Dean Smith

[eholm]

2 hours ago, TrentVilla said:

He will have an input certainly. 

So for instance he will say what sort of player and what position he wants and then it will be left with the DoF to identify options, speak to clubs, agents, arrange scouting etc.

Then he will put options to Smith and they’ll reach a decision.

I don’t see it being a more continental set up where Smith has no say on player recruitment.

Agreed. DS has confirmed that he gave Suso and CP a list of 5 possible GK coaches and they went off, did due diligence and went for Cutler. This is exactly how the new structure and process regarding player/coach recruitment will be going forward.

[villabromsgrove]

I disagree with the "mid table" predictions. I think Dean Smith will get enough out of these players to finish in the play off places. From there anything can happen, and I'm much more confident of a 'Wembley win' under Smith and Co, than I was under Bruce last season.

We can still get promoted in my opinion. Having said that, I wont be at all surprised if we just miss out due to the dodgy defending that others have highlighted. That is something that I'm positive we will put right over the next two transfer windows.

As to who will have the final say on transfers, I think NSWE via Purslow have already laid down the parameters concerning targeted player's age ranges and potential sell on values, then it's over to Suso (with Dean Smith's regular input) to identify and shortlist 'gettable' possibilities at the right price. Smith and Co will then determine whether, character, attitude and positional suitability is spot on before a 'committee' decision is made.

Shared responsibility within agreed pre set guidelines will be the policy. Building with a structured plan for a sustainable future has to be the way forward.

[Fowlersrs]

Do u think DS will change the back 4 before Jan... rumours he will keep it the same to keep it tight....

[Demitri_C]

30 minutes ago, Fowlersrs said:

Do u think DS will change the back 4 before Jan... rumours he will keep it the same to keep it tight....

I'd imagine he will want a left back. Taylor is poor. Also we need a cb as we dont have enough in that area.

[mjmooney]

I think keeping a settled back four (with lots of encouragement and coaching) is a wise idea for the time being. After January, things may change. 

[Troglodyte]

I could see him recalling Clark and having him as back-up while seeing if he could be integrated into the first team over a longer period. Possibly Elphick back as cover, too, or signing someone to cover in that position.

I do think we could do with better full backs to suit the way we're playing now, but I also don't think Smith will panic with what he's got for now. It wouldn't surprise me if his priority is someone to play that pivot role in front of the defence.

[Dave-R]

We all know the mess bruce left us in, but we will pull through it under DS. I just feel sorry for whichever team gets bruce next, maybe the sheffield Wednesday fans who are calling for the club to get bruce will heed my warning lol..

Next week bruce maybe back in the championship, which I would love because I would love to see how we play against his team, I'd expect DS and co to hand out a thrashing, I certainly hope our players would be excited for that game..

Edited November 4, 2018 by Dave-R

[S-Platt]

14 hours ago, Dave-R said:

We all know the mess bruce left us in, but we will pull through it under DS. I just feel sorry for whichever team gets bruce next, maybe the sheffield Wednesday fans who are calling for the club to get bruce will heed my warning lol..

Next week bruce maybe back in the championship, which I would love because I would love to see how we play against his team, I'd expect DS and co to hand out a thrashing, I certainly hope our players would be excited for that game..

Or Bruce would get his new team to launch cross after cross into the box for Nyland to drop onto their strikers foot.  We need to sort out the shit sandwich of a defence before we start handing out thrashings!  

I have faith in Deano to sort things though which makes a change from the past!  He sees what we see but at the moment only has Bruce players to implement his ideas.  

[weedman]

On 03/11/2018 at 23:46, srsmithusa said:

So, since we were assured that DS wasn’t in charge of anything except making sure the subs were wearing bibs, he seems to be figuring out some of the other parts of management pretty quickly.  

It would certainly be a revelation, except the only people actually saying that were people like you completely straw manning any concerns people had with Smith. 

I'll echo roughly what was actually said about him. He works well in a specific structure, one we did not have at the start of the season. That's not to say he wouldn't work well in another system, just that it's far more risky. He was a cog in a machine at Brentford - an important cog, but a cog nonetheless, and taking him out of that and into a club like ours, especially without pretty much any backroom staff at the time would be a risk because we had absolutely no way of knowing if he could replicate any success without the team behind him. Because you don't have an argument for this line of questioning, you ignore it, make up your own argument ("so all he does is hand out bibs") and argue against that. It's ludicrous 

Around the time we hired him we have revamped our backroom team, with new key personnel coming in left and right. He is now a cog in our machine, a different machine, but hopefully one that will bring us success along with Smith, who is now as important a cog for us as he was for Brentford 

[wilko154]

16 hours ago, Troglodyte said:

It wouldn't surprise me if his priority is someone to play that pivot role in front of the defence.

I agree with this.

At the end of the first half on Friday Grealish started dropping deep, the way he was holding onto the ball and distributing it was brilliant. Unfortunately when he does this though we miss him in the attacking 3rd of the pitch.

If we can get a player in who can do this for 90 minutes whilst still having Grealish at No 10 it would benefit the whole team.

[Vive_La_Villa]

Areas that needed improving when Bruce took over now need improving again for one reason or another. Taylor seemed a good signing at the time but didn’t work out. We lost Terry. Whelan is past it. Lansbury just massively flopped. Nyland nothing much to be said 

Bruce did get Mcginn, Axel, Thor ,Hourihane and Abraham right so we can be thankful for that. 

Just because we replace these weakness there’s no assurances there will be improvements on what we have. Our Recruitment is so important in the next window or two. 

Edited November 5, 2018 by Vive_La_Villa

[Demitri_C]

Bruce didn't do too badly in transfer market to be fair to him. Although I think we will see more unknowns with more ability/potential than big names like bolaise and Abraham in future.

[Junxs]

4 hours ago, weedman said:

It would certainly be a revelation, except the only people actually saying that were people like you completely straw manning any concerns people had with Smith. 

I'll echo roughly what was actually said about him. He works well in a specific structure, one we did not have at the start of the season. That's not to say he wouldn't work well in another system, just that it's far more risky. He was a cog in a machine at Brentford - an important cog, but a cog nonetheless, and taking him out of that and into a club like ours, especially without pretty much any backroom staff at the time would be a risk because we had absolutely no way of knowing if he could replicate any success without the team behind him. Because you don't have an argument for this line of questioning, you ignore it, make up your own argument ("so all he does is hand out bibs") and argue against that. It's ludicrous 

Around the time we hired him we have revamped our backroom team, with new key personnel coming in left and right. He is now a cog in our machine, a different machine, but hopefully one that will bring us success along with Smith, who is now as important a cog for us as he was for Brentford 

But did you not think that would happen at Villa anyway? there were whispers we were looking for a sporting director before Bruce was even sacked, and obviously he was going to have his assistants as no manager / head coach in the world doesnt. Despite this some people were making out that he wasn't that important at Brentford, yes he was a cog but he was the most important cog, some people were giving him little to no credit for the work he did at Brentford.

[Rob182]

On 04/11/2018 at 10:51, av1 said:

I found this whole argument against Smith rather amusing. 

So what he had a big team around him, doesn't every manager in the modern game? You look at some benches on match day and there appears to be about 40 people behind the manager. 

At Brentford Smith coached the team, picked the formation and tactics, what else is there to management? Transfers? Well I'd hazard a guess that 90% of modern day clubs have tranfer committees these days. 

I also found it ironic that some of the fans that didn't want Smith on those grounds were excited by the prospect of Henry. 

I was one of the many that said that he must do more than is being made out. The signs look good at the moment, so let's just hope that leaving what he had a Brentford doesn't hinder him and our progress.

You're right in what you say about all clubs having a big team around the manager, but I think that Brentford's set-up is just uber-in-depth, to the point that most clubs and managers would probably think it's overkill. I'm sure they have a specific 'kicking coach', and coaches for other individual parts of the game like that. (Jumping coach? Who knows.... diving coach!)

[Zatman]

36 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Bruce didn't do too badly in transfer market to be fair to him. Although I think we will see more unknowns with more ability/potential than big names like bolaise and Abraham in future.

Hits 

Terry, Hourihane, Snodgrass, Abraham,  McGinn, Johnstone

Miss

Taylor, Lansbury, Hogan, Bree, Nyland, Elmo, Onomah, Grabban

On the fence

Axel, Bolasie, Thor, El Ghazi, Moreira, Samba, Whelan

[Guest av1]

6 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Hits 

Terry, Hourihane, Snodgrass, Abraham,  McGinn, Johnstone

Miss

Taylor, Lansbury, Hogan, Bree, Nyland, Elmo, Onomah, Grabban

On the fence

Axel, Bolasie, Thor, El Ghazi, Moreira, Samba, Whelan

The thing there though mate is that 8 of the entrants in your 'hit' and 'on the fence' categorys are/were loans.

So to break it down further based on your opinion of Bruces signings, he has made 2 good permanent signings. Hourihane and McGinn. 

When you look at it like that, his record was truly awful. 

 

[MaVilla]

10 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Hits 

Terry, Hourihane, Snodgrass, Abraham,  McGinn, Johnstone

Miss

Taylor, Lansbury, Hogan, Bree, Nyland, Elmo, Onomah, Grabban

On the fence

Axel, Bolasie, Thor, El Ghazi, Moreira, Samba, Whelan

Personally I think hourihane is a miss and Elmo a hit (or at least not a miss, a miss hit maybe)

[Stevo985]

12 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Hits 

Terry, Hourihane, Snodgrass, Abraham,  McGinn, Johnstone

Miss

Taylor, Lansbury, Hogan, Bree, Nyland, Elmo, Onomah, Grabban

On the fence

Axel, Bolasie, Thor, El Ghazi, Moreira, Samba, Whelan

I'd class Elmo, Grabban, Whelan and Samba as hits.

Samba wasn't great, but he did exactly what we needed him to do.

 

I think there's an argument to count Onomah as a hit too, considering he was a cheap loan.

[Vive_La_Villa]

Bruce didn’t do too bad in the transfer market if we got promoted. But as he even admitted himself he had to build it all again in the summer and he wasn’t able to do it. 

Hopefully any future signings will take in to consideration having to stay in this league another year. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

25 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Hits 

Terry, Hourihane, Snodgrass, Abraham,  McGinn, Johnstone

Miss

Taylor, Lansbury, Hogan, Bree, Nyland, Elmo, Onomah, Grabban

On the fence

Axel, Bolasie, Thor, El Ghazi, Moreira, Samba, Whelan

You’ve only put Elmo has a miss because you don’t rate him. Must would say he was good business. 

Why is Grabban a miss? He was quality.