Dean Smith

[nick76]

18 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Clearly isn't a top tier manager and will most likely never be.

As of now he is fine though. He is building the right foundations for a better manager to take us to the next level in a few years.

Really wish you would stop post in this thread.

You don't rate him we get it. But the constant bashing of him is getting tiresome.

[turvontour]

12 minutes ago, PaulC said:

I thought he was too slow in making changes today. He left it until half through the second half. Guess without Grealish we are  a bottom half team. 

It needed a change at half time and it needed a change early second half. Not with 20 mins to go. I know its easy in hindsight but you just knew it would end with us lumping balls into their box unsuccessfully chasing an equaliser.

 

[villalad21]

Just now, Tomaszk said:

Bielsa? Yeah I know.

I'm not saying we should change manager now.

But if a big name becomes available in a few years time and we are still stuck around 9th-10th would you not even consider changing the manager if the right name becomes available?

[wilko154]

I’m not starting a Smith Out brigade, but I think it acceptable to criticise him when he makes poor decision.

Tonight he made changes too late in the game and didn’t adapt the shape quick enough when it wasn’t working.

The team needed changing at half time, we didn’t do it. It then needed changing as soon as the red card came out, we waited for 10 minutes and by then it was too late.

Game management is becoming a problem, we need to learn from it. Still early in the rebuild and these things will happen, we just can’t make a habit of it. 

[villalad21]

2 minutes ago, nick76 said:

 

Really wish you would stop post in this thread.

You don't rate him we get it. But the constant bashing of him is getting tiresome.

Difference is it's not constant bashing. I praised him against Leeds for coming up with a proper gameplan.

You never say anything positive about Davis. Ever. Never seen it.

[Lord Willard]

I'm so mad and disappointed. 

[Dale]

8 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

I don't think it was quite that. Closer to 50/50.

That first half wasn't too bad at all, the second was vile.

I agree. Mentioned it a while ago weren't building through the middle much. I think it's a serious lack of mobility in the midfield that's the main issue. Seems McGinn could be permanently done from that ankle break, he simply cannot move. This is not the guy who got injured.

It's a mixture of the defence being really solid and Ollie being incredible at making something of hoofs. We've done a hell of a lot of lashing it or giving it to Jack and he does something.

In which case, hope we can agree a good portion of those 50 we don't win are draws. This result the least likely of the three... 

[Tomaszk]

2 minutes ago, wilko154 said:

Tonight he made changes too late in the game and didn’t adapt the shape quick enough when it wasn’t working.

10 minutes were wasted after the red I agree. How can you not put a forward or do anything when a team is going to sit in their own box.

Marv clearly shouldn't have started and did largely nothing until he was replaced.

[VillaChris]

1 point claimed from losing positions is a pretty sobering stat especially considering we're having a really good season by our standards in last decade.

Simply going to have to improve on that in coming years if we want to be a a top 6 team again as there will always be loads of games in 38 season when you'll be behind in a game.

[villa4europe]

1 minute ago, turvontour said:

It needed a change at half time and it needed a change early second half. Not with 20 mins to go. I know its easy in hindsight but you just knew it would end with us lumping balls into their box unsuccessfully chasing an equaliser.

 

But why? 

1st half we created 2 great chances and should have had a penalty, it wasn't pretty and we were losing but we were the better side and doing more

Subs is an area where fans see the game completely differently to managers

The pattern of the game was us on the ball, attacking play, poor quality ball in or create a chance, miss that chance, what does he do think that barkley in his current form or trez increases the quality? Or that Davis scores that chance? Because we all know that's not true and so does he 

Bring on an attacking player so that we can attack more... We already were attacking non stop... 

[Villa 59]

3 minutes ago, wilko154 said:

I’m not starting a Smith Out brigade, but I think it acceptable to criticise him when he makes poor decision.

Tonight he made changes too late in the game and didn’t adapt the shape quick enough when it wasn’t working.

The team needed changing at half time, we didn’t do it. It then needed changing as soon as the red card came out, we waited for 10 minutes and by then it was too late.

Game management is becoming a problem, we need to learn from it. Still early in the rebuild and these things will happen, we just can’t make a habit of it. 

100% agree with this! There was absolutely no point in sending out Nakamba for the second half IMO 

My main criticism of Smith is he's always 'reactive' rather than 'proactive' 

[Laughable Chimp]

8 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Difference is it's not constant bashing. I praised him against Leeds for coming up with a proper gameplan.

You never say anything positive about Davis. Ever. Never seen it.

a

Edited March 3, 2021 by Laughable Chimp

[VillaChris]

23 minutes ago, VillanousOne said:

just so bored of the Jeckyl and Hyde nature of our performances, would prefer we just got a few dour nil nil draws rather than playing amazingly one week and total shite the next.

Not blaming Smith purely, but still don't get how we are so inconsistent. Also we tend to win when we have less of the ball and less chances, baffles me.
 

I'm actually not. Had countless seasons where we draw 14-15 games in a season and don't do much.

Not really sure what happens to us on a Wednesday. Lost to Man. City, West Ham, Burnley and Sheffield United all since start of the year so not a good day or time of the week for us compared to our God mode for the Sunday 7.15pm kick offs.

I presume this will be our last midweek fixture for a while.

[birdman]

9 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I commented in the match thread.

I see the ball being either booted at Ollie too hard, too high, or too slow, then they wonder why sometimes he can't keep it.

One moment early in the game had me raging and summed it up for me.

He was on the right side up top by himself with the ball close to the touchline, 3 Sheffield players around him.

Not ONE player attempted to go over and recieve a pass, or offer him any support, and there was TIME as well!

Baffling.

The players just weren't switched on from kick off. How is it that we can repeat that mistake time after time?

We need to play in such a way that Ollie hasn't got to go searching for the ball. He needs to maintain a central (ish) position most of the time and leave the wide work to the wide players. We didnt really have a shape or a game plan today. Almost like there was zero prep. 

As you allude to, the passing was horrendous.... just lazy. No intelligence, no speed. Urgh.

One last thing, Meatball needs to be rested or used differently or both. John doesn't do John things anymore!

[Villa 59]

1 minute ago, VillaChris said:

I'm actually not. Had countless seasons where we draw 14-15 games in a season and don't do much.

Not really sure what happens to us on a Wednesday. Lost to Man. City, West Ham, Burnley and Sheffield United all since start of the year so not a good day or time of the week for us compared to our God mode for the Sunday 7.15pm kick offs.

I presume this will be our last midweek fixture for a while.

Lol...how about we play every Wednesday until we get it right? 

 

 

[Lerner's Driver]

Just now, Villa 59 said:

Well, he's shown that he has great potential! I can't think of any other manager that could have improved us so much in such a short period of time! Can you? 

I'll revisit this in a year's time before judging him further! For now, I'm more than happy with him!

He's definitely taken us forward, but I also think his success has just happened to coincide with: (1) Wealthy owners who are ready, willing and able to invest wisely - the first lot like that we've had for years, (2) The first Covid shutdown, providing us with a reprieve and a chance to regroup and solidify at the back, (3) No fans, just as we are rebuilding the squad, allowing us to form a team without the usual pressure. (4) That freak non-goal vs Sheffield United - it wasn't pivotal, but still another example.

I think Villa and Smith have been pretty lucky recently. That will run out eventually.

 

[nick76]

8 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Difference is it's not constant bashing. I praised him against Leeds for coming up with a proper gameplan.

You never say anything positive about Davis. Ever. Never seen it.

Oh my god, you’ve never been a fan of Smith and have slaughtered him for seasons and you go quiet when he’s doing well but already you are starting to build up your rhetoric again tonight slowly.  So don’t talk to me about Davis when you are exactly the same on Smith.

I would be positive on Davis if there was anything to be positive about.  Whereas Smith has taken us from nowhere to a team that is competing in the top half of the table in a short duration and you are talking about replacing him tonight because you think a few fans that are peeved off tonight might agree with you.  You have almost been a constant anti-Smith commentator on this forum and that becomes tiresome.  

I am tiresome about Davis but I have more justification than you do about Smith.

Edited March 3, 2021 by nick76

[VillaChris]

5 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

10 minutes were wasted after the red I agree. How can you not put a forward or do anything when a team is going to sit in their own box.

Marv clearly shouldn't have started and did largely nothing until he was replaced.

I thought he was excellent at Leeds so would've been very harsh to drop him given Doug's indifferent form in recent times.

Would imagine though this will see us revert back to our usual team v Wolves with Barkley and Luiz starting and perhaps Jack or Cash back.

[doaflip]

29 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Clearly isn't a top tier manager and will most likely never be.

As of now he is fine though. He is building the right foundations for a better manager to take us to the next level in a few years.

Really don't know why you get stick for posts like this, I completely agree. 

Right now our style of football isn't completely at odds with what we played under Bruce. Defensively stronger but lumping it into the channel or box. 

I like Smith and if we are happy mid table then he's probably a safe pair of hands, but I can't see him being a top 6 manager. 

Will have a similar career trajectory to Eddie Howe in my opinion. 

[avfc1982am]

49 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

We’re a better team when we don’t have the ball and teams have to break us down. We saw it against Leeds and Arsenal. You could argue Sheffield United did to us what we did to other teams: 

There’s still room for a lot of improvement. 

 

This is the crux of it tbh!! We are a counter attacking team. A very good good one. However, until we have the minerals to push teams back and still open them up we will be inconsistent. We can suck up pressure continually but still cannot apply it consistently.