DaveAV1

I’m not 100% sure but the rumour is that Dean Smith asked the board for some help and Wes and Nas have got him Pepe and Klopp as assistant coaches with Messi coming in on loan. The argument was why should we be improving other people’s players when there’s no clause to buy. I hope that brings some clarity. Merry Christmas.

Tyrone although 26 is still relatively inexperienced, particularly at PL level. Hopefully his decision making will improve as he gains more experience. All the other attributes are there to make him a very good player.

We’re going back to the good old days of passing a bottle of scotch round the dressing room before we go out. Wes is making sure he gets a piece of the action.

We must also remember that if the worse happens and if Jack leaves, it won’t be on a free. The money we would get now that he’s proven himself in the PL would build a new team on its own if well spent.

I agree that there are issues at the back and in general with the way in which we defend. Recently we have become a soft touch, of that there is no doubt. Whist I’ve stated that we have to stick together, along the journey it’s not unreasonable to assume that there will be tweeks to the way in which we approach things on and off the pitch. People will fall by the wayside along the way no doubt. If the powers that be decide that the recruitment team is the problem then changes should be made, to either the philosophy or personnel. Similarly if the coaching is the issue then that needs to be addressed. However we have clearly stated that we are trying to build a philosophy and style throughout the club, so that we can change the head coach without completely changing that style. In the past there has been wholesale changes with every departing manager. From Houllier to McLeish was frankly ridiculous. I think it is important that if we do decide to change the head coach then that decision needs to be well thought out and planned. Knee jerk sackings and getting in the likes of Big Sam to put a sticking plaster over the problem won’t work long term. We’d be left to start again with the wrong personnel and be carrying out yet another rebuild. I’m not advocating sticking with the same people and the same plan for the sake of it, but I don’t think change for the sake of it works either.

No.

I think what we have to except is that we have an inexperienced coach at this level, with a relatively inexperienced squad. Add to that an inexperienced CEO, working for owners who despite all their business acumen have only owned an English football club for about 18 months. I think getting promoted sort of caught everyone on the hop. So is it really a surprise that everything isn’t going instantly swimmingly? Right from the top, Wes and Nas, we are learning on the job and doing it in the glass bowl that is the English Premier League. Everyone, not just Dean Smith has been and will be making mistakes. They will learn with the experience, but there’s no quick fix, no golden bullet, time and painful mistakes are generally the building blocks of success. Teams and businesses that do well grow together, win and lose together and have the collective experiences that make them strong in the future. Ripping everything up and starting again every few months is never the answer.

The defence is doing badly so we must be ignoring the defensive coach? I know none of us really know but that’s a rather bizarre conclusion to come to. Or perhaps a rather obvious one if your mind is only open to the conclusion that the head coach isn’t up to the job? John Terry was an excellent player, but is as yet unproven as a coach.

The defence has been a problem all season I agree. So should the concern not be, to some extent at least, with JT who I assume plays a leading role with the coaching and organisation of the defence. If he doesn’t then I’m not sure why we employ him. The majority of the concern from fans has been the dreadful form since the draw at Old Trafford. In mitigation we’ve mostly played some very good sides and in the last couple of games suffered injuries to key players. However that doesn’t explain fully the complete falling off the cliff we’ve suffered. Previously win, lose or draw we’ve generally been competitive and together as a squad, recently that hasn’t been the case. It almost seems that something isn’t right behind the scenes. I’ve heard some posters, I believe you are one of them, trot out the “lost the dressing room” line. I don’t believe that’s true as I don’t think we have those kind of big time Charlies in the squad. However something ain’t right and perhaps the defensive coach is feeling the heat? I’m not saying he is deliberately agitating, although he does have form, but perhaps he just isn’t a coach and his frustrations are dragging down the mood in the camp? Little things can make big differences.

You are of course absolutely right and indeed you don’t have to look far to see some similarly challenged posters. Sadly.

Do you actually know what position McGrath played in?

I know a Rangers fan and when the rumours started linking us he sent me a message, “Hands off”. Which would suggest they like him. He comes with the usual caveat of can he make the switch up? He’s certainly fiery which I like, provided he’s got it more or less under control, which reports suggest that he has. Sent off last week though! I’d say he’s a risk, but I’m not sure there are many signings that aren’t.

An aggressive striker who will bully and harass defenders could transform us. (It would help if he scored a few too). We’re not worrying teams with any threat up front at all, which means they basically have to concentrate on nullifying Jack and can then essentially do what they like. We are an average team that’s going through a bad patch. The length of that bad patch will determine our fate this year. We’ve been scoring from midfield, but they have largely dried up too, which makes the whole team, particularly the defence more nervy. The team lacks aggression and a goal scorer. Finding someone who can bring that can have the added bonus of igniting some belief into the rest of the squad too.

You think that Jack Grealish is a better player than Paul McGrath? Jack is a good player, but he couldn’t lace McGrath’s drinks.

If we swapped Dean Smith for Sam Allardyce I’d be in despair. The club have talked about growing an identity throughout all the teams and have been recruiting with that in mind. If we are to throw in the towel at the first sign of trouble then my faith in those that run the club would be extremely shaken. I doubt Dean will be sacked at this moment in time but if he is I’d hope it would be for a similarly progressive coach that they have been tracking for sometime. We have a plan, as things stand Dean is spearheading that plan and so he should be given time to continue unless we have a genuinely outstanding coach lined up to replace him who can continue in the same vein but offer an improvement. Knee jerk reactions and panic appointments of the same sad old faces will never get us anywhere in the long term and can’t really be guaranteed to be successful in the short term either. Is everything perfect? No of course it isn’t, but after years of weak and pathetic mismanagement we can’t expect everything to be fixed in a few months. Which manager/coach worth his salt would come to a club that would sack the manager after 4 losses on the bounce. I hope our board are stronger than that and aren’t running the club on the same sort of criteria that social media seems to feed on so hungrily.

If we really are a well run club then we should be constantly looking at potential managers. It would be neglect not to. Managers are humans and so subject to irrational decisions, Klopp could suddenly decide he wants to manage Watford or simply step under a bus. I bet Liverpool have a contingency plan even if it isn’t at the forefront of their current thinking. We should always have a back up plan or two, regardless of the manager’s situation.

3 or 4 players we wouldn’t even have filled the squad! We’d be playing a 3-2-3 formation!

There is definitely a problem with recruitment, certainly looking from the outside. We have stated that we are looking to buy players with future value and of course that is a laudable ambition, but it shouldn’t become a rigid policy. Sometimes the system merits breaking in order to look at the bigger picture in the short term. We must never lose sight of the main aim, which is to produce a successful football team. Ron Saunders said he believed that Peter Withe was the final piece in the jigsaw. Under our current policy we wouldn’t have signed him. I’m also concerned with recruitment decision making within the system. If we had signed Benrahma and Maupay instead of Trez and Wesley, both those players would have fitted the recruitment criteria and I’m sure we would be a better team right now. They may have cost a little more but in the long term we would get a much better return on our investment. Particularly if the main return is that we avoid relegation. I’m not privy to the going’s on within transfers and perhaps Brentford or agents were being greedy and we were trying to make a point of not being a soft touch, but looking at the bigger picture I believe it was a mistake not signing them.

Thanks for nudging me back to reality. Our lovely daughter is almost at excitement explosion point and that is all that matters in reality. Have a very lovely Christmas which I’m sure you will!

Agreed. We seem to have got an idea of buying for future profit. Ok there are some merits to that, we live in a commercial world, but that can’t be the driving force and I’m not saying it is, but we must be more flexible. Under this system we wouldn’t have bought Peter Withe for example. On top of that we have to look at the quality of the players signed. If for instance we had signed Maupay instead of Wesley and Benrahma instead of Trez, we may have paid a little more overall, but I’m pretty sure we would be a much better team and both of those players value would be considerably higher than the two we did buy. Dean has to shoulder some of the responsibility for recent performances, but he isn’t to blame for all our woes and none of us know how involved he was with recruitment. Do we trust the recruitment team? It’s easy to sack the manager, but we need to look at the whole picture before we jump to obvious conclusions.

Yeah but when are you going to get your Christmas shopping done??

Thanks Rob a very Merry Christmas to you too. I’m not sure about the keeping you sane bit though!

If you weren’t talking about Smith, who else speaks for the club after games? I do have to agree that he hasn’t changed anything after poor performances though.

When has Smith been anything but honest. Criticism is fine but you’re just making up rubbish now.

That right there is what I have a problem with. Cheap.