Dean Smith

[Thug]

5 hours ago, PieFacE said:

Still only one game this season where we've been outplayed and that was Leeds. Probably deserved something out of every other defeat really. Crazy season but fair play to Smith, staff and squad. 

My goal for this season was to finish 15th-12th and we look well on course for that. 

To be honest, up until they scored against the run of play, we were well in that game.  If Jack had finished off that wonder run, I’m sure we would have won it.

The only game we have been truly outplayed was against Southampton. Even then we almost pulled it right back.

 

[ozvillafan]

1 hour ago, Thug said:

To be honest, up until they scored against the run of play, we were well in that game.  If Jack had finished off that wonder run, I’m sure we would have won it.

The only game we have been truly outplayed was against Southampton. Even then we almost pulled it right back.

 

I'd split the points.

2nd half vs Leeds and 1st half vs Southampton

.. still only outplayed in one game when you put it all together, though.

[Zatman]

4 hours ago, maqroll said:

I love when the camera is on Dean after we score and he looks pretty self contained, but you know he is absolutely flying. It means so much to have a real Villan in charge. 

The only time he gets animated on the sideline is when Jack is clattered

[mikeyp102]

The team has such a good unity, you can tell they all really like each other. Shows what Dean is like.

[El Zen]

5 hours ago, maqroll said:

I love when the camera is on Dean after we score and he looks pretty self contained, but you know he is absolutely flying. It means so much to have a real Villan in charge. 

I don’t know how he does it. Out of all his many qualities as a coach and leader, this is probably what impresses me the most and probably the reason why he’s been so successful. I wouldn’t be able to take the emotion of being a fan out of it the way he does. 

[SuperTed]

If we can get 3 points against Palace then we’ll be 10 points off last seasons total with 25 games to go. Only Man City have conceded less than us this year. Last nights win means we’ve surpassed the halfway sum of goals we scored in the entirety of last lesson with only 12 games gone. Yet all the press can talk about is Bielsa. No mention of Dean. Fantastic progress and a brilliant time to be a Villa fan! 

[magnkarl]

The only thing I'd love Dean to be better at is protecting his own players when we're winning games. For instance last night Jack, John and Tyrone should've been subbed on 2-0. Those last 15 mins can be fatal when a team like West Brom are tired and fouling our players left, right and centre. We need to start rotating or else we'll get injuries to key players due to fatigue and overloading. Conor or Engels would do fine for 15 mins against a team that had 1 attempt on goal for 90 minutes with a man down..

[lapal_fan]

28 minutes ago, SuperTed said:

If we can get 3 points against Palace then we’ll be 10 points off last seasons total with 25 games to go. Only Man City have conceded less than us this year. Last nights win means we’ve surpassed the halfway sum of goals we scored in the entirety of last lesson with only 12 games gone. Yet all the press can talk about is Bielsa. No mention of Dean. Fantastic progress and a brilliant time to be a Villa fan! 

Being under the radar is no bad thing I don't think. 

A lot of egg on faces at the moment for the "loved ones" up North. 

 

I'm loving Villa life at the moment, there's a real buzz of excitement and it's not been this way for 10 years.  A project we can look forward to.  We've got a capable squad now, we've cut down on the individual error's we were seeing almost weekly at points last year and we've really become hard to play against (in most cases!).  We've got a bit of magic up top and the most exciting thing I can think at the moment is "there's still room for development".  Could we see a trophy this season?  That would be wonderful. 

Even against Burnley, you could see that we're playing well and in most cases, one of those 27 shots is going in.  

Keep it up Dean and team   

[TrentVilla]

29 minutes ago, magnkarl said:

The only thing I'd love Dean to be better at is protecting his own players when we're winning games. For instance last night Jack, John and Tyrone should've been subbed on 2-0. Those last 15 mins can be fatal when a team like West Brom are tired and fouling our players left, right and centre. We need to start rotating or else we'll get injuries to key players due to fatigue and overloading. Conor or Engels would do fine for 15 mins against a team that had 1 attempt on goal for 90 minutes with a man down..

I agree

[Vive_La_Villa]

Bit crap we’ve got Chelsea and Man U over the busy Christmas period. Both teams have very strong squads so will be able to rotate.

Mcginn and Targett both a yellow card away from a suspension too. I would love us to be full strength v Man U. Really think we could do them. 
 

Keeping on topic, well done Smith, doing a cracking job.

Edited December 21, 2020 by Vive_La_Villa

[Tomaszk]

53 minutes ago, magnkarl said:

The only thing I'd love Dean to be better at is protecting his own players when we're winning games. For instance last night Jack, John and Tyrone should've been subbed on 2-0. Those last 15 mins can be fatal when a team like West Brom are tired and fouling our players left, right and centre. We need to start rotating or else we'll get injuries to key players due to fatigue and overloading. Conor or Engels would do fine for 15 mins against a team that had 1 attempt on goal for 90 minutes with a man down..

Understand your point but last night we only scored second in 84th min.

It looks so obvious I think it would lift the opponents if we brought off McGinn and Jack 86th min.

If it was 3-0 or even 2-0 in the 70th and were dominant I think we'd have seen a few subs.

[El Zen]

Jack probably wants to play 90 minutes. Messi was always the same, never seemed to do him any harm. When you’re as talented as Jack is, it’s more fun than it is taxing to cruise home in a dominant win. I have no issue with it.

[Follyfoot]

37 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Bit crap we’ve got Chelsea and Man U over the busy Christmas period. Both teams have very strong squads so will be able to rotate.

Mcginn and Targett both a yellow card away from a suspension too. I would love us to be full strength v Man U. Really think we could do them. 
 

Keeping on topic, well done Smith, doing a cracking job.

I really do not fear anybody with this side. On our day we are capable of beating all of them and beating them well

[magnkarl]

11 minutes ago, Michelsen said:

Jack probably wants to play 90 minutes. Messi was always the same, never seemed to do him any harm. When you’re as talented as Jack is, it’s more fun than it is taxing to cruise home in a dominant win. I have no issue with it.

That may be, but it's the managers job to ensure that Jack stays healthy. The physicality and tackles in the Premier League cannot be compared to the Spanish league, neither can the winter programme. It's important to rotate with our programme. Jack may not agree, but for the club it's way more important.

[El Zen]

Just now, magnkarl said:

That may be, but it's the managers job to ensure that Jack stays healthy. The physicality and tackles in the Premier League cannot be compared to the Spanish league, neither can the winter programme. It's important to rotate with our programme. Jack may not agree, but for the club it's way more important.

Messi’s seasons have been way tougher than Jack’s, playing in the CL every year. For players of that level of talent, mental fatigue and motivation is a much bigger issue, and we’re best served letting Jack enjoy his football as much as possible.

[magnkarl]

2 minutes ago, Michelsen said:

Messi’s seasons have been way tougher than Jack’s, playing in the CL every year. For players of that level of talent, mental fatigue and motivation is a much bigger issue, and we’re best served letting Jack enjoy his football as much as possible.

There's 3 teams in La Liga that have the physicality to compete in the Premier League. The odd ECL game against Minsk doesn't make up for 8-10 games in December against Jake Livermore, Jonjo Shelvey, West Ham et. al.

[nick76]

4 minutes ago, magnkarl said:

That may be, but it's the managers job to ensure that Jack stays healthy. The physicality and tackles in the Premier League cannot be compared to the Spanish league, neither can the winter programme. It's important to rotate with our programme. Jack may not agree, but for the club it's way more important.

We’ve had two games delayed until later in the season, that’s equivalent of a rest so far this season and thus he’s had breaks especially they Newcastle game.  It’s not as if we are playing European games either, some of those teams have played 21 games already, we are around two thirds of that.

[nick76]

1 minute ago, magnkarl said:

There's 3 teams in La Liga that have the physicality to compete in the Premier League. The odd ECL game against Minsk doesn't make up for 8-10 games in December against Jake Livermore, Jonjo Shelvey, West Ham et. al.

Not sure I agree, yesterday was one of the easiest game we’ll ever play.  We played mostly in West Broms half, we were rarely pressed by them and apart from Livermore’s stupid challenge Jack wasn’t really fouled much or badly.  It was like playing a poor European team.

[Dave-R]

13 hours ago, PieFacE said:

Still only one game this season where we've been outplayed and that was Leeds. Probably deserved something out of every other defeat really. Crazy season but fair play to Smith, staff and squad. 

My goal for this season was to finish 15th-12th and we look well on course for that. 

I'm hoping next time we play leeds we give them the battering they deserve,I know we deserved to lose because we got truly caught out but we could of see up better against them.

A good old park the bus and counter I think would of seen us conserve energy and catch them out against there overloaded attacks.

[El Zen]

5 minutes ago, magnkarl said:

There's 3 teams in La Liga that have the physicality to compete in the Premier League. The odd ECL game against Minsk doesn't make up for 8-10 games in December against Jake Livermore, Jonjo Shelvey, West Ham et. al.

Messi averages, what, about 50-60 games per season, playing for Argentina as well as almost every minute of every club game in all competitions. You’re overestimating the difference betweeb the PL and continental football if you think that counts for less than Jack’s total games per season. Jack can take 90 minutes of p***ing all over WBA without risk of long term fatigue, as long as he’s having fun and enjoying his football.