Dean Smith

[villalad21]

2 minutes ago, osmark86 said:

SO many shots conceeded like wtf!?

I've warned about the shot against stat all season.

Only now as we aren't scoring are people starting to take notice of it.

Smith's teams have struggled to defend in the Championship, let alone the Premier League.

We're always gonna concede a lot under Smith. It's a part of the baggage that comes with him. What is concerning now is we aren't looking a goalscoring threat.

[osmark86]

4 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

I've warned about the shot against stat all season.

Only now as we aren't scoring are people starting to take notice of it.

Smith's teams have struggled to defend in the Championship, let alone the Premier League.

We're always gonna concede a lot under Smith. It's a part of the baggage that comes with him. What is concerning now is we aren't looking a goalscoring threat.

That and a tackle success rate of 56%. I believed he could sort out our defensive woes given time and the players playing together more, but shit, I'm starting to think that it is an inherent coaching issue.

[briny_ear]

1 hour ago, Farlz said:

He's really not happy. First time we've seen him like this. 

No sense that he takes any responsibility. He choose the team, the formation and tactics. He prepared the team for the game and was responsible for motivating them. he had 15 minutes to jolt them into action at half time and had substitutions available to influence the game.

All of these things failed yet he gives no sense that he had any part in this pathetic defeat.

[villalad21]

3 minutes ago, osmark86 said:

I believed he could sort out our defensive woes given time and the players playing together more

Something he has failed to do wherever he's been. 

Ask any Brentford or Walsall fan and ask what Dean's main weakness is as a coach. They will all point to the same.

We go on about Brentford's big defensive improvement this season after they've spent some money. But the fans could tell already last season that things were improving defensively.

Edited February 22, 2020 by villalad21

[Villarocker]

1 hour ago, villalad21 said:

It's a shame we don't have Rotherham and Ipswich coming up...

Clearly, something isn't working. We don't need you, Screwdriver or the next ultra negative person to see that because - wahey - there's a thing called the league table. 

You and others may well be right that Smith just isn't up to this level. But, our position shows that neither are the players.

I am one of those that sees the bigger picture of the major overall and huge culture difference from playing in Turkey, Belgium or the Championship to playing in the Premier League. Maybe, just maybe, we go down, lose three stars for £140m, then rebuild for £50m and go back up and spend £200m and make us top 6 contenders? 

[Elton]

It happens quite a lot that a team that aren’t great that get to a cup final, often perform poorly after they reach the final. I’m sure it happened to us before in the 90’s too. We’ve lost all 3 since the semi.

Smith obviously carries the can but hopefully they’ll be a complete reset after the final in terms of the focus. Whilst it shouldn’t affect the players, we’ve seen far too often that reaching a cup final does. This is new territory for Smith. I don’t believe a change of manager will or should happen before the end of the season.

Let’s hope Man City are massively complacent next week, they should be anyway. Smith could sill end up a legend in a few days..

 

[Davkaus]

A legend? **** me, this is Aston Villa. It'll take more than winning the tinpot cup.

[PaulC]

 

5 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

A legend? **** me, this is Aston Villa. It'll take more than winning the tinpot cup.

Its not a tin pot cup to be fair, but in 74/74 we won it and got promotion, in 76/77 we won it and came 4th. When we won it under Brian Little we came 4th as well and cant remember where we finished when we won it under Ron Atkinson but fact is he wont be a legend if we win the cup and get relegated. In fact he might still get the sack. 

Edited February 22, 2020 by PaulC

[villalad21]

8 minutes ago, Villarocker said:

Clearly, something isn't working. We don't need you, Screwdriver or the next ultra negative person to see that because - wahey - there's a thing called the league table. 

Ultra negative? I want what's best for the club i love.

To what some people may or may not think i do not hate Dean Smith. I don't have anything personal against the man. There is no agenda.

I simply don't rate him and feel he is harmful to the club. Mid table finishes with Brentford and Walsall should never be good enough credentials for the Villa job.

Never felt so embarrassed and low being a Villa fan as this season. People think i'm trolling, i'm not. I'm in deep pain.

[PrimevalVillan]

I saw what Dean saw....honestly. No complaints about the formation or the subs. All made sense to me. These guys are professionals and at a certain point they have to do their part and barely any of them did anything correctly today. Guilbert, Konsa, Reina really, really bad today. 

[supermon]

Need to go back to a back 4, Konsa and Hause need dropping and bring back Engels back into the defence. 

Guilbert, Engels, Mings Targett is probably our best defensive line up. 

[mykeyb]

The problem is our midfield, you can see it every game that the opposition play right through us till they get to our defence. Changing to three at the back helped a little but it's effect is now negligible.

We might not have enough quality until McGinn is back but we need to work out how we can get more quality in that area and they may mean dropping some of the cross.

[MadridVilla]

I think Smith is walking a real tightrope with what he says in the media. He's hung a lot of the players out to dry with his comments in the post-match interview - he's arguably right - but I don't think it will win him any favours. 

I'm beginning to wonder if he's falling out of love with the job a little bit - I have no doubt he still loves the club and is doing all he can to turn things around, but it seems like he has reached the end of his tether with some of the players. I think he is in the process of losing the dressing room, and once that happens there's only one outcome. 

It's difficult because what he's saying is absolutely right - the players weren't good enough - but he's not free of blame either, which is how it comes across from his comments.

It's also pretty clear that the tactics are desperately reliant on Jack to have a blinder every week. That's not really great management. If you look at the tactics Smith used in the Championship, we attacked teams and went on the front foot, whereas now we are playing with 5 at the back and allowing around 20 attempts a game. Whatever tactics Smith used to get us up certainly aren't being used to keep us here, either that or the players aren't capable of playing that style of football (which I doubt is the case).

But, I do still think he should keep his job until the end of the season. If we go down and sell a lot of our best players, we will need a manager who can operate on a shoestring budget and perform well, which Smith has pedigree in at that level. Ironically I think if we stay up he has less chance of keeping his job, as I think the owners will make a change at the end of the season to help the club push up the league quicker.

[nick76]

2 minutes ago, mykeyb said:

The problem is our midfield, you can see it every game that the opposition play right through us till they get to our defence. Changing to three at the back helped a little but it's effect is now negligible.

We might not have enough quality until McGinn is back but we need to work out how we can get more quality in that area and they may mean dropping some of the cross.

This!

I think our defence is weak but our central midfield is non-existent.  I watched at one point when Southampton were coming through our right central midfield and both Luiz and Nakamba were on the left central midfield casually moving and there was Guilbert facing three Southampton players.....I was shouting my throat to soreness at that point. I mean, WTF!

[markavfc40]

38 minutes ago, briny_ear said:

No sense that he takes any responsibility. He choose the team, the formation and tactics. He prepared the team for the game and was responsible for motivating them. he had 15 minutes to jolt them into action at half time and had substitutions available to influence the game.

All of these things failed yet he gives no sense that he had any part in this pathetic defeat.

In fairness in the interview I heard with him on WM after the game he said he is ultimately responsible and it is on him.

[Risso]

2 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

In fairness in the interview I heard with him on WM after the game he said he is ultimately responsible and it is on him.

It's all very well saying he takes responsibility, but when he then goes on a five minute rant blaming the players and saying they don't have the same mentality as he does, it all rings a bit hollow.

He's out of his depth, and should have been sacked at Christmas.

[jacketspuds]

We need McGinn back. Smith needs him back as well. We also need to come up with something different going forward as both El Ghazi and Trezeguet are far too inconsistent / shit.

[briny_ear]

3 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

In fairness in the interview I heard with him on WM after the game he said he is ultimately responsible and it is on him.

Fair enough. I was only commenting on Gregg Evans’s tweet.

 

[Eastie]

Smith plays an open system which may work at a lower level but at this level he’s been found out - you cannot have a 2 man midfield and allow the opposition so much space to attack or you will get torn to shreds - we are allowing opponents over 20 attempts on our goal regularly .

El ghazi and trez are not good enough for this level and neither are most of defence and midfield - we brought in far too many inexperienced players in the summer and I don’t think smith is the man to keep us up .

we have to defend better than this and it’s been a problem at every club he’s managed - at this level you will get punished 

[nick76]

4 minutes ago, MadridVilla said:

I think Smith is walking a real tightrope with what he says in the media. He's hung a lot of the players out to dry with his comments in the post-match interview - he's arguably right - but I don't think it will win him any favours. 

I'm beginning to wonder if he's falling out of love with the job a little bit - I have no doubt he still loves the club and is doing all he can to turn things around, but it seems like he has reached the end of his tether with some of the players. I think he is in the process of losing the dressing room, and once that happens there's only one outcome. 

It's difficult because what he's saying is absolutely right - the players weren't good enough - but he's not free of blame either, which is how it comes across from his comments.

It's also pretty clear that the tactics are desperately reliant on Jack to have a blinder every week. That's not really great management. If you look at the tactics Smith used in the Championship, we attacked teams and went on the front foot, whereas now we are playing with 5 at the back and allowing around 20 attempts a game. Whatever tactics Smith used to get us up certainly aren't being used to keep us here, either that or the players aren't capable of playing that style of football (which I doubt is the case).

But, I do still think he should keep his job until the end of the season. If we go down and sell a lot of our best players, we will need a manager who can operate on a shoestring budget and perform well, which Smith has pedigree in at that level. Ironically I think if we stay up he has less chance of keeping his job, as I think the owners will make a change at the end of the season to help the club push up the league quicker.

Have to disagree a bit.  The team he put out was the best we had and shape and tactics looked fine.  There are things we should be doing more of and some less of....I personally think we should press defensively more....anyway, generally the rest seemed fine.

You can’t really argue tactics based on the performance today, that was too many players playing badly.  The performance of those players compared to even the Spurs game was light and day.....too many of the players today need to be ashamed of their performance today.

I’m taking any fault away from Smith but those players were a disgrace today for the effort today!