Dean Smith

[Follyfoot]

1 minute ago, Greenfly said:

If you announce in a public forum that you're going to ignore somebody, then yes, they can tell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(sarcasm, eh. Another one on the list)

 

 

 

 

Edited September 20, 2020 by Follyfoot

[Greenfly]

5 minutes ago, Follyfoot said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(sarcasm, eh. Another one on the list)

 

 

 

 

Aww

[KenjiOgiwara]

It's gonna be important to be patient with Deano and the team this season as well methinks. 

We're coming off last season, scraping survival, several new players that needs integrating and gelling.

It goes without saying we need to continue improving and scraping survival this season won't cut it, but it's a long season so no reason to go apeshit over a few bad results here and there. 

Fortunately I think Watkins needs very little integrating and such compared to others. Same can probably be said about Cash, though it's a big step up in quality for both of them. Not that worried about Martinez either, but I think it will be a challenge for Traore. Both in quality and culture. 

Last season I was happy with 17th and survival, and that was success to me. I'm gonna raise the bar a little bit this year and say 15th-12th, and that's a success to me. 

In terms of management, I hope he has learned a bit from last season. Some of the tactical decisions and subs, came across as incredibly naive and weak. But we'll see. Best of luck to him. 

Edited September 20, 2020 by KenjiOgiwara

[Panto_Villan]

1 minute ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

It's gonna be important to be patient with Deano and the team this season as well methinks. 

You've certainly come to the right place 

[KenjiOgiwara]

1 minute ago, Panto_Villan said:

You've certainly come to the right place 

Well, from my experience the stands of Villa Park are slightly different than the weekend whiff of disappointment on VT. People are generally different in the stands. But it goes both ways I guess. 

[tom_avfc]

9 hours ago, villalad21 said:

How are we supposed to compete with Hause and Engels as defensive backups?

Lansbury and Nakamba...

We all know Targett's defensive limitations.

We can field a decent starting XI but once we get a couple of injuries we are screwed.

This can be said for at least half of the teams in the division. We had a number of long term injuries last year and still managed to stay up.

Any team looking to establish itself in the Premier League is going to take a few seasons before they have a subs bench that isn’t a serious downgrade on their starting eleven.

[Panto_Villan]

To echo what Kenji said above, I don't think 17th is going to be acceptable this season. I think the board will get rid of Dean if he hasn't progressed up to 14th by the end of the season - they've spent a lot of money and they'll want to see clear upward progress. Much as I like Dean I think that would be entirely fair.

[Panto_Villan]

4 minutes ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

Well, from my experience the stands of Villa Park are slightly different than the weekend whiff of disappointment on VT. People are generally different in the stands. But it goes both ways I guess. 

I suspect PL players and managers don't spent much time reading the opinions of fabs on online forums, so I think they'll have plenty of time to bed in this season. Even if the fans turn against the players it won't really be obvious for a number of months, so a more measured approach is kinda going to be enforced this season imo.

Edited September 20, 2020 by Panto_Villan

[villalad21]

4 minutes ago, Panto_Villan said:

To echo what Kenji said above, I don't think 17th is going to be acceptable this season. I think the board will get rid of Dean if he hasn't progressed up to 14th by the end of the season - they've spent a lot of money and they'll want to see clear upward progress. Much as I like Dean I think that would be entirely fair.

That's fair.

You always want improvement every season.

That being said i'd still be content with 17th. The most important thing for now is staying in the league.

[Phil Silvers]

7 minutes ago, Panto_Villan said:

To echo what Kenji said above, I don't think 17th is going to be acceptable this season. I think the board will get rid of Dean if he hasn't progressed up to 14th by the end of the season - they've spent a lot of money and they'll want to see clear upward progress. Much as I like Dean I think that would be entirely fair.

The target has to be top 10

[alreadyexists]

I really like Dean and don’t want this to sound like I don’t, but I think the Board won’t tolerate a run like we had last Jan/Feb where we lost 6 or 7 on the bounce (from memory)... I think if we go 4 or 5 without a win then they will get impatient. 
Just a feeling, and I could be wrong and they want him for the whole season regardless of any result.

[villalad21]

2 minutes ago, alreadyexists said:

I really like Dean and don’t want this to sound like I don’t, but I think the Board won’t tolerate a run like we had last Jan/Feb where we lost 6 or 7 on the bounce (from memory)... I think if we go 4 or 5 without a win then they will get impatient. 
Just a feeling, and I could be wrong and they want him for the whole season regardless of any result.

Didn't we miss McGinn during that bad run?

That is our situation bud. Get 1 key injury and we are in severe trouble. Doesn't matter who the manager is.

[KenjiOgiwara]

2 minutes ago, alreadyexists said:

I really like Dean and don’t want this to sound like I don’t, but I think the Board won’t tolerate a run like we had last Jan/Feb where we lost 6 or 7 on the bounce (from memory)... I think if we go 4 or 5 without a win then they will get impatient. 
Just a feeling, and I could be wrong and they want him for the whole season regardless of any result.

It would be a strange move though. I think they ultimately need to judge him on a full season. He's proven two seasons in a row he can turn it around massively. Nobody believed in survival during the corona break. We stayed up. Nobody believed in promotion after the bad run in 2018/2019, yet he took us on a record breaking winning streak. Cutting him loose after a bad run now, would basically go against everything he's shown the last two years. Hopefully we don't come to these bad lapses of form, and that's something Deano needs to work on, but it's also a part of football when you got a sub par squad. 

[Panto_Villan]

4 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

That's fair.

You always want improvement every season.

That being said i'd still be content with 17th. The most important thing for now is staying in the league.

Agreed, but the flip side of that is that patience is required. If someone is being assessed on the final league position then you can't really form an opinion of their performance until that is known. I'm sure that's how the board will see it too - set the manager a target, and unless we're adrift at the bottom of the PL at Christmas then he'll have the time to either succeed or fail. And I think as fans we owe him the same.

 

3 minutes ago, Phil Silvers said:

The target has to be top 10

I don't think there's any chance we'll be in the top ten this season, and I doubt our owners expect it either!

[Phil Silvers]

13 minutes ago, Panto_Villan said:

Agreed, but the flip side of that is that patience is required. If someone is being assessed on the final league position then you can't really form an opinion of their performance until that is known. I'm sure that's how the board will see it too - set the manager a target, and unless we're adrift at the bottom of the PL at Christmas then he'll have the time to either succeed or fail. And I think as fans we owe him the same.

 

I don't think there's any chance we'll be in the top ten this season, and I doubt our owners expect it either!

Sheffield Utd 9th, Burnley 10th last year, if the target is not to emulate that then something is wrong.

 

 

Edited September 20, 2020 by Phil Silvers
fixed

[villalad21]

SU 6th?

[alreadyexists]

13 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Didn't we miss McGinn during that bad run?

That is our situation bud. Get 1 key injury and we are in severe trouble. Doesn't matter who the manager is.

It was McGinn, Heaton and Wes as they’d all got injured in Jan as far as I remember. I hope Dean stays, but now we have more squad depth I can’t see them being as tolerant.

Just a feeling I have obv.

[Panto_Villan]

8 minutes ago, Phil Silvers said:

Sheffield Utd 6th, Burnley 11th last year, if the target is not to emulate that then something is wrong.

I guess it depends whether you think "target" means something aspirational or whether it's the minimum expected from us. I use it to mean the latter.

You've got to feel that the top 8 last year are a lock to be top half this year, which means there's only two spots up for grabs in the top half. Leaving aside the (very significant) luck factor, are we really one of the strongest two of the remaining 12 teams? Better than say Everton?

We probably over performed with our squad last season, and I think keeping Grealish and our new signings solidify us to a position where I now expect us to be out of the relegation fight. Top half seems a stretch and I think Dean would be rightly annoyed if that were his target.

[MrBlack]

1 hour ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

It's gonna be important to be patient with Deano and the team this season as well methinks. 

We're coming off last season, scraping survival, several new players that needs integrating and gelling.

It goes without saying we need to continue improving and scraping survival this season won't cut it, but it's a long season so no reason to go apeshit over a few bad results here and there. 

Fortunately I think Watkins needs very little integrating and such compared to others. Same can probably be said about Cash, though it's a big step up in quality for both of them. Not that worried about Martinez either, but I think it will be a challenge for Traore. Both in quality and culture. 

Last season I was happy with 17th and survival, and that was success to me. I'm gonna raise the bar a little bit this year and say 15th-12th, and that's a success to me. 

In terms of management, I hope he has learned a bit from last season. Some of the tactical decisions and subs, came across as incredibly naive and weak. But we'll see. Best of luck to him. 

I agree with this but not sure our owners will be that patient.  He has had an astounding amount of financial backing, and a poor start could be curtains.

I too hope Dean has learnt from some of the slow reactions to the match unfolding, and given we should have a few more options on the bench hopefully it will give him the confidence to change it up sooner. 

Still need a rotational CDM option for me,  assuming Cash is being targeted as a right back. 

For what it's worth I hope they give him a third of the season if the performances are good, regardless of how the results of the first run of games go (obviously if we lose 5+ in a row then I reserve the right to review that comment but hoping that's pretty unlikely)

[Phil Silvers]

32 minutes ago, Panto_Villan said:

I guess it depends whether you think "target" means something aspirational or whether it's the minimum expected from us. I use it to mean the latter.

You've got to feel that the top 8 last year are a lock to be top half this year, which means there's only two spots up for grabs in the top half. Leaving aside the (very significant) luck factor, are we really one of the strongest two of the remaining 12 teams? Better than say Everton?

We probably over performed with our squad last season, and I think keeping Grealish and our new signings solidify us to a position where I now expect us to be out of the relegation fight. Top half seems a stretch and I think Dean would be rightly annoyed if that were his target.

Fair points indeed , I'd still have us targeting mid table, my own thinking is we are not ready yet and 10/12th would be very good, Deano will trying to win the league mind. Can't wait.