Dean Smith

[osmark86]

I think a couple of us underestimate how good Southampton are atm. They are a really solid team and their form is excellent.

[penguin]

3 minutes ago, osmark86 said:

Incidentally the same can be argued for us...

Possibly, I doubt anyone other than your staunchest optimist would have still tipped us for anything other than a battle for middle table though whilst the Everton hype seemed very wide spread. 

[Sulberto21]

47 minutes ago, commander said:

I've tweaked the wording as I probably didn't explain it well enough. YEs he deserves credit for keeping us up and for te great start, but as much as he needs credit for those he needs critiscm for the capituation and complete lack of fight and desire. 

Agree that our players aren't the greatest (but I think most peole would take our squad over Leeds or Southampton? I certainly would) but there appears to be no repercusion of poor performances.

I would have been more concerned if Southampton created chance after chance but they didn't. Since the project restart we have conceded less than 13/14 shots per game. With the obvious exception of that rabble from West Yorkshire. 

The table will look realistic after about 15 games or so.

These last 2 defeats will have hurt Dean Smith more than anyone else.

I'm confident that we will beat Arsenal.

[osmark86]

2 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

I would have been more concerned if Southampton created chance after chance but they didn't. Since the project restart we have conceded less than 13/14 shots per game. With the obvious exception of that rabble from West Yorkshire. 

The table will look realistic after about 15 games or so.

These last 2 defeats will have hurt Dean Smith more than anyone else.

I'm confident that we will beat Arsenal.

Think we'll have a better chance against Arsenal too. They're less direct and pass themselves into oblivion. They're no pushovers either so it'll be an interesting game for sure.

[Sulberto21]

42 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

I think its being made way too much of. 

Leeds was more down to them than us. They were relentless and that's the best 90 minutes they've put in all season as far as I've seen. 

Today, individual errors put us in dangerous situations but world class goals have hurt us. I don't think we did just capitulate. We ended up over 90 mins dominating possession and shots. 

And we missed 4 very good chances at 0-0 against Leeds. Goals change matches. We came back today from 4-0 down. I think some fans are getting too concerned about things that aren't there. 

Agreed players to blame today. We even missed excellent chances today.

Of course Dean Smith deserves criticism when warranted. Not his fault Ward bleedin Prowse had his best game in ages.

[VillaChris]

27 minutes ago, Mantis said:

For what it's worth if we're going to finish mid-table this season, which is a fair expectation, 4 wins and 2 defeats from 6 is around what you'd expect.

That point average over a full season would be pretty much 75 points and that's top 4 standard so we're stil doing way better.

Mid table is between 45-50 points usually, can sometimes get in top half with that.

[Sulberto21]

1 minute ago, osmark86 said:

Think we'll have a better chance against Arsenal too. They're less direct and pass themselves into oblivion. They're no pushovers either so it'll be an interesting game for sure.

I think we will be more competitive physically against them. Southampton and Leeds are physically so good. 

However I agree with @TRO that we need to improve physically overall but that will come. 

[foreveryoung]

39 minutes ago, PieFacE said:

I wasn't getting particularly excited when we won four on the bounce and I won't get especially down if we lose 4 on the bounce too. My target this season was to finish around 14th-10th and then kick on from there. Would be solid progress. Still on track for that so fair enough. 

How exciting

[foreveryoung]

23 minutes ago, osmark86 said:

I think a couple of us underestimate how good Southampton are atm. They are a really solid team and their form is excellent.

Liverpool are quality too ya know, an Leicester ain't bad. Wonder if Leeds thought the same about us after the 7-2 schooling

[Spoony]

I wouldn’t be calling for his head as we had initially been overachieving but I think he’s going to be under a lot of pressure unless he wins one of the next two. 
edit: I meant overachieving not underachieving 

Edited November 1, 2020 by Spoony

[osmark86]

1 minute ago, foreveryoung said:

Liverpool are quality too ya know, an Leicester ain't bad. Wonder if Leeds thought the same about us after the 7-2 schooling

they probably did. I think that we got a bit shafted by ourselves today and Southampton were as clinical as you can get. Either case I'm not worried after today. I will be if we continue to not show up for half the game though.

[PieFacE]

4 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

How exciting

Well there's no point having stupid expectations. Just setting yourself up for a fall.

[VillaCas]

We’re a work in progress - we did good business in the summer and will probably add another couple in January. 

Midtable is our aim this season and we’ve made a good start to achieve that

We clearly need more options - additional CB, LB, DCM, another winger - that we haven’t got these are not oversights, they a due to the fact that we can’t do everything at once. We bought in players who were available and I’m sure have more targets in mind

The loss to Leeds was poor. Today was just one of those things with three perfect free kicks for them. We weren’t good but xG showed we were not as bad as some would have it

[DCJonah]

24 minutes ago, Spoony said:

I wouldn’t be calling for his head as we had initially been underachieving but I think he’s going to be under a lot of pressure unless he wins one of the next two. 

That would be ridiculous if he is. I doubt our board are the foolish. 

[Zhan_Zhuang]

We need to start games much stronger, we aren't good enough to give teams the impetus.

Last two matches we start slow and lose, it needs to change.

[Demitri_C]

After a defensive masterclass at the start of the season, we have gone back to the league one level at times. 

Cash has been quite shit the last two games as has mings.  Think targett and konsa have been good though 

[Mantis]

1 hour ago, lexicon said:

It happens to even the best teams - look what we did to Liverpool. 

I know it does, doesn't mean that so far this season we seem to have a serious problem developing with how we react when we go behind.

[paul514]

1 hour ago, VillaChris said:

That point average over a full season would be pretty much 75 points and that's top 4 standard so we're stil doing way better.

Mid table is between 45-50 points usually, can sometimes get in top half with that.

I said when the new players came in we should aim for 50 points that always gets you mid table and it’s a signal to new recruits next summer we are a safe bet to stay in the league so we can sell them the project etc and aim for another 10 points.

once you get there you have to reevaluate as the next step is huge  

[nick76]

1 hour ago, Spoony said:

I wouldn’t be calling for his head as we had initially been overachieving but I think he’s going to be under a lot of pressure unless he wins one of the next two. 
edit: I meant overachieving not underachieving 

I don’t think so, the first four games gave a cushion even if that was the case which I don’t think it would be so early in the season

[M_Afro]

Smith is a massive work in progress. He is not at the level as most other PL managers but he does have plenty of growth left in him. He needs to keep learning fast though otherwise I think he will run out of time.