Dean Smith

[Follyfoot]

21 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

It would only upset me as I've heard it's the kiss of death to be fair.

This is true, when Ron Saunders won it we usually went on a mini slump. Never lasted long though

[Dave-R]

3 hours ago, foreveryoung said:

Still 50/50 on Smith myself. Starting to build a bit of a team so pressure is on him to perform this season. Liverpool will be a big test of his tactical ability like making a change when required. Even though Liverpool are class at the moment (kills me to say it), we should go out there and prove ourselves, if we role over it's on Smith!

Still cant do much of a judgement as smith is still pretty limited, no game changing subs at all or game enhancing subs, even with Barkleys arrival as he no doubt fits into starting eleven.

We needed more players this window.

Edited October 3, 2020 by Dave-R

[sidcow]

6 hours ago, LondonLax said:

He is also mild mannered and understated. That doesn’t generate a lot of interest for the media in a click-bait world. 

This is true. They would much rather a Mourinho gesticulating and talking garbage in an excitable way and day of the week. 

[TRO]

3 hours ago, Mjvilla said:

Of course, you're entitled to your opinion. I won't criticise that.

I will ask, however, what it would take for you even to jump over the 50/50 barrier and support Smith, bearing in mind the change he has made at this club and the difference from the day he took over to the here and now? I'm just slightly baffled what more he could've done.

I'd also like to think that, when you mention in game changes, you are considering that the bench last year and beginning of this consisted of players who played the other night. Players now largely not considered good enough. Players who are now taking lots of abuse for their performances. Dean would've seen this the whole time and clearly, clearly didn't trust them. Hence the no subs. 

Genuinely, I'm not sure what more he could've done.

This is not a criticism, but an observation.......just being devils advocate.

He could have noticed, the same thing he noticed in Lockdown, to tighten us up...it all turned out well, but to conclude he couldn't have done more, he himself proved he could have took those actions earlier, many on here, were making the same observations that he finished on.

I do take your point of the poor seconds and i do agree, he had limited options to change anything......lets hope it gets better.

UTV

[Hank Scorpio]

42 minutes ago, Dave-R said:

Still cant do much of a judgement as smith is still pretty limited, no game changing subs at all or game enhancing subs, even with Barkleys arrival as he no doubt fits into starting eleven.

We needed more players this window.

We simply can't have bought basically another 11 players that would mean doing. We have to work with some of the players we bought last summer still and get the most out of them we can.

[TRO]

41 minutes ago, Dave-R said:

Still cant do much of a judgement as smith is still pretty limited, no game changing subs at all or game enhancing subs, even with Barkleys arrival as he no doubt fits into starting eleven.

We needed more players this window.

I have seen a change in him for the better Dave......He doesn't seem to suffer fools quite so gladly..... he seems to have developed a bit more of a hard nose.

I get the tactical observations folk have made, he is getting better ammunition to make meaningful changes, but perhaps a few more windows, he will get better still.

[TRO]

He looked mightily unimpressed against stoke......and rightfully so.

[TRO]

Just now, TRO said:

He looked mightily unimpressed against stoke......and rightfully so.

if Jota was Mom......i don't hold out too much hope for the rest.

 

[weedman]

9 minutes ago, TRO said:

This is not a criticism, but an observation.......just being devils advocate.

He could have noticed, the same thing he noticed in Lockdown, to tighten us up...it all turned out well, but to conclude he couldn't have done more, he himself proved he could have took those actions earlier, many on here, were making the same observations that he finished on.

I do take your point of the poor seconds and i do agree, he had limited options to change anything......lets hope it gets better.

UTV

Surely you realise though that the lockdown period was the first chance he had to actually sit down with the players and implement change? I mean he took over a mess mid season and transformed us taking us up, then the summer was a scattergun of signings none of whom had time to settle in and no settled squad over the summer to actually implement any changes before a full on PL schedule that included a great cup run.

Lockdown was the chance to actually change things around tactically and have the time to get the players used to that and he took it, making us look a much better team for the run in, culminating in our last 4 games keeping us up, so far this seasons it's been more of the same 

I'm with mjvilla I really don't know what more he could have done within the constraints he was working 

[TRO]

1 minute ago, weedman said:

Surely you realise though that the lockdown period was the first chance he had to actually sit down with the players and implement change? I mean he took over a mess mid season and transformed us taking us up, then the summer was a scattergun of signings none of whom had time to settle in and no settled squad over the summer to actually implement any changes before a full on PL schedule that included a great cup run.

Lockdown was the chance to actually change things around tactically and have the time to get the players used to that and he took it, making us look a much better team for the run in, culminating in our last 4 games keeping us up, so far this seasons it's been more of the same 

I'm with mjvilla I really don't know what more he could have done within the constraints he was working 

Yeah....i get that and its feasible.....its the only conclusion, i can come to, too.

If he carries that over and so far so good.....then its encouraging.

[Dave-R]

8 hours ago, Pissflaps said:

We simply can't have bought basically another 11 players that would mean doing. We have to work with some of the players we bought last summer still and get the most out of them we can.

Nobody said that amount did they, that's your words but another two, maybe three which would total to around eight players this window could of been a possibility.

We could of brought two more loans on top of Barkley, that would of help immensely. 

[Dave-R]

8 hours ago, TRO said:

I have seen a change in him for the better Dave......He doesn't seem to suffer fools quite so gladly..... he seems to have developed a bit more of a hard nose.

I get the tactical observations folk have made, he is getting better ammunition to make meaningful changes, but perhaps a few more windows, he will get better still.

Yes I think after the lockdown the toughness came out, it had to or we would of gone down.

Smith made a tough call to limit Ghazi having hardly any game time, he had to drop him. I do not think the Smith before lockdown would of made that decision, the improved Smith however made that choice and it was for the better.

Same could be said for switching formations more during games and making subs more efficiently. 

I do think Drinks Break suited us though, that also helped us and I'm curious now about how we would be with it in football. Somehow Smith could get his messages across to players more efficiently than the opposition., I'd be down for Tactics Break to return.

[Zatman]

10 hours ago, Dave-R said:

Still cant do much of a judgement as smith is still pretty limited, no game changing subs at all or game enhancing subs, even with Barkleys arrival as he no doubt fits into starting eleven.

We needed more players this window.

sorry what? is this some parody post?

[AvfcRigo82]

10 hours ago, Dave-R said:

even with Barkleys arrival as he no doubt fits into starting eleven.

We needed more players this window.

And theres still every chance that we will sign more. We have 2 days of the transfer window left and also a further week to do any business with Championship clubs.

 

[Dave-R]

38 minutes ago, Zatman said:

sorry what? is this some parody post?

Well how you sposed to Judge someone when hes still not got all the tools to work with. We do need more players than what weve fetched in or are you happy so far with what you have got??

If things start going wrong because we end up with a few injurys and players sidelined for some months, alot of you will take to having ago at Smith if performances start to dip. What if a player or two in the first team isnt putting the performances in everyone is hoping they would and we have no one to come off the bench to pick the slack up, again it will all be directed towards Smith wont it.

I said repeatedly over and over that we need more players than what we got. Before anyone even mentions no I'm not saying a whole new team like 11 players that someone else said, but we certainly should of looked towards two or three more loans than just Barkley.

Look at our bench and does that fill you with confidence?? I doubt it does, Injurys and bad performances will easily make the first eleven a very strained team. The work that's been done to sign players we have has been very good indeed but it will soon  be very clear Zatman that we just needed a couple more players on top of who weve got in. Now you may not agree with that but eventually this forum will be bursting with such views if again we get any bad injurys, bad performances so on. Let's face it we have Watkins and if he gets put out we then will have to move Traore in his place right which will be bad for us, we need another striker before the window shuts.

I do understand that not everything can be addressed in one window. This is why we need to make full use of the loan market to bring in sufficient numbers till we can make such purchases to improve our situation. I really do hope we can bring in two or three more signings, that will compensate for possible pressure and fractures to the team, it is best after all to be prepared than to not be here and come midway through wishing all along wed of made more signings.

After the Stroke performance I cant see Smith having much faith in many of those players who played and lost, to come put in performances against premier quality sides. There are a few situations that if were not careful could make our season worse,Smith, Lange and Purslow have to get more capable players in so we have a bench to support the first eleven.

Edited October 3, 2020 by Dave-R

[Dave-R]

7 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

And theres still every chance that we will sign more. We have 2 days of the transfer window left and also a further week to do any business with Championship clubs.

 

Yes I see what your saying, but something tells me were done AvfcRigo82, which I do think would be a mistake, a very big one.

I'm just highlighting what I think we should avoid doing is that we settle for what weve brought in right now,  that's all.

[Sulberto21]

40 minutes ago, Zatman said:

sorry what? is this some parody post?

I interpret the post as Smith's hands are still a bit tied as he doesn't have a strong bench to choose from.

[AvfcRigo82]

19 hours ago, Dave-R said:

Still cant do much of a judgement as smith is still pretty limited, no game changing subs at all or game enhancing subs, even with Barkleys arrival as he no doubt fits into starting eleven.

We needed more players this window.

I see what you mean and it has to be said we have seen a fantastic window thus far.

In terms of quality to turn to in the bench I agree we are still a wee bit short there but we have an extra week of an EFL window so you never know, we may bring in another one or two yet.

[Dave-R]

49 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

I see what you mean and it has to be said we have seen a fantastic window thus far.

In terms of quality to turn to in the bench I agree we are still a wee bit short there but we have an extra week of an EFL window so you never know, we may bring in another one or two yet.

Would be lovely, I hope your right and the loss to stoke stimulates the need for more signings even more.

Who knows how much money is left to spend, might be enough for one possibly two championship signings.

Edited October 4, 2020 by Dave-R

[Sam-AVFC]

15 minutes ago, Dave-R said:

Would be lovely, I hope your right and the loss to stoke stimulates the need for more signings even more.

Who knows how much money is left to spend, might be enough for one possibly two championship signings.

Not really. It means one less competition so less chance of having to give the reserves a run out.