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Dean Smith


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11 minutes ago, tom_avfc said:

This is a strange post. Southampton broke the deadlock with a Vestergard header which has been put down to poor defending by us but for Brighton we're just going to allow it.

There's not much danger of "Worldies" in many football games - they don't happen often which is why such a big deal is made of them. To say that we should legislate for Ward-Prowse banging two free kicks into top corners and Ings smashing one in off the bar is a strange way of viewing football matches.

Incidentally, the one goal that we conceded against both of these teams which was most concerning to me was the opening Brighton goal which was caused by complete defensive naivety.

If teams continue to score goals like Ward-Prowse, Ings and March have scored past us this season then we'd have to be the unluckiest team in Premier League history. If someone like March was capable of scoring that shot on more than about 1 in 50 attempts then he wouldn't be playing for Brighton.

It still doesn't legislate for giving away 2 free kicks on the edge of our box when we know full well that Ward Prowse is phenomenal at taking free kicks.  

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1 minute ago, handsworthvilla said:

Haha very true. I personally felt it was a bit of a fluke shot. The ball took a horrible bobble just before it reached his foot, which added pace to the ball so he only had to side foot it in. I could be wrong but felt that without that bobble that wasn't going in 

He’ll never score a goal like that again, especially with his right foot. Whilst I think Luiz should have tracked back the chances of March finishing that way were very slim.

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5 minutes ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

It still doesn't legislate for giving away 2 free kicks on the edge of our box when we know full well that Ward Prowse is phenomenal at taking free kicks.  

That's true, and it doesn't mean that we haven't made some individual errors here and there but it also doesn't mean that what Tom is saying is incorrect either. 

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10 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

He’ll never score a goal like that again, especially with his right foot. Whilst I think Luiz should have tracked back the chances of March finishing that way were very slim.

He won't always be allowed a free shot in the penalty box every game either 

If we want to avoid screamers against us we may consider closing players down. I don't know just a suggestion.

Edited by villalad21
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6 minutes ago, lexicon said:

That's true, and it doesn't mean that we haven't made some individual errors here and there but it also doesn't mean that what Tom is saying is incorrect either. 

True. We were unlucky that game, scoring 2 direct free kicks is a rarity and happens hardly ever. But we shot ourselves in the foot by allowing him to do it not once but twice. 

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8 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

He won't always be allowed a free shot in the penalty box every game either 

If we want to avoid screamers against us we may consider closing players down. I don't know just a suggestion.

He had a free shot in the penalty area yesterday and against Man U. The only other 2 games I’ve seen Brighton play.  He missed them both. 

You’re right though, what the hell is Smith teaching these players! 

Edited by Vive_La_Villa
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6 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

He had a free shot in the penalty area yesterday and against Man U. The only other 2 games I’ve seen Brighton play.  He missed them both. 

You’re right though, what the hell is Smith teaching these players! 

The one last night came on his stronger foot too. The one against us on his weaker.

I suppose the standard is set by some, it's either keep a clean sheet or bust for Smith. 

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The run we're on has parallels with the start of last season.

We were playing well but being unlucky. Smith stuck with the approach, and eventually bad luck transitioned to poor form, low morale and no belief. Hopefully this time, we've shown the ability already so belief shouldn't be hit so hard. Morale should still be fairly high,  and we've had a bit of a reset with the delayed Newcastle game.

Isolated incidents of bad defending will ideally stop happening, but even if they don't, you would expect they won't cost us as many goals as they have so far on average.

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3 minutes ago, tom_avfc said:

He's good at free kicks yes. He also had a record of 8 free kick goals from 64 attempts or a conversion rate of 12.5%. Now that is the best conversion rate of any player but it still stands at a little better than one goal in 10 free kick attempts. Teams will give away free kicks on the edge of the box in almost every game of football. the fact that he's put two into the top corner against us is unfortunate given on average he scores one in 10. 

Similarly we shouldn't be allowing Solly March to have a free shot on his weaker foot from the edge of the area. However, the chances of the ball flying into the top corner are negligible. Teams will have shots in every game of football. If we continue to restrict teams to shots which have a 12.5% chance of going in or fewer then we won't concede the number of goals we have been.

As I said before, I'm more concerned that we allowed Wellbeck to run in on goal from the halfway line than that we gave away a couple of free kicks on the edge of the box.

So the Welbeck one is a high line problem, which was really frustrating. We were nearly punished for doing that after the first Brighton goal too, when Maupay ran through and Martinez had to come out to stop his shot. It's probably why away from home we've done better as we don't tend to do that. I'd like to see us play a bit more conservative at home if we're facing pacey strikers, otherwise it will happen again. 

 

I agree, we were unlucky he's banged two in. Again, it's partially hard luck, partially our own fault. You say teams will give away free kicks on the edge of the box, I don't think this is true. Certainly the stronger teams don't do it, which suggests to me maybe our defenders just aren't good enough to read situations better and choose not to foul. It also suggests their positioning needs work. 

 

So it is something that can be tweaked tactically, but it's partly a personnel problem. We have a really strong midfield now, but need a proper defensive midfielder in there who will sit and break up play before the ball comes close to our penalty area which we don't currently have. I also feel an upgrade in at least 1 (maybe 2) of the back four defensive positions is needed, preferably someone who has played at the highest level and brings a lot of experience but is still relatively young (e.g. mid 20s). 

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13 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

He had a free shot in the penalty area yesterday and against Man U. The only other 2 games I’ve seen Brighton play.  He missed them both. 

You’re right though, what the hell is Smith teaching these players! 

Yeah and Man U were absolutely horrendous that day.

Doesn't change the fact we are ball watching and passive in our defending and if it doesn't change teams will keep being "lucky" against us.

You need to be strong in both boxes. If you are having to score 2 goals every game just to draw that ain't sustainable.

Teams are starting to figure us out. They know we are frail on set pieces and they know we bomb people forward leaving space in behind.

Edited by villalad21
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45 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Yeah and Man U were absolutely horrendous that day.

Doesn't change the fact we are ball watching and passive in our defending and if it doesn't change teams will keep being "lucky" against us.

You need to be strong in both boxes. If you are having to score 2 goals every game just to draw that ain't sustainable.

Teams are starting to figure us out. They know we are frail on set pieces and they know we bomb people forward leaving space in behind.

Frail on set pieces? We’ve conceded 2 out of 11 goals from set pieces.   (I’m not counting Ward-Prowse as they were direct).

If that’s the bench mark for frail on set pieces I think every team in the league has the same problem. 

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2 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Frail on set pieces? We’ve conceded 2 out of 11 goals from set pieces.   (I’m not counting Ward-Prowse as they were direct).

If that’s the bench mark for frail on set pieces I think every team in the league has the same problem. 

We conceded the most amount of goals from set pieces last season and already conceded 2 so far this season. It's poor.

We are soft. We don't aticipate the danger and we are often caught ballwatching. It always feels dangerous to me when we are defending a set piece. Either they score or create a decent chance from it. Our defenders are certainly not attacking the ball in our own box.

Mings is the one who is capable doing it but with this zonal marking thing he isn't where he needs to be.

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11 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

We conceded the most amount of goals from set pieces last season and already conceded 2 so far this season. It's poor.

We are soft. We don't aticipate the danger and we are often caught ballwatching. It always feels dangerous to me when we are defending a set piece. Either they score or create a decent chance from it. Our defenders are certainly not attacking the ball in our own box.

Mings is the one who is capable doing it but with this zonal marking thing he isn't where he needs to be.

You can’t talk about last season just to fit your narrative.  The fact is 2 set pieces conceded in 9 games is not a bad stat!  I don’t care how it feels to you when we are defending. 

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5 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

You can’t talk about last season just to fit your narrative.  The fact is 2 set pieces conceded in 9 games is not a bad stat!  I don’t care how it feels to you when we are defending. 

Also, and I admit I may be completely wrong as I haven't watched all our games this season, but the games I have watched... I can't remember many decent chances being created from set pieces?

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21 minutes ago, Mjvilla said:

Also, and I admit I may be completely wrong as I haven't watched all our games this season, but the games I have watched... I can't remember many decent chances being created from set pieces?

Nor can I mate. It’s an area that the team has worked on hard and massively improved upon since the restart last season.  No team will never concede from set pieces. Yet when we do it’s a frailty! 

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9 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I don’t get how Whoscored works but we are the top rated team both defensive and offensive!  Although we have played 2 games less to be fair. 

I'd guess it backs up the comments being made here that we've largely been unlucky in the games we've lost.  Throw in the hammerings we've dished out, the fact that most teams have been a bit hit and miss all season,  and I can see how it would put us close to the top 

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