Dean Smith

[sne]

Just now, villalad21 said:

But it was an option.

The idea is to buy better players but have them as backup. If Taylor is good enough to be in the squad so are they.

They were and played a part in a team that got promoted. You don't turn shit over night. 

They were also important figures in the dressing room. Point is too much change in a short space of time isn't ideal. Lesson to be learned.

A terrible option.

Taylor isn't good enough, he just happened to be sitting on a contract that wasn't expiring unlike the others.

They did not turn shit over night it was a long outdrawn process that was in some cases painful to watch. They would have offered nothing on the pitch and with the 25 man squad limit you can't have guy sitting around collecting salary because they are nice guys. And what would they offer that Terry doesn't?

I imagine at least those 2 who are still active also might want to play football. So U-23's? Yeah considering what Purslow have said about the U23's I doubt guys in their mid 30's fits the profile.

When you don't even have a squad you have to buy squad players. Too much change is indeed far from ideal, but we had no (viable) option. We just didn't.

[villalad21]

2 minutes ago, sne said:

They did not turn shit over night it was a long outdrawn process that was in some cases painful to watch. They would have offered nothing on the pitch and with the 25 man squad limit you can't have guy sitting around collecting salary because they are nice guys. And what would they offer that Terry doesn't?

Really. I think you're being harsh.

Whelan is probably the one that surprised me most last season. He kept Hourihane out of the team for big chunks.

Jedi and Adomah also did fine. Hutton i'd probably agree was straight out shit.

[sne]

6 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Really. I think you're being harsh.

Whelan is probably the one that surprised me most last season. He kept Hourihane out of the team for big chunks.

Jedi and Adomah also did fine. Hutton i'd probably agree was straight out shit.

Jedi certainly did not do fine. He was comical at CB and once Smith came is he hardly featured and when he did he was poor.

Whelan you could still see he once was a solid player, but his legs did not allow his body to do what his head wanted it to do. Almost always 1 step behind.

Adomah was frustrating in the Championship at this level he'd been infuriating.

Hutton is Hutton and would probably been the least useless (still have been utterly useless) this season on gung-ho attitude alone. But we don't need a 3rd or 4th RB

[Eastie]

12 hours ago, nick76 said:

We looked alright against Leicester in the semi 2nd leg and Spurs last week.  Yesterday was a shocker I grant you but Leicester we beat, and Spurs, if it wasn’t for a major error at the end by Engels we would’ve got a draw against a good team.

It’s all ifs buts and maybes - in the cold light of day we may have gone close against some of the top 10 but we have won 1 in 13 games against the top half and that was burnley , with 1 point in 33 against the top 9 and we are arguably worse now than we were earlier in the season .

With  7 or the top 9 to play it doesn’t bode well - people talk about our home form  but we have lost as many at home as we have won and still have 5 of the top 8 to visit villa park - for me our best hope would be a swift change of manager after next weeks final .

Edited February 24, 2020 by Eastie

[nick76]

27 minutes ago, Eastie said:

It’s all ifs buts and maybes - in the cold light of day we may have gone close against some of the top 10 but we have won 1 in 13 games against the top half and that was burnley , with 1 point in 33 against the top 9 and we are arguably worse now than we were earlier in the season .

With  7 or the top 9 to play it doesn’t bode well - people talk about our home form  but we have lost as many at home as we have won and still have 5 of the top 8 to visit villa park - for me our best hope would be a swift change of manager after next weeks final .

Yet we are still 17th and not in the relegation zone after two thirds of the season.

[Chicken Field]

1 hour ago, villalad21 said:

But it was an option.

The idea is to buy better players but have them as backup. If Taylor is good enough to be in the squad so are they.

They were and played a part in a team that got promoted. You don't turn shit over night. 

They were also important figures in the dressing room. Point is too much change in a short space of time isn't ideal. Lesson to be learned.

Do you really think the players released this summer would be better options than what we have? 

3 of them have gone into pension, as they were incapable of playing, lost their appetites or no one wanted them

Elphick is average at best in the championship and 32. Adomah is warming Nottingham Forrests bench, whelan is in League one. 

They don't turn shit over night, our team last season got carried by our loanees, Grealish and McGinn. 

I think even Smith and purslow would agree with the sentence that there were too many changes in a short space, and I expect them to use that as the excuse when we are relegated, but we just didn't have any other option, as much as you dislike any one at Villa, Smith, purslow etc. there just is no arguement that we bought and sold too much, everyone agrees, we just didnt have a choice. 
This is always an issue with teams Bruce has managed, once he leaves they turn horrible, as he fills them with average and older players, and they always require massive fixes afterwards. This isnt helped by the fact that we had piss poor recruitment before Bruce too. 

As much as I'm unsure about Smith, I just cant blame him too much for the mess we're in, people are talking about changing players and formations, I just don't think we have good enough players (bar three; McGinn, Grealish and Mings (also the keepers)). We have bottlers and players scared of fighting, like El Ghazi and Targett. people are asking for massive changes for the final, but what changes can we realistically do? once a again poor recruitment has ruined our season, though at least some of the players we have now might be deccent in the championship. I wonder who was in charge of our transfers? 

[lexicon]

7 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Yet we are still 17th and not in the relegation zone after two thirds of the season.

Which many said would be good enough for this season. 

[nick76]

3 minutes ago, lexicon said:

Which many said would be good enough for this season. 

That’s all I want this season from the very start.  
 

We were the third best team promoted, we then had to rebuild most of the squad and thus not getting relegated was going to be tough.  We knew we were going to be awful at many times during the season, that’s what it’s like down here.  Southampton attitude was unacceptable I agree and I am furious about that but  17th is the only goal for me and we are still on course.  

We have exceptionally hard games coming up and we aren’t playing great but that’s the same for most of our rivals as well.

[lexicon]

6 minutes ago, nick76 said:

That’s all I want this season from the very start.  
 

We were the third best team promoted, we then had to rebuild most of the squad and thus not getting relegated was going to be tough.  We knew we were going to be awful at many times during the season, that’s what it’s like down here.  Southampton attitude was unacceptable I agree and I am furious about that but  17th is the only goal for me and we are still on course.  

We have exceptionally hard games coming up and we aren’t playing great but that’s the same for most of our rivals as well.

Yeah, it's tight as hell at the moment, no doubt. 

[vreitti]

The problem with this "we're still 17th" argument is we don't look likely to win another game this season. Add to that we have arguably the toughest schedule out of all our rivals. Furthermore we are gonna get absolutely destroyed in the final. How on earth is Smith gonna turn this around!? 

[lexicon]

One thing I've thought about quite a lot lately is training. Does anyone else think that Smith might be overworking players in training throughout the week? Quite a few games we've looked a bit sluggish/lethargic from the off. 

[lexicon]

1 minute ago, vreitti said:

The problem with this "we're still 17th" argument is we don't look likely to win another game this season. Add to that we have arguably the toughest schedule out of all our rivals. Furthermore we are gonna get absolutely destroyed in the final. How on earth is Smith gonna turn this around!? 

Only one way to find out. 

[sne]

11 minutes ago, vreitti said:

The problem with this "we're still 17th" argument is we don't look likely to win another game this season. Add to that we have arguably the toughest schedule out of all our rivals. Furthermore we are gonna get absolutely destroyed in the final. How on earth is Smith gonna turn this around!? 

Fwiw I agree with this. I think we are screwed sadly.

[Mazrim]

My main gripe is that we have a centre half as a manager, one of, if not the greatest centre half of the modern era as a coach, and our defence looks at sea too often.
I think not getting a more experienced partner for Mings was a mistake, but it is what it is.

We need to string a result or two together soon.

[TRO]

16 hours ago, markavfc40 said:

Maybe I'm delusional or just not a defeatist but I do think we have a decent chance of staying up. We are currently not in the bottom 3 for a start. We can simply focus on ourselves and say we are crap and in dire form but so are 4 other teams in the mix with us for the 2 remaining places to go down. Watford have no wins in 5, struggle to score goals and have conceded 3 goals in 2 of their last 3 games. West Ham have one win in their last 9 games and have taken 5 points from a possible 27. Bournemouth have lost 6 of their last 8 league games. Brighton have 1 win in their last 12 league games. 

As well as currently being outside the bottom 3 we currently have the third worst goal difference. Tomorrow depending on how West Ham do at Liverpool that could be the 4th worst. I doubt it comes as a shock to most of us but teams struggling do tend to concede too many, not score enough or both.

I am not doubting we need to improve our form to stay up but so do those around us to send us down. I am really pissed off about yesterday as I can take being beaten because a team is simply better than you but when you lose due a lack of effort that is unforgivable and really gets my back up. I do think we are capable of picking up the points we need though if we can show the same effort and determination we have over the last few weeks in the games against Burnley, Leicester twice, Watford, and Spurs and it would also be a huge help if Smith would change the formation and pack out the midfield. Time will tell, and even though yesterday is still very raw, I am certainly not throwing the towel in.

You are certainly not delusional and I am not a defeatist.....I have as much hope as Billy Graham, I just think we are in a very precarious situation.

If is a little word, with a colossal meaning.....We all know we are capable, but events are reality.

We are not in the bottom, in name only, but hanging over the cliff by our finger nails.

Despite our comments we are still cose to saying the same thing, I think you are more forgiving, than me for the plight we find ourselves in.

You think it was to be expected, I didn't think it would be this bad.

[RichiBoi11]

1 hour ago, Mazrim said:

My main gripe is that we have a centre half as a manager, one of, if not the greatest centre half of the modern era as a coach, and our defence looks at sea too often.
I think not getting a more experienced partner for Mings was a mistake, but it is what it is.

We need to string a result or two together soon.

This is also what baffles me the most. It's not agiven that just because someone was a good defender they'd be a good defensive coach, but surely with ex centre backs as manager and assistant, we would be able to coach the defensive side of the game more effectively. It's not just the centre backs of course, the team collectively needs to improve defensively, but even on the rare offasion we don't conceed more than 1 goal in a game, we still allow the opposition several big chances per match. What do they work on all week, because it doesn't look like they work on keeping the ball out of the net.

Edited February 24, 2020 by RichiBoi11

[nick76]

1 hour ago, vreitti said:

The problem with this "we're still 17th" argument is we don't look likely to win another game this season. Add to that we have arguably the toughest schedule out of all our rivals. Furthermore we are gonna get absolutely destroyed in the final. How on earth is Smith gonna turn this around!? 

The reason the 17th argument holds is that our rivals don’t look like winning another game either.  This is not predictable whose going to stay up.  Any team that get a flukey win or two might get out of this.  It’s looking more and more likely that our final game against W Ham maybe the decider who goes down.

[Elton]

1 hour ago, vreitti said:

The problem with this "we're still 17th" argument is we don't look likely to win another game this season. Add to that we have arguably the toughest schedule out of all our rivals. Furthermore we are gonna get absolutely destroyed in the final. How on earth is Smith gonna turn this around!? 

I’m not sure how you come to this conclusion. Only 4 games ago we beat the 3rd best team in the league over 2 legs. We are just very inconsistent but we do have good performances in us, especially at home.

We have won 2 out of our last 3 home games and the loss against Spurs was unlucky. We are fully capable of going on another run of results at home. Away not so much but Newcastle are so poor that I expect a win there. Hopefully it won’t come down to West Ham away..

[sharkyvilla]

25 minutes ago, RichiBoi11 said:

This is also what baffles me the most. It's not agiven that just because someone was a good defender they'd be a good defensive coach, but surely with ex centre backs as manager and assistant, we would be able to coach the defensive side of the game more effectively. It's not just the centre backs of course, the team collectively needs to improve defensively, but even on the rare offasion we don't conceed more than 1 goal in a game, we still allow the opposition several big chances per match. What do they work on all week, because it doesn't look like they work on keeping the ball out of the net.

On Saturday you could basically hear Dean throughout the whole match as they had the microphone by the dugouts too close or something.  He was losing his shit a lot of the time barking out orders to players, it sounds like he knows what they need to do but for some reason they can't do it well enough.  Ultimately it is his responsibility of course but I can see how frustrated he is, probably even more than we are. 

[Rob182]

1 hour ago, vreitti said:

The problem with this "we're still 17th" argument is we don't look likely to win another game this season. Add to that we have arguably the toughest schedule out of all our rivals. Furthermore we are gonna get absolutely destroyed in the final. How on earth is Smith gonna turn this around!? 

You lost me here. Do you really not think we'll win another game all season? 

That feels overly negative to me.