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Dean Smith


Demitri_C

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1 minute ago, markavfc40 said:

I have heard the argument that Smith should have made changes but what changes exactly. 

The biggest issue therefore is that our squad lacks depth.

There will always be the (incorrect) argument here that smith should have made changes when we lose/draw.

You've said what everyone should know and accept, we have zero squad depth. We have 11 good first XI players that's it. We can't rotate, we can't rest players. 

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5 hours ago, TrentVilla said:

Nobody expects us to win every game. I hate still false arguments like this made to make other people’s valid criticism seem unreasonable.

We could and probably should have won but that we would have needed to score three to do so was in part down to our defence and their ridiculous positioning. That was either down to coaching or the players ignoring Smith and doing their own thing. 

Could it not be a player or two making an error? 

Yes, we clearly wanted to play a high line, which I think helped us look good going forward, but their first goal to me seemed far more of an error than the plan. 

 

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8 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

Could it not be a player or two making an error? 

Yes, we clearly wanted to play a high line, which I think helped us look good going forward, but their first goal to me seemed far more of an error than the plan. 

 

Quite, there's absolutely no way Mings should have been in the position he was in from a throw-in in their final third. He switched off a bit. 

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Last season before lockwe changed the team too much, barely played the same side for more than two games in a row which massively affected our consistency. I think Smith is just trying to guard against that this season and have a more settled team. If we'd have dropped players yesterday and lost, people would have lampooned the decision as arrogant.

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21 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

I think the biggest issue yesterday was fatigue. Luiz, McGinn, Mings, Grelaish were nowhere near at it. Then arguably the most influential player we have who hadn't been away on international duty, Barkley, got injured after 3 minutes. 

I have heard the argument that Smith should have made changes but what changes exactly. Nakamba and or Hourihane for McGinn and or Luiz. Nakamba had just played 2 games for Zimbabwe( with loads of travelling) and Hourihane 3 games for the ROI. I don't think either of them would have been that much fresher to make up for the drop in quality of bringing either or both in. We currently have no other fit centre backs so Mings can't be rested. As for resting Jack there is obviously no replacement without a huge drop off in quality.

The biggest issue therefore is that our squad lacks depth. Yesterday we had no recognised striker on the bench and no recognised centre back. In terms of lack of strikers that isn't due to an injury crisis that is due to going into the season with only two fit recognised strikers.

I can't complain though as we went into this season still very much a work in progress. Unlike last season though where even getting our first 11 on the pitch meant in most games we were out of our depth get our first 11 out now fit and firing and we are a match for anyone. Where we lack now is depth but that was always going to take time to put in place.

We didn't play well yesterday, had 4 or 5 players off the pace, suffered an early injury to a key player and still deserved to take something from the game.  Therefore whilst like many of us I am disappointed with the result and performance I can see the reasons why we didn't play well and can also recognise that despite that we still deserved to take something which in itself shows how far we have come.

Agree with all of this, it was particularly noticable in Jack's performance as you say.

Only concern I'd raise aside from that is why we were so aggressive in our set-up compared to other games this season. I understand we were playing at home to a weaker side but ultimately if we played as we did vs Arsenal and came out of it with a similar result then nobody is complaining. Brighton try to play football in a manner that would have played into our hands (at 0-0 of course, not when they were leading and went to 6 at the back) had we approached the game the same as we did even against Fulham, nevermind the better sides we've beaten, instead we did a complete 180 and played about 20 yards further up the pitch from the start which seemed a bit naive to me.

Edited by Indigo
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13 minutes ago, villa89 said:

There will always be the (incorrect) argument here that smith should have made changes when we lose/draw.

You've said what everyone should know and accept, we have zero squad depth. We have 11 good first XI players that's it. We can't rotate, we can't rest players. 

So,we are going to see the same 11 players on the field every week ?!

We were playing a team that was having bad luck and really struggling for a win,FFS if we cant try a few of the reserves in a game like this then when are we going to use them ? or are they just so the bench does not look empty.

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34 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Im happy when win and siapoounted naturally when we lose. I said we might be in a relegation dog fight. I think i have highlighted why becaus eour home form is really worrying. If you cant win at home your generally going to struggle.  If this improves we will be fine. 

the inconsistency is the most worrying thing for me. We can batter arsenal then lose so easily against brighton.

With all due respect I have no idea why you feel the need to raise something else that is completely irrelevant to football eg trump in a football thread. This area is a escape from them politics thread!!

did you think we lost easily? i remember commenting at half time, how on earth are we losing this game.

i think its a game that if we play 10 times we win it on 8 of them. I though the approach was right, the changes were right, disappointed to lose Barkley so early but just one of those weird games you lose sometimes.

I really cant see a relegation battle, our squad is too strong, we have too many points and their are too many poor teams.

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Playing the same 11 players for close to 90 mins for 38 games is just not going to work, it's a MON shaped recipe for disaster. Especially in such a compressed season.

Our squad until January at least is weak, that's just how it is. But we are going to have to find a way to make it work somehow. 

Hopefully the Barkley injury is not too bad but we are going to pick up injuries, and tired players are more prone to do so. Same goes for players who don't warm up properly...

 

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44 minutes ago, cheltenham_villa said:

did you think we lost easily? i remember commenting at half time, how on earth are we losing this game.

i think its a game that if we play 10 times we win it on 8 of them. I though the approach was right, the changes were right, disappointed to lose Barkley so early but just one of those weird games you lose sometimes.

I really cant see a relegation battle, our squad is too strong, we have too many points and their are too many poor teams.

For me Brighton's first counter attack was way too easy for them to score. Space too high up the pitch made no sense for us to play such a high line so early in the game.

The second was poor too much time and space given to march. It was too easy for brighton. Battered i wouldnt say but we lost ghats fundamentally what it comes too. I think marks point about the internationals having a factor could be true.

53 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

I dont find it hard to understand though (i think).

Arsenal, Liverpool & Leicester are teams that came out to play, attack us and treat us like we are the "lesser team", that seems to suit as with this team we are deadly counter punchers.

Brighton for example, sat back and nullified our counter game, we couldnt break them down easily, and they actually hit us on the counter.

Basically, we are currently a deadly counter team, but not a great team when the opposition sits back and we have to try and break them down (also we are terribly open to counter ourselves when we are on the front foot - that first brighton goal was a shocking goal)

I think thats a fair assesment and it does seem that way. But against leeds our counter attacking was so poor. So really we need to have more in our locker than that and be able to break teams down. Wehave enough quality in this team to di that

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6 minutes ago, villa89 said:

Yes, barring injury or suspension. We wont be resting anyone because we dont have any decent replacements. 

Leicester managed to win the title using very few players, but they still had a far better squad than we have. I fear injuries will pile up if we go down that route sadly.

Really hope we can get a couple quality players in in January.

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I do still have my reserves over Smith as a few do, but I will support him while he is here, doesn't mean he gets a free pass though. Even though we can look amazing in some games, other games we look like a different team i.e Leeds, we were awful. I don't think he is going to be the man to take us to the dizzy heights of the Premier League, for me he is too inexperienced and nice, an with this brings mass inconsistancy something which will stop us having the success we desire .

 

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We all want smith to do well, but i am still trying to work out what the Traore start was about, when to me this game was always going to be a battle. The internationals seem to have an effect on our side, some are still in party mood, some  seem to have elavated themselves to above the graft and hard work and responsibility for the team. Leadership is so important in a team and the leicester team had Huth and wes morgan in it apart from a few stars and when the going got tough they stepped up.

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57 minutes ago, sne said:

Leicester managed to win the title using very few players, but they still had a far better squad than we have. I fear injuries will pile up if we go down that route sadly.

Really hope we can get a couple quality players in in January.

Leicester played the same 11 and 2 subs for about of the 70% season.  In doing so they won the league. We aren't even trying to do that. If we can get to 50 points playing the same 11 before injuries and fitness levels undoe us then that is still significant improvement from last season. 

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1 minute ago, Rightdm00 said:

Leicester played the same 11 and same 2 subs for about 70% season.  In doing so they win the league. We aren't even trying to do that. If we can get to 50 points playing the same 11 before injuries and fitness levels undoe us then that is still significant improvement from last season. 

Yeah obviously we are not fighting for the title but for mid table security, but the point still remains. With the schedule as it is this season it's not going to work. Our players will break down. If not by injury then by mental exhaustion. 

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19 minutes ago, onmeedson said:

We all want smith to do well, but i am still trying to work out what the Traore start was about, when to me this game was always going to be a battle. The internationals seem to have an effect on our side, some are still in party mood, some  seem to have elavated themselves to above the graft and hard work and responsibility for the team. Leadership is so important in a team and the leicester team had Huth and wes morgan in it apart from a few stars and when the going got tough they stepped up.

Traore didn't start, he came on as sub for Barkley.  Losing a player at the start of the game isn't really something you can plan all that well for.  As said above our reserve midfielders all did play during the international break as well so could have been off the boil too, added to them not being as good players.  We had to concentrate on quality over quantity this time in the summer window, yes it leaves us vulnerable in games like this when players aren't fresh and a bit more error prone but across a whole season will win us plenty more points than last season which is what matters.  We have already had some of the best performances I've seen from Villa, if we end up top 10 with a few more of those it will be a very good season for me but by definition you will have to put up with some bad ones along the way.

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26 minutes ago, sne said:

Yeah obviously we are not fighting for the title but for mid table security, but the point still remains. With the schedule as it is this season it's not going to work. Our players will break down. If not by injury then by mental exhaustion. 

Rotation is overblown without European or deep cup run commitments. Most players on sides playing in Europe will easily start over 50 games a season. That's excluding any international competitions.

If they can manage that workload without getting shattered then our first 11 should have no problem playing a couple games over 40. 

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