villianusa

At is best Guilbert is a massive improvement on Elmo, he sadly hasn't shown it very often. I disagree on Taylor and Targett, Taylor couldn't defend in the Championship and has no pace what so ever. Nakamba, I agree on, and I believe Wesley would tear up the Championship. In the end, Purslow said he was looking to the future, buying players with sell on value. I believe we will sell most of the players for more than we bought them for (maybe not Welsey). Was the tactic right, I think we will have to wait a while to find out. In the mean time, Smith needs to do some work on the training field that actually translate to a match day. I appreciate your opinion and conversation.

I would agree that some of the transfers weren't the best, and January was weak, but the players aren't as bad as most of their performances are showing.

I have coached zonal marking at corners, and it works when doing correctly. i can tell you, what we were doing at the corner where Evans had a free header wasn't zonal, it's a mix-match of nothing at all. Watch the corner again, and watch Mings, he hasn't got a clue what he is doing!

As we finished the playoff final: Heaton over Steer Guilbert over Elmo Targett over Taylor Nakamba over Hourihane Samatta over Championship Abraham - He has kicked on this season Are they superstars? No? Are they better and can perform in the Premier League? Yes. The team isn't gelling, seem lost and scared, but as an 11 we should be performing better even if we aren't winning many more games. Too many games where we have just "Turned Up"!

There are several things in could be in my mind: 1. The players aren't performing at a level of intensity that Smith is asking 2. The players don't understand the tactics that Smith puts before them 3. Smith has made too easy for opposition managers to understand our tactics (get it to Grealish), so he/it is nullified and we don't have much of a plan B 4. Players are playing for Smith and he has lost them (not sure on this because we have been crap for most of the season) 5. The players that Smith/Suso bought aren't good enough - This is one I believe the least, we have shown in spurts we can play at a much higher level. Yes, some are squad players and need to go, but others just seem lost and scared 6. Smith is no longer able to motivate the players, even though players should be motivating themselves. This is my biggest concern, a motivated team with a little less quality will beat better teams who can't be asked, most of the time. You can see there is a common denominator, and i do place that at Smith's feet. What is happening on the training field isn't working, and if he doesn't sort it out, we are going down. I'm not sure if he should go or not, but if the team doesn't show much improvement and we are relegated, then I would sack him. If we don't, I can see it a bit of rinse and repeat, too good for the Championship, but not good enough for the Premier League. I would also add, VAR hasn't helped!

He will come out in the press conference and say we look for a response in training and we got it, the players are ready for the game and I expect a response. Sadly, he has been saying it for a couple of months now, and we aren't really getting a response. Even the games where we have taken points of late, we haven't looked very convincing. To get that sort of performance out of a team after they push City so close in the final is very worrying. He seems out of ideas, and he trying to regurgitate old tactics that haven't been very successful in this division. I'm expecting another defeat Saturday, with nothing more than a whimper.

He is performing as bad as Smith at present, sadly.

I honestly don't see what he is doing week to week in training. You would expect to see some gains in some areas, but the same issues are continuing game after game. Some of the issues are below: 1. We cannot defend set pieces 2. Teams are tearing us apart in wide areas 3. We play too high a line, and teams are playing off the shoulder of the last defender and we are getting beaten fro pace 4. Our center midfielders are offering the defense very little protection 5. El Ghazi is the only wide player who is offering any pace and crosses into productive areas 6. Grealish is constantly played out of position to force in another center midfielder, so he becomes very ineffective and the balance of the team is off 7. Samatta is often isolated when he wins the ball, and along with Grealish he has to come so deep to collect the ball that he isn't being productive in front of goal 8. We cannot not seem to keep up an tempo in the game, and we often sit back and allow teams to come at us. This often allows teams to score after the pressure forces individual errors 9. Grealish is being hustled and kicked out of games and Smith hasn't identified another way to attack to allow Grealish some freedom of the park 10. Players are not doing the basics within their position, and it is leading to some very embarrassing and costly errors I could keep going on, but it's very depressing. I can see him doing a job if we get relegated, but his words of late shows me he is feeling the pressure and his lack of ability to inspire the players make me wonder if he is the man for the job. The team doesn't seem to know what it doing, and the players very rarely show much fight when we go behind. Night All!

I'm not saying I'm expecting too much more than where we are, but I am expecting more from players who should be at least trying to get into position to receive a pass. We did this under Bruce and now Smith, a lack of work rate can never be acceptable.

Bruce got battered at rightly so, when we would only turn up for half a game, and we are having the same performances for most of this season, and Smith get somewhat of a soft ride. I keep hearing from him we aren't aggressive enough, we don't close down quick enough, a much better second half after we spoke about a few things at H/T. Why not start talking about these during practices or heaven forbid before a game starts. Watching the team, I see one big thing that link us to performances when Bruce was manager. Players do not move well into space to support the player on the ball. So many times players are isolated, and have nowhere to go, and 9.5 times out of ten we lose possession. Smith says we go out to try and win every game. The performances and body language of players are not showing that to me. The other teams around us will pull of a shock and beat a top six team before the end of the season, it's a shock if we beat a bottom six team. This is the reason my optimism as waned and I believe we are favorite for relegation.

Scored a couple tonight against Cardiff in FA cup.

Thanks, Smith have some money up his sleeve. He is going to have to pay premium for a quality striker in January.

Only two loans between English clubs, can we have additional loans from abroad?

Get some shooting practice in, we will need you.

I'd say medial ligament damage at a minimum unless he is Superman. 6-8 weeks I would expect. Reckless and out of control!

I'm up for a change of tactics even if Smith isn't, if everyone is fit, I'll go with this:

It was the players fault, it was the refs fault, it was the seasonal fixture list fault, but he didn't mention himself at all today. If the players aren't playing the way he wishes, or at a tempo that he demands then there is something wrong. We have a few key players missing, and I will give him that, but neither McGinn or Mings were at their best before they were injured. He has to find the problem and find a solution very quickly, or we are going down.

My team for tomorrow, only possibly change is to play Codger over Jota.

I not too excited with Smith when he says he and the team thrive on pressure. If this is them thriving then we are in for a really struggle. Our center midfielders were weak against Norwich, Marvelous wasn't so, and Luiz either hung onto the ball too long or gave the ball away. The only real contribution was Luiz's goal line clearance, which was massive in the context of the game. They aren't players an attacking mid is going to thrive with, we have seen how McGinn has struggled and his form dropped and even Grealish struggled to do anything with them yesterday. We saw the difference when Hourihane came one and was able to be the link between the Grealish and Luiz. We were able to play further up the field, which allowed our wide players to try and get in behind their defense. This accumulated with the only goal of the game. So much of the game, Luiz and Marvelous sat and held, weren't able to link with Jack in a creative way, and so our winders feel deeper to try and retrieve the ball, so that had a greater distance to travel to get the ball into areas that we could hurt them. I believe Luiz can play better than he did yesterday, so my three would be Grealish, McGinn, and Luiz when they all are fit. Hourihane will need to fill the void until McGinn gets back, if he could work on his defending I would have him in over Luiz, because his set-pieces will be vital to our survival this season. I would look to use El Ghazi on left and Jota on right, and look to see if we could bring in a Pedro type player to help us see the season out. We need to push the front three further forward, and we can't do that until we sort out the middle three.

Yes, they will, but if we aren't getting balls into the right areas it doesn't matter who we have as a forward, he isn't going to score. The centers mids prop up the forward line, while covering the defensive line. At the moment, they are too weak and they are sitting deeper and deeper and aren't really supporting the forward line too well.

I would look at some experience to come in on loan. If we gamble on expensive signings and will go down, we will end up in a similar position to a few years ago. We are weak in the center mid roles and I would look there first.

He had a poor game against Norwich, he is short over the first few yards compared to most attacking players. He could do with spending sometime working on his acceleration. He is the best we have at present and needs to hold his position. When Mings gets back, if his form dips then I would look at Hause there.

Sadly, I see things have gone wrong since the late loss to Liverpool, we haven't really recovered. I see this result very, very similar to the Leicester defeat in the 15/16 season. I know that game was earlier in the season, but it kicked the stuffing out of us and we never really recovered and we know what happened that season. The mental effort we put into the game against Liverpool, the level of concentration for it all to be for nothing seems to be hurting us bad. I see few similarities to were we were under Bruce and times with Smith last season. 1. Wesley is becoming isolated on the field, and people calling for him for him to be dropped. I remember the same calls for Tammy when he was struggling and missing chances, and this was in the Championship, just look at him now. He wasn't always getting the service he needed to show off his best attributes, balls were hit long and he couldn't retain the ball long enough for the rest of the team to catch up. He was missing somewhat simple tap in, similar to Wesley's chance yesterday. We saw more from Wesley yesterday when we went 442 and he had players around him. It won't matter who the forward is in the end, no support, no result. 2. We are becoming the Grealish show again, when Grealish was out last season we were crap, we all know the run of result and on his return, "Hail Grealish", and he helped us win promotion. This season we are relying so much on him and teams have worked us out. Double up on him and leave the other side open, because the time we transition the ball, it is so slow that they can adjust and no problem. Unless we see a spark from Grealish, we are struggling to make anything happen. The only one who is, is Hourihane, and it usually comes from a Grealish earned free-kick. 3. Adding to point 2, players aren't looking for the ball anymore. Except Grealish were seem to be playing with fear. If players get the ball they want to get rid of it quickly, and get it back towards Jack. Because of this, we are losing the ball so many times in the final third and we aren't picking out players. Players aren't moving quick enough to support the ball, we don't move the ball quick enough around the field, so it is easy for teams to get back and defend in numbers. To add to that I could write an whole essay and how we aren't defending crosses as a team (might do that later). Whatever people may want to say, Wesley isn't the problem, he is part of it. We need to address the areas above and we can turn things around because we have the quality, we have shown it at times. We need to get over the Liverpool game, and focus on teams that we can compete against and not beat ourselves up for losing against a team that may go unbeaten this season. Smith needs to change the mentality, and tinker with the system and get a result against Norwich.

I would go with a 4411. We need to bring in someone who can help Grealish with the creativity around the box, and allow Wesley to play off the shoulder of the last man. For me, I would bring in Jota, as he and Grealish have a great connection, and someone who can pick a pass as well as score some goals. He can also help connect the center mids with Wesley that is not happening at the minute. His lack of pace won't be as noticeable in the middle as it will out wide. I would bring Chester into the back four, we need his leadership, even if it is for just one game at a time.

Sorry, thought this was the Smith thread...