Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[Clampy]

Of the three games coming up, I reckon we'll beat Brentford and draw the games with Sheff Utd and Boro.

[ChicagoLion]

Cheers Eddie:

[paul_e]

Bristol have Reading, Wolves and Us. We will be above them come the end of our game with them. 3 game turn around.

Could be.  Or we could struggle to score ourselves, scrape a win in 1 and draw the other 2 and then we're through that window and still a couple of points short of them and not really any closer to Cardiff.

We could all sit in out cars with the engines running in the garage too. Whatever gets you through the day.

It's called realism, a draw with Bristol would be the obvious bet given our record against top 6 sides so far.  For the other 2 away games our away record is 4w 3d 4l so it's almost impossible to predict what will happen in those games so I went for a draw with Brentford and a win over Boro.  I think that's much more likely than 3 straight wins.

As for what gets me through the day, it's not thinking about Villa results so I can guess that villa aren't suddenly going to start ripping teams apart for fun without being depressed, if you're worried that not being ridiculously optimistic about every result might affect your mood though you should probably see someone, that's pretty unhealthy.

[Ads]

No it's not, it's called your outlook driven prediction. Don't dress up your opinion as truth. Realism. Lulz. The fact is we don't know what's going to happen so all we can do is guess. Given what a surprising sport and league this is, it's never with much accuracy.

We've not played any of the sides around us at home, where we've been very strong. Who knows. Maybe Bristol will be off the back of two defeats and be a bit tender, maybe we will have ended our two game blip and be back on course having taken a clutch of points. Im not going to worry about it until at least thr 63rd minute which is usually the point we know whats likely to happen or not, at the Villa over the years.

Your concern for my health is touching though. Gentlemen, start your engines!

[paul_e]

No it's not, it's called your outlook driven prediction. Don't dress up your opinion as truth. Realism. Lulz. The fact is we don't know what's going to happen so all we can do is guess. Given what a surprising sport and league this is, it's never with much accuracy.

We've not played any of the sides around us at home, where we've been very strong. Who knows. Maybe Bristol will be off the back of two defeats and be a bit tender, maybe we will have ended our two game blip and be back on course having taken a clutch of points. Im not going to worry about it until at least thr 63rd minute which is usually the point we know whats likely to happen or not, at the Villa over the years.

Your concern for my health is touching though. Gentlemen, start your engines!

You're not going to worry about it and it's difficult to make predictions and yet you confidently predicted them losing 3 and us winning 3 and everything being great.  As for the first few sentences you do realise that you're the one who dressed it up as truth, just reread what I wrote compared to you, I said you could be right or that it could be more like I suggested.

6 wins from 11 having not played any of the top sides isn't really my definition of 'strong' but you've clearly got much lower expectations of what a side chasing automatic promotion should be achieving.  Not that you'd know, self -awareness clearly isn't a strong point for you.

[Clampy]

People think we might win the next three, people think we won't. It's just different opinions, what's the problem? Telling people to deal in realism when predicting how football matches will go sounds much like not wanting to be disagreed with.

[Ad@m]

Here's another angle - we're currently 5th favourite to get automatic promotion with the bookies and whilst they obviously get things wrong I don't hear of many bookies going bust...

[Ads]

No it's not, it's called your outlook driven prediction. Don't dress up your opinion as truth. Realism. Lulz. The fact is we don't know what's going to happen so all we can do is guess. Given what a surprising sport and league this is, it's never with much accuracy.

We've not played any of the sides around us at home, where we've been very strong. Who knows. Maybe Bristol will be off the back of two defeats and be a bit tender, maybe we will have ended our two game blip and be back on course having taken a clutch of points. Im not going to worry about it until at least thr 63rd minute which is usually the point we know whats likely to happen or not, at the Villa over the years.

Your concern for my health is touching though. Gentlemen, start your engines!

You're not going to worry about it and it's difficult to make predictions and yet you confidently predicted them losing 3 and us winning 3 and everything being great.  As for the first few sentences you do realise that you're the one who dressed it up as truth, just reread what I wrote compared to you, I said you could be right or that it could be more like I suggested.

6 wins from 11 having not played any of the top sides isn't really my definition of 'strong' but you've clearly got much lower expectations of what a side chasing automatic promotion should be achieving.  Not that you'd know, self -awareness clearly isn't a strong point for you.

Mega lulz. I'd say never change, but I'd be lying.

Its just a guess Paul. We're all grasping at Scotch mist. You'll never catch me anything but cheerfully optimistic about anything in life. I'm looking forward to Saturday, I sure hope we win.

[Ads]

People think we might win the next three, people think we won't. It's just different opinions, what's the problem? Telling people to deal in realism when predicting how football matches will go sounds much like not wanting to be disagreed with.

Yes its that sort of bellendery that makes me laugh as if one guess is better than another or that the sage is the keeper of the "truth". We're a decent side, but its us so who knows, which is probably the sort of comment you read on every message board in the land [bar Wolves, as them be Barca of the Midlands bay they, now that Real West Brummagem am being relegated. Ar.]

[paul_e]

People think we might win the next three, people think we won't. It's just different opinions, what's the problem? Telling people to deal in realism when predicting how football matches will go sounds much like not wanting to be disagreed with.

Yes its that sort of bellendery that makes me laugh as if one guess is better than another or that the sage is the keeper of the "truth". We're a decent side, but its us so who knows, which is probably the sort of comment you read on every message board in the land [bar Wolves, as them be Barca of the Midlands bay they, now that Real West Brummagem am being relegated. Ar.]

Bellendery, interesting coming from someone who suggested disagreeing with him was tantamount to being suicidal.  The worst thing is I didn't even say you were wrong, I just said stating they'll lose 3 and we'll win 3 and be above them is guesswork and that it was just as likely (if not more so based on form) that we'd drop points in those games, 5 points specifically being my prediction.

Clampy, I never told anyone to deal in realism, I gave my opinion and ads started talking about suicide, i then mentioned realism because if he thinks a 5 points from 9 suggestion when we're averaging just under 5 points from 9 is suicidal then he's clearly not being realistic.  The alternative was to call him out as a bellend for bringing something like that up for no reason other than for effect.

Ads, I don't think 1 guess is better than another but you didn't write it as a guess, you wrote it as if it was a certainty, that's what I disagreed with and yet you're now the one trying to lecture about it all being guesswork, you're arguing against your own post right now and don't even seem to have noticed.

[Ads]

I didn't suggest that at all. I was telling you to cheer up. Many people disagree with me all day long. I dont have an issue with them being wrong.

I write with authority. I exude gravitas that's why. Still just a guess, one that I hope is correct.

[chrisw1]

The last two performances have been poor.  But in thinking about the coming few months, does anybody with a more negative leaning not think the return of the likes of RHM, Grealish, Jedinak, Terry, Green, Lansbury, De Laet, Hogan & possibly even Gabby to a squad that has done ok over the last two months may have some form of positive impact? 

I appreciate not all these players have been great for us, but would having a full squad to choose from not be a boost?  Can any of our competitors expect to be adding 5-6 quality players to their squads in addition to any January business?

I've no idea how we will do and think the 10 point gap looks ominous.  But surely other clubs would look with envy at being able to bring in that sort of quality for the second half of the season?

[Ads]

Pressure does funny things to sides. The Wolves were miles ahead of the Albion at one stage and ended up blowing an 11 point lead.

[paul_e]

The last two performances have been poor.  But in thinking about the coming few months, does anybody with a more negative leaning not think the return of the likes of RHM, Grealish, Jedinak, Terry, Green, Lansbury, De Laet, Hogan & possibly even Gabby to a squad that has done ok over the last two months may have some form of positive impact? 

I appreciate not all these players have been great for us, but would having a full squad to choose from not be a boost?  Can any of our competitors expect to be adding 5-6 quality players to their squads in addition to any January business?

I've no idea how we will do and think the 10 point gap looks ominous.  But surely other clubs would look with envy at being able to bring in that sort of quality for the second half of the season?

Of course it's a positive for them to be coming back, grealish and Jedinak have already shown that theycan step in and have an impact, which is great.  The problem is no one in that list looks likely to score the goals that we need.  Kodjia is the one that I'd put money on coming in and changing our fortunes but he won't be fit until it's too late. If Bruce can find a way to get Grealish at 10 and Hogan at 9 and give them the sort of service they need then we can get back into it but so far he's misused both them when he's given them time.  The other one from that list that I think could add something would be Green but playing on the right not the left, his extra pace and ability to get round his fullback can add an extra dimension to us but I want him getting crosses in rather than cutting inside.  Part of the problem recently is that teams know they don't have to worry too much about us going round the outside so they can pack the middle of the defence and crowd out the 1 or 2 players we have in the box.

[Ads]

Green is important as we lack raw pace.