Villarocker

Hourihane has never been an issue for me. He's not been here a year yet and needed a run in theme team played where he can have a shot at goal and it's hard to do that when you're in front of your own back four.

Looking at the Johnny Kodjia thread shows just whose fault it is for Villa' s struggles - Steve Bruce. Why? Kodjia was away at the AFCON and came back with a knock. We played 9 games in that time he was out and we took 1 point. No wins and just 1 point from 27 is shocking and a reason to sack the manager at any level of football. When Kodjia broke his leg, the club were reporting he could possibly be out until October. Did Bruce do anything about this? No! He must have started the season believing we have addressed the situation of not being able to score without JK and yet after three games we have taken just 1 point and scored 2 goals. In fact, if you go back to the game where JK got injured and include that, we are 2 draws and 3 defeats since the injury, scoring just 3 goals in those 5 games. Only one person can take the blame for making us a one man team and that is surely the manager. In his own words when Jack Grealish got injured he said “My system in pre-season was geared around Grealish and how to get the best out of him. Is that the level of tactical nous this man is limited to? If we fail to win today surely Dr Xia has to get rid of Bruce. We won this game and the Reading fixture last season. There's surely no way back for Bruce if we don't get 3 points this afternoon.

JV, does Jedinak make us a winning team or a not losing team? I thought it was that we don't lose with him playing and a winning team when he and Kodjia play? Not being arsey mate, just a curious question that someone may be able to answer with stats? Either way, it means nothing has changed since last season and that was always my concern due to us not buying a creative player in the summer.

You all need to calm down guys, he will be gone this weekend. There's no real sign we will win tomorrow and surely even Tony Xia, for all his lack of football knowledge, would not be able to tolerate seeing us take 2 points from the 12 that have been available. If he does tolerate it he will be jeopardising fan loyalty towards him and I doubt he will want to do that.

I want him to play O'Hare up front. I don't care if he is only 19 he needs to get game time and he looked more than competent enough against Colchester. OK, it was only Colchester but, maybe playing Norwich will bring even more out of him and he has a great game. If Hogan and Kodjia are out, which is looking likely, I would much rather see this lad given a chance to shine than have Gabby strolling around looking like he's still on a beach. Having said all that, I reckon it will be another predictable line-up from Bruce and we churn out yet another home draw 1-1. Hopefully, if that is the case, the final whistle is soon followed by the announcement that Bruce is no longer manager.

Long balls - that's what rugby players use. Have we regressed back to our origins?

I think Bruce will be gone for certain if we don't beat Norwich on Saturday. We need to average 2 points per game to have a go at automatic promotion and avoid the lottery of the play-offs. To have only have 1 or 2 points from our first 12 will not be good enough and I would be amazed if Tony Xia would let him off the hook with that points return. If we drew, we would basically be two wins off where we really need to be in order to maintain a 2 points per game return. We can't keep that run going and expect to get promoted, we would need change and quick. I don't think the Wigan game will put him off giving Bruce the chop. I would hope he would sack him after the game and then work on getting someone in before the Bristol City game.

Shit refs, we only get shit refs....

Is he any more amateurish than Donald Trump who also uses Twitter a lot to talk to his people? That hasn't stopped him from becoming a billionaire and leader of arguably the biggest country in the world. Xia's methods of communication may not be traditional but this is an ever-changing world and he is probably communicating in the easiest way for him to stay in touch with the fan base without having to conduct interviews with the media, which would probably take up valuable time he needs for his other business ventures. If only our previous owner gave us fans as much consideration!

People are questioning why McCormack couldn't make the bench last night and explanations being offered are speculative based on his previous well known misdemeanours. However, what explanation can be given for O'Hare not to make the bench? Maybe it is just a case of the manager and his coaching staff not seeing what others see?

Imagine how angry and pissed off Tony Xia must feel right now. He employs people to oversee things and they persuaded him to get in Bruce probably because of his record of promoting teams from The Championship. He now watches Bruce pick Gabby, a player he personally outed on Twitter for not wanting to go to Reading (I think) on loan and to get some football in, over McCormack, a player he paid a lot of money to sign. Obviously, it comes down to player attitudes and ability but surely it must anger him when he sees the goal return of Gabby against that of McCormack when McCormack has hardly had a chance since before last Christmas. He has also seen the last two managers buy a new right back each only to still see Hutton playing there ahead of them. Whelan has been brought in to look like a replacement for Jedinak whenever he is out injured and yet the guy replacing him is older and probably equally as slow! If I was Xia I would be extremely frustrated and be looking at making changes not just at Manager level but at other levels too!

I think that the players have a lot to answer for because there is a massive lack of effort at times from them. In fact, maybe a new manager might have the same problems. However, I'm sure a new manager will be able to see that a talented young lad like O'Hare - bursting to get a game and who works tirelessly - should be playing ahead of a half-arsed Gabby who has been a major let-down for the club for way too long. Bruce has to go but I do wonder if the players are really that good. Terry is slow and had top quality players around him at Chelsea. Chester looks ok when in a back three but his form has dipped a lot since towards the end of last season, in a back two. The right back position is a nightmare with hardly anyone standing out as good enough. Our two holding midfielders are not at the peak of their careers and lack pace. Hourihane and Lansbury are being deployed alongside the holding midfielder and they too lack the pace to get forward. Hogan needs someone clever around him to thread passes through to him and I think O'Hare could have the ability to form a good combination with him if given the chance. The wingers need to improve and learn how to beat a man and deliver better to the forwards. Green is still learning. Elmohamady is an unknown so far as he's not been here long. Adomah seems to be injured, lacking confidence or cannot be bothered. Something seems wrong with him. I fear a change of manager may not bring about the rise to the top that we all crave. Still, we will have more chance than by sticking with Bruce.

Fulham played 90 minutes with 10 men at Reading on Saturday and only had 4% less possession than us! Bruce is useless.

Our defence has regressed since he replaced Baker at the back. Not for one minute blaming him for our problems but I was kind of hoping for us to look even stronger at the back - not weaker!

He has to go tomorrow so that we can get someone in ASAP before too many points are lost. Not putting O'Hare in the squad at least is appalling. That lad was something different against Colchester and clearly has the flair we've been missing. He surely couldn't be any worse than Gabby or Bjarnasson.

Maybe so but why not for Bree?

You know that Bruce, after all that's gone on before he came here, is clueless when he's bringing on Gabby and Hutton to try and rescue a game. Imagine if he had an exciting forward named O'Hare on the bench or, better still, in the starting line-up. Nah, better to leave him out altogether and give him a meaningless game with the U23s. Clueless manager who needs to be given his P45 immediately after the game tonight.

Reading, at home, couldn't beat a team of 10 men on Saturday despite playing against 10 for all bar 40 seconds! The had only 6 shots on goal and have a total of 8 shots on goal for their two games so far. We have a total of 6 shots on goal so only two shots worse off than them. There should be nothing to fear tonight but the pessimist in me sees us struggling to hold on for a draw. Come on Brucey, surprise us all and go at them all guns blazing. These fans need to see something to be proud of for a change!

What the hell is Bruce talking about when he says "maybe we're not ready to play strikers again"? What exactly does that mean?

I dread to think what the team will be tonight. I can see him going very defensive given the fact we could have conceded 7 or 8 last Saturday and Reading were in the play offs last season. Reading played against 10 men for over 90 minutes on Saturday and only scored one goal. We shouldn't fear them at all and go at them but I can't help but feel Bruce will go all defensive and we will cling on to a 0-0 draw and what he will think is a good point.

I'm not his biggest fan and do think he needs to go but, I don't think he's to blame for the sale of Baker. I read on the OS that he didn't have any thoughts on Baker leaving and was then told Bristol City had made an offer that the club thought was good. He said Baker wanted first team football but he couldn't guarantee him it and so he wanted to go. Pointless keeping a player that wants away. I also don't agree with the claims the signings weren't his wanting. He said he needed cover for Jedinak so that explains Whelan. Terry was available so that was an obvious one. Elmohamady was also an easy one to point at Bruce. My concern with the Elmohamady signing is that Bruce sees him as the flair player we need to create more chances - I don't see that.

Should be starting this lad tomorrow night. We're clueless in attack so he needs to do something different and who else looks as exciting with the ball at his feet besides this lad?

Hardly convincing is it? He's boring and that will pass on to the players and shows through in his style of football. We need a change and quick enough to give the new gaffer more time to get a grip of this season.

You have to imagine yourself in Xia's position and ask what you would be thinking/doing about the current situation. Fans think with their hearts but businessmen will think with their heads. Xia saw RDM have 11 games last season. Bruce got something like 34 and was unable to make the play-offs. Xia will be thinking that 11 games was too many and that Bruce has already had plenty of games in order to get these players playing good football. Xia will be more prepared to make the next replacement and probably has a list of candidates, if not one person (Moyes?) in mind. Xia also has comparisons to make now as we are playing teams that we played against last season and, on the face of results, can make judgements on whether he believes us to have improved or not. That's why I believe that Bruce has tomorrow and maybe Saturday at best to save his job. If we lose tomorrow, I would not be surprised at all to see a replacement, probably Moyes if it happened that quickly, in before Saturday.

Last season he admitted we relied too much on Jedinak and Kodjia and it was clear to see we struggled without them. It's no surprise to see us not win our first two games when he has done nothing to address the problems we had last season. Whelan might be the answer for Jedinak long term but right now he is still adjusting to life in the Championship with a new set of teammates around him. There was no answer to the lack of creativity we had last season. That is going to come back to haunt him.