nick76 Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 (edited) . Edited March 3, 2021 by nick76 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turvontour Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 2 minutes ago, Lerner's Driver said: 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. We've also had Jack Grealish at the club. Which has been pretty nice for a championship/lower half prem club over the last two or three seasons. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villa 59 Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 Just now, Lerner's Driver said: 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. Well, when Smith has had the time and money that SAF, Wenger and Pep has had then I will expect a lot more! I don't really see how you can compare him to those 3. Potential and performances can't be judged after managing only 62 PL games 38 of which were spent bedding in a new team with very little PL team amongst them! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 Doing well with what he has. His use of subs will always be an issue but the progress we are making is very good. Anyone expecting us to really challenge for europe wasn't being realistic. 10th would be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mykeyb Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 We should be practising crossing and set pieces as our delivery is atrocious Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvfcRigo82 Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 33 minutes ago, Villa 59 said: Yep, Allardyce will be available soon Get a flucking grip of yourself man 28 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said: I don’t think he needs any encouragement to do that. 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lerner's Driver Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 3 minutes ago, Villa 59 said: Well, when Smith has had the time and money that SAF, Wenger and Pep has had then I will expect a lot more! I don't really see how you can compare him to those 3. Potential and performances can't be judged after managing only 62 PL games 38 of which were spent bedding in a new team with very little PL team amongst them! I wasn't comparing him with them, I was asking you to imagine him matching their achievements in the future. Different and unlikely, in my opinion. I hope I'm wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 1 minute ago, Lerner's Driver said: I wasn't comparing him with them, I was asking you to imagine him matching their achievements in the future. Different and unlikely, in my opinion. I hope I'm wrong. Fergie had already won stuff before going to Man Utd. He broke the Celtic, Rangers dominance with Aberdeen which by itself was an amazing achievement. Smith won nothing at Walsall. Nothing at Brentford. Really odd comparison. Eddie Howe as previously mentioned is a more natural and realistic comparison. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villa 59 Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 2 minutes ago, Lerner's Driver said: I wasn't comparing him with them, I was asking you to imagine him matching their achievements in the future. Different and unlikely, in my opinion. I hope I'm wrong. Simple answer is I don't know! Neither do I have Saturdays lottery numbers revisit in 12 months when we're in the bottom 3 at XMAS and we have to appoint Sam Allardyce to try and rescue us 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M_Afro Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 Dean gets loads of stuff wrong but he still has credit in the bank as far as I’m concerned. He has shown that he is willing to learn and keeping us up last season was miraculous. If we finish top half this season you cannot argue that he hasn’t done a decent job of building upon that. I still suspect that we will outgrow him in time but I hope not. We will never have another manager who understands and loves the club as much as he does. He is also a top bloke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 1 minute ago, Lerner's Driver said: I wasn't comparing him with them, I was asking you to imagine him matching their achievements in the future. Different and unlikely, in my opinion. I hope I'm wrong. I don’t know the answer to that because they are the pinnacle but every six months Dean has improved this team, we seem to take one step backwards and two forwards. We are now in the one step backwards moment so I’m expecting two steps forward shortly. He keeps learning, the defensive improvements after the first lockdown, the play going forwards at the beginning this season....we are in a mini-slump at the moment and tonight was bad but I see the growth overall in this team. Can he emulate those three, that’s very hard to achieve but I really don’t think we’ve hit Deans ceiling yet and I’m excited how far he can take us. If it long time stalls or goes backwards then we reevaluate but at the moment you can’t say whether he can or cannot achieve some serious success with us. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lerner's Driver Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 Just now, villalad21 said: Fergie had already won stuff before going to Man Utd. He broke the Celtic, Rangers dominance with Aberdeen which by itself was an amazing achievement. Smith won nothing at Walsall. Nothing at Brentford. Really odd comparison. Eddie Howe as previously mentioned is a more natural and realistic comparison. I offered those names as examples of managers with widely acknowledged tactical nous who went on to great success. Can Smith emulate them or even get close? Yes, he can? Will he? Probably not and your reasons are as good as any. I agree that he is only a piece in Jigsaw puzzle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lerner's Driver Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 4 minutes ago, M_Afro said: Dean gets loads of stuff wrong but he still has credit in the bank as far as I’m concerned. He has shown that he is willing to learn and keeping us up last season was miraculous. If we finish top half this season you cannot argue that he hasn’t done a decent job of building upon that. I still suspect that we will outgrow him in time but I hope not. We will never have another manager who understands and loves the club as much as he does. He is also a top bloke. This. Good bloke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post romavillan Posted March 3, 2021 VT Supporter Popular Post Share Posted March 3, 2021 6 minutes ago, M_Afro said: I still suspect that we will outgrow him in time but I hope not. Ok, I don't think we will, but just for arguments sake, name a manager that would have done better than Smith in the same time frame from taking us on when we were 15th(? maybe lower?) in the Championship with a totally unbalanced squad with one recognised central defender and a **** truckload of right backs to getting us to a seemingly top haf prem finish gettin glots od plaudits for our quality football? I can't think of anyone, at least anyone who would have taken the job when he did. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villarocker Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 1 hour ago, Spoony said: How do you address a problem like our chronic inconsistency? Is it a squad depth problem? I don’t really blame Smith. Players were shite today. The continuing wastefulness is frustrating. Really need to add to the squad and add some other options. But, let's be fair here, if the shite ref had given the penalty we would have most likely scored and gone on to win that game by 2 or 3. He bottled it. He bottled sending off McGoldrick too. The whole officiating team were terrible tonight. The players didn't make good in-game decisions tonight. However, there's no denying that Sheffield Utd fought like crazy for that win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M_Afro Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 6 minutes ago, romavillan said: Ok, I don't think we will, but just for arguments sake, name a manager that would have done better than Smith in the same time frame from taking us on when we were 15th(? maybe lower?) in the Championship with a totally unbalanced squad with one recognised central defender and a **** truckload of right backs to getting us to a seemingly top haf prem finish gettin glots od plaudits for our quality football? I can't think of anyone, at least anyone who would have taken the job when he did. I don’t disagree with you at all. He has done really well to this point. I hope he continues to do so. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 43 minutes ago, villa4europe said: 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... Of course it's not a case of 'attacker on = better attacking' (we all remember losing to Bradford or whoever it was with 4 strikers after all) but you will never ever convince me that it made sense for Nakamba to play that second half. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avfc1982am Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 35 minutes ago, villalad21 said: Fergie had already won stuff before going to Man Utd. He broke the Celtic, Rangers dominance with Aberdeen which by itself was an amazing achievement. Smith won nothing at Walsall. Nothing at Brentford. Really odd comparison. Eddie Howe as previously mentioned is a more natural and realistic comparison. Wtf did you expect Smith to win at Walsall or Brentford...the world cup 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 3 minutes ago, avfc1982am said: Wtf did you expect Smith to win at Walsall or Brentford...the world cup Didn't Eddie Howe win League One and the Championship with Bournemouth? Pretty similar sized club to Brentford tbf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippo Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 55 minutes ago, villa89 said: Doing well with what he has. His use of subs will always be an issue but the progress we are making is very good. Anyone expecting us to really challenge for europe wasn't being realistic. 10th would be fine. Pretty much this. We have our off days and can't cut it against the very best. But we are not whipping boys anymore. The downside is - has DS been lucky having Grealish come into his prime , coupled with Martinez ....is this what we are about ??? Bottom line though - he's got us this far and deserves a while longer to see if he can make us top 4/6. I really think we regularly need to buying £40m+ players to push on from here though. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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