Peter Griffin

Isn't this a Villa forum and a thread titled 'Dean Smith'? I would expect that this is exactly the right place for fans to discuss Smith and to discuss both the positives and the negatives. Why the continual avoidance of not just discussing but even recognising his weaknesses? 100% agree, but as per above, is this not the place to discuss it? Please point out anything I have said that is not constructive, from the last few days the only unconstructive comments I see on this thread are from people complaining and posting childish oneupmanship comments to people that may post something that suggests an area in which Smith could improve

Brilliant

Murphy doesn't speak objectively, he has his own view of players and teams and he misquotes people and manages the narrative to suit his views. I can't understand how he gets so much air time

That is exactly my view / expectation too

Most fans speak in favour of Smith. On here yesterday everyone was speaking in favour of Smith. But fans can also discuss his weaknesses. And like every single person on this planet, he too has weaknesses. For some reason some fans appear to deny this and continually post sarcastic comments trying to dismiss the views of these fans.

I remember when Klopp hired a throw in coach I thought that it was a clever idea and one I hadn't previously considered. Specialist coaches are a benefit to the team

Agreed, I think just about all Villa fans like Dean and would love to see him succeed at Villa

Agreed

HaHa, good catch

It wasn't all doom and gloom before the Newcastle game. It was just rational discussion about out manager. Do you think he put in a perfect performance today or is there room for improvement? Even he said the performance wasn't great. Are we allowed to agree with him on that?

I wonder will Bruce blame the Villa fans or the Toon fans for this loss

Is that really news

Emi knew he was offside and was just having a laugh

Come on Emi, keep the clean sheet

Send that Tweet to Jose and we will begrudgingly accept 17m

Don't forget the 25m wasted on Ings. We need another striker

It also shows the benefit of having a bit of quality in the squad. Our first choice striker is injured. Last season that ball would have fallen to Davis LOL

Yeah, I get the feeling that Dean is under pressure this season. There will be high expectations from the owners and this will be pushed down to CP and then pushed down to DS. I think Dean has been great so far for Villa but I think the owners expectations may actually be higher than the fans. I would be very happy with 8th or 9th this season and I think that would be a very good achievement by Smith. But I suspect the owners may not be as happy as me. They clearly want European football

So it is an issue? This is an Aston Villa forum. Is the purpose of this forum not to be able to discuss all things Villa between Villa fans? Dean does have to deliver and if he doesn't deliver he should rightly be sacked, just like any other manager. For clarity, I don't believe anyone said that he should be sacked for not finishing in Europe. If you read my comments, I said that less than 10th would be considered underachieving imo.

What is the problem with discussing Smith's weaknesses? It is not being negative, it is just discussing our club. It is like discussing Mings and saying he makes a few too many errors or saying Nakamba's passing could be improved or Bidace hasn't enough experience. It is just dealing with reality and discussing what could be done to improve our current position as a club. I assume you agree we can improve or do you believe Smith nor the players could do better than they are currently doing?

We shouldn't be happy that we've gone from midtable championship to midtable prem in 3 years? We should be looking to improve and progress and Dean should be evaluated. But that doesn't mean we have to take away from what he's achieved. I'll wait till he actually fails instead of trying to knock him for what he's done. I agree with that and I too am not knocking Smith. He has achieved at Villa and I am happy with that but as you say, he should be evaluated

I am looking at Villa objectively and I assume and hope that NSWE and CP will also look at Villa objectively. We should not sit back and think that as we achieved promotion and PL safety over the last few years that we should be happy. We need to push forward and make Villa the best possible club it can be. Part of this process is to continually review the gaffer and assess if he is still the right man for the job. We also must assess how we performed over the last 3 years and assess how effective Smith was. It cannot be denied that our survival season was far too close for comfort. A dodgy VAR call or a VAR decision in West Ham's favour and we could have been back in the Championship. Sticking ones head in the sand and ignoring Smith's weaknesses is not the way forward imo

And that is why he is still our Head Coach. But, we can't ignore how he achieved what he has done. We managed promotion via the playoffs. We need a 10 game winning run, looked poor without Jack and needed pens against the Baggies. We scraped staying up in our first season and can't deny the assistance of Goal Line Technology and a Covid break from football. Last season we had a great season but again too reliant on one player. Smith needs to show that he is able to build a team to compete in the top half of the PL. I am not expecting European qualification this season but I believe we should be finishing at least 10th. Anything lower will be underachievement imo

If I had known the level of support that NSWE were going to provide I would fully expect us to be in the PL. If we were not currently in the PL I expect Smith would not be our gaffer. I am not anti Smith. I really like the guy and think he was a brilliant appointment. But as a club we need to keep reevaluating our players and coaches and systems in place at Villa. If any are not keeping up with where they need to be then they need to go. That is not a dig at Smith.n That applies to every single person at the club.

Although I disagree that Smith would be first on a manager list for some other clubs, I think the fact that you add the caveat 'mid/lower' shows exactly the level you believe Smith is at. That is not what my argument is about. My point about Smith is that I think he has weaknesses with team selection (36 yr old Ash starting), playing the correct players in their correct position (El Ghazi on the right), substitution timings (tend to be too late), plan B during a game and getting the youth players more involved. He is getting better at some of these but I believe the grace period of giving him some time is over. He has had 3 years and it is now time to deliver. No excuses. I hope he works out but if he is not delivering he should be replaced imo