Dean Smith

[Keyblade]

2 hours ago, Johnnyp said:

Btw i really like how he sees and calls a game. Grealish coming too deep. Why ? Hourihane not good enough, brave enough or moves well enough to play more forward balls. We need jack in the spaces that eriksen takes up at spurs. For him to stay in those positions we need a better quality of a deep lying playmaker than we have currently.

A McEachran or day I say Bannan in that position would make a huge difference for us in that regard.

Hourihane is great rotation for McGinn though and definitely has his place in our squad, but his passing from deep just isn't up to scratch.

Edited November 3, 2018 by Keyblade

[Guest av1]

It's only 4 games but pretty much every unforced substitute has positive. 

2--0 up yesterday and he brings on 2 forwards. Yes Whelan came on at the end but it was so late thst I'm inclined to think that that substitution was to give Jack a big round of applause after a fabulous performance. 

 

[Dr_Pangloss]

I like what I see and we're no where near in a position to do what Smith wants right now, positive signs.

[eholm]

12 hours ago, LakotaDakota said:

Interview after the game is like it's a completely different game than Bruce (or to be fair any other manager we have ever had) comments. 2nd phases, showing videos to grealish at half time to point out times he had come too deep, telling wide players to stay wider as they were interfering with grealish & mcginn, Tactics to tuanzebe as he noticed something bolton had changed

Couldn’t agree more mate. The stark contrast in tactical awareness and thinking is like night and day compared to Bruce. I can’t believe that anyone could question the ‘dinosaur’ label given to Bruce when you hear DS analyse a match, discuss the subtle changes he made etc. Managers of the ilk of Bruce are do clearly outdated with ‘pull their socks up and put their boots on’ comments. Our future is extremely encouraging. UTV. 

[AvfcRigo82]

25 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

I like what I see and we're no where near in a position to do what Smith wants right now, positive signs.

Yep agree with you.

Okay I know it was against Bolton but they equally gave a good account of themselves last night.

But very encouraging what we are seeing thus far and it feels like we are not even out of 3rd gear yet as a team.

One game at a time but pleased what we witnessed last night and so refreshing on various fronts.

[villalad21]

Haven't even had a transfer window yet and owners promised he will be backed.

Can't wait till he get's some of "his" players in.

Edited November 3, 2018 by villalad21

[Tommo_b]

50% win rate

[gwi1890]

6 minutes ago, Tommo_b said:

50% win rate

Tim? Sherwood? 

 

7 minutes ago, Tommo_b said:

50% win rate

M

[alreadyexists]

11 minutes ago, Tommo_b said:

50% win rate

100% home win rate

[Stockport_Villain]

I like the cut of his jib.

[Tumblerseven]

Did u guys noticed our throw ins? For me its so refresing to see that our team stopped wasting them.Finally we throw in ball like a normal team who dont just waste them.

 

[terrytini]

Small observation for anyone who doesn’t attend the games.

Our pre match warm up is very different in a couple of ways. 

One, which I really like, is the Subs now fully warm up with the First XI. I never understood the idea of them pratting around on the other side of the pitch.

Another is that Smiths Right Hand men are on the pitch taking the warm up. Again, makes a lot more sense to me.

Thirdly, is one where it’s impossiblr to know for sure whether it’s an improvement, but its certainly interesting, which is half way through the warm up the players group around O’ Kelly and there’s a team talk thingy.

After that they still blast the ball into the stands as we’ve done for years.

[Nigel]

It's good to see that this improved performance came after a good week on the training ground. It's also good to see we have over a week till the next game then 2 more weeks off till the noses come. 

This lull in games has come at the right time for us! 

I can't wait to see this team flying 

[villabromsgrove]

I enjoy watching us play now, which was always the most important thing for me. I didn't think that we were that consistent last night but our passes were hit harder, there was more pressing, and the occasional excellent passages of play point to things definitely improving.

I have four sons who had given up going to watch Villa after being season ticket holders for years, and they are now starting to go back to Villa Park. That in itself is so exciting for me!

Dean Smith was the right choice. He clearly knows what he's doing, and he wont be satisfied until he gets to where he wants to be with this Villa team. His after match comments show that he sees what we see, and a lot more besides. That'll do for me.

[mjmooney]

3 hours ago, villalad21 said:

Haven't even had a transfer window yet and owners promised he will be backed.

Can't wait till he get's some of "his" players in.

Ah, but now we have a DoF, does Smiffy do the choosing of purchases? He's only 'head coach', remember. 

[Guest av1]

1 hour ago, villabromsgrove said:

I enjoy watching us play now, which was always the most important thing for me. 

100%. 

It's a sport, so ultimately any manager will be judged on results, but like many thousand other fans i dedicate a lot of time and a awful lot of money into following our club so actually enjoying what I'm seeing is also massively important. 

The QPR game was such a strange feeling, I'm never happy to see us us lose, but likewise i can't ever (or at least can't recall) remember ever feeling so upbeat after ever losing a game. 

It is a results driven business though, fans of clubs like West Brom (under Tony Mowbray), Everton (under Martinez), and even Arsenal (under Wenger), will tell you that it's ok playing nice football but you also need to be  winning football matches, and i also agree with that, but I'm greedy, I'd like to have both. 

What is encouraging is that Smith is picking up results with a pleasing, positive style of play even though there is at least 3/4 players in this team that aren't, and never will be suited to the style of play that he is trying to implement, so i think it's more than resonable to suspect that things will only getter better once he has had the opportunity to bring in a couple of signings suited to what he is trying to achieve. 

What's more important, entertainment or results? It's a debate that fans will always disagree on, the perfect situation is having both ofcourse and even after only 4 games I've seen enough signs for me to believe that under Smith we might just get that. 

We may also get something much more important than any short term success he may brings, an identity for the long term which will hopefully be ingrained into the club long after Smiths time at the club comes to an end. 

 

Edited November 3, 2018 by av1

[TheStagMan]

I thought it was very refreshing to hear an analysis of the performance, and to hear him saying that he wasn't happy with a number of things that will be worked on. Rather than comments like "i know what I am doing - look, see, we won. You were stupid to have ever questioned me " (paraphrasing but we all remember the pressers). 

Such a relief to have an actual manager who seems to know what they are doing. Even if it doesn't work out, right now, it has given me hope again.

[Johnnyp]

Good to hear that he was at pride park today. Ideal to attend seen as both teams are our next 2 opponents. Yeah derby will tough to crack, but i trust Smith to have us very well prepared for them. Blues, to their credit, will be tough also.

[Villarocker]

I loved the way he answered the question last night "what about them for the next 7 games?". He said something like "bring it on". I like the fact that we fear nobody. We are Aston Villa and should never fear any other club! 

[New_Hope]

My favourite comment was when he said we had been 'working on slide through ball runs' with Jack in training and it came off!

What is this witchcraft??

Thought training at Villa was like the John Smith's 'av it!'.