Dean Smith

[Tomaszk]

Bet El Ghazi said he wouldn't play the big jessie.

Great shout on Ralf Rangnick. Think I'd want him in Suso's role if that's an option ahead of coaching though. Heavily linked with Milan as well.

[screwdriver]

If I had premiership footballers salary there is no way I'd live with my mother in law.

 

[sheepyvillian]

5 hours ago, sir_gary_cahill said:

He has the potential to be a top player, he has played for England don’t forget

So has Carlton Palmer. 

[A'Villan]

5 hours ago, TRO said:

I think being overly struck on age is a mistake.....the priority should be " is the player good enough".... is the team balanced?

too young or too old attracts their own problems.....but clubs with a moneyball mentality go for young, for that reason.I fear there is an element of that in our thinking.

We should get back to building for the right reasons.

I also have a fear that Dean might be too compliant with what he is offered.

I understand the thinking on long term, but in football if you can't get the short term right, there is no long term....unless you have a phenomenal influx of academy players.

Players won't come unless the short term is right.

football is an unusual model, where the "here and now "is crucial to influence the longer term..... stability can be very easily disrupted, almost unlike other industries.

 

I like this times many more than one, but I suppose one is sufficient, so it's all you get 

I'm actually not in agreement with some of your post though. I'm only nitpicking so don't think that I think you're totally off the mark. 

The bold is where you are jumping the gun in assessing what we are doing and why, and the two fears (False Expectations Appearing Real) you list are unfounded, for me.

Without wanting to state the obvious and iterate the well known in that each club has circumstances unique to itself, any insight we gain on Villa is found in the details, no?

To gauge the situation as accurately as possible we should remember that how things have been are not necessarily how we would have liked things to have been.

We've had a massive upheaval and turnover in playing staff, and a tumultuous decade, the two are not mutually exclusive. Our best assets sold and many failed investments.

You mention balance and finding it, and building for the right reasons, and I would suggest our ownership is making the best decisions we've seen in over a decade currently.

All things considered for me, we've made some spectacularly astute signings in regard to both player and coaching recruitment, striking balance between short and long term.

It's quite disappointing that Drinkwater and Bolasie loans turned out to be less than desirable, especially considering they were meant to be marquee signings (albeit on loan).

However you also need to consider our recruitment is also down to what's available and when.

 

Edited May 6, 2020 by A'Villan

[Stevo985]

12 hours ago, screwdriver said:

If I had premiership footballers salary there is no way I'd live with my mother in law.

 

Some of them also have hearts, as well as a big salary

(also it hasn't been called the premiership for like 15 years)

[brommy]

21 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Some of them also have hearts, as well as a big salary

(also it hasn't been called the premiership for like 15 years)

'Premiership' was Doug Ellis' absolute favourite word. I envisage it was his last.

[Dave-R]

22 hours ago, A'Villan said:

I'm wondering to what lengths he has spoken to John Terry. I'm not suggesting that Smith undermine his position and authority by confiding in Terry if it weren't in our best interest. However, Terry has undoubtedly the most insight as to what it's like to play for a top tier side and succeed within the Aston Villa setup. His counsel could be invaluable right now. Smith needs us to improve defensively, so I hope there's an in depth and serious dialogue that Terry is involved in with regards to that. Terry is, and has worked with, the best at defense. Then we look at motivation and mentality of the playing staff. Terry has been in numerous setups where this element of success would've been the highest the game knew at the time. I just hope Smith is actively engaged with using all his resources to the best of their ability, as well as to the best of his ability. We're going to need it for the remainder.

Terry had a successful career as a player, yet who's to say that certain people are not hindering us defensively or in other areas. By no means does it guarantee that Terry we be a successful coach does it just because he was a successful player. We can only hope if Smith isn't listening to Terry that he starts, that's if Terry is making the right calls here at Villa.

It surely feels somewhere something is going wrong. I'm sure we can agree that recruitment has taken a huge bashing by us but does that also extend to the Coach's?? Do we have one to many, or is it as simple as some not being effective at what they do.

I think it's a mixture of recruitment, game plan, coaching and inconsistency at deploying a vision on a management, mental and physical level.

There have been many games where we've failed to hold our heads together and been pulled apart by a few clever moves we've failed to see, all it took was moments. It's actually been shocking how much hard work some of the players have had to do that it was all undone by costly errors. How ma y clean sheets did we have, there is all his talk on here and other places about it being the defences fault, I don't see it like that at all. When you have a link in a chain you must remove that link and replace it or the chain is either no good or it's weaker, are we fwiling to rexognise the weak links, we ceetainly need to replace the weak links with stronger ones. Ive said all season that i think our defence was fantastic alonv with our keeper, the problem was that our midfield and wingers were the weak links in the chain. I still stand by it because our midfield and wingers failed, failed so much that they could not keep the ball for one, which led us to become overun for most of a game. Half pur team could not only keep the ball but they couldn't relieve the ball in time either. Our midfield and wingers got out pressed and out gunned and a large part of that problem is there was never anyone there for cover when someone was under fire. We even see glimpses of that in our very own defence when attackers would threaten our defenders to back off entirely and theyd put us under pressure at our oen corner flag without sufficiant cover. Pundits often called it but we should never of been doing zonal marking, it was awful and ridiculous and when under pressure bad things were guaranteed to happen and we got ised to it happening.

We made life hard for ourselves when simply we could of played much simpler football. Often we were to slow when we should of been faster, likewise when we were to fast and made amateurish errors when we could of taken our time to read the game better.

Whatever it is we need to do we need to make sure we progress much better in every direction because it was looking bright for us at the start against top teams, then once the injury came we just sank for the remainder of the season.

We just need to make the right signings now if we get a second shot or have to finish the season.

[TRO]

2 hours ago, Dave-R said:

Terry had a successful career as a player, yet who's to say that certain people are not hindering us defensively or in other areas. By no means does it guarantee that Terry we be a successful coach does it just because he was a successful player. We can only hope if Smith isn't listening to Terry that he starts, that's if Terry is making the right calls here at Villa.

It surely feels somewhere something is going wrong. I'm sure we can agree that recruitment has taken a huge bashing by us but does that also extend to the Coach's?? Do we have one to many, or is it as simple as some not being effective at what they do.

I think it's a mixture of recruitment, game plan, coaching and inconsistency at deploying a vision on a management, mental and physical level.

There have been many games where we've failed to hold our heads together and been pulled apart by a few clever moves we've failed to see, all it took was moments. It's actually been shocking how much hard work some of the players have had to do that it was all undone by costly errors. How ma y clean sheets did we have, there is all his talk on here and other places about it being the defences fault, I don't see it like that at all. When you have a link in a chain you must remove that link and replace it or the chain is either no good or it's weaker, are we fwiling to rexognise the weak links, we ceetainly need to replace the weak links with stronger ones. Ive said all season that i think our defence was fantastic alonv with our keeper, the problem was that our midfield and wingers were the weak links in the chain. I still stand by it because our midfield and wingers failed, failed so much that they could not keep the ball for one, which led us to become overun for most of a game. Half pur team could not only keep the ball but they couldn't relieve the ball in time either. Our midfield and wingers got out pressed and out gunned and a large part of that problem is there was never anyone there for cover when someone was under fire. We even see glimpses of that in our very own defence when attackers would threaten our defenders to back off entirely and theyd put us under pressure at our oen corner flag without sufficiant cover. Pundits often called it but we should never of been doing zonal marking, it was awful and ridiculous and when under pressure bad things were guaranteed to happen and we got ised to it happening.

We made life hard for ourselves when simply we could of played much simpler football. Often we were to slow when we should of been faster, likewise when we were to fast and made amateurish errors when we could of taken our time to read the game better.

Whatever it is we need to do we need to make sure we progress much better in every direction because it was looking bright for us at the start against top teams, then once the injury came we just sank for the remainder of the season.

We just need to make the right signings now if we get a second shot or have to finish the season.

Well said Dave.

We can all speculate as to where the problem lies and it could be many factors that affect the whole....but it sure as hell isn't right.

Its the managers job to find the answers, he sees them at BMH, He sees a much bigger picture than us.

I get that "time"is always the claim.....when criticism is aimed.....but that claim will only last for so long......It cannot be an island for critics, that goes on indefinately.

He has to address the issues, no matter how unsavoury that might be.

Ps I have no idea on the role or affect John Terry has on our team, for good or bad.......If John is the fly in the ointment, then I would expect Dean to act accordingly.... as it stands we can only speculate on whats wrong.

Edited May 6, 2020 by TRO

[screwdriver]

Its clearly Pepe Reina the player Smith referred to as "living with his mother in law who is in remission"

However Smith made no mention of the fact REina was ill HIMSELF!

https://www.corrieredellosport.it/news/calcio/serie-a/napoli/2020/03/31-68374580/reina_ho_avuto_paura_non_respiravo_pi/

This is a massive story when Arteta has it everyone knew about it yet smith decided to brush it under the carpet and do a Les Dawson

Why would he omit this?   The 25minutes without oxygen is straight out of the david blaine repertoire. This is the sort of ammunition Smith should be using instead of telling everyone "we're ready to play."

We are so not. We are totally down if we play matches.

Only the health and safety guy can save us now and its not just a case of "put your hard hat on please" I don't want to be in the same stadium as pepe reina never mind jostling for a corner feeling his breath on my neck and those big hands ......daaaaaaaaamn!

 

[Zatman]

Everybody knows Reina was ill because he announced it about a month ago

[sheepyvillian]

I really do hope we stay in the " Premiership " .

[TRO]

30 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

I really do hope we stay in the " Premiership " .

If we don't stay up.....the financial implications will be far reaching.....it will set us back years.

[Zatman]

12 minutes ago, TRO said:

If we don't stay up.....the financial implications will be far reaching.....it will set us back years.

[Villarocker]

On 05/05/2020 at 20:17, TRO said:

Players reserve the right to protect their health and avoid unnecessary risks.

I guess its difficult for the Government to declare protocols that specifically address footballs issues.....perhaps the league, should seek scientific medical advice.

They should close the season in my view.

Teams playing with first team players missing due to theses risks makes the whole thing a farce.

I've got another angle on the players not playing thing.

There is a big situation regarding the BAME community apparently being more at risk of catching this virus. Clubs with more players from that community are surely more vulnerable to losing players either with the virus or because of the threat of catching it? 

[Vive_La_Villa]

 

6 hours ago, Villarocker said:

I've got another angle on the players not playing thing.

There is a big situation regarding the BAME community apparently being more at risk of catching this virus. Clubs with more players from that community are surely more vulnerable to losing players either with the virus or because of the threat of catching it? 

I don’t think it counts for millionaires of the BAME community to be honest. 

As far as I’m aware it’s nothing to do with genetics or anything like that. 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Vive_La_Villa

[sheepyvillian]

11 hours ago, Zatman said:

Way over.

[TRO]

16 hours ago, Zatman said:

Bet you couldn't wait.....if i knew what it mean't.

I'm not very good at "catch phrase"

Edited May 8, 2020 by TRO

[villalad21]

15 hours ago, TRO said:

If we don't stay up.....the financial implications will be far reaching.....it will set us back years.

Not to mention losing Jack.

Without him we really are a very average team. Without him and under Smith i can see us finishing around 9th in the Championship.

We will concede a lot but not score enough.

[sir_gary_cahill]

1 hour ago, villalad21 said:

Not to mention losing Jack.

Without him we really are a very average team. Without him and under Smith i can see us finishing around 9th in the Championship.

We will concede a lot but not score enough.

Smith knows The Championship inside out though, he did great to get us promoted and got Brentford playing some of the best football in the division. The Premier League is a different kettle of fish though, if he keeps us up, we’ve had a great season with us getting to a Carabao Cup final too. Even if the worst happens and we do get relegated, I’d back him to bring us straight back up

[villalad21]

6 minutes ago, sir_gary_cahill said:

Even if the worst happens and we do get relegated, I’d back him to bring us straight back up

Maybe through play offs again.

Smith's teams are far too open to achieve automatic promotion.