Dean Smith

[HeyAnty]

Ask yourself this.  If Smith was let go by Villa now, what other Premiership teams would be interested in him if they needed a new manager?  Personally I don’t think it would be any in top 12.  Just my opinion.  

[supermon]

20 minutes ago, HeyAnty said:

Ask yourself this.  If Smith was let go by Villa now, what other Premiership teams would be interested in him if they needed a new manager?  Personally I don’t think it would be any in top 12.  Just my opinion.  

I'd agree, can't see him going to any of the top half teams in premier League. 

Just my opinion, I think the owners will let Smith go in the summer and go for a more well known manager. I just think they want us to push to the next level and Smith probably isn't that guy.

[Sulberto21]

Could we have a situation similar to what happened at Southampton when Poch went there even though Adkins was doing a solid job. However like Poch went as soon as a bigger team came in would we be able to keep said manager.

Or would we better off trying to improve with Dean Smith knowing that if a bigger club came in he probably wouldn't leave. Glad I don't have to make these decisions.

 

[Zatman]

33 minutes ago, HeyAnty said:

Ask yourself this.  If Smith was let go by Villa now, what other Premiership teams would be interested in him if they needed a new manager?  Personally I don’t think it would be any in top 12.  Just my opinion.  

Ask yourself, if Smith left how many of our players would get in a top 12 squad? 

[Tomaszk]

10 minutes ago, supermon said:

I think the owners will let Smith go in the summer and go for a more well known manager. I just think they want us to push to the next level and Smith probably isn't that guy.

It would be an incredibly bold move and I think it would upset the entire first team immediately. The new fella would have to be a serious step-up.

Chelsea didn't **** about when Tuchel became available and are reaping the benefits of acting. I can't see a face out there now would be interested.

[Tomaszk]

36 minutes ago, HeyAnty said:

Ask yourself this.  If Smith was let go by Villa now, what other Premiership teams would be interested in him if they needed a new manager?  Personally I don’t think it would be any in top 12.  Just my opinion.  

If Solskjaer left now, which teams in the Premier League would want him? Not **** many.

[vreitti]

16 minutes ago, supermon said:

Just my opinion, I think the owners will let Smith go in the summer and go for a more well known manager.

I don't think there's a chance in hell of this happening. Just my opinion. We'll soon find out. 

[AvfcRigo82]

8 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Ask yourself, if Smith left how many of our players would get in a top 12 squad? 

Quite a few.

Luiz, Grealish, Martinez, Konsa, Watkins.

Basically the spine of our team.

[QldVilla]

1 hour ago, foreveryoung said:

But we are not really being outfought chap, we're just playing poorly, with some games awful to watch. If we were playing pur best and lost it wouldn't be so bad, but we rarely say we got beat by the better team.

Hence the psychological component. You only need to be off 1-2% at the elite level for it to make a big difference in the outcome of performance.

If we were as poor as you are alluding, we would be being beaten well each game, that's not what is happening. Defensively we still have been good, scoring has been our problem. If we had scored 1 extra goal in each of the past ten matches, we would have another 12 points and be in the Top 4.

Saying we're poor is a simple analysis, it requires more thought.

[AvfcRigo82]

10 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

It would be an incredibly bold move and I think it would upset the entire first team immediately. The new fella would have to be a serious step-up.

Chelsea didn't **** about when Tuchel became available and are reaping the benefits of acting. I can't see a face out there now would be interested.

I don't think it would upset anyone to be honest, given that any new manager who was replacing him was of the next level as you state.

There's a few managers I can think of that genuinely are available or would leave their current job to join us but I'm not going to open that can of worms in this thread.

[AvfcRigo82]

22 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

Could we have a situation similar to what happened at Southampton when Poch went there even though Adkins was doing a solid job. However like Poch went as soon as a bigger team came in would we be able to keep said manager.

I think we would, given the project in hand and the resources available.

I will always be thankful to Dean Smith for turning this club around and laying solid foundations that he has, if the inevitable were to happen.

[Zatman]

31 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

Quite a few.

Luiz, Grealish, Martinez, Konsa, Watkins.

Basically the spine of our team.

thats 5, not a great argument

Liverpool today had 12 players

Edited April 11, 2021 by Zatman

[AvfcRigo82]

43 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Ask yourself, if Smith left how many of our players would get in a top 12 squad? 

I asked myself and my answer was...

33 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

Quite a few.

Luiz, Grealish, Martinez, Konsa, Watkins.

Basically the spine of our team.

 

2 minutes ago, Zatman said:

thats 5, not a great argument

Liverpool today had 12 players

Your original question was to ask myself how many.

'5' - Which is half our first team and the main core. Not an argument but a realistic answer as to how many would get into a top 12 squad.

I would hope Liverpool had more than that, they're current League Champions and in the champions Lge ffs.

[Zatman]

15 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

I asked myself and my answer was...

 

Your original question was to ask myself how many.

'5' - Which is half our first team and the main core. Not an argument but a realistic answer as to how many would get into a top 12 squad.

I would hope Liverpool had more than that, they're current League Champions and in the champions Lge ffs.

thats 5, so yes why would you complain

its like Smith is overachieving

[Tomaszk]

48 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

I asked myself and my answer was...

 

Your original question was to ask myself how many.

'5' - Which is half our first team and the main core. Not an argument but a realistic answer as to how many would get into a top 12 squad.

I would hope Liverpool had more than that, they're current League Champions and in the champions Lge ffs.

So we have five top 12 players but you seem to be arguing Smith is underachieving (?) by having us in 10th.

[Spoony]

You’re all **** insane. We are mid table having nearly been relegated last year, having miraculously come up the year before. Give it a **** rest. Smith has caused us to massively over achieve and this is the happiest we should all be as villa fans since MON left. 

[KentVillan]

Even if we lose all our remaining 8 games (which we won’t) we’ll still have improved on last season.

I don’t buy into the idea of sacking managers who have delivered on the target that was set for them at the start of the season.

What’s happened is he’s overachieved early in the season and given some people unrealistic expectations of what can be achieved with this squad once injuries, fatigue and suspensions start kicking in.

He’s had a big Covid outbreak and a lengthy injury to his star player to deal with.

Give him another summer to build and another season to show improvement. If we haven’t kicked on then we can start saying he isn’t delivering.

But at the moment any claim that he’s “hit a ceiling” or “the project has stalled” is just factually wrong, since we’re ahead of where we were last season.

All teams have runs of bad form. Our last two games are a 3-1 win and a narrow last minute loss against one of the best sides in the world. That’s not even particularly bad form is it?

[DaveAV1]

The simple fact of the matter is, our squad is, on the whole, very average. We played above ourselves when they were all fit and fresh, now some are injured and many are jaded and so we’re playing below average and getting results to match. When the arguments are whether a player who has played well for 15 minutes and scored no goals in the PL would have saved us at Anfield, the simple fact that we’re even having the conversation should tell us what we want to know. The squad lacks quality in depth. 

As @QldVilla said above, it’s fine margins at this level. Our midfield is the most obvious weakness, with the equally obvious exception, when he’s fit. Whilst as @AvfcRigo82 pointed out we do have a decent core, although for me the jury is still out on Douglas, we need much more to be able to take us where we want to be. 

With this squad it is difficult to say with any certainty that a change of manager can make a positive difference. Yes Dean has been backed and been able to spend money, but there’s a strong argument to say that from the state the squad was in when he came and certainly from when we were promoted, the money spent has largely been on essential maintenance. The bare minimum to really become a feasible PL team. Many pundits said we’d made too many changes in the first season but anyone who really knew our squad realised that those changes were more of a necessity to put a proper team on the pitch rather than any sort of bid to storm the PL with a big bag of money. 

We’ve finally achieved some stability after many years in turmoil. Let’s take advantage of this solid base and move forward, continuing our pretty impressive improvement over the last three seasons since we came back from the brink of disaster. I think changing the manager for the sake of it on the back of a poor run of form wouldn’t be the right thing to do. Equally if the board identified an outstanding candidate that ticked all the right boxes and could demonstrably be a better option to take us forward I wouldn’t object to a change. However until that man comes along, for me the project, given all the above caveats, is in good hands with Dean. I certainly wouldn’t want to swap him for someone who has more of a name and who might do better but then again might not. 

I doubt we’ll know a great deal about the thoughts of NSWE until the summer. 

[thejoker]

32 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

Even if we lose all our remaining 8 games (which we won’t) we’ll still have improved on last season.

I don’t buy into the idea of sacking managers who have delivered on the target that was set for them at the start of the season.

What’s happened is he’s overachieved early in the season and given some people unrealistic expectations of what can be achieved with this squad once injuries, fatigue and suspensions start kicking in.

He’s had a big Covid outbreak and a lengthy injury to his star player to deal with.

Give him another summer to build and another season to show improvement. If we haven’t kicked on then we can start saying he isn’t delivering.

But at the moment any claim that he’s “hit a ceiling” or “the project has stalled” is just factually wrong, since we’re ahead of where we were last season.

All teams have runs of bad form. Our last two games are a 3-1 win and a narrow last minute loss against one of the best sides in the world. That’s not even particularly bad form is it?

I agree with this. Purely on the basis that some of the football and results were incredible in the first half of the season, I’d give Smith next season with another 2/3 new signings to see what he can do. I think everyone would have been more than satisfied with 10th at the start of the season. Squad depth is a real issue, but we’ll get there.
 

Lange will have had a full 12 months when the summer window opens, and we’ve been safe since around Christmas time. So there are no excuses for a lack of planning time. Let’s see what the summer brings. 

[nick76]

7 hours ago, supermon said:

I'd agree, can't see him going to any of the top half teams in premier League. 

Just my opinion, I think the owners will let Smith go in the summer and go for a more well known manager. I just think they want us to push to the next level and Smith probably isn't that guy.

Why? not as if well known managers have done that much different.

Ancelotti is only 3 points better and started with a much better squad,

Mourinho is only 5 points better and his team was in the champions league final just a few seasons ago before he come in and he's added a few players,

Klopp despite being champions, until yesterday was only 5 points ahead and we had a game in hand but had a last minute winner to move 8 points ahead

 

This thing that a named manager is going to make a huge difference is a myth, it certainly could by may not either.  Just as easily these managers could spend hundreds of millions and do nothing and get sacked.  Ancelotti has really do no better despite a better starting squad.  Mourinho who costs a fortune hasnt done any better. 

We are into the second season of a rebuild,  the owners are locking into contract Dean's players, I'd be extremely surprised if the owners are thinking anything but backing Dean in the summer with a decent spend.  He's progressed the club season after season, there is no way they are going to let him go in the summer.

How do you know Smith cant push us to the next level? we have no evidence either way to determine a yes or no on that.  He's never been tried at the next level.  This season he's had half a squad to try and get as high up in the league as possible and is achieving that.  If he is given more players into the squad then he can be assessed on the achievements of that but until that point you cant judge whether Smith can take us to the next level or not.  All you can do is say that each season in his two and a half years we have progressed materially league was from promotion to safety from relegation to possibly tenth in the league.  Beyond that you are just speculating.