hippo Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 6 minutes ago, Tayls said: Said we’d struggle for wins this season. Way way way too disjointed in many departments. That was clear as soon as the sale of Grealish was confirmed. There is no excuse for it now. The lack of pre-season is now null and void 10 games in. Not buying the injuries excuse either. This form is down to how the team are being managed AND the individual talents of our players. The recruitment over the summer was horrendous and it is really starting to show. I have no idea what on earth they thought they were trying to achieve. Huge struggle from here. Buckle up for a relegation dog fight. Don't forget the recruitment team will have a big say in the new head coach But yes I agree your prognosis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ciggiesnbeer Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 Time for the "streaky Dean" moniker? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post villalad21 Posted October 31, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted October 31, 2021 4 minutes ago, Made In Aston said: This Smith out talk is a bit premature. His teams go through poor runs every season, but also have good runs to balance it out. Unless we get information that he has lost the support of the players then I don't think it's time to call for his head. It was only a month or so ago that the fan base was saying he was the best fit for us. This isn't just a bad run. It feels different. Something is off in the dressing room. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 16 minutes ago, tomav84 said: he had a sticky patch in the xmas period after he joined. he turned it around we were heading for the drop before covid. he turned it around. he's done it before, he'll do it again Having to turn it around season after season is part of the problem. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferguson1 Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 1 minute ago, Made In Aston said: This Smith out talk is a bit premature. His teams go through poor runs every season, but also have good runs to balance it out. Unless we get information that he has lost the support of the players then I don't think it's time to call for his head. It was only a month or so ago that the fan base was saying he was the best fit for us. Honestly mate, I don’t think it is premature. I do think he’ll be in charge this coming Friday but that could be his last game. His win ratio without Grealish in the team is terrible, 30% or something ridiculous like that. The goals conceded this season is alarming. Player unrest, disjointed team selections etc. He’s on very thin ice for sure. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Davkaus Posted October 31, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted October 31, 2021 Looking back at the managers that have gone since I was a kid, I think this would be the first one to genuinely upset me, I'd absolutely love for him to turn it around and continue to succeed here. The vast majority of our former managers, I'd have happily driven them to the beach and told them to walk into the sea. Bruce, nob. Di Matteo, incompetent. Garde, incompetent. Sherwood, incompetent nob. And so on and so forth. Maybe Gregory is the other exception. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoony Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 1 minute ago, villalad21 said: This isn't just a bad run. It feels different. Something is off in the dressing room. I do have to agree with this. You can tell from the body language and some of the reactions. All is not well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mic09 Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 We shouldn't sack him, but if saints do us on Friday that will be last chance saloon based on results alone. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted October 31, 2021 Moderator Share Posted October 31, 2021 5 minutes ago, Made In Aston said: This Smith out talk is a bit premature. His teams go through poor runs every season, but also have good runs to balance it out. Unless we get information that he has lost the support of the players then I don't think it's time to call for his head. It was only a month or so ago that the fan base was saying he was the best fit for us. He hasn’t got a returning Grealish this time though to turn it around for him. No reason to believe he will turn this around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentVillan Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 I wonder if McPhee, despite doing a good job on his set pieces, is a distraction for a squad that is going through another transition. Are we letting him take up too much mental bandwidth? It strikes me that the player briefings when they come off the bench are *always* about set piece responsibilities, and never about gameplan. Is that how most top clubs operate? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentVillan Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 Just now, TrentVilla said: He hasn’t got a returning Grealish this time though to turn it around for him. No reason to believe he will turn this around. He had similar long streaks of wins / losses at Brentford. It’s always been a feature of his teams, and something Brentford fans warned us about when he joined. He likes to tinker with the team when they’re losing and then when he finds something that works he sticks with it for as many games as possible. I don’t think Grealish is the only player in world football who can dig Dean Smith out of a hole. If Bailey finds form, he could be just as destructive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillanousOne Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 3 minutes ago, KentVillan said: I wonder if McPhee, despite doing a good job on his set pieces, is a distraction for a squad that is going through another transition. Are we letting him take up too much mental bandwidth? It strikes me that the player briefings when they come off the bench are *always* about set piece responsibilities, and never about gameplan. Is that how most top clubs operate? he's not even doing a good job on the set pieces, we look about 5% better than we did without him Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delphinho123 Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 Same vibes I’m afraid. We’re heading for disaster as things stand. Something needs to change and quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 5 minutes ago, villalad21 said: This isn't just a bad run. It feels different. Something is off in the dressing room. And the recruitment team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted October 31, 2021 Moderator Share Posted October 31, 2021 1 minute ago, KentVillan said: He had similar long streaks of wins / losses at Brentford. It’s always been a feature of his teams, and something Brentford fans warned us about when he joined. He likes to tinker with the team when they’re losing and then when he finds something that works he sticks with it for as many games as possible. I don’t think Grealish is the only player in world football who can dig Dean Smith out of a hole. If Bailey finds form, he could be just as destructive. I’m not saying he is. The point is that he had him on hand the previous times but doesn’t this time, so saying he has done it before (at Villa) isn’t really of any comfort. It is though besides the point, spending what he has and being so reliant on one player whoever that player is just isn’t good enough. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turvontour Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 8 minutes ago, Made In Aston said: This Smith out talk is a bit premature. His teams go through poor runs every season, but also have good runs to balance it out. Unless we get information that he has lost the support of the players then I don't think it's time to call for his head. It was only a month or so ago that the fan base was saying he was the best fit for us. I'd agree with the poor run angle to some extent as it happened last season. But where it is different this year is that he doesnt know his best formation, he doesnt know his personnel in either formation, the players have lost their discipline and we have literally not been in the last two games. Atleast when we were bad last season, we were generally still in games to the end. The counter to it all is that as you say, a month ago we came away from Old Trafford and everything was great. Smith therefore needs time to rectify this. Another couple of games like this though, performances and scoreline and his job is in the balance youd think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeilS Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 It is getting harder to defend Smith when he has overseen a 60% defeat ratio from the first ten games of the season. Combine this with the poor ten games at the end of last season, I wouldn’t be surprised to see NSWE pull the trigger. The worrying thing is our defence is relegation fodder this season with the amount of goal conceded. The last couple of games we have conceded early and given ourselves a mountain to climb. I hope that if NSWE do decide to pull the trigger they do so having already given it deep thought, and have a good option lined up to ready take over. We should have a few decent options available to us this time around compared to when Bruce was sacked. However, I do think Deano may get two more games yet though. Lose to Southampton and Palace and he is gone, nobody survives six losses on the bounce after the millions that have been spent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jareth Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 (edited) FWIW our three top signings haven't started a game together yet. If Smith's ability is so dependent on Jack then maybe we allow him time to manage the team when Jack's direct replacements are all fit and ready. And then see if he's worthy of the chop. Edited October 31, 2021 by Jareth 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post The Moustache of Teale Posted October 31, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted October 31, 2021 The most concerning thing at the moment is that we have no system, and nobody seems to know their roles. Each week we look like a team of strangers who haven’t played together before. We don’t play as a team. Individually, West Ham are better than us but as a team they are miles ahead of us. Injuries haven’t helped but the sum of a good team of players should be greater than its parts; at the moment we are the complete opposite of that. Until this fundamental issue is addressed, and whether Dean can address it or not is starting to concern me, we’ll continue to struggle. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_eristic Posted October 31, 2021 Share Posted October 31, 2021 24 minutes ago, villanmac said: Add to that a set piece coach turning us into a Tony pulis side everytime we get a bastard throw in. Having a set piece coach is good, long throws are good, but we have to drill the routines to extreme consistency, which we clearly haven't done yet, then use them judiciously, which we clearly don't. The latter is the area where Smith needs to be making adjustments based on what's happening in games to better control tempo, defensive exposure, etc, but it seems like it's been fully delegated to McPhee, who is always going to tell them to try one of his routines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts