Dean Smith

[Laughable Chimp]

1 hour ago, Phil Silvers said:

Fair comments, the stats do add up but do not tell the full story. I'm not writing him until he has all his players fully fit and up to speed with what we expect of them. I've re-read my post and it is bias towards Smith, I can see that, I'm desperate for it to work for him and us fans. 

2021 has been one upheaval after another, things we cannot just ignore, that would make us anti-Smith bias. I do not see any potential and getable Manager doing considerably better to make it worthwhile changing yet. If we do not turn it around then fine but right now is too soon for me, I just cannot see who comes in and transforms us successly as a guaranteed proposal. The only managers that give that will not come here 

So basically never then.

[Phil Silvers]

Just now, Laughable Chimp said:

So basically never then.

It feels that way at the moment pal.

[TRO]

9 hours ago, villalad21 said:

The owners won't act irrationally because of 5 games.

However. Barely hovering above 1.00 point on average in 2021 is a sackable offense to most managers.

This mini slump, will only attract attention.......The overall picture is what he will get judged on.

It is also the danger of this continuing and too late to address it, that will be uppermost in their minds.

Edited November 2, 2021 by TRO

[TRO]

6 hours ago, villalad21 said:

Southampton have several decent players.

Thought they outplayed us on both occasions last season. The Barkley winner was a smash and grab win.

What I would give for a smash & Grab win, right now.

[M_Afro]

41 minutes ago, Phil Silvers said:

Respect all of that Afro but I hope it's not the case and we flip it around and finish 5th

Ha ha. Well that would be nice. If it happens I will happily donate £100 to a charity of your choice Sir.

[avfc1982am]

52 minutes ago, Phil Silvers said:

Respect all of that Afro but I hope it's not the case and we flip it around and finish 15th

 

10 minutes ago, M_Afro said:

Ha ha. Well that would be nice. If it happens I will happily donate £100m to you personal account Sir.

I'd take that bet Phillip! 

[TRO]

2 hours ago, IrishVilla10 said:

Your first point about this all stemming due to it being 4 in a row and 2 crap performances is wild. We’ve been poor for the majority of 2021, there’s enough statistics to prove that. Spurs had the better of us the whole game. We looked poor in the formation against wolves and I was in disbelief that we put it out again. I watched son have the whole left side of their pitch to himself for the majority of the game until he eventually punished us. Targett own goal but Lucas is putting it in the net regardless. The wolves result was embarrassing. To then continue with the formation into the game against an inform arsenal was either naive or stubborn from smith. It was clear within 10 minutes we were going to lose and we continued with it until the second half. Yes he changed it second half and we saw the difference, but he then tries to say it wasn’t down to the system in his post match interview, of course it was. It’s too easy to say we’re 6 points behind where we should be but that isn’t how it works, we’re where we are because of how we’re performing on the pitch. When you can’t keep the ball, can’t create chances for your two strikers, get overpowered in the middle and overrun in defence there’s no point even looking towards the refs or VAR for excuses. 

I just fail to comprehend, how much more is not made of this.....this is not improving, game to game, its simply the same, no evidence they have been working on it....even if that have.

The saddest thing of all, some of these things have been in evidence, when we win, its just the good stuff, like scoring goals, and keeping clean sheets, trumps it in terms of the result.

[TRO]

10 hours ago, villalad21 said:

All I want for Christmas is Potter. 

Erik Ten Hag....aim high.

but Dean is still in the job, we have to respect that.

I think we have grown up, since cabbagegate.

[The Moustache of Teale]

10 hours ago, villalad21 said:

All I want for Christmas is Potter. 

Here you go:

[KentVillan]

Something that puzzles me…

None of us really knows how Purslow, Lange, Suso, Smith, Terry, ROK, Shakespeare, and so on break down in terms of responsibility for what’s happened.

We have a rough idea, but we don’t know (eg) who drove the Ings signing, who thought we could cope without another DM, who signed off on Wesley, etc.

So given how hard it is to work out what’s happening at our own club. How are people so confident that they know how good Graham Potter is?

We’ve been here before when Lambert arrived with plenty of promise, as a highly rated manager of a lower half PL side.

You look at Benitez and Ancelotti at Everton, both Champions League winners, and maybe that gives a hint of the complexity of the challenge.

I’d obviously take a better coach with a better win % and some trophies to his name. Of course I would. But I guarantee it’ll be the same people here in a year or so saying we need to sack him and bring in the next flavour of the month manager. It’s just so predictable.

[pacbuddies]

9 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

Something that puzzles me…

None of us really knows how Purslow, Lange, Suso, Smith, Terry, ROK, Shakespeare, and so on break down in terms of responsibility for what’s happened.

We have a rough idea, but we don’t know (eg) who drove the Ings signing, who thought we could cope without another DM, who signed off on Wesley, etc.

So given how hard it is to work out what’s happening at our own club. How are people so confident that they know how good Graham Potter is?

We’ve been here before when Lambert arrived with plenty of promise, as a highly rated manager of a lower half PL side.

You look at Benitez and Ancelotti at Everton, both Champions League winners, and maybe that gives a hint of the complexity of the challenge.

I’d obviously take a better coach with a better win % and some trophies to his name. Of course I would. But I guarantee it’ll be the same people here in a year or so saying we need to sack him and bring in the next flavour of the month manager. It’s just so predictable.

You do realise Smith has been in post 3 years! It's not like Villa fans are reknowned for turning on their manager after just a few months in charge and our owners are trigger happy!

[Keyblade]

10 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

Something that puzzles me…

None of us really knows how Purslow, Lange, Suso, Smith, Terry, ROK, Shakespeare, and so on break down in terms of responsibility for what’s happened.

We have a rough idea, but we don’t know (eg) who drove the Ings signing, who thought we could cope without another DM, who signed off on Wesley, etc.

So given how hard it is to work out what’s happening at our own club. How are people so confident that they know how good Graham Potter is?

We’ve been here before when Lambert arrived with plenty of promise, as a highly rated manager of a lower half PL side.

You look at Benitez and Ancelotti at Everton, both Champions League winners, and maybe that gives a hint of the complexity of the challenge.

I’d obviously take a better coach with a better win % and some trophies to his name. Of course I would. But I guarantee it’ll be the same people here in a year or so saying we need to sack him and bring in the next flavour of the month manager. It’s just so predictable.

I'm worried we'll devolve into a repeat of the post-MON Lerner era. Carousel of managers, many of whom highly rated before we brought them in. A lot of the names being thrown around sound like crapshoots on whether they can even replicate Smith's achievements, let alone surpass them. If you told me someone like Favre was coming in, okay fine, that's a clear step up. But Potter? Fonseca? Give me a break.

[HKP90]

20 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

I'm worried we'll devolve into a repeat of the post-MON Lerner era. Carousel of managers, many of whom highly rated before we brought them in. A lot of the names being thrown around sound like crapshoots on whether they can even replicate Smith's achievements, let alone surpass them. If you told me someone like Favre was coming in, okay fine, that's a clear step up. But Potter? Fonseca? Give me a break.

Crazy. Dean has been here longer than DiMatteo, Garde, Sherwood, and McLeish put together. in two more games you can add Houllier to that list. 

[Digavilla]

2 hours ago, sheepyvillian said:

You may have called it right. I do hope so, but the way things are looking atm, it really isn't healthy. 

What irks me, is the fact that Deano, after three years at the helm, is still no nearer to having us play in the way his Brentford side did. 

Yes that’s the problem & I am starting to believe Thomas Frank was the reason for Brentford’s style of play , not Smith. 

[Nicho]

I really want it to work, the Brentford team that looked miles ahead of us when Smith was in charge was what I hoped for. Weve never remotely looked capable of that type of movement, passing, pressing and organisation consistently. 

I do think things have gone against us but that happens to everyone. Wolves might have been the breaking point, some of our players were poor that game before we started conceding but it showed up the formation, the players, the manager and then the result happened. 

Although we need wins, not losing is critically important at the moment. The passion to close down West Ham wasnt there until down to 10, we didnt look like a team that bothered about losing. That is a worry. 

[Keyblade]

4 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

Crazy. Dean has been here longer than DiMatteo, Garde, Sherwood, and McLeish put together. in two more games you can add Houllier to that list. 

First time in forever that we've had genuine stability. I think as fans we really underrate this aspect. It'll help us weather these types of storms too. 

[sharkyvilla]

I find Win% a pretty ordinary measure for managers when so much matters on what size club you're at, how shit they were when you took over, which division and country you're in etc.  Is there an xWin% stat?  Anyway I don't really see much difference between Potter and Smith myself, the former has had a very good start this season but Dean had one last season too.

[Blasterpocket68]

1 hour ago, KentVillan said:

Something that puzzles me…

None of us really knows how Purslow, Lange, Suso, Smith, Terry, ROK, Shakespeare, and so on break down in terms of responsibility for what’s happened.

We have a rough idea, but we don’t know (eg) who drove the Ings signing, who thought we could cope without another DM, who signed off on Wesley, etc.

So given how hard it is to work out what’s happening at our own club. How are people so confident that they know how good Graham Potter is?

We’ve been here before when Lambert arrived with plenty of promise, as a highly rated manager of a lower half PL side.

You look at Benitez and Ancelotti at Everton, both Champions League winners, and maybe that gives a hint of the complexity of the challenge.

I’d obviously take a better coach with a better win % and some trophies to his name. Of course I would. But I guarantee it’ll be the same people here in a year or so saying we need to sack him and bring in the next flavour of the month manager. It’s just so predictable.

The owners are very wealthy and  still hopefully ambitious for the club . I guess we will find out how ambitious if we were to change manager with potentially the new man . 
 

I believe however they will stick with Smith thru this current poor spell . 

[KentVillan]

1 hour ago, pacbuddies said:

You do realise Smith has been in post 3 years! It's not like Villa fans are reknowned for turning on their manager after just a few months in charge and our owners are trigger happy!

Yeah, I was making a broader point about how hard it is to separate a manager from the wider club setup.

People are getting very excited about managers we really don't know very much about.

I trust the club to do the right thing and do due diligence on our next coach (although my level of trust in Purslow has gone down significantly since the summer). But I'm baffled by the almost universal acclaim Potter is getting. I doubt most of his advocates on here have watched more than a few Brighton games - and as I said, it's so hard to separate Potter the coach from Brighton the club.

[Mark Albrighton]

24 minutes ago, sharkyvilla said:

I find Win% a pretty ordinary measure for managers when so much matters on what size club you're at, how shit they were when you took over, which division and country you're in etc.  Is there an xWin% stat?  Anyway I don't really see much difference between Potter and Smith myself, the former has had a very good start this season but Dean had one last season too.

It’s a strange one because it should be a good indicator. 

Ron Saunders at 44.48%. A whopping 3.44% more than Smith’s current rate. And before people point out Smith’s rate bumped up by winning matches in the Championship, Saunders includes a full season of second tier football.

People can refer to it, but when Steve Bruce has the highest in 30 years, for me it’s not the strongest stat available.