Villarocker

Makes you wonder what words of wisdom are spoken during the half time interval.

I don't think people have a problem with us winning games. I think that people see the lack of quality in our play, the going defensive when we take the lead and scrambling around trying to stop opponents from scoring and just holding on to one goal wins, and fear that this will not stand up to the tests of the likes of Wolves, Leeds, Cardiff, Boro etc and will result in us dropping too many points to be able to have a chance of promotion. That's where I'm at anyway.

I don't think it is too late for Bruce to get sacked. If, by the end of December and having played half a season, we are say around mid table and more than a couple of wins off the play-offs, I could well see Xia swinging the axe.

Nothing to do with the past 40 odd games for me. Yes, he has a better squad. No, the football isn't better. However, the results are improving simply because of the quality of the squad. I think a better manager could run away with this league with this squad. For the record, our squad has improved since the same fixture last season. To counter that, Forest's squad has gone the other way. Yet, they still outplayed us for the majority of that second half and could (should?) have gotten something out of the game.

I said to my brother last night, about 40 minutes into the game, "we are in danger here of that classic case where we should have taken our chances, go in a goal up, the opposition come out refreshed from a bollocking, and we concede an early goal second half". When it happened my brother said "just as you predicted". How many other fans would have had that exact same thought? It was so predictable. Those players cannot be playing so defensively by accident, they must be following orders from Bruce and, if so, that is just not good enough. It's nothing to do with who he is, who he managed previously, what he looks like etc - it just isn't good enough! A better team than Forest would have gotten something out of that game last night and, like others have said, playing this way, you can only see us gaining unconvincing wins against lower opposition and then struggling against any other team with a bit of quality about them. Why? Because we are just so predictable!

I understand what you say that simply being offensive doesn't mean that winning is a given. However, it's pretty difficult to concede a goal when the ball is at the other end of the pitch!

I thought the defence was ropey last night. How many times did the slightest bit of movement from Daryl Murphy give him a chance at goal? There were two occasions when he was surrounded by 4 Villa shirts yet he still got a header in at goal. I'm pretty sure that he didn't even move on the one occasion and just found that the ball came straight to him and he just had to head it goalwards.

Go a goal ahead and defend - wtf is that all about? It's so negative and dire to watch and all you find yourself doing is sitting there thinking "they will score next. It really is not good enough and, like Trent says, not good enough to get us up.

Yeah, he's really 49 year old.

That sub should have been the one before. How f@#king negative can a manager be after going ahead? Lansbury mentioned something earlier in the season about scraping one goal wins, to me, it seems like Bruce has tried to instil that mentality in the players pre-season.

Is have swapped Snodgrass for a right back and put Elmo right side attack. Kodjia was great and should have stayed down the middle. The way Forest are playing and we have changed things I can only see an equaliser.

All hail Bruce, he taught Kodjia how to supply a goalscoring pass!

Formation = 4 - 3 - 3 Tactics = Keep it tight lads and please, please, please take your bloody chances when they arrive!

We need to be on approx. 40 points at the halfway stage of the season. We will need to take 30 points from the next 15 games to do so. Sounds a lot but, to be fair, Bruce did say earlier in the season that we need to aim for 2 points per game. We just need to start doing it now.

And therein lies the problem for most fans IMO. Whichever team he puts out, we often find ourselves struggling to create chances. Tonight's team had Onomah, Lansbury, Hogan and O'Hare in our lineup and still we struggled to create a chance. Who coaches the attacking part of training at Villa? Whoever they are, they need to be replaced.

God help us if Terry, Chester or Taylor gets injured. The back up CB's and left back cover Bruce has left us with is just not good enough. Bamford had scored 1 in his last 42 before tonight!

Don't worry lads, Bruce is concentrating on automatic promotion now so let's not go thinking there's a crisis. The mass hysteria is about to begin - Villa for the Championship title! No cup games to distract us until the end of January so a nice, clear 4 months to win Championship games.

0-2 and Thor did a great job of losing his bearings and not jumping to allow Bamford a free header

That's a good point you make about there being no runaway teams this season. Like you, I thought Leeds were showing signs of being the main contenders for the title and then they go and get beaten at Millwall. I think this season might contain many different teams filling the top 6 places throughout the season and there could be all to play for right until the very last game. Also, the points tally needed for top two finishes could be lower than usual which would give us an even better chance. We just need to make sure we stop with the 0-0 draws at home.

My thoughts exactly. I think he does a good defensive job but at least 4 times yesterday, in the second half, the ball was played around between our players, in order to keep possession, and as soon as it got to Taylor he just clipped a hopeful ball down the line that reached nobody from our team. He needs to protect the ball more and play it simple if it means we keep possession.

I certainly don't wish for Villa to lose or play poorly in order for Bruce to be sacked. I also don't want him to fail because that means the club and team fails. I have just got to the point where I expect those from Bruce and have not seen enough in terms of performances to believe he has found a way of making us promotion candidates. If he gets the time and we win 4 or 5 of the next 5, 6 or 7 games, I might start believing he has found the formula to success with this team.

We were not outstanding tonight and ahouldnt be fooled by the result. We beat a team that had lost 50% of its last 20 league games so always had a great chamce of winning that game. Let's see what happens in the next 3 or 4 games and then judge him.

Bruce is more about hope than optimism. Why can't he say something like "we were good today but can improve and will improve because that's what will take us up" instead of "let's hope we can continue this into the next game"? That is bollocks and really needs to change. Talk like future champions instead of hoping we can make play offs FFS.

We will churn out yet another 0-0 or 1-1 today and tomorrow morning he will be gone. I said 8 games at the start of the season and my mind hasn't been changed by what I have seen from us this season. Regarding the "abuse". People in the game, especially those that have been in it as long as Bruce, know what to expect from the fans. They shouldn't moan about it either because pretty much each and every one of them will have given abuse to the referee or other match officials in their careers. If they give it they should be able to take it. Also, how many players or management staff would have sat there and not slagged off the fans when they have heard rumbles of moaning following a poor attempt at goal or a missed pass? Of course they would sit or stand there and say something like "they couldn't effing do any better". I remember a previous Villa manager swearing his head off at players, officials. I've heard opposing managers doing the same so they should be able to take it too!

Bruce himself said, I think it was after the Cardiff defeat that, if we're still playing like that after 10 games he will be sacked. We're now not far off the point where Xia can replay that comment to him before giving him is P45.