chips'ngravy Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 8 hours ago, supermon said: 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. I'm with you other than Guilbert. He's dreadful. Elmo is not only better defensively but can actually cross a ball too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 (edited) 7 hours ago, ciggiesnbeer said: I quite liked Smith's comments today post match. I hope it has an effect. He is a man who cares and wants to stay here. I like that and him. It won't. Almost always have the opposite effect in modern football. Slating own players in public is what Mourinho usually does at the end of his reign and it all falls apart. Losing his players. Ferguson has always said he never agree with that. You have to keep that behind closed doors. Edited February 23, 2020 by villalad21 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozvilla28 Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 Would be long gone at any club can't understand why his escaping critism no effort yesterday that's a bad sign. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holteend1982 Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 Even if he manages to somehow keep us up I'd still look at replacing him, everywhere he's been he's had poor defensive record and you'll never achieve anything in this division if you concede the numbers he does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zab6359 Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 Aston Villa manager Dean Smith said that some of his players had "played their way out" of next Sunday's Carabao Cup final after defeat at Southampton. Suppose we'll see how big a pair old Deano has got on Sunday, I think AEG will be dropped if fit again after his broken eye lashes, be interesting to see who else he deems as played their way out of the cup final. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stratvillan Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 It's always a difficult one. I think Smith summed it up in that he has to take the blame because he picks and prepares the team, but the players have to take responsibility once they go on the pitch. Smith and the coaching team have to take their share of the blame, but the players cant be free of blame. Even with the worst manager in the world ( which Smith isnt), players should be able to pass and compete, which they didn't. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villarocker Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 This is going to hurt but........ Yesterday, whilst watching the game together, I asked my Dad if he thought THIS team would get over-run so easily and lose so regularly if Steve Bruce was in charge now. We both agreed on a sorrowful "No". I like Smith but my God that whole defensive situation is a shambles and just appears to get no better. Even Reina caught the bug yesterday! The thing is, even if they did sack him, who would they replace him with? Would that person be someone willing to stay if we went down? It's pretty much all too late now. It appears to me that Smith stays no matter what. Having seen that yesterday, I feel we will go down. If those players have saved themselves for Wembley and they get battered again that will probably just finish them off confidence wise. Obviously I want Villa to stay up but I'm mentally prepared now for the Championship, two trips to the sty next season to play two lots of Blues and, the thought of watching Mings, McGinn, Luiz and Grealish playing for other clubs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunderball Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 4 hours ago, chips'ngravy said: I'm with you other than Guilbert. He's dreadful. Elmo is not only better defensively but can actually cross a ball too. I wouldn’t agree on Freddy being dreadful, but do agree 100% on Elmo’s attributes. I too think we go to a 4 with Engels and Elmo brought back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villarocker Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 On the flip side, we could go down, storm the Championship and, go back to the Premier League with more settled players who have adjusted and grown together over a couple of years plus have £100m in the bank to add to the next £130m the owners wish to spend. Instead of an overall maybe next time we simply add 5 or 6 £30m players to give the squad some real quality? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 (edited) 10 minutes ago, Villarocker said: It's pretty much all too late now. It appears to me that Smith stays no matter what. And this is part of the problem. There's never been as much of a whisper that his job is in danger. Manager's need pressure. Either it pushes them and pushes the squad in turn, or they can't cope with it and they're not right for the job and a change is made. Edited February 23, 2020 by kurtsimonw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaVilla Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 41 minutes ago, Villarocker said: This is going to hurt but........ Yesterday, whilst watching the game together, I asked my Dad if he thought THIS team would get over-run so easily and lose so regularly if Steve Bruce was in charge now. We both agreed on a sorrowful "No". This may be true, but if Bruce were still in charge we would still be in the championship, there is literally no doubt about that. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodders0223 Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 52 minutes ago, Villarocker said: On the flip side, we could go down, storm the Championship and, go back to the Premier League with more settled players who have adjusted and grown together over a couple of years plus have £100m in the bank to add to the next £130m the owners wish to spend. Instead of an overall maybe next time we simply add 5 or 6 £30m players to give the squad some real quality? Rarely happens though, does it? Would these guys be up for the fight every 3 days playing on the front foot and winning most weeks? I dont see it. We have bought some utter tosh 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hanky Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 I still think the recruitment has been awful. Some of these players aren’t bad but as has been said on here before, reminds me of 15/16 when we bought players with potential such as Gueye and threw them together. In actual fact, against Man City at home, we ended up with 8 players (or close to as I recall) that had played in the championship the season before. I’m not sure if Smith is the answer and I think he may have run out of ideas having watched his post match comments yesterday. It’s often the beginning of the end slating his own players in public. However I don’t think Purslow and Jesus etc. Should be free of any blame. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted February 23, 2020 VT Supporter Share Posted February 23, 2020 5 hours ago, chips'ngravy said: I'm with you other than Guilbert. He's dreadful. Elmo is not only better defensively but can actually cross a ball too. To be honest, both Targett and Guilbert were utterly horrendous yesterday. I think our full back business is what he cost us the most this season. Guilbert was signed for The Championship and the money paid for Targett was baffling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 1 hour ago, Villarocker said: On the flip side, we could go down, storm the Championship and, go back to the Premier League with more settled players who have adjusted and grown together over a couple of years plus have £100m in the bank to add to the next £130m the owners wish to spend. Instead of an overall maybe next time we simply add 5 or 6 £30m players to give the squad some real quality? Really not sure that the squad minus at least Ming's/Grealish/McGinn would storm the championship. We haven't assembled that good a squad. £140m spent and not really one player has cut it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 The season we were relegated after 27 games we had sixteen points and went on to get one more point from our last eleven games, meaning we've already got eight more points than we finished with that season. This season is nothing like that one, we're not even in the relegation zone as things stand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bielesibub Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 I don't know what everyone is worried about. A while back on MotD Dean said his teams usually do better in the second half of the season, think he needs to hurry up and let the players know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabby Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 57 minutes ago, rodders0223 said: Rarely happens though, does it? Would these guys be up for the fight every 3 days playing on the front foot and winning most weeks? I dont see it. We have bought some utter tosh This ..I just don't see why people are confident if we go down we just bounce back up ..Going down you have a losing mentality already within the group , you then lose your best players or get stuck with players you can't get rid of .It took us 3 years to get back up , Stoke /Boro /Huddersfield all recently went down and struggling.That's just the playing side , the attempts to grow income to help with FFP will be on pause its just a massive step back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 41 minutes ago, sidcow said: To be honest, both Targett and Guilbert were utterly horrendous yesterday. I think our full back business is what he cost us the most this season. Guilbert was signed for The Championship and the money paid for Targett was baffling. I disagree I think it’s our central midfield that might cost us. Opposition teams just walk through it and I believe it’s one of the main reasons we have so many attempts against us. Our defence isn’t good but doesn’t help if they have no protection from midfield. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 I'm pragmatic about these things. Smith did fantastic with us last season and this season is all about staying up and laying a foundation for future seasons. So far we are possibly doing that, if only just and I'm uncertain if any foundation has been laid. We look disjointed and very green still. And while the revival last season was fantastic I always feared that the PL might be a step too high for Smith, or at least a year or 2 too soon. Having a inexperienced (at this level) backroom staff (Terry obviously experienced as a player) also doesn't help. Almost all our issues stem from the way the club was run before Smith came here leading to us having to throw a PL ready squad together from almost nothing during a very short period of time this summer. There is no getting around that. And the squad we ended up with is frankly not good enough. Understandable but unfortunate. Some of the signing will and are coming good, some others I don't think have what it takes. As for Smith? I'm not at the point of getting rid for the sake of it, and certainly not at anyone would be better. But if the right candidate is out there I'd be OK with that. Same thing in the summer, even if we manage to stay up. There are loads of better managers out there, just like there are loads of players out there better than what we have. If we can attract a higher level manager then I think we should go for it. I don't care much for the "he deserve to stay on" argument. If we are relegated then it all comes down to the mental state of Smith and the players. I don't feel he should get the sack just because we are relegated, it was always a very likely scenario. But, does he feel he has what it takes to do it all again, and do the player have faith in him? Terry no doubt will be off if we go down, and I think we should have a more experienced assistant anyway. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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