Dean Smith

[mykeyb]

37 minutes ago, TRO said:

because hindsight is an exact science.....If we had known it would be like this, the decision would have been made earlier, that's for sure.

We all speculated and some got it right.

Hi TRO not having a pop but how do you view Bruce's end to last season and start to this when if I remember correctly you questioned if the players were good enough?

For me it has taken Dean 2 or 3 games to have us playing with a style and identity which Bruce failed to do in 2 years.

 

[srsmithusa]

58 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Dean Smith's approach is hilarious. He never seem to bother about the opposition at all.

He always seem to go into games believing we will smash any side we come up against and that it's them that have t stop us not the other way around.

Does he consider playing Jedinak to cope with Boro's physical threats? No, he simply don't care about their strengths he is looking to dominate the game and score as many goals as possible which is why he played Hourihane.

I don’t agree that he doesn’t change.  Clearly, we didn’t change the line up, other than Hutton’s suspension, but.....  As mentioned above we changed set pieces. But we also had Hourihane playing a bit farther forward at times to keep their midfield pushed back a bit and to keep more possession in midfield.  

What I see is that most of the time, you can face a problem one of two ways.  Weak defense for example:  You can pressure the ball higher and keep more possession, or you can drop deeper and pack the box.  Some (SB) look for the defensive solution.  Some (DS) look for the attacking solution.  But changes were made. The only thing I wonder is how many were changed in response to the defensive debacle at forest, and how many were changed in anticipation of Pulis very different game plan?

[TRO]

3 hours ago, TrentVilla said:

We can absolutely make the top 2, it will need a hell of a run and for other results to go our way but right now all the teams above us are looking over their shoulders at us.

In the words of the legend Ron Saunders do you want to bet against us?

We need about 16 to 18 wins if last season is anything to go by....so we have c8 games in which to drop points.

90-94 should see us in the top 2 

we have 26 games to play for a possible 78 points.

we have accrued 31 already so need another 62/3 to be sure.....we have 15 or 16 points to drop.

Its a tall order and we need a sustained run, but we can do it.

[srsmithusa]

A word of caution.  We have much to enjoy.  But football is fickle.  We will not always dominate everyone.  Man city and Barca in is prime had bad days and lost big games.  We will too.  We are still in new manager bounce territory.  Opposition have not known how to anticipate us and prepare.  These are good times and I am enjoying Villa again.   But life and football never stay on a straight upward trajectory.  I think we need to be realistic.  It’s a round ball but it can still take funny bounces.  

[romavillan]

18 minutes ago, srsmithusa said:

I don’t agree that he doesn’t change.  Clearly, we didn’t change the line up, other than Hutton’s suspension, but.....  As mentioned above we changed set pieces. But we also had Hourihane playing a bit farther forward at times to keep their midfield pushed back a bit and to keep more possession in midfield.  

What I see is that most of the time, you can face a problem one of two ways.  Weak defense for example:  You can pressure the ball higher and keep more possession, or you can drop deeper and pack the box.  Some (SB) look for the defensive solution.  Some (DS) look for the attacking solution.  But changes were made. The only thing I wonder is how many were changed in response to the defensive debacle at forest, and how many were changed in anticipation of Pulis very different game plan?

YEah there was a lot that was Boro specific about how we played, most obviously the corners and set pieces along the ground to not play to their strengths, that was really smart. They are all about winning the first header and being first to the second ball. We completely took that away from them, didn't make even set pieces about aerial strength and were really well drilled in winning the second ball. That was all specifically about yesterday's game for me. I think he always has a plan for the opposition.

[Johnnyp]

34 minutes ago, srsmithusa said:

A word of caution.  We have much to enjoy.  But football is fickle.  We will not always dominate everyone.  Man city and Barca in is prime had bad days and lost big games.  We will too.  We are still in new manager bounce territory.  Opposition have not known how to anticipate us and prepare.  These are good times and I am enjoying Villa again.   But life and football never stay on a straight upward trajectory.  I think we need to be realistic.  It’s a round ball but it can still take funny bounces.  

To say we are in new manager bounce is silly really. Pressing high, dominating the ball more, creating more chances has nothing to do with new manager bounce. It's training ground work.

[TRO]

49 minutes ago, mykeyb said:

Hi TRO not having a pop but how do you view Bruce's end to last season and start to this when if I remember correctly you questioned if the players were good enough?

For me it has taken Dean 2 or 3 games to have us playing with a style and identity which Bruce failed to do in 2 years.

 

been waiting for this one.lol

er I got it wrong in some ways and not SO wrong in others....but yes it does seem the players had it in them.

I was influenced in the main by the swamp we had walked through over the last 5-6 years, before Bruce arrived...He almost immediately turned us around from conceding goals at will....that for me was a very depressing time.

I accept the view of many on here that he was cautious in his DNA and that manifested us to a point of too cautious for promotion.

so far, Dean smith has been a revelation, I say so far, because I have seen things change so quick in the past....If I was a betting man, I would say this guy will continue in the vein he has started and I think for once being a Villa Fan does matter and drives him on.

Dean Smith has been quick to praise Steve Bruce for the players he has brought in, I think he is fair doing that....But Dean has clearly shown SB how to get the best out of them.

Like all things in life, rarely is something all ****.....Steve for me played his part in our recovery ( steadied the ship in a fashion) The fact the hierarchy mortgaged the club against going up and put all their faith in him, was probably in hindsight misplaced....they watch the games just like we do.

Personally, I saw a different Steve Bruce this season from the one last season, that is not saying his style of football was ever fluent or convincing

and now its time for Dean to jettison us forward in to what we want to be like.

What Dean has achieved with Steve Bruces's players ( Defence was a bit of an exception, meaning what he left us)is quite remarkable.....when he gets his own in god knows where he takes us to.

I love this period and had I of known DS would be like this I would have lauded his joining us much quicker.

but just remember  the car you are driving has not just arrived in its format, its evolved of many years and much improvement to be what it is.

We are no different, we need to gradually evolve in to the club we know we can be and with a Top manager who cares about us 2 owners with liquid funds to help him, with a CEO with Nous and a squad ready to run through brick wall anything is possible.

We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but at last a chink of light is visible at the end of that dark tunnel( over 10 years) as the CEO said we need to chop much wood, but the chopping has started.

I get the feeling and I have had the feeling before ( in the past)that this wonderful old club of ours is on the way back.

We still have to be patient and humility will still serve us well.....but how can you not be over the moon at these recent results and just as importantly performances.

I am humbled to say.....Hail Dean Smith

Edited December 2, 2018 by TRO

[Guest av1]

1 hour ago, DaveAV1 said:

 Although the focus is on Dean Smith, there are lots of things happening behind the scenes that make his job easier to concentrate on. 

So you're saying he was/is a small cog in a big machine after all?

[villabromsgrove]

I was banging on about employing Dean Smith a year ago, as I was totally out of patience with our previous manager .... but I was dead wrong at that time!

If we'd sacked Bruce earlier last season and brought in Smith he would have quickly turned us around. We may well have been promoted and Dr Tony Xia would still be scratching around down the back of his settee for loose change. Right destination, but totally wrong owner.

Instead we screwed up our promotion chase by being totally negative, and hey presto Sawiris and Edens appear and offer a once in a lifetime opportunity for Villa.

Bruce's survival was way beyond his sell by date but was a gift from the God's. Smith is here at the perfect time to start an epic journey for Villa, with the full support of new incredibly rich owners.

 

Nassef Sawiris, Wes Edens, Christian Purslow, Jesus Pitarch, Dean Smith, John Terry, Richard O'Kelly   .... versus ....   Tony Xia, Keith Wyness, Steve Round, Steve Bruce, Colin Calderwood, Stephen Clemence, Steve Agnew   ....   I'm beginning to believe in fate!

[Guest av1]

50 minutes ago, TRO said:

We need about 16 to 18 wins if last season is anything to go by....so we have c8 games in which to drop points.

90-94 should see us in the top 2 

we have 26 games to play for a possible 78 points.

we have accrued 31 already so need another 62/3 to be sure.....we have 15 or 16 points to drop.

Its a tall order and we need a sustained run, but we can do it.

Ironically ready that I'm even more confident. The way we are playing I fear no one so 16/18 wins out of 26 is very achievable 

[hippo]

I  think we should have appointed him as soon as he was born.....that said I want him out if we don't don't beat the baggies on Friday.

[TRO]

28 minutes ago, villabromsgrove said:

I was banging on about employing Dean Smith a year ago, as I was totally out of patience with our previous manager .... but I was dead wrong at that time!

If we'd sacked Bruce earlier last season and brought in Smith he would have quickly turned us around. We may well have been promoted and Dr Tony Xia would still be scratching around down the back of his settee for loose change. Right destination, but totally wrong owner.

Instead we screwed up our promotion chase by being totally negative, and hey presto Sawiris and Edens appear and offer a once in a lifetime opportunity for Villa.

Bruce's survival was way beyond his sell by date but was a gift from the God's. Smith is here at the perfect time to start an epic journey for Villa, with the full support of new incredibly rich owners.

 

Nassef Sawiris, Wes Edens, Christian Purslow, Jesus Pitarch, Dean Smith, John Terry, Richard O'Kelly   .... versus ....   Tony Xia, Keith Wyness, Steve Round, Steve Bruce, Colin Calderwood, Stephen Clemence, Steve Agnew   ....   I'm beginning to believe in fate!

Yes you did.

repeat after me......" Every cloud has a silver lining"

how true is that little proverb.

[mykeyb]

39 minutes ago, TRO said:

been waiting for this one.lol

er I got it wrong in some ways and not SO wrong in others....but yes it does seem the players had it in them.

I was influenced in the main by the swamp we had walked through over the last 5-6 years, before Bruce arrived...He almost immediately turned us around from conceding goals at will....that for me was a very depressing time.

I accept the view of many on here that he was cautious in his DNA and that manifested us to a point of too cautious for promotion.

so far, Dean smith has been a revelation, I say so far, because I have seen things change so quick in the past....If I was a betting man, I would say this guy will continue in the vein he has started and I think for once being a Villa Fan does matter and drives him on.

Dean Smith has been quick to praise Steve Bruce for the players he has brought in, I think he is fair doing that....But Dean has clearly shown SB how to get the best out of them.

Like all things in life, rarely is something all ****.....Steve for me played his part in our recovery ( steadied the ship in a fashion) The fact the hierarchy mortgaged the club against going up and put all their faith in him, was probably in hindsight misplaced....they watch the games just like we do.

Personally, I saw a different Steve Bruce this season from the one last season, that is not saying his style of football was ever fluent or convincing

and now its time for Dean to jettison us forward in to what we want to be like.

What Dean has achieved with Steve Bruces's players ( Defence was a bit of an exception, meaning what he left us)is quite remarkable.....when he gets his own in god knows where he takes us to.

I love this period and had I of known DS would be like this I would have lauded his joining us much quicker.

but just remember  the car you are driving has not just arrived in its format, its evolved of many years and much improvement to be what it is.

We are no different, we need to gradually evolve in to the club we know we can be and with a Top manager who cares about us 2 owners with liquid funds to help him, with a CEO with Nous and a squad ready to run through brick wall anything is possible.

We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but at last a chink of light is visible at the end of that dark tunnel( over 10 years) as the CEO said we need to chop much wood, but the chopping has started.

I get the feeling and I have had the feeling before ( in the past)that this wonderful old club of ours is on the way back.

We still have to be patient and humility will still serve us well.....but how can you not be over the moon at these recent results and just as importantly performances.

I am humbled to say.....Hail Dean Smith

I was only thinking this morning it was like he could see we were a team that lacked pace and made signings to improve that so I would give him that. It was the fact he didn't then utilise the abilities he had at his disposal.

I agree that hindsight is a wonderful tool. If he had won the play off final then you would be on the right side of it and the doubters on the wrong.

If anything the impact that Smith has had convinces me more that Bruce and his staff were failing the club utterly and totally.

[Johnnyp]

What i like is that it isn't just possession for possession sake. We are trying to move it between the lines faster and more direct and if the pass isn't on, we go back. I like that. We do still go through spells in the game where it is too slow, more so down to personnel and we will bring some in and some will go. To see Tuanzebe bring the ball out of defence like an absolute boss compared to the timid player under Bruce. Remarkable.

[hippo]

Just now, Johnnyp said:

What i like is that it isn't just possession for possession sake. We are trying to move it between the lines faster and more direct and if the pass isn't on, we go back. I like that. We do still go through spells in the game where it is too slow, more so down to personnel and we will bring some in and some will go. To see Tuanzebe bring the ball out of defence like an absolute boss compared to the timid player under Bruce. Remarkable.

Thats what I loathe - possession for the sake of it - and people jizzin themselves about it - the possession has to be where it hurts the opposition - passing it slowly sideways won't achieve anything - and isn't particularly clever 

[TRO]

4 minutes ago, mykeyb said:

I was only thinking this morning it was like he could see we were a team that lacked pace and made signings to improve that so I would give him that. It was the fact he didn't then utilise the abilities he had at his disposal.

I agree that hindsight is a wonderful tool. If he had won the play off final then you would be on the right side of it and the doubters on the wrong.

If anything the impact that Smith has had convinces me more that Bruce and his staff were failing the club utterly and totally.

I don't view it quite like that.

I think you have to seperate the two.

Steve Bruce and his merry men thought they were doing a good job, because they thought they were doing their best, but the club and the team was not prospering to achieve, their objectives.....that was not going to change, until someone changed it, and they eventually did.

I think the Preston game told some of us supporters, like me and awful lot.

Dean Smith, is a totally different animal, with a different outlook.....I think Dean is more of a student of the game than Steve he is also 10 years younger, fitter and more agile in his thinking.

I think folk like Steve are now dining out on their successes and have left all the hard work behind....Dean's career is ahead of him and is bursting with idea's and things to do, he is effervescent as opposed to flat and his energy is contagious.

Dean Smith is a top man, just like Brucie is.....Dean will afford Steve much praise in his evaluation for parts of his job, but will equally recognise Steve was left short, in what Dean has to offer.

We as fans will do well to close the Steve Bruce book with dignity and take the positives from his tenure with grace....Dean Smith is the future and as fans who are desperate to see credibility arrive back at our shores once more.....We can now welcome the new captain ashore.

We can now fill our boots with superlatives to our new leader.

 

[sidcow]

Anyone know if league rules allow us to loan Dean Smith back to Brentford for the baggies game tomorrow?

[DaveAV1]

1 hour ago, hippo said:

I  think we should have appointed him as soon as he was born.....that said I want him out if we don't don't beat the baggies on Friday.

By at least 3??

[srsmithusa]

1 hour ago, Johnnyp said:

To say we are in new manager bounce is silly really. Pressing high, dominating the ball more, creating more chances has nothing to do with new manager bounce. It's training ground work.

Fair enough that you disagree, being demeaning is OTT, IMO.  And frankly, needless   

I would say it’s both.  Part of new Manager bounce is the changed tactics and training that breaks players out of thinking ruts.  Another part is just a buzz of newness.  A third part is that the opposition doesn’t know how to prepare for you.  The latter will fade, the newness will wear off, the changed tactics should remain.

I will completely agree that the change in tactics you note and the training to support it are significant.  But they are also part of the new management.  So, pressing high and dominating the ball are essentially entwined in the new manager bounce.  So it seems you partly agree with my “sillynees.”  

[mikeyp102]

1 hour ago, TRO said:

been waiting for this one.lol

er I got it wrong in some ways and not SO wrong in others....but yes it does seem the players had it in them.

I was influenced in the main by the swamp we had walked through over the last 5-6 years, before Bruce arrived...He almost immediately turned us around from conceding goals at will....that for me was a very depressing time.

I accept the view of many on here that he was cautious in his DNA and that manifested us to a point of too cautious for promotion.

so far, Dean smith has been a revelation, I say so far, because I have seen things change so quick in the past....If I was a betting man, I would say this guy will continue in the vein he has started and I think for once being a Villa Fan does matter and drives him on.

Dean Smith has been quick to praise Steve Bruce for the players he has brought in, I think he is fair doing that....But Dean has clearly shown SB how to get the best out of them.

Like all things in life, rarely is something all ****.....Steve for me played his part in our recovery ( steadied the ship in a fashion) The fact the hierarchy mortgaged the club against going up and put all their faith in him, was probably in hindsight misplaced....they watch the games just like we do.

Personally, I saw a different Steve Bruce this season from the one last season, that is not saying his style of football was ever fluent or convincing

and now its time for Dean to jettison us forward in to what we want to be like.

What Dean has achieved with Steve Bruces's players ( Defence was a bit of an exception, meaning what he left us)is quite remarkable.....when he gets his own in god knows where he takes us to.

I love this period and had I of known DS would be like this I would have lauded his joining us much quicker.

but just remember  the car you are driving has not just arrived in its format, its evolved of many years and much improvement to be what it is.

We are no different, we need to gradually evolve in to the club we know we can be and with a Top manager who cares about us 2 owners with liquid funds to help him, with a CEO with Nous and a squad ready to run through brick wall anything is possible.

We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but at last a chink of light is visible at the end of that dark tunnel( over 10 years) as the CEO said we need to chop much wood, but the chopping has started.

I get the feeling and I have had the feeling before ( in the past)that this wonderful old club of ours is on the way back.

We still have to be patient and humility will still serve us well.....but how can you not be over the moon at these recent results and just as importantly performances.

I am humbled to say.....Hail Dean Smith

Good post and it echoes a lot of my thoughts.

I think the new owners came in and had thoughts over a new manager, but being new to the sport themselves and not having a CEO thought it best to keep Bruce in charge. 

Smith has never been fully in charge of transfers as at Brentford they had others who did that role. We didn’t have Purslow in, until the end of window and thus Bruce would’ve been integral in the transfers, I’m fairly certain we wouldn’t have Tammy or Bolassie or even McGinn if it wasn’t down to Bruce. 

I think Bruce always knew this season though that he had to impress the new owners and the pressure just got too much for him. (Not that he would ever have got us playing free flowing football)

Smith has come in, and obviously is impressed with the attacking players he has on offer. He has unleashed the shackles on them and has worked wonders in such a small amount of time to get them going forward. Long may it continue