Dean Smith

[sheepyvillian]

36 minutes ago, Woody1000 said:

I would challenge this. 
 

The fact that he is a villa fan shouldn’t give him any special privileges, however the issue I have is when fans won’t acknowledge improvement because they still have to be ‘right’

To question fans in this way is just “better fan than you” for me. I want what is best for the club.

 

Challenge what? Who mentioned anything about him being a Villa fan, although that does give him a romantic egde. And that's why him becoming a success a Villa would be that little bit sweeter. I merely asked, who wouldn't want to see that. 

[Blasterpocket68]

2 hours ago, sheepyvillian said:

How could any true Villan not want this man to be a success at this great club of ours? 

I dont believe that is  a fair post. We all want Villa to be a success with Smith or any manager. This is a fans forum  i still believe where we can discuss and share opinions . Some fans believe smith has done a good  job other fans believe he could have done better with what he has.  

UTV  

[AvfcRigo82]

4 hours ago, DCJonah said:

Why would smith retire from management?

I never said he would or should retire.

That scenario meant he was promoted and still stayed with the club. That was all. No retirement though. 

[Sulberto21]

Fixed. Lol.

[sheepyvillian]

18 minutes ago, Blasterpocket68 said:

I dont believe that is  a fair post. We all want Villa to be a success with Smith or any manager. This is a fans forum  i still believe where we can discuss and share opinions . Some fans believe smith has done a good  job other fans believe he could have done better with what he has.  

UTV  

I believe he has done okay this season, but I would love him to take us to the giddy heights. I merely asked, who wouldn't. It's rhetorical. 

[NSmith22]

I would urge those that have a sub to read Gregg Evans latest article on The Athletic. It highlights the analytics of our defense since the restart and how great it’s been. I’m not going to keep quoting the articles out of respect for the company and the  writers.

[Blasterpocket68]

1 minute ago, sheepyvillian said:

I believe he has done okay this season, but I would love him to take us to the giddy heights. I merely asked, who wouldn't. It's rhetorical. 

I believe he could have done a lot better particularly at the start of the season. Its an opinion given our position,  football is never black and white and every fan  on on this forum wants the team to succeed! 

[Brentfordnylons]

Deans been on the phone to Thomas today to wish him luck,proper bloke is Dean 

[TRO]

8 hours ago, VillaCas said:

Well done to Dean Smith and his coaching team for a fantastic performance last night - the culmination of months of hard work across the season and during the lockdown

A few thoughts, firstly the idea that this potential has been possible all season is to me, flawed. Its taken enormous time, patience, effort and learning to produce a performance like this. At the start of the season we had very many players new to the culture and new to the PL. We also clearly have players who are never going to be PL quality. To instill the kind of fight and spirit they showed and meld them into a unit that can turn out that kind of result shows me that Smith is exactly the sort of manager who I want at VP. 

Secondly, we have put in a number of similar perfromances where we haven't had the small slice of luck we needed to get a result - against Everton AEG couldn't convert from six inches so all is disaster, against Arsenal the ball rebound off the post into Reinas arms and everything is fantastic. Its a cliche to say that luck evens itself out over the season - its not as exact as that and i feel weve had more bad than good this year

Finally, the match thread is littered with Football Manager experts who believe that they can outthink the manager and coaching staff. It may be obvious to you that player x should be swapped for player y but it doesnt make it correct. McGinn was clearly breathing through his a*hole towards the end but it was also clear why Smith kept him on - should we have conceded the usual tired-old "Smith cant do subs" line would have been trotted out

 

PS What a magnificent footballer Jack Grealish is - the best attacking player I've seen in a Villa shirt. I really hope that we can keep him but also, for him, would love to see him fulfil his potential with brilliant players around him - is it possible both things could happen at Villa?

The notion that this performance was a result of patience, is also flawed.

we were better in the early part of the season......Jack himself was on fire for most of the season carrying us.....since lockdown, his form has dipped, but he found it again last night.....as did many others too, thankfully.

No, one is proposing to out think the manager at all......folk on here give their views, some are stronger than others, granted.....but if you think folk who spend fortunes following Villa, know nothing, or not worth listening too, you would be wrong.

In our 40,000 odd crowd, is some learned football people, with views worth heading....Deans opinion is the only one that matters, granted, in terms of team selection, but he is not always right as 21 defeats are testimony.....last night he got it right, lets hope he repeats it on Sunday.....but don't lose sight, that the opinions of fans is worth their weight too.....on both sides of the debates.

[TRO]

1 hour ago, sheepyvillian said:

Challenge what? Who mentioned anything about him being a Villa fan, although that does give him a romantic egde. And that's why him becoming a success a Villa would be that little bit sweeter. I merely asked, who wouldn't want to see that. 

We all want to see him do well.....I was delighted for  him last night......to think otherwise is futile.

We are all villa fans, we want to win every game, but we know that is not possible, but you try to come as close as possible......when we go on losing runs, with no change in sight, the most ardent fans ask searching questions.

 

[DCJonah]

1 hour ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

I never said he would or should retire.

That scenario meant he was promoted and still stayed with the club. That was all. No retirement though. 

If he takes a job in the front office then he is giving up being a football manager. I'm not sure he'd see that as a promotion. 

[DCJonah]

2 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

All due respect you're making it badly, because it's the exact same point I'm trying to make and I agree with @Keyblade entirely.

Your posts come across as someone who thinks the manager has been perfect and any shortcomings are from the squad.

All I was trying to say was exactly what Keyblade has said. We have had good periods and bad periods, and Smith is to blame for the bad as well as the good.

 

I think we basically agree.

Even though I've said this isn't the case multiple times. Not much I can do there. 

I would say the same then, I think you've made the point badly, as I didn't get that from your posts at all. 

To me @Keybladewas pointing out that what we've seen is what you get with a relegation fighting team, not that when things have been bad its smiths fault. Because that would indicate that this team is capable of much more and thus shouldn't be a relgation fighting team. 

[Stevo985]

1 hour ago, DCJonah said:

Even though I've said this isn't the case multiple times. Not much I can do there. 

Yeah you say you don't and then all your posts contradict it

Anyway, like I said I think we both agree. I agree with what Keyblade said. 

[ozvilla28]

I still have my doubts on him , but credit were due.Been better with tactics,substitutions,and defending as a team.

[Tomaszk]

9 hours ago, striker said:

Watched Smith’s post match interview on Facebook this morning. Confirmed that he had gone to watch Tres before he was purchased. Puts to bed then the argument that Smith had no input on transfers.

"Here's your choice of wingers: X, Y and Trez. Want to go watch Trez as we can afford him and he's playing during the summer?"

Suso signs the players.

Make sure you beat Bournemouth please.

Edited July 22, 2020 by Tomaszk

[Adam2003]

2 hours ago, TRO said:

In our 40,000 odd crowd, is some learned football people, with views worth heading....

Anyone know where they sit? It’s never the people around me

[weedman]

8 hours ago, VillaCas said:

I’m not sure anyone claimed he has “no” input on transfers, but how much is deemed meaningful? We signed 15 players and for most of those we will have had 4 or 5 names in the frame for each position. So 40 or 50 players to keep track of - that job is done by the Scouting team under the direction of DOfF

In this instance Smith saw Trez play in ACON against RSA. He may have had a great game, He may have looked decent against lesser players. He may have been highly recommended by the scouting team. We needed players, the alternatives may have been worse, the alternative may have been no-one.
If you wish to be harsh on Smith you could claim that he should be able to assess a players ability to perform in the PL from one single game against random opposition - Personally I’m happy to rely on the DofF to take the vast majority of the responsibility for recruitment 

Additionally, I don’t think that Trez is as much of a disaster as many here - I would hope that he wouldn’t be first choice next season but he is a good squad player, he works hard enough and I’d be ok with him coming on for 20 mins to help close a game out

This, I really don't get what part of this people don't understand.

There's a team of people who decide on transfers, Smith is on that team, chances are he has not seen very much of the players we end up signing as he's busy doing other things, like managing and coaching the current players. 

The scouts will look at players, by the hundreds or thousands or however they do it, the ones they think can make it they'll go and watch or watch videos of if available and talk to people who know them. They'll make their judgements and then Smith can have some input, he probably won't really know the players, but will have the scouting reports and access to any information. If we have 4 or 5 options for each position, and we're signing 10 players, this could be a 50 player list and ideally we want players in early in time for pre season, so not a lot of time.

Last season we were absolutely planning for another season in the championship until a few weeks before the end of the season, so there was absolutely minimal time to do all of this. It's why signing lots of players is a gamble, because there just isn't time to have scouted them thoroughly. Ideally you wouldn't do it but we had no options 

So Smith is part of the transfers, he has a say, but with our summer recruitment it was always a gamble based on sheer numbers, I wouldn't put much on Smith here because he won't have had much of a chance to see the players we signed and the ones he had seen (Maupay, Benrahma) would almost certainly have contributed more than the ones we ended up signing.

Next season he will have to accept more responsibility, he's been here longer, has had a chance to see some players himself and we don't need anywhere near the overhaul of last year. A couple of wingers, a Grealish replacement (hopefully not), a backup center back and possibly a center mid will sort us for now, and anything else will be a bonus. The squad is there, just needs some quality now. 

[MotoMkali]

I like Smith and he has certainly gotten the tactics right in the last few games but right now his substitutes remain iffy. I wonder whether he would be a better assistant manager where he could focus on drilling the players for the tactics in the game and working on passing and movement without all the other responsibilities that come with position of the head coach. 

[Sulberto21]

4 hours ago, TRO said:

The notion that this performance was a result of patience, is also flawed.

we were better in the early part of the season......Jack himself was on fire for most of the season carrying us.....since lockdown, his form has dipped, but he found it again last night.....as did many others too, thankfully.

No, one is proposing to out think the manager at all......folk on here give their views, some are stronger than others, granted.....but if you think folk who spend fortunes following Villa, know nothing, or not worth listening too, you would be wrong.

In our 40,000 odd crowd, is some learned football people, with views worth heading....Deans opinion is the only one that matters, granted, in terms of team selection, but he is not always right as 21 defeats are testimony.....last night he got it right, lets hope he repeats it on Sunday.....but don't lose sight, that the opinions of fans is worth their weight too.....on both sides of the debates.

So what you're saying is there's a place that exists that fans can air differing opinions on some sort of messaging board and sometimes there's a chance that the views aired might be different.?? Do we all have to have the same view in this fantasy land? Fook me times have certainly moved on from the good old days of chinning someone in the local pub because we didn't make 13 subs when only 3 were available! 

[tinker]

He's done well from when he came in and what he's had to do , there's no doubt about that. Can't think of another team who have improved as much on league positions as us, maybe Sheffield utd. 

Small things make a difference at this level. Wasn't impressed with our double substitution when trying to kill time against Arsenal, surely making them 5 minutes apart would make more sense. 

Whatever happens Smith should stay .