Dean Smith

[est1874]

11 minutes ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

I'm really annoyed how Smith constantly alludes to us not starting games with enough intensity.

Well fix it then, motivate the players and address 'why' he always allow teams to get a start on us.

It only points to the players not believing in him if thy aren't up for the games!

Hence that win percentage, whether it's Championship or PL doesn't matter as when you start to lose it is a difficult thing to change.

If that annoys you, you must not have heard his comments before yesterday's game: "Systems don't win football matches, players do."

I gave him the benefit of the doubt upon hearing that, because I felt he probably put the right team out based on the available options and recent form, but a comment (and mentality) like that from a modern football manager is absolutely galling really.

Edited November 1, 2021 by est1874

[Delphinho123]

2 minutes ago, est1874 said:

Except that they're not really, they're alright now. Ahead of us in the table currently and definitely a better side than they were last season.

I like Hasenhuttl too, he's done well there with the resources at his disposal really.

He really has. I can guarantee that they will be a tough side to beat. If I were a betting man, I'd absolutely be putting my money on a Saints win I'm afraid. 

[pas5898]

Might get battered for this.

But with Nuno getting sacked, there is a decent PL manager available. Could this make the board jump if Friday doesn't go well? 

EDIT: FWIW I'm Dean Smith In. But think this might make the board go sooner rather than later.

Edited November 1, 2021 by pas5898

[Vive_La_Villa]

I’m starting to worry that last season we just massively over achieved for 4 months and the reality is our players are just not that good and the recruitment hasn’t been as great as we all thought it was. 

[villa4europe]

1 minute ago, pas5898 said:

Might get battered for this.

But with Nuno getting sacked, there is a decent PL manager available. Could this make the board jump if Friday doesn't go well? 

Nunos football is shite and his ceiling isnt much higher than smiths, don't think it would work or be worth it personally 

[Vive_La_Villa]

2 minutes ago, pas5898 said:

Might get battered for this.

But with Nuno getting sacked, there is a decent PL manager available. Could this make the board jump if Friday doesn't go well? 

It would probably be as bad or worse for a while before it got better. But he has got good pedigree. 

[Zatman]

3 minutes ago, pas5898 said:

Might get battered for this.

But with Nuno getting sacked, there is a decent PL manager available. Could this make the board jump if Friday doesn't go well? 

Decent manager with Jorge Mendes players. Thats it

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

13 minutes ago, est1874 said:

Except that they're not really, they're alright now. Ahead of us in the table currently and definitely a better side than they were last season.

I like Hasenhuttl too, he's done well there with the resources at his disposal really.

We've been waiting for this " reaction " a few games now ain't we?

[est1874]

8 minutes ago, pas5898 said:

Might get battered for this.

But with Nuno getting sacked, there is a decent PL manager available. Could this make the board jump if Friday doesn't go well? 

EDIT: FWIW I'm Dean Smith In. But think this might make the board go sooner rather than later.

He wouldn't be the worst available option but have to say I wouldn't really put him on a shortlist either.

That'll be Potter off to Spurs though - almost nailed on.

[skarroki]

It's bad to have lost 4 games in a row but we were playing well until the 70th minute of the wolves match. The spurs and arsenal performances were poor but not games I'm expecting points from and I'm not expecting points from West Ham. We went 2-1 down and started to become the better team, I think that shows that we just lacked leadership.

We improved when Young came on and when Mings came on both times. McGinn being given the armband is a poor choice in my opinion, he's simply not captain material. But there wasn't a single captain in that XI. West Ham had maybe 6-7 leaders, strong characters out on that pitch. 

If we get the character of the XI right along with the set-up (I was happy with players finally playing in their correct positions) then we'll start to kick on. I'm sure we can beat Southampton, we are a better side than them, simple as that. There are a lot of poor teams in this league and a lot of players on our bench when we're full strength would start for teams currently both above and below us in the league. 

Palace are flattering to deceive I believe, Southampton and Burnley are worse than previous seasons when they've circled the drain, Norwich and Newcastle are already down. Leeds are in a worse place than us.

If Konsa doesn't get sent off and we play the way we did in the spell after going down to 10 men then we'd currently be sat in 11th with three winnable games coming up. It's all small margins and I think we're not far from coming back round. 

[Stevo985]

6 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I’m starting to worry that last season we just massively over achieved for 4 months and the reality is our players are just not that good and the recruitment hasn’t been as great as we all thought it was. 

We were a lockdown team and we relied on one of the best players in the league (which is fair enough)

I'm still Smith in, I think it was always going to take a while to recover from grealish leaving and integrating new players. He needs more time.

But he hasn't got long to prove he can turn it round.

[pacbuddies]

After Spurs sacked Nuno after just 4 months and 10 games with them sitting 8th in the table then surely there could be no one that would be shocked if Smith got sacked after 3 years with us sitting just 3 points and places above the relegation zone!

[avfc1982am]

30 minutes ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

I'm really annoyed how Smith constantly alludes to us not starting games with enough intensity.

I agree. How can you be constantly highlighting the same issues in post game interviews and yet the problem continues. Either he isn't addressing it or players aren't listening. 

[HeyAnty]

27 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

I can see this turning into a long post, so TL:DR - Smith is bang in trouble. Club also to blame. 

His problems really started in the Summer when Grealish left (Sorry, here we go again). Every man and his dog could see the over reliance on Jack, both in the way we set up, the way the other players played and how the opposition set up against us. The modus operandi was very much - give the ball to Jack. If you're in trouble, give it to Jack. If we need to score, give it to Jack. He made every player around him better (see Targett's decline this season). He also affected the oppositions mindset. We had an identity. Jack the brand, Jack the lad, Jack the player, teams were frightened of him. Compare the West Ham game yesterday to the games against them last season. Their set up last season was to play two right backs and double up against Grealish and hope that they could stop him and then score themselves. Yesterday, they didn't have that problem so they just came with the intention of beating us and they did so with unquestionable ease.

Smith has never found a way of playing without Jack. One may even argue the only reason we were promoted was because Jack came back from his injury and we went on a ten game winning streak. There was no way we were getting promoted if this didn't happen. Then, fast forward a year, he almost single handedly keeps us in the league etc. etc. 

So Grealish leaves and money is spent on Buendia, Bailey and Ings. Individually, all very good players. Ok, Bailey has been out injured but Smith has failed to really get anything creative out of his forward players. He's messed around with the system to the detriment of Watkins, Targett and Buendia's performance levels and he's been too stubborn to see when things aren't working - the two up top. We're a mess. The players don't seem up for it. They don't seem like they're fit enough and now there are murmurings of unrest behind the scenes. It feels as though we won't ever win a game again the way we are playing! All of this is on Smith I'm afraid. He's had three years to mould a system that works with or without Grealish and he simply hasn't been able to do it. We seem to go on good runs of form but they're massively outweighed by the really bad spells we go through.

Now re-wind back to the Summer and the absolute calamity that was the Summer transfer window. Before Grealish left, our priority should have been to replace Barkley (a no.8/10), to buy a defensive midfielder and then to strengthen out on the right and buy a player to compete with Traore. It started out well, we signed Buendia and the prospect of Grealish and Buendia behind Watkins was tantalising. We then sign Bailey, a player who has just had his best season playing from the right wing, but ok, that's fine, now we have real options! We can play Grealish as a 10 with Buendia and Bailey outside of him. One might be slightly uncomfortable on the left but they're good enough to adapt. Now, if we could only strengthen the defensive midfield area to stop teams from walking through us...
Then Grealish leaves, something the club didn't plan for. If they'd have expected it, they wouldn't have been so daft as to feature him in the kit launch and subsequently sell/refund thousands of shirts which outside of being really stupid, is a commercial disaster to boot. The Ings signing is something to appease the fans and is a signing based on stats. i.e. we can replace Grealish's goal involvements by signing Ings but that's not how it works. We also have Watkins, a player who excels in the 4-2-3-1 formation, a formation that's helped us to our best defensive record in years the season before and a formation that every player looks comfortable in. So why buy Ings? Straight away we have a problem fitting a £25m striker on £120k a week into a side that looks set. He's also 29yrs old, which completely breaks away from our pattern of buying 21-25yr old players with the hope they improve and their value goes up. A panic signing? Absolutely. 

So, at this point we have signed two right sided forwards and a striker to compete with arguably our best outfield player from the season before. But, again, this is absolutely fine if we bring in the two midfielders I mention earlier - a defensive option and a Barkley (no.10) replacement. But we don't and that ladies and gentleman, caps an appalling transfer window. We've left ourselves completely unbalanced and not addressed the problems in the side from the year before. This part is on the club as much as it is on Smith.

Am I surprised as to our performance so far this season? Hell no. Look at my previous posts in the transfer threads and the Smith thread. As soon as Ings was brought in, I think I was one of the first posters to say it stinks of a panic signing (how great am I?). I consistently pointed out that if we don't bring in a new midfielder or two, there was no way we were improving on our 11th place finish and here we are in 15th/16th or wherever we are in the table now.

The club, and Smith, have had a poor 6 months which goes against everything they've done previously. There is no getting away from that. From the recruitment, to Smiths tactics, to Terry/ROK leaving, it's been a mess. Smith, a man I absolutely respect and love, is a dead man walking. I don't see him getting out of this and the club isn't faultless in that. 

Sanson was technically a summer signing.  They got him early as the money was right.  He’s a midfielder 

[avfc1982am]

21 minutes ago, pas5898 said:

Might get battered for this.

But with Nuno getting sacked, there is a decent PL manager available. Could this make the board jump if Friday doesn't go well? 

EDIT: FWIW I'm Dean Smith In. But think this might make the board go sooner rather than later.

You not seen Spurs. Nuno no.

[Delphinho123]

37 minutes ago, skarroki said:

It's bad to have lost 4 games in a row but we were playing well until the 70th minute of the wolves match. The spurs and arsenal performances were poor but not games I'm expecting points from and I'm not expecting points from West Ham. We went 2-1 down and started to become the better team, I think that shows that we just lacked leadership.

We improved when Young came on and when Mings came on both times. McGinn being given the armband is a poor choice in my opinion, he's simply not captain material. But there wasn't a single captain in that XI. West Ham had maybe 6-7 leaders, strong characters out on that pitch. 

If we get the character of the XI right along with the set-up (I was happy with players finally playing in their correct positions) then we'll start to kick on. I'm sure we can beat Southampton, we are a better side than them, simple as that. There are a lot of poor teams in this league and a lot of players on our bench when we're full strength would start for teams currently both above and below us in the league. 

Palace are flattering to deceive I believe, Southampton and Burnley are worse than previous seasons when they've circled the drain, Norwich and Newcastle are already down. Leeds are in a worse place than us.

If Konsa doesn't get sent off and we play the way we did in the spell after going down to 10 men then we'd currently be sat in 11th with three winnable games coming up. It's all small margins and I think we're not far from coming back round. 

So, just to clarify, you're not expecting points off Spurs, Arsenal or West Ham? How the hell do you ever expect us to improve if you're just writing these games off!? Ok, they're tough games, but we should be going into the likes of Arsenal and Spurs and looking to beat them. 

Edited November 1, 2021 by Delphinho123

[Vive_La_Villa]

Odds slashed to evens for him to be next manager sacked. He’s the favourite. 

[Peter Griffin]

1 minute ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Odds slashed to evens for him to be next manager sacked. He’s the favourite. 

Maybe Spurs are trying to get Fonseca before the Toon. That could force their hand to act early

[Bazmonkey]

23 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I’m starting to worry that last season we just massively over achieved for 4 months and the reality is our players are just not that good and the recruitment hasn’t been as great as we all thought it was. 

Said this many times.

I'm all for dipping in to the championship for players, but when you have a team full of them which player already in the squad is going to make them better....no of them....additionally....how are they expected to compete in the prem.....they wont....we have too many players effectively 'learning their trade'

Need balance of good premiership players, experience.  Even those with prem experience are not good enough take Targett...played in a poor Southampton side....fulham....is he really going to improve us ...no...this can be said for many of our current squad.

The recruitment......the tactical awareness of Smith......the quality of players we have.....the loss of grealish   = what we have seen this calendar year and before.

Smith did get us promoted but so would any manager with the money spent and grealish.

He is a likeable guy...a fan...and i thank him for what he has done...but those asking for more time...he deserves it....so far during these past 11 months what have seen to show you that...next game...he can motivate the team and get a result....im intrigued to know. 

[Robbie09]

1 hour ago, The Fun Factory said:

Losing Terry and O'Kelly hasn't helped. The pre season was a mess with the Grealish saga. And he hasn't had chance to pick his best XI yet. We are still only 4 points from the top half and I don't think its time to panic just yet.

Whilst this is very true, the bigger and more concerning issue for me is our form over the calendar months.

Sadly I think Dean has reached his ceiling with us and if we are to progress then we need a change of manager and coaching staff.