Dean Smith

[Farlz]

 

This is definitely a problem that’s becoming quite common. Press us and we’re awful. 

[DCJonah]

1 hour ago, Demitri_C said:

For me i think sansom should ahve been given moee game time over the last two days. I think trez and i would have said el ghazi. However he was really poor yesterday.

I do think the players you mention taylor elmo davis should be sold in summer and  etter options bought in who can challenge targett cash and ollie

I think sanson will start playing more now. 

Let's not forget Trez had an injury and then covid. Again he looked fitter yesterday and will be pushing for more minutes. 

Being a premier league team again next season will enable us to continue to build a competitive squad. 

Dean Smith surpassed his target when he first joined. Did what was needed last year and is doing more than expected this year. 

I think he's more than earned enough trust to not criticise based on hypothetical scenarios. 

Yesterday was not good enough, I'd be amazed if he didn't change the team Saturday. 

[DCJonah]

5 minutes ago, Farlz said:

 

This is definitely a problem that’s becoming quite common. Press us and we’re awful. 

Yep. Which is surprising because technically we've got some very good players to be able to play through it. 

[DCJonah]

I get we all want to win games and they can be incredibly frustrating. 

But also what's the panic over when we lose? We aren't going down and we don't need to qualify for Europe. That would just be an incredible bonus. 

Teams like Everton, spurs and arsenal should be panicking about that. Chelsea should be worried about not breaking the top 4. 

Our season is comfortable, regardless of games like last night. And its comfortable because over these 20 games, Dean Smith and the squad have done a fantastic job. 

If we finish 8th or 13th whats the big difference?

Edited February 4, 2021 by DCJonah

[TRO]

1 hour ago, M_Afro said:

West Ham deserved their win yesterday. I thought they played really well. Moyes set them out perfectly to reduce our potency whilst finding huge gaps in our team. Dean needs to get the balance of the side right still. He took way too long to change the system yesterday and the end result was inevitable. We are so charitable at times it is painful. Two of their goals came from our centre forward losing the ball!

We are also woeful after conceding first. We seem to visibly lose our composure. It happened last week against Burnley too. It happens all the time. I like the defence and I like the front three but the three in the middle do not work. If you want to play Barkley you need two players to shield in the same way that Liverpool play. If you don’t it’s way to easy to get at the back four. It happens all of the time.

AEG must also never ever start games when Traore and Trez are fit. He is good emergency back up or as an impact sub but he lacks the physicality or consistency to start games. Even when he’s scoring his all round game is not good enough. It was a bizarre decision to start him yesterday. Utterly bizarre!

Much to ponder ahead of Arsenal. Hopefully we can bounce back. The season has been good so far but some of our old failings are creeping back in. Dean needs to address it. He says that we bounced back against Southampton but we didn’t really, we were just very lucky. 

First class rendition imo.

El Ghazi is a myth....he scores the odd goal and it papers over his general game....He is a total luxury, and we have a few of them.

The Balance of the squad is not right, he leaves himself little options on nights like last Night.....The midfield right now is embarrassing....and there seemed to be a difference of opinion last night with Dean & Craig.

[cb_82]

The games where we have been hammered this year in particular thinking of West Ham, Leeds and Southampton first half is where teams have pressed us and force us into errors.

 

West Ham played really well last night and just pushed and pushed every time we had the ball at the back and we had no way of playing through.

 

Dean Smith has been brilliant for Villa but there is something in the fact we haven't come from behind to win this seaon, that for me is around being able to change games in game and last night was a prime example. The one thing that stood out as soon as the team was announced was that Fredricks was starting to double up on Grealish - To me that means you start the game with Jack on the right and El Ghazi on the left and you play them at their own game straight away and give them something to think about. Then when we couldn't go through the press why didn't we try to go over and round it and stick Davis on as another forward to hold and play off - Again may not have worked but we seemed to just keep trying the same thing over and over to the point i called each of the subs 2 minutes before they were made as you just knew what was coming.

 

Still plenty of positives but i think we need to show as we did v saints that we can bounce back and we are learning 

 

UTV

[cb_82]

Just now, TRO said:

First class rendition imo.

El Ghazi is a myth....he scores the odd goal and it papers over his general game....He is a total luxury, and we have a few of them.

The Balance of the squad is not right, he leaves himself little options on nights like last Night.....The midfield right now is embarrassing....and there seemed to be a difference of opinion last night with Dean & Craig.

I thought that, there was a clear difference in views on something

[TRO]

35 minutes ago, Farlz said:

 

This is definitely a problem that’s becoming quite common. Press us and we’re awful. 

Its been a problem for sometime, but our impressive offensive play has masked over it....certain teams like West Ham, expose it, like they did last night.

The midfield needs serious examination, to start with.

[tomav84]

28 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

I get we all want to win games and they can be incredibly frustrating. 

But also what's the panic over when we lose? We aren't going down and we don't need to qualify for Europe. That would just be an incredible bonus. 

Teams like Everton, spurs and arsenal should be panicking about that. Chelsea should be worried about not breaking the top 4. 

Our season is comfortable, regardless of games like last night. And its comfortable because over these 20 games, Dean Smith and the squad have done a fantastic job. 

If we finish 8th or 13th whats the big difference?

there will always be a VT meltdown whenever we lose. always been the way, always will be. i chose to largely stay away last night as a result as i was happy to put it down to one of those nights.

if we'd made subs earlier, if we'd rotated and played sanson/marv instead, i still think we'd have lost...because west ham are better than us right now, plain and simple.

20 games played, and only 2 performances that i would say were genuinely poor. i still think we'll finish top half once the players get proper rest between games and sanson gets up to speed. how amazing is that? staying up by a point to top half in a year...incredible stuff

[TRO]

2 minutes ago, cb_82 said:

I thought that, there was a clear difference in views on something

I am second guessing, of course, but it seemed like it.

I have a worry, that Dean stuggles to see the lack of physicality, or competitiveness particularly in midfield, but I hope,I am wrong.

[Wainy316]

Did West Ham take that approach with us at their place in November?  All I remember is us completely outplaying them (and losing).

[tom_avfc]

16 minutes ago, TRO said:

First class rendition imo.

El Ghazi is a myth....he scores the odd goal and it papers over his general game....He is a total luxury, and we have a few of them.

The Balance of the squad is not right, he leaves himself little options on nights like last Night.....The midfield right now is embarrassing....and there seemed to be a difference of opinion last night with Dean & Craig.

Surely some difference of opinions is to be expected between a manager and his coaching staff. Its the job of those assistant managers/coaches to be making suggestions to Dean Smith about how a game could be changed. Its Dean Smith's job to take these on board and express how he feels before taking the correct decision to change the outcome of a match.

If we surrounded Dean Smith with people that had the same opinion and feeling on games as he has all the time then we'd have a pretty poor backroom staff. To me it looked like Shakespeare was suggesting a 4-4-2. Whether this would have worked we'll never know but I wouldn't want Dean Smith to be a yes man to whatever the assistants say and I wouldn't want the assistants to feel unable to make suggestions. It looked like a perfectly normal tactical discussion between a manager and his coaching team.

[Zatman]

Lose a game we lack physicality a  Jedinak midfielder who only 2 or 3 teams in the whole league use. win a game we dont make subs. 

Same old story on here

[DCJonah]

2 minutes ago, Wainy316 said:

Did West Ham take that approach with us at their place in November?  All I remember is us completely outplaying them (and losing).

No, they couldn't get close to us that night. They had 2 half chances and scored both of them. 

[DCJonah]

13 minutes ago, tomav84 said:

there will always be a VT meltdown whenever we lose. always been the way, always will be. i chose to largely stay away last night as a result as i was happy to put it down to one of those nights.

if we'd made subs earlier, if we'd rotated and played sanson/marv instead, i still think we'd have lost...because west ham are better than us right now, plain and simple.

20 games played, and only 2 performances that i would say were genuinely poor. i still think we'll finish top half once the players get proper rest between games and sanson gets up to speed. how amazing is that? staying up by a point to top half in a year...incredible stuff

This is a really good point. I'd say maybe 3 or 4 but ultimately we've played very well the vast majority of games. There will always be blips. Every team in this league could point to 3 or 4 bad performances this season.

Yet ours become some sort of reason to flap and panic. I guess its just what we're used to but really, this is the first time since MON's first season where it doesn't matter. 

We're aren't a club that needs European qualification and we aren't worried about going down. 

[sparrow1988]

14 minutes ago, TRO said:

I am second guessing, of course, but it seemed like it.

I have a worry, that Dean stuggles to see the lack of physicality, or competitiveness particularly in midfield, but I hope,I am wrong.

This is the problem in the midfield IMO. We need a bee buzzing around in there. Someone who is everywhere snapping at ankles like a Jackrussell, annoying the opposition, in their faces, not giving them a rest for a millisecond. I thought McGinn could do this but he doesn't look right since the COVID break. It's been mentioned on here a lot this season - when McGinn plays well then Villa play well.

[TRO]

28 minutes ago, tom_avfc said:

Surely some difference of opinions is to be expected between a manager and his coaching staff. Its the job of those assistant managers/coaches to be making suggestions to Dean Smith about how a game could be changed. Its Dean Smith's job to take these on board and express how he feels before taking the correct decision to change the outcome of a match.

If we surrounded Dean Smith with people that had the same opinion and feeling on games as he has all the time then we'd have a pretty poor backroom staff. To me it looked like Shakespeare was suggesting a 4-4-2. Whether this would have worked we'll never know but I wouldn't want Dean Smith to be a yes man to whatever the assistants say and I wouldn't want the assistants to feel unable to make suggestions. It looked like a perfectly normal tactical discussion between a manager and his coaching team.

I accept your overall view.....but in such circumstances, when some things were so stone blind obvious, we was losing the midfield and the initiative was being surrendered.....you might expect some level of agreement, but judging by their expressions, they didn't seem on the same page....of course you expect differences of opinion, blimey, we get it on here.

However, there is a subtle difference from disagreeing on minor points and fundamentals...I wasn't clear what Shakespeare, was suggesting but having a stab at it, i would guess it was something relating to Midfield.....where, I thought we was woeful.

Dean said last night, our defending was poor, but some of that defending comes from Midfield and upfront too.

Edited February 4, 2021 by TRO

[TRO]

2 minutes ago, sparrow1988 said:

This is the problem in the midfield IMO. We need a bee buzzing around in there. Someone who is everywhere snapping at ankles like a Jackrussell, annoying the opposition, in their faces, not giving them a rest for a millisecond. I thought McGinn could do this but he doesn't look right since the COVID break. It's been mentioned on here a lot this season - when McGinn plays well then Villa play well.

You are not wrong.....and the player you describe, we clearly need.

McGinn, right now, needs to come out of the side......I don't know what is wrong with him, but it clearly isn't right.

Covid, may be a legitimate reason, I don't know.....but what I do know, is that midfield, is Marshmellow.

[villa4europe]

1 hour ago, Farlz said:

 

This is definitely a problem that’s becoming quite common. Press us and we’re awful. 

whilst i agree with it i dont like the notion that its the thing that will stop us from getting europe, its setting unrealistic and unfair expectations

if we end the season around 10th but somehow dour because of some perceived missed opportunity because smith didnt make changes like that then all it does is drag negativity in to the club that isnt needed

we are a mid table team, it is what it is and its better than last season and even arguably overachieving compared to what we were last season, talk of europe needs binning off

[Herman22]

I think Dean made the right choice last night taking ElGhazi off at HT. He was completely out of the game and was offering nothing. 

I thought he should have taken Barkley off earlier, he was badly off the pace and the number of wayward passes was clear to see.

The move to switch Jack to a central (roaming) role was the right one. West Ham had 2-3 players on Jack from minute one and he was getting swarmed out of the left. 

Having said all of this the goals last night were criminal, the second and third were especially bad. How we go from a real threat to 2-0 down is a game killer. And Emi won't want to see the third (I think he could have done better on the second too BTW).