Dean Smith

[TRO]

5 hours ago, markavfc40 said:

If you think that the last time we played Leicester prior to yesterday was 7 months ago when we lost 4-0 and looked totally shot, nailed on for relegation, a shambles defensively and clueless going forward and compare to yesterday where we looked an assured premier league team, with belief in ourselves, solid defensively and threatening going forward then the turnaround has been remarkable.

It isn't all down to Smith obviously but he has clearly led the way by firstly looking at himself and changing the way we play from a naïve team way too open to one now built on the foundation of being solid defensively with little change in personnel as in terms of outfield players only Cash has come into the defence. I can't praise him enough and whilst he was helped by the enforced break due to covid you still have to use that time wisely and he did that and some.

I don't really know what we can achieve this season and am loath to get carried away.  If we now match what we did in our last 34 games of last season we would finish on 45 points which based on last seasons table would be enough for 13th place and I'd have probably taken that at the start of the season. It seems we are capable of a fair bit more though and it could be quite a ride.

I think what he has achieved since lockdown has been amazing and as you say Mark, the turn around has been remarkable.....I am quite frankly humbled by it all.

so many things have happened to mention without boring us all.....Dean smith presides over it all, he is responsible for it all, players,coaching staff etc,etc....sure the owners and Christian create the platform, Dean does the rest.

He deserves the praise to date, sure its early days and injuries can leave him with egg on his face as we all know.....but he has proved he can build a side to consolidate in this league....We now know, if there was any doubts, and there was from some of us, like me.....He knows what he is doing.

Dean has also illustrated he can blend a team, because the balance is so praiseworthy and encouraging.....I too do not want to get carried away, but for me, he is emulating Ron Saunders, not in the exact same way of playing, but the resillience and togetherness he has enbolded in to the team and the single minded will to win.

One thing that has really pleased me is.....He has been through some choppy waters, with many of us having doubts about his worth,inc me, he has come through that with flying colours....dignity and a steely belief in his ability and that of his coaches....bloody well done Dean.

He clearly had the gift of time in the lockdown, which only he knew, he needed and to say he spent that time well, is a gross under statement, what he did was magnificent and I am proud of him.

He is a man of marked humility, but at the same time decisive objectivity and I also need to pay tribute to his employers for believing in him at very difficult times.

As i say ,its early days......but a big round of applause from me to all the management.

Edited October 19, 2020 by TRO

[Greenfly]

I don't know if it's been pointed out yet, or if this is even the right place to say this, but so far this season we've spent 0 minutes in a losing position in the league. That's pretty incredible, considering we had the worst defense in the league for most of last season.

[MrBlack]

10 minutes ago, Greenfly said:

I don't know if it's been pointed out yet, or if this is even the right place to say this, but so far this season we've spent 0 minutes in a losing position in the league. That's pretty incredible, considering we had the worst defense in the league for most of last season.

Wonder what the record is for that... I'd be ecstatic if we can say the same after the Leeds game, whether it results in a win or a draw.

Extremely impressive.

[romavillan]

1 hour ago, Danishlad said:

Cascarino

That did make me laugh but that was such a **** hammer blow at the time. Had Herbert Douglas not been such a tight word removed and paid top dollar for a striker to help Olney and maybe another one or two to help out with tired legs then we'd have won the title. He still managed to squander that squad with under investment anyway afterwards the dickhead but still we'd have had another title in the bag!

[paul514]

9 hours ago, TrentVilla said:

McGinn and Barkley swapped roles at half time in part because Barkley was struggling with a knock all game.

It was happening all game, I know they changed tactics but even when swapping roles they would stick to that role. honestly I think we would have rolled them if we did.

[tomav84]

19 hours ago, sidcow said:

If we beat Leeds on Friday he's surely nailed on for October Manager of the Month? 

just seen, how the **** did he not get september manager of the month?!

[villalad21]

52 minutes ago, tomav84 said:

just seen, how the **** did he not get september manager of the month?!

Lost in the cup.

Ancelotti won all of his games including the cup.

He should have a great chance winning the October award though.

Edited October 20, 2020 by villalad21

[YouUnastanFren]

4 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Lost in the cup.

Ancelotti won all of his games including the cup.

Only PL games are under consideration. I think Ancelotti got it because he won 4 out of 4 including Spurs compared to Dean's 2 out of 2.

Edited October 20, 2020 by YouUnastanFren
Was actually 4 not 3

[Wainy316]

54 minutes ago, tomav84 said:

just seen, how the **** did he not get september manager of the month?!

Only the Sheff Utd and Fulham wins would have contributed.

[tomav84]

54 minutes ago, Wainy316 said:

Only the Sheff Utd and Fulham wins would have contributed.

thought liverpool game was in sept for some reason...fair doos. he'll get it for oct surely.

[Zhan_Zhuang]

18 hours ago, romavillan said:

That did make me laugh but that was such a **** hammer blow at the time. Had Herbert Douglas not been such a tight word removed and paid top dollar for a striker to help Olney and maybe another one or two to help out with tired legs then we'd have won the title. He still managed to squander that squad with under investment anyway afterwards the dickhead but still we'd have had another title in the bag!

Blimey there's a name from the past remember him well when I first started going down the Villa!

Love that kit too, one of my favourites!

 

 

[One For The Road]

23 minutes ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

Blimey there's a name from the past remember him well when I first started going down the Villa!

Love that kit too, one of my favourites!

 

 

Loved him as a player. He is a financial advisor now. Living in Lichfield.

[Follyfoot]

47 minutes ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

Blimey there's a name from the past remember him well when I first started going down the Villa!

Love that kit too, one of my favourites!

 

 

Ooo Ian Olney Ooo Ian Olney Ooo Ian Olney Ooo Ian Olney 

[astondalston]

Good view on the mans approach to organisational culture.
 

Great talk but shocking audio..... bear with it!
 

[blandy]

On 19/10/2020 at 13:49, KenjiOgiwara said:

I've always been a fan of continuity of managers, cause while some people say the continuity comes from success and delivering, I personally think it's more often the other way around. I made several posts about why we needed to stick by Smith during both periods in the last two seasons, when we had a poor run of form. Not because I have a hard on for a Villa man in charge, but because if you hire a manager and believe in his ideas and ability, you need to give that person enough time to get his stamp on it. 

Absolutely this.

I didn't for one moment think Steve Bruce was the right man, but nevertheless said that now he's here, he has to be given time (the 2 seasons target to get promoted). I repeated that throughout.

With Deano I did think he was the right man, and have done continually. Now there's this weird thing. I dunno if anybody else sometimes has it, but just very occasionally, extremely rarely I get this kind of calm knowing thing - it's like it's not me,  it comes from...who knows where. It happens maybe once every couple of years and can happen about anything. It's happened twice regarding football in all my years. Once a long time ago, a midweek cup game v  Arsenal, when the Holte was a terrace. We were losing 1-0 to Arsenal and thins "thing" happened. I knew with absolute calm and certainty that we would equalise and draw, There were maybe 15, 20 minutes left, max, but I knew. Not "I was confident, or I could see from the play we were putting pressure on, just the strange...calm "we will draw". Anyway, it happened again in maybe January last year. I knew we'd stay up by a point, I don't know how I knew, but it was connected to the last time we got promoted (under GT) and we stayed up by a point, last game. I think I mentioned it on here, can't remember.

Anyway, the point of exposing my wierdness is to say that with that absolute certainty, it took all my restraint not to let fly at friends etc. or on twitter or on here. The amount of times I hovered over the send key having written the words "pant-pissers" but ended up not sending... (no offence all you "pant-pissers"  ).

But anyway, if I can restrain myself, so could others and not let fly at the manager or whoever. It's OK to have doubts, it's OK to look at a situation and think it'll end badly, and it's OK to to say so and express worry and concern etc. and all that. I just don't get the rush to call for any manager to get sacked while he's taken the club forward and has only been here a short time, and in the middle of a season. If you can see an obvious mismatch - then fair enough at the end of a season, or if they're making things objectively worse, but Deano. No, he wasn't taking us backwards. Even had we gone down, if my weird knowledge turned out wrong, I'd have wanted him to stay. He's a good 'un.

 

[KentVillan]

One of the things I think is so key with assessing Dean Smith is listening to his assessment of games.

Whenever we've played badly (many times last season) he always seemed to have the right view of what had happened. Or if he didn't, it was mostly to protect a player from criticism.

As a lot of us said last season there were two major things holding us back:

1. Trying to integrate so many new signings into a first team. The number of new first teamers in last season's Villa squad was unprecedented in the *entire history of the Premier League*. It was always going to take ages for players like Konsa, Douglas Luiz, Trezeguet, and Targett (now all looking very useful) to find their feet.
2. The lack of quality across the squad, despite the money spent. I actually think Suso gets unfair press over this, because he had a bit of an impossible task. Purslow wanted him to sign young potential that would grow in value, and Smith needed players that would hit the ground running.

Smith's critics tended to ignore the first point, and either not accept the second point (Smith should be playing a different formation or wasn't coaching the players well enough) or say it was Smith's fault (even though he's not in charge of transfer strategy).

What we can see now is why we should have 100% stuck with Smith if we'd gone down. He's a good manager who's always trying to improve, he *does* know how to coach a defence, and technically gifted players seem to enjoy playing under him. It's telling how many of his old players at Brentford have jumped at the chance to work with him again, and there's no way we would have hung on to Jack unless he rated him.

In Deano We Trust.

[Adam2003]

6 hours ago, astondalston said:

Good view on the mans approach to organisational culture.
 

Great talk but shocking audio..... bear with it!
 

God I love him. And the learning and growing is why we should stick with him. He’s a better coach now than he was a year ago and he’ll be better again in a year.

[Kiwivillan]

6 hours ago, astondalston said:

Good view on the mans approach to organisational culture.
 

Great talk but shocking audio..... bear with it!
 

Outstanding. I could listen to him for hours. When he talked about calling a player into his office who was dropped I thought of Conor 

Edited October 20, 2020 by Kiwivillan

[Adam2003]

Just now, Kiwivillan said:

Outstanding. I could listen to him for hours. When he talked about calling a player into his office who was dropped I thought about Conor 

Same - and made me think great, Conor will be fine when we next need him. 

[Kiwivillan]

Just now, Adam2003 said:

Same - and made me think great, Conor will be fine when we next need him. 

I'm sure he will get enough appearances to get his PL winner's medal