villalad21 Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 It was interesting all the people saying home advantage would be non existent during lock down. If i'm not mistaken both our wins post lock down were at Villa Park. Fingers crossed we maintain our decent home form next season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 9 minutes ago, hippo said: Does anyone dislike him as a person - but like him as a manager ? Wow you've blown my mind on that one, that's very funny! It could only be an ardent Villa fan(s) who has a beef with Smith in his personal life.....so just the wife and kids then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 10 minutes ago, villalad21 said: It was interesting all the people saying home advantage would be non existent during lock down. If i'm not mistaken both our wins post lock down were at Villa Park. Fingers crossed we maintain our decent home form next season. Incorrect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 5 minutes ago, villalad21 said: It was interesting all the people saying home advantage would be non existent during lock down. If i'm not mistaken both our wins post lock down were at Villa Park. Fingers crossed we maintain our decent home form next season. I still think football shouldnt have started again for the multiple reasons myself and others laid out at the time, I still think it was the wrong decision made. With that in mind though, I am delighted nobody suffered out of the players or people that were involved. We dont know the impact outside of football because of what football did and we'll never know, let's just hope it was minimal. The football generally post lockdown wasnt great and slightly unjust because the football pre lockdown and post lockdown were very different. I always felt that if we played we would survive and thankfully we did. Still think they should've just finished the season off at that point whatever the consequence. Carrying on the season looks like a good decision in hindsight for the executives but that, for me, was more about luck and money rather than good sense. America looks to have gone the other way starting with the Marlins having eleven players tested positive for COVID, so I wish them well and hope the American sports generally take care especially how bad it is over there, across the country and how badly it is being handled by Trump and his administration. From your point though, you are right it's interesting that our wins were at home, without fans and the atmosphere. I wonder if this was consistent across the league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 4 minutes ago, nick76 said: From your point though, you are right it's interesting that our wins were at home, without fans and the atmosphere. I wonder if this was consistent across the league. Don't know about other clubs but our players really seem to enjoy playing at Villa Park. We play really well there. Very good sign. Home form is so crucial. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 2 minutes ago, nick76 said: I still think football shouldnt have started again for the multiple reasons myself and others laid out at the time, I still think it was the wrong decision made. With that in mind though, I am delighted nobody suffered out of the players or people that were involved. We dont know the impact outside of football because of what football did and we'll never know, let's just hope it was minimal. The football generally post lockdown wasnt great and slightly unjust because the football pre lockdown and post lockdown were very different. I always felt that if we played we would survive and thankfully we did. Still think they should've just finished the season off at that point whatever the consequence. Carrying on the season looks like a good decision in hindsight for the executives but that, for me, was more about luck and money rather than good sense. America looks to have gone the other way starting with the Marlins having eleven players tested positive for COVID, so I wish them well and hope the American sports generally take care especially how bad it is over there, across the country and how badly it is being handled by Trump and his administration. From your point though, you are right it's interesting that our wins were at home, without fans and the atmosphere. I wonder if this was consistent across the league. For me football re starting was a godsend. WFH was doing my nut in - and the weekends seemed just as boring as the work days ..... The relegation dog fight gave me something of distraction - from my boredom and job worries - all the free vouchers and games on free channels were great. Watching Man City tank Watford was surreal (feckin hell we may have an escape chute) - The Arse victory - and the Grealish goal at West Ham .....football mattered again. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 (edited) 37 minutes ago, nick76 said: I still think football shouldnt have started again for the multiple reasons myself and others laid out at the time, I still think it was the wrong decision made. With that in mind though, I am delighted nobody suffered out of the players or people that were involved. We dont know the impact outside of football because of what football did and we'll never know, let's just hope it was minimal. The football generally post lockdown wasnt great and slightly unjust because the football pre lockdown and post lockdown were very different. I always felt that if we played we would survive and thankfully we did. Still think they should've just finished the season off at that point whatever the consequence. Carrying on the season looks like a good decision in hindsight for the executives but that, for me, was more about luck and money rather than good sense. America looks to have gone the other way starting with the Marlins having eleven players tested positive for COVID, so I wish them well and hope the American sports generally take care especially how bad it is over there, across the country and how badly it is being handled by Trump and his administration. From your point though, you are right it's interesting that our wins were at home, without fans and the atmosphere. I wonder if this was consistent across the league. Surely got nothing to do with protests yeah? People congregating by the millions and shouting at full voice etc? Corona doesn't take a break to be politically correct. Frankly it's baffling how people choose to ignore this and blame it all on Trump as it's the "right thing to do". Not even necessarily trying to defend Trump but media and people genuinley confuse the shit outta me. Edited July 28, 2020 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said: Surely got nothing to do with protests yeah? People congregating by the millions and shouting at full voice etc? Corona doesn't take a break to be politically correct. Frankly it's baffling how people choose to ignore this and blame it all on Trump as it's the "right thing to do". Not even necessarily trying to defend Trump but media and people genuinley confuse the shit outta me. Because there is sound logic to it....I couldn’t give a damn about Trump, he’s America’s problem and he doesn’t affect me so I have no axe to grind with him. I just look at the data which clearly points to him. The likes of Florida, Texas and Georgia where flare ups are would likely less to do with protestors than opening up too early because Trump and his Republican Governors Wanted it open before it was ready and are still refusing to accept reality. Wasn’t it Gov Kemp who is suing one of his mayors over the mayor wanting mandatory masks...WTF! Other states I would concede would be a mixture of a number of factors including protestors but most of the flare ups are states that opened up too early and that was due to pressure from Trump. The states that didn’t open up too early but still had protests seem to be doing ok in comparison so that’s in argument to what you are saying. There have also been massive protests around the world yet places haven’t been impacted like America has. Just seems one common denominator doesn’t there.....Trump! Edited July 28, 2020 by nick76 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 1 hour ago, hippo said: For me football re starting was a godsend. WFH was doing my nut in - and the weekends seemed just as boring as the work days ..... The relegation dog fight gave me something of distraction - from my boredom and job worries - all the free vouchers and games on free channels were great. Watching Man City tank Watford was surreal (feckin hell we may have an escape chute) - The Arse victory - and the Grealish goal at West Ham .....football mattered again. I concede re our games because of relegation and a few others like Man City/Watford but games that didn’t affect us, I watched and normally enjoy as a neutral, I just got bored, started playing on my phone or ended up not watching the whole thing. That’s not like me, they were just not interesting to watch like watching the bottom end of the Spanish or Italian league games, it felt like.....a snore fest! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WooJung Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 I'm sure it has already been said, but I can't help but being impressed with Deano for accomplishing, against all odds, "the impossible job" for two years running. Sure, he is in part responsible for finding himself in such. Situation in the first place, he made mistakes, he has been naive and I have had my doubts and reservations about him. But winning 10 in a row and achieving survival being 7 points behind with 4 games to go speaks a lot to what he can get out of his players. He can get them to still believe when almost nobody else believes. And deliver upon that belief. Hopefully he is not only aware of mistakes he has been guilty of, but also able to learn from them, and with better recruitment build a good, competitive and sustainable squad. Up the villa! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BleedClaretAndBlue Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 18 months of Dean Smith Brakes winning streak record Promotion first time of asking Cup Final Survival first time of asking against the odds with a league double over Small Heath for good measure Fair to say it could have been worse From where we were to where we are is a great achievement, a lot expect too much too soon. This season has to be learned from sure, like a trial and error experiment for what is required from here on out. But he is our man, conducted himself brilliantly throughout adversity too. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mjvilla Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 4 minutes ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said: 18 months of Dean Smith Brakes winning streak record Promotion first time of asking Cup Final Survival first time of asking against the odds with a league double over Small Heath for good measure Fair to say it could have been worse From where we were to where we are is a great achievement, a lot expect too much too soon. This season has to be learned from sure, like a trial and error experiment for what is required from here on out. But he is our man, conducted himself brilliantly throughout adversity too. And despite all this, so many people want/wanted him gone. He was called an idiot and a fool, amongst many other things. He had so much shit made up about him as a tool to abuse him with. He's been a fantastic appointment. I was completely wrong about him. I didn't want him, but I couldn't have thought of anything worse than sacking him at any point since his appointment. I love him! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 1 hour ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said: 18 months of Dean Smith Brakes winning streak record Promotion first time of asking Cup Final Survival first time of asking against the odds with a league double over Small Heath for good measure Fair to say it could have been worse From where we were to where we are is a great achievement, a lot expect too much too soon. This season has to be learned from sure, like a trial and error experiment for what is required from here on out. But he is our man, conducted himself brilliantly throughout adversity too. Sheff U, Norwich and Brighton were favourites to go down, so it literally wasn't against the odds. However, I don't necessarily disagree with any of this. Relegation would have been unacceptable, and although my view is that 35 points is a poor return and you're "lucky" to stay up with that amount of points - the fact is we stayed up. When Dean Smith took over, if you'd have said "by September 20/21, you'll be playing in the Premier League, have reached a Cup Final, beat blues home and away" I'd have taken it. I don't think any manager that keeps a club up should be sacked, much like I agreed with Sherwood being kept on despite his obvious flaws. However, I would like to think if we start the season the same way again that changes will be made. A full season is enough time to learn from mistakes, mistakes we were still making in the final game. Far too many late goals being shipped, a clear mental fragility. With that said, we generally try and play football the "right" way, and despite the criticism of Suso we have bought in some great talent. The squad needs padding out a bit, but there's definitely the basis of a squad here who absolutely shouldn't be worried about relegation next season. The owners will have ploughed more than £200m in to the squad by the end of this transfer window, and will almost certainly expect that to be enough to stay up without worrying about relegation. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 We were 13/8 4th favourites relegation last June. Burnley, Norwich and Sheffield United below us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reivax_Villa Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 I will hold my hands up and say that I got it wrong in terms wanting him sacked. Dean Smith looks to thrive in pressure and likes being the underdog. I still have reservations about him but because he has improved towards the last 5 games of the season I will dismiss those for the time being. The players seem to like him and it will be his 3rd season with us which is good in terms of stability. I think he would benefit from some additional help in the coaching department. Looking forward to next season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 50 minutes ago, Reivax_Villa said: I will hold my hands up and say that I got it wrong in terms wanting him sacked. Dean Smith looks to thrive in pressure and likes being the underdog. I still have reservations about him but because he has improved towards the last 5 games of the season I will dismiss those for the time being. The players seem to like him and it will be his 3rd season with us which is good in terms of stability. I think he would benefit from some additional help in the coaching department. Looking forward to next season. The problem is we need him to thrive without pressure. It's like he can't get the players up for a game unless it's do or die, sometimes. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaCas Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 3 hours ago, kurtsimonw said: Sheff U, Norwich and Brighton were favourites to go down, so it literally wasn't against the odds. 62% of playoff winners go straight back down again - so the odds were against us Bookmakers odds are based on how much money is staked not the likelihood of something happening 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 One of the trademark of Smith teams is they peak late in the season usually this is because of the large turnover of players at Brentford and now Villa. More stable summer could provide a different sidr of his teams 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 Watching the way Brentford attack really makes me think this is the way Deano would have wanted us to play. It's how we started, then the fear and eventually the lack of quality to do it seems to have set in/exposed us. Very fluid, quick, skillfull and with pace. I'm seriously impressed with them. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KenjiOgiwara Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 5 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said: Watching the way Brentford attack really makes me think this is the way Deano would have wanted us to play. It's how we started, then the fear and eventually the lack of quality to do it seems to have set in/exposed us. Very fluid, quick, skillfull and with pace. I'm seriously impressed with them. You will struggle with that against better opposition, as it often comes at a cost of defensive positioning and possession. But will be interesting to see 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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