Dean Smith

[Demitri_C]

1 minute ago, DCJonah said:

But there is always something. Before it was squad rotation, then it was subs, now its goals. There's always something people need to criticise regardless of how well we're doing.

The point is we haven't been doing well recently so questions are rightly being asked. 

No one is calling for his head but at dame time he isnt above criticism when things are not going so well⁷

[DCJonah]

13 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

The point is we haven't been doing well recently so questions are rightly being asked. 

No one is calling for his head but at dame time he isnt above criticism when things are not going so well⁷

He isn't above criticism. What tends to detract from your point, is that it's usually the same posters who have been criticising from day 1. 

You could moan that we didn't beat sheff u and wolves. That would see us sitting 2 pts off the champions league with a game in hand. 

The criticism has to match some sort of realistic expectation. Otherwise they tend to just look like moans for the sake of it. 

Edited March 6, 2021 by DCJonah

[foreveryoung]

16 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

He isn't above criticism. What tends to detract from your point, is that it's usually the same posters who have been criticising from day 1. 

You could moan that we didn't beat sheff u and wolves. That would see us sitting 2 pts off the champions league with a game in hand. 

The criticism has to match some sort of realistic expectation. Otherwise they tend to just look like moans for the sake of it. 

Was it not a realistic expectation to beat a Sheffield united side down to 10 men??

[villalad21]

5 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Was it not a realistic expectation to beat a Sheffield united side down to 10 men??

Too hard without Grealish

[Vive_La_Villa]

11 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Too hard without Grealish

[alexvilla4]

Not sure where we are going wrong in terms of our style of play. First half of the season we seemed to have a lot of fast intricate passing in the final 3rds with lots of one twos and overlaps, coupled with some great counter attacking and I would argue there were only 1 or two teams playing better football than us. 

Now the passing on the whole is really poor, we give the ball away so much, we only press in our own half (except for Watkins) and the movement in attacking areas is really disjointed. Plus our counter attack threat hasn't been there for a long time. I know we have lost Grealish and Cash recently, but the problems were there before they were injured and they have only gotten worse in my opinion 

[jimmygreaves]

9 minutes ago, alexvilla4 said:

Not sure where we are going wrong in terms of our style of play. First half of the season we seemed to have a lot of fast intricate passing in the final 3rds with lots of one twos and overlaps, coupled with some great counter attacking and I would argue there were only 1 or two teams playing better football than us. 

Now the passing on the whole is really poor, we give the ball away so much, we only press in our own half (except for Watkins) and the movement in attacking areas is really disjointed. Plus our counter attack threat hasn't been there for a long time. I know we have lost Grealish and Cash recently, but the problems were there before they were injured and they have only gotten worse in my opinion 

Did our style change after Shakespeare got on board?

 

[Zatman]

2 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

4 goals in 7 dean

Poor and not good enough. Need to fix this issue dean you have enough quality ...

Who is this quality? We hit the bar twice without Grealish and El Ghazi. Our 2nd sub was Keinan Davis FFS

[Zatman]

2 hours ago, mykeyb said:

Dean needs a plan b.

Stop us down the wings and we struggle big time.

Plan B is the most overrated thing in football. No other manager actually has a Plan B. Mourinho, Klopp, Pep dont have a Plan B 

[Mister_a]

2 hours ago, villalad21 said:

Too hard without Grealish

 

[DCJonah]

9 hours ago, foreveryoung said:

Was it not a realistic expectation to beat a Sheffield united side down to 10 men??

Yep. But show me a team in the league who hasn't had a terrible result this year.

It happens. 

[DaveAV1]

7 hours ago, Mister_a said:

 

I think you’ll find he only uses one hand to type. 

[Stratvillan]

Look at the subs made in the other games yesterday, ours are so week, with the exception of Sheff Utd, they were easily the worse.

I dont think Smith is untouchable or immune from criticism, but critise him for his faults. 

Our first choice back 5 is excellent, but no back up. Our 2 back up full backs will both leave in the Summer.

Our midfield is hideously imbalanced but looked better until Sanson went off. But whether you're in the luiz or mcginn camp, both have had poor seasons.

Attacking we have Watkins.Thats it. 

Dont get me wrong, it confuses me why we play with wingers, when the wingers we have are poor, and the late subs, but realistically would you make subs when you have a bench like ours?

Season 1 - took over a midtable team  to prepare for next season - got us promoted.

Season 2 - had to sign a squad - totally readjusted during lockdown and we stayed up.

Season 3 - some amazing results, some disappointing ones, but weve sued up with a third of the season to go. Two players in the England squad, another 2 to follow. Massive praise for our style .

I'm sorry I cant go too overboard at the poor run we are in at the moment.

 

 

[Mjvilla]

The same posters who, in the pre match thread, were expecting us to get beat are now moaning we didn't win. 

From outside, it's look an agenda. It looks like certain people don't trust Smith, so think we will lose. If we don't lose, and overachieve against these posters expectations... It's still not good enough and the manager gets the blame.

I'm struggling with it. I don't post in the match thread. I don't post immediately after in the post match thread because it's so clear. I usually post the morning after so as not to get caught up in the completely overreactions. This place is slowly becoming unreadable, in my opinion. I literally shake my head in disbelief at some of the comments.

The first time in 8 years we have achieved 40 points and it's just all so so negative.

The youngest squad in the league, we are learning and developing. We learn and develop through good form and probably more through bad form. We will add to the squad again in the summer, it's all positive for me.

[ozvillafan]

I think he did fine against Wolves - we were a crossbar's width away from an easy 2-0 result. You can't coach against that.

I like that he took off Trez for Ramsey - effectively giving us 4 in midfield to match Wolves' 4 - but feel it came a little too late for us to take the game to them. Still, we had the last decent chance too, so a bit more clinical in front of goal and we get the 3 points.

Shooting practice for Ollie and Konsa this week, I think.

[lexicon]

1 hour ago, Mjvilla said:

The same posters who, in the pre match thread, were expecting us to get beat are now moaning we didn't win. 

From outside, it's look an agenda. It looks like certain people don't trust Smith, so think we will lose. If we don't lose, and overachieve against these posters expectations... It's still not good enough and the manager gets the blame.

I'm struggling with it. I don't post in the match thread. I don't post immediately after in the post match thread because it's so clear. I usually post the morning after so as not to get caught up in the completely overreactions. This place is slowly becoming unreadable, in my opinion. I literally shake my head in disbelief at some of the comments.

The first time in 8 years we have achieved 40 points and it's just all so so negative.

The youngest squad in the league, we are learning and developing. We learn and develop through good form and probably more through bad form. We will add to the squad again in the summer, it's all positive for me.

I largely agree with you except for what you say about this place changing - it's always been this way. 

[Sulberto21]

COVID!!!

In the first half we started playing sexy football again without the best player in the world and the defender who had been top 4 for interceptions. Or was it tackles. 

We should have won.

Story of our season? Missed chances. Unless the coaches and manager get on the pitch and score themselves wtf are they supposed to do when players keep missing sitters.

[andym]

10 hours ago, Zatman said:

Plan B is the most overrated thing in football. No other manager actually has a Plan B. Mourinho, Klopp, Pep dont have a Plan B 

Its usually bring on some quality off the bench - i can see the issue there for us...

Also worth noting Smith was prepared to swallow his pride and completely change his approach during the covid break last season, and we have massively improved defensively.

He's shown a willingness to forgo his natural instincts if necessary, and not many managers will do that. 

 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

10 hours ago, Zatman said:

Plan B is the most overrated thing in football. No other manager actually has a Plan B. Mourinho, Klopp, Pep dont have a Plan B 

I'm not sure why you say this with such confidence if I'm honest.

It's easier to stick to ' Plan A ' when your whole bench is ' Plan A ' quality.

I'm sure I saw an interview with Pep when he was talking about finding different ways to break different teams down.

Saying that's what they wanted to do this season.

That indicates multiple ' plans', even if it's just a tweak.

Suggesting top managers don't gave different plans is frankly bizarre IMO.

Some might just be more stubborn with ' A ', like Mourinho. He finally changed that last match and look at the result.

[Zatman]

6 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I'm not sure why you say this with such confidence if I'm honest.

It's easier to stick to ' Plan A ' when your whole bench is ' Plan A ' quality.

I'm sure I saw an interview with Pep when he was talking about finding different ways to break different teams down.

Saying that's what they wanted to do this season.

That indicates multiple ' plans', even if it's just a tweak.

Suggesting top managers don't gave different plans is frankly bizarre IMO.

Some might just be more stubborn with ' A ', like Mourinho. He finally changed that last match and look at the result.

Klopp plays the same system everyweek for 15 years. Even now Liverpool are struggling he hasnt changed it up once. 

Pep Guardiola has a team of 50 million pound players  but he usually plays the same system he just tweaks Sterling for Mahrez or Foden for Bernardo at times. They still play the same way

What would Dean Smith plan B be? Lumping it to Keinan Davis, maybe putting on a No. 10 for a more orthodox midfielder because he did both of them yesterday