The Hawk

Wow, a voice of reason!

Purslows comments no more than a month ago: ”“He’s a great fella and superb at the job. The owners and I felt in December that it was really important that you all know that Dean is very central to our long-term vision. “He’s somebody who understands we’ve got to build the club from the bottom up. He’s got the values and so the board made the decision to extend his contract. “Football is a funny old game but we shared your view that because his contract wasn’t long enough we decided to address that.” I just can’t see how you would then fire someone so quickly. It’s not like we were safe from relegation when he signed the new deal. The board would have discussed the possibility of what they would do if we were relegated and yet they still offered him a long term contract. If they do fire him, I can only think that something (other than results) has seriously gone awry behind the scenes (players head butting others for example...)

So that means he’s “lost the dressing room” does it? This whole “playing for the manager” idea is such a classic cliche. No player is out on the pitch during a game thinking “got to win this for Dean (or any other manager)”. What they are really referring to are squad dynamics and confidence which influence the players/teams displays. Is confidence low? Absolutely. Poor results and the predicament we are in can do that. Is Smith to blame for this? Partially. Trying to motivate a team that’s getting beaten week in week out is a very tough task. Where we have seriously faltered though is in our recruiting department. Our squad dynamics are terrible. Look at the different nationalities and native languages spoken in our starting line up last night. That can make it tricky to gel players quickly. Given that we had to assemble an entire squad preseason, we didn’t do a great job in ensuring that our players could mix easily. Guilbert even came out and said he can barely communicate around the club and has no friends outside his family. Is this Smiths fault? Partially. Could it have simply been unlucky? Maybe. There are teams that have done this way better than we have. Wolves for example buying players from Portugal and having two core groups within the side. Whatever the case, the players don’t seem to be able to really play for each other more than anything and that’s the real problem. Not whether they “play for the manager”.

How so many people can confidently make comments like “Smith has lost the dressing room” without any knowledge of the inner goings-on whatsoever is beyond me.

I really think that would make no difference to us whatsoever.

Yep and I bet if that didn’t work you’d be the first to yell “how could he change the formation that did so well against city in the final”. That being said, we can agree on hourihane. Absolute cat.

3 managers who have had a long time at the helm at each of their clubs and a heap of stability to put in place those solid structures. Im sure Smith is aware of the option to play defensively, however our progressive owners, board and Smith are trying to bypass the defensive “survivalist” mentality and style of play of lower prem clubs in favour of a Leicester-type model. It’s a gamble that hasn’t paid off this time around, but given enough time with a better core group of players that haven’t been thrown together at the beginning of a season, I’m confident that it’s the better approach in the long run.

Fair call. Our set piece defending is well below par and needs sorting out, something that our coaching department as a whole needs to look at which I’m sure they are trying to. They’re not morons and would obviously be aware it’s an issue. Id also argue that of all the things a manager can instantly fix, defending set pieces is not one of them. It’s not rocket science, follow your man and put your body on the line. When people say “Smith can’t even get the basics right”, the “basics” should be something that the professional players can do without needing to be coached.

Absolutely I can. It’s rubbish. Our squad is genuinely not premier league quality. Not even Fergie could sort it out. People are so quick to forget where this man has taken us and the challenge he has had to face this year putting an entire squad together. It hasn’t worked out, but hiring and firing managers and constantly starting from scratch like we have for the last 10 years is clearly not the solution. If there’s anyone to blame, it’s our recruitment team as a whole in which Smith is only a cog.

Certainly came out firing in the first 5 minutes, it’s almost as if Smith had them fired up... Then the massive lack of quality kicks in, the better team starts to dominate and the confidence disappears, but that’s 100% smiths fault isn’t it.

Because you’re in the dressing room and have that inside knowledge. Any manager would struggle with this pile of crap we currently have. It’s not about “losing the dressing room”.

This x1000000

He’s not going anywhere. Quite laughable some of the suggestions you lot are throwing about as replacements this late in the season.

Am I the only one who’s not fussed where he goes? He’s either playing for us or he isn’t. Whilst I think he can play at the very top, if his choice is United then I dont begrudge him that, he’s earnt the right to go where he chooses in my book.

Then we move Grealish to the bench and put O’Hare on in his place I presume Gary?

Right, so it’s the monetary value of transfers that dictates how organised a team is? Nothing to do with the team having years and years under the one manager to build a cohesive system? Unreal how some people keep bringing up the “we spent more than the other two promoted sides” argument without paying any respect to the fact that we needed to rebuild an entire squad whilst they did not.

The alternative is to sit back, invite pressure and try to hit the opposition on the counter with our not-so-speedy wingers. I know which id prefer.

We had 55% possession against last seasons champions league finalists and could have been out of sight after 20 mins had we just been able to finish.

Nah

What a baseless rubbish thing to say. Celebrates his teammates goals more than anyone.

Who was the last 17 year old to be a 1st choice premier league striker? Cant see it.

You usually do unless you get really lucky with the way the players in the squad gel.

If three clubs started trailing then the required amount of wins to stay up would be lower not higher...

Some baseless reports coming out that Barca and Real Madrid have joined the race for him