Dean Smith

[terrytini]

I would still stick with him.

He needs to get performances from his players, I think they are as capable as those around us. He has done so in the past, albeit not enough. If he does that we can stay up.

There is still time.

(Those that think it’s the players - no point changing manager then !)

Having said that, if a decision was made that someone else could get those performances, that’d be fair enough. He couldn’t complain.

[The Hawk]

5 minutes ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

This may be true, but Smith organises the set-up and players. He may not have the personnel at the right quality, but does Wilder have it at Sheffield? Does Dyche at Burnley? How much have they been backed in recruitment and where are they in the table? 

 

If he doesn't have the quality of personnel he craves to play his open football and not concede a shed load of goals, he should stop playing it and adapt his game. He clearly can't do this. 

 

It's very easy to blame the personnel but we're Aston Villa, not Real Madrid. Smith is never going to have a team of superstars to be able to play like them. He has to adapt to the league like Dyche, Wilder and Howe have done, and every week he is proving he cannot do that. We're a feckin shambles under him and it should be obvious to everyone. 

3 managers who have had a long time at the helm at each of their clubs and a heap of stability to put in place those solid structures. 
 

Im sure Smith is aware of the option to play defensively, however our progressive owners, board and Smith are trying to bypass the defensive “survivalist” mentality and style of play of lower prem clubs in favour of a Leicester-type model. It’s a gamble that hasn’t paid off this time around, but given enough time with a better core group of players that haven’t been thrown together at the beginning of a season, I’m confident that it’s the better approach in the long run.

[screwdriver]

these players won't win another game this season with Smith in charge.

The calamities are hard wired into the brains of the defence. Only a fresh voice in the dressing room can save Villa.

We were in the game at 0-0 I didn't see a Villa chance at 0-1 we had given up and there was no comotion on the bench to suggest anything was due to change. This says to me he's lost the players.

constantly throwing them under the bus in post match pressers, would you go out onto the pitch run your heart out and  pull up tree's for a backstabber like that?  Say it eyeball to eyeball in the dressing room fair play but no need to shame them to every man and his dog.

 

 

[Mazrim]

I believed in huddle power. What happened?

[Tomaszk]

Well we absolutely have been battered doing exactly that.

I'm in the funny position of wanting to keep him if we go down but sack him if we stay up.

He's too ambitious and just naive as to the quality he's dealing with. What's he doing picking Hourihane in games like City and Leicester?!

We really needed that point v Spurs, the players are on the floor. Not one of them has any confidence.

[The Hawk]

13 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

Should've played same lineup as 1st leg SF where Hause had most clearances and won loads in the air. That and starting Hourihane after shambles cup final appearance says Smith doesn't learn and is throwing shit at the wall and hoping something sticks so finally I'm out

Yep and I bet if that didn’t work you’d be the first to yell “how could he change the formation that did so well against city in the final”. 
 

That being said, we can agree on hourihane. Absolute cat.

[Farlz]

We played the best football I've ever seen from a Villa side under Smith last season. He would be perfectly fine in the Championship next year.

Like I've said previously, has he stepped up well to Premier League management? No but you can talk about tactics all you like, a lot of this squad don't show anywhere near enough bottle and just basic footballing ability a lot of the time. 

[VillaFaninLondon]

15 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

Dyche, Wilder and Howe all have men in their squads. We have some decent young players, but very few grown men. Most of our older players are quiet types like Neil Taylor.

Youth is definitely the right place to start when investing in the club, but you have to complement it with a bit of wisdom. We could have loaned someone, just for a season, just to help steady the ship. It would have been a good investment.

I agree but whose fault was that? I don't think Smith is the only incompetent one leading this squad, I think JT, Suso and the people on the transfer committee are just as much responsible.

 

If it were up to me I'd sack the lot of them. 

Edited March 9, 2020 by VillaFaninLondon

[terrytini]

1 minute ago, The Hawk said:

3 managers who have had a long time at the helm at each of their clubs and a heap of stability to put in place those solid structures. 
 

Im sure Smith is aware of the option to play defensively, however our progressive owners, board and Smith are trying to bypass the defensive “survivalist” mentality and style of play of lower prem clubs in favour of a Leicester-type model. 

I’d agree if there was evidence of a good footballing plan/ system/ whatever.

But it’s not that we don’t play defensively, it’s that we don’t really play in a cohesive style at all.

I can’t help reminding myself of his first game in charge, we stood on the Holte and almost unanimously agreed there was an immediate improvement in what we were doing. I posted here to that effect. We straight away looked like players wanted the ball, wanted to use the ball.

Sadly, we don’t look like that now. Now that same group of us unanimously agree there us little difference between what we do now and what we did under Bruce. We certainly don’t play remotely like Brentford used to !

For whatever reason it appears he can’t get either the type, or the level,  of performance he - presumably - wants, anywhere near often enough. 
 

Whilst some of that is excused by new signings, tough League, injuries, whatever, this Club needs a Coach who gets those performances more often than not, at least.

He might be that guy. He has done it on occasions. Time is running out for him to do it.

[wilko154]

We’ve gone backwards under Smith, we’re now playing the sort of football we saw under Bruce but with less defensive stability. Every ball out from defence is hurled forward in the hope that Samatta can win it. If he does we have no one with him, if we don’t we also lose the second ball as well.

The players look as though they have given up under Smith. As someone mentioned earlier, we are now into our last 10 games of the season and Smith still hasn’t settled on a first 11 with a formation.

Tactically we are naive in every game. Personally I think Grealish is being wasted on the left side of the pitch, he’s our captain, talisman and best player, he should be in the centre of the pitch with everything flowing through him. First half today he had the least touches of any player on the pitch.

Right now we are going down, even John McGinn can’t save us. Yes we’ve been hindered by injuries this season, but the recruitment has been poor and the coaching/management has also been poor.

The question now is do we get rid of Smith for the final 10 games and give someone a chance of keeping us up?

Or do we stick with Smith and if we go down, which we most likely will do, allow him to rebuild and try to take us back up to the PL?

[Mantis]

16 minutes ago, Farlz said:

We played the best football I've ever seen from a Villa side under Smith last season. He would be perfectly fine in the Championship next year.

Like I've said previously, has he stepped up well to Premier League management? No but you can talk about tactics all you like, a lot of this squad don't show anywhere near enough bottle and just basic footballing ability a lot of the time. 

We were actually exceedingly crap under him for large stretches of last season, particularly when Grealish was out, who of course we won't have next season if we do go down.

[Elton]

As with everyone else, I’m very frustrated tonight. If it wasn’t for selecting Hourihane, I wouldn’t have had many issues with the selection tonight, as our squad lacks quality to make many changes. Although, whilst I may be a lone voice, Hause should be partnering Mings. We need more physicality not less.

What I would say is that Smith does get a tune out of the players at home and we now have 6 home games to stay up. McGinn to come back will be massive as Hourihane and Drinkwater are liabilities.

Grealish had the least touches for both sides in the first half tonight. I expect Hourihane’s standoffish performance contributed to that as the nearest team mate to Jack on the pitch. When Jack and McGinn were playing they were both the most fouled players in the league.

We can still do this. 4 of our next 5 are at home. Possibly 5 out of next 6 when Sheffield United rearranged too. 

Let’s hope a full Villa Park can roar us onto 3 or 4 home wins. If the Corona virus makes us play behind closed doors, that would be a huge blow.

 

 

[VillaFaninLondon]

15 minutes ago, terrytini said:

I’d agree if there was evidence of a good footballing plan/ system/ whatever.

But it’s not that we don’t play defensively, it’s that we don’t really play in a cohesive style at all.

I can’t help reminding myself of his first game in charge, we stood on the Holte and almost unanimously agreed there was an immediate improvement in what we were doing. I posted here to that effect. We straight away looked like players wanted the ball, wanted to use the ball.

Sadly, we don’t look like that now. Now that same group of us unanimously agree there us little difference between what we do now and what we did under Bruce. We certainly don’t play remotely like Brentford used to !

For whatever reason it appears he can’t get either the type, or the level,  of performance he - presumably - wants, anywhere near often enough. 
 

Whilst some of that is excused by new signings, tough League, injuries, whatever, this Club needs a Coach who gets those performances more often than not, at least.

He might be that guy. He has done it on occasions. Time is running out for him to do it.

I liked the Smith at Brentford. They pressed and harried the opposition, they played attractive, attacking football, they retained possession really well. This is why when he was appointed I supported the decision very much, and having a love for the club was an added bonus. 

 

But in the time he has been here I have seen very little of the football he played at Brentford and it's made me question whether it was really Smith who was responsible for getting Brentford playing like they did. Our possession stats this season are amongst the lowest in the league, we play lots of long balls, our pressing is atrocious and the players look half-arsed to do it or not fit enough, and while we have played attacking football we also give the opponents as many if not more chances than we create for ourselves and in some games we don't even both to attack (see Southampton away, or even today). 

 

It really is right now like watching a Steve Bruce team, as others have said, except it's even worse because this team can't even defend like a Bruce team can. It really has reached a very sad state of affairs. 

[Fairy In Boots]

40 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

Should've played same lineup as 1st leg SF where Hause had most clearances and won loads in the air. That and starting Hourihane after shambles cup final appearance says Smith doesn't learn and is throwing shit at the wall and hoping something sticks so finally I'm out

He’s been throwing shit at the wall since November 

[Nabby]

Corners defending no one has a clue what they are doing

The first goal starts with us taking a freekick with Conner shouting at people to move into position , they don't he pumps in a ball easily won one ball up the field from them and we are sliced open , sure Reina makes a huge mistake but it starts from our free kick .The 3rd again we are attacking then win ball and once again one decent pass and we are cut open 

It's shit coaching , him shouting run run work harder on the sidelines has the zero effect on the team

Tactics ..well we try to get it to Jack he gets 2 men on him so next attempt is to hit it long to a striker who is miles from anyone other player so even if he does win the first ball he has no support.

It's a poorly coached team that has been carried by Grealish this season ( and the back end of last ) and he to me looks mentally worn out and opposition are taking him out of the game knowing we have zero attacking ability without him.

Goal against City in the cup came from a mistake from them overall in the last 3 matches we have shipped 8 goals I doubt we have even had 8 shots on target in them.Spurs we played ok but even then conceded 3 and results since then have shown Spurs to be fairly ordinary 

IMO we sack him now and try for the new manager bounce or he stays we go down and he last at best till Xmas , simply no way we go down playing and losing like this and somehow without Grealish ,Mings ,McGinn turn the form around and come straight back up.

[HalfTimePost]

13 minutes ago, wilko154 said:

We’ve gone backwards under Smith

I appreciate there is more to your post, and you made some good points.... But come on, this isn't true.

[Davkaus]

Should have sacked him in December.

[VillaFaninLondon]

1 minute ago, HalfTimePost said:

I appreciate there is more to your post, and you made some good points.... But come on, this isn't true.

It actually is. We were a much better team at the start of the season to now. Conceding too many chances and goals, yes, but at least we had an attacking threat and weren't getting battered every week like we are now. Now we can't score, still concede lots of chances and goals, and create very, very little. We've definitely gone backwards. 

[AndyM3000]

We aren't going to get out of this by defending, we need to ride our luck defensively while trying to win the game. If we can't defend no matter what then just go out and try and win. 

Play Samatta, Grealish, Trez & El Ghazi with Luiz/Nakamba/Conor/McGinn in the middle two slot. Offered absolutely nothing up front today, they marked Grealish out the game as he was the only outlet. 

[TRO]

2 hours ago, wilko154 said:

We’ve gone backwards under Smith, we’re now playing the sort of football we saw under Bruce but with less defensive stability. Every ball out from defence is hurled forward in the hope that Samatta can win it. If he does we have no one with him, if we don’t we also lose the second ball as well.

The players look as though they have given up under Smith. As someone mentioned earlier, we are now into our last 10 games of the season and Smith still hasn’t settled on a first 11 with a formation.

Tactically we are naive in every game. Personally I think Grealish is being wasted on the left side of the pitch, he’s our captain, talisman and best player, he should be in the centre of the pitch with everything flowing through him. First half today he had the least touches of any player on the pitch.

Right now we are going down, even John McGinn can’t save us. Yes we’ve been hindered by injuries this season, but the recruitment has been poor and the coaching/management has also been poor.

The question now is do we get rid of Smith for the final 10 games and give someone a chance of keeping us up?

Or do we stick with Smith and if we go down, which we most likely will do, allow him to rebuild and try to take us back up to the PL?

I think if we go down, it will  more far reaching than folk realise......we know how hard this league is to get out of.....at present we are likely to lose another 10, that will destroy any confidence for next season i.e Stoke, middlesbrough.

We have a big, big decision to make.....maybe one last throw of the dice.

Big Sam in a ten game challenge, would be an option, but a new man maybe fanciful.

I think we have left it too late to see a change.....the writing was on the wall months ago.

Edited March 10, 2020 by TRO