The Hawk

You’d swear we were running down the clock 1-0 up in the dying minutes the way he left the pitch.

One of the few rational posts on this thread. Whenever things start going south, it’s human nature to look for reasons why and to attribute blame to something. Unfortunately, when the reasons aren’t entirely apparent (and I mean on a deeper level than just “the players are shite”), the obvious response as fans is to blame the person who’s job it is to know how to fix the situation, the manager. Often the logic is along the lines of “well if Leicester can go from nowhere to premier league champions, why can’t we?” - which isn’t a bad argument. It’s possible. But Leicester were an anomaly. The number of clubs in dire situations that very quickly turn it around are few and far between. It takes wholesale changes and time. Dean Smith is not the reason we lost to Brentford. Nor is he to blame for our current situation. Like the post above pointed out, Dean is setting the foundations for our style of play, but just because our players have been TOLD how to play, doesn’t mean that they are instantly going to be able to like many fans seem to expect. It’s a mid-to-long term strategy by Smith, but one that every successful business would agree with. There is clearly a payoff in the short term with the players we have, but slowly but surely things will start to turn around. Good things come to those who wait.

Yeah toxic is when the cabbages come out. I do agree though that it won’t be a pretty sight if we lose our next game. The media will jump on the fact we’ve lost 3 on the bounce and that’ll churn up irrational public hysteria in no time.

Perfect summation

That’s a ridiculously harsh statement. There’s a big difference between attitude and ability. Maupay is a more dynamic player yes, but to question Hogan’s hunger (a guy who has worked his way up from factory jobs and playing in the lower leagues whilst battling often career ending injuries) is harsh. Hogan may not have as successful a career as Maupay might but I wouldn’t put that down to a poor attitude and hunger.

It’s not like Smith can say in a press conference that he “bought Lovre because Nyland is useless”, his competition comment is just a political response but the reality is he’s spent 7 million on a keeper to replace a keeper we signed 6 months ago. He’ll go straight in.

Hello everyone, im a keen villa fan from Australia. Have watched most games live back home dating back to the beginning of the O'Neill era (the good days). Went to the Walsall friendly last night and I used to be a keen forum poster on soccerpulse and tikitaka. hope to become part of the group.