been here. It simply seems like a dogged approach to every game where they want to keep it tight and try to take any opportunities that may come our way. If the above is down to him not trusting the defence hen surely he needs to take full blame for that. Elmo, Bree, Taylor, Samba, Terry and the keeper are all his players. Chester was our best defender last season and been great again this season so nothing bad can be said about him. Bruce also brought in Whelan, Lansbury, Onomah and Hourihane so if he feels the midfield doesn't hive enough cover then that is also down to him because they are his players. I just don't ever see Bruce developing a style of football that is good enough to beat the better teams in this league. We only seem to beat the lesser teams just by the fact that we are better individually than they are. Surely a new manager cannot make this bunch of players perform any worse than we have seen from them? Surely they can only improve as a team from having someone managing them into a unit that plays a certain style of football that is beyond just hoofing it into the big striker and hoping he can hold it up long enough for others to join the attack?

You surprised me there TRO. You don't think Smith would try any harder to make Villa a success than he would any other club? Surely if it's your own team there is more than just professionalism involved?

Maybe people manage their own boyhood clubs with more passion for the job. Dean Smith anyone? Bruce's heart is probably closer to Small Heath than Aston!

I tell you what mate, I fear for us if you are right. Basically, if it is mainly down to the players not being good enough, not trying hard enough and, they cannot get that managed into them, then we are royally f?*%£d.

When Bruce does get the sack he will have nobody to blame but himself. Fair enough, the players haven't performed as they probably could/should have at times but there is no doubting we have the attacking talent to be able to beat most, if not all, of the teams in this league. The tactics, or lack of them, together with poor team selection, are what has cost us this season.

They have a few but we, on paper and experience, have more. Their coach gets them playing above their group level. Our coach has a team that should be top two in this league but we struggle every time we play anyone half decent who can play a bit of football. Bruce says we'll be better on Saturday. How many fans think we will be better enough to actually win that game? I'm not one of them, thats for sure.

Bruce will surely be gone soon? When he does go, I cannot see Villa chasing a manager that's under contract at another club unless it is Dean Smith. I just can't see it but, can see them going after Smith because he has masterminded 2 of Brentford's 3 victories over Villa in their history. He's a Villa fan too and it all just fits into place. He also works on a tight budget and has his team playing some very good football and the club is punching above its weight. I actually think Smith would be a good fit for us. It would be nice to know the man in charge is one of us and feels the hurt we do when we lose. Some will say that makes no difference but I think it does. I would hope he could bring either McEachran or Woods along with him too!

I think losing to 'Boro and Bristol Titty will result in Xia wielding the axe because we will almost certainly be 5-6 points minimum away from the play-offs BUT with enough games to make up the ground.

When Bruce gets sacked it will be interesting to see whether Xia goes for someone already in a job or someone who is available. His first two appointments have been available and not worked. Actually, who was the last manager we actually took from another club? Bruce, Di Matteo, Garde, Sherwood were all available and each have been failures. Maybe the fact they were out of work was a sign of their quality? Am I right in thinking Lambert was our last manager that we took from another club? Looking back at his time here, although he seemed like a failure at the time he was with us, you could argue he was actually a success because we really probably should have been relegated during his time at the club after the funding was well and truly pulled on him. Having to buy the likes of Bowery and Stevens from out of nowhere just to get a big enough squad really left him out to dry. So, you could argue he was a success in that he sustained our Premier League survival. Dr Xia, next time can we make sure we get someone in to manage us that is not a dinosaur or unwanted.

All with no particular Villa connections. I'm not saying we need all Villa men in charge but a few behind the scenes that have the club at heart would be nice.

Having said the above, Brentford showed that you don't need two plodding midfielders to protect the back four. Bruce needs to take a leaf out of Smith's book there! Once we put Snodgrass and Onomah in the centre we dominated that game and looked much more of a threat. Whelan and Jedinak have slow brains as well as slow legs and neither can pass a ball. Brentford's Woods and McEachran dominated in there and both are great passers of the ball and the reason Brentford attack so much and at pace.

Whelan and Jedinak were in there to protect the back four last night. For Brentford's first goal, Whelan gave the ball to one of their players and the goalscorer was pretty much central to goal but Jedinak wasn't there to make a challenge. In what way did they protect the back four? Jedinak should be playing instead of Whelan - not alongside him and only Bruce can be blamed for that!

Bruce is a coward of a manager. He approaches games with the mentality of someone who was once a defender and not someone who is thinking the opposite - how to WIN the game. That starting line-up was terrible. Jedinak and Whelan are absolute dinosaurs who are just trudging through games. Look at Brentford's centre two - McEachran and Woods - they dominated that game from centre midfield. Both Jedinak and Whelan start a run by looking at the ground as is they are wishing it was a travelator. They run in slow motion and both have made very costly mistakes that have contributed to our downfall in the last couple of weeks. That's not coincidence or the exuberance of youth - it's because they are simply too slow! When we put Snodgrass and Onomah in centre midfield towards the end, we simply attacked with pace and energy. You don't need two ball winners in there - Brentford showed that! Bruce has to stop playing games with sluggish, error-ridden players in midfield. He needs youth and one of the kids out of the u23s need to go in alongside Onomah. If he is going to play Hogan he needs to put someone in behind him who can pass a football because Hogan had nothing to feed off tonight. Jack Grealish was good but he was the only one bursting forward and trying to create something. Maybe he could go out left with Adomah switching right in place of Snodgrass with O'Hare playing behind Hogan. Right now, you would do very well to find a Villa fan who thinks we would win either of the next two games. They are massive games because of the teams we are playing so, for me, we need to try to get a new manager bounce and sack him, replace him by Friday and hope the players can do something special in those next two games to give us a better chance of promotion.

I am pretty certain we will be outside of the top 6 by the 1st of Jan. I've been saying it a while, since Terry got injured pretty much, but was hoping to be proved wrong. I'd just love them to show some resilience tonight and go there and prove all their doubters wrong, if only to give us some belief that they are better and more capable than what we think. I just cannot see us winning though.

Let's hope Brentford have had the spirit and play like piss artists otherwise Farlz could be proved right.

Surely an hour with Grealish behind would hurt? Back to the game, I don't think Hogan playing against his old club would make much of a difference but that's just my opinion.

I think we will drop out of the top 6 today and then by a little further after New Years Day's game. I then think we will be hit and miss again for the rest of the season - beating those that we should beat and scraping draws and narrow defeats against the bigger teams. I then think we will come to the last 5 games of the season in or around the top 6 and then it will all come down to how we do in those last 5 games. Cardiff at home Leeds at home Ipswich away Derby at home Millwall away Assuming that Cardiff, Leeds and Derby will all be aiming for the same as us, who would trust that Bruce could get victories in those three games? Our home form has hardly been the best anyway and I just cannot see us winning one of those games, let alone all three. I think it will end in another false dawn for us with us missing out in the play-offs by at least 3 points.