Dean Smith

[sharkyvilla]

I think we are in that limbo where it doesn't really matter whether we finish 7th or 12th, we all know where the strengths and weaknesses in the squad are and we are just killing time until the summer.  Hopefully Jack comes back strongly soon so we can at least enjoy some attacking flair rather than just grinding out points.

[paul514]

1 hour ago, sharkyvilla said:

I think we are in that limbo where it doesn't really matter whether we finish 7th or 12th, we all know where the strengths and weaknesses in the squad are and we are just killing time until the summer.  Hopefully Jack comes back strongly soon so we can at least enjoy some attacking flair rather than just grinding out points.

I think there is a few million per place in prize money so let’s not chalk that one out and the more competitive we are the more attractive we are in the summer for those players we need.

[barry'sboots]

4 hours ago, Dave-R said:

Right now I would chalk those goals off for someone, just one player who could service from the flanks properly and give Watkins proper service all season long.

So that's why I say we can't keep a player based on him alone getting goals and one assist, we need more from a player on the Wing.

Agreed.

In may ways, El Ghazi is like Hourihane - he can finish BUT he adds nothing else to the team.  He has a finish on him BUT he wants to shoot all of the time and he is very predictable in this respect.

Trez works his socks off but with little end product - for me they both need to be upgraded in the summer.  I think we will get money back for both which is the positive.

[eholm]

One positive from last night.....Smith significantly changing formation mid-game. When Barkley came on, went 442 with midfield diamond. (The fact El Ghazi played up top instead of Davis days it all about his future as I’ve mentioned in his thread). 

So a definite Plan B that has often been missing from Smith and Co. OK, it didn’t work out as we wanted but still encouraging. 

[DCJonah]

9 hours ago, supermon said:

I doubt Smith is content with how we are playing and I'm pretty sure he's concerned and angry about recent performances. He's even said if offered this position at the start of the season, he'd have taken it but that doesn't mean he's content with our recent performance.

Well yes of course. Difference is he's the manager and I'm a fan. 

[DCJonah]

8 hours ago, WooJung said:

Because we are inches away from European places, even the top 4, and we are wasting points against teams in the bottom 6. 

9 points out of a possible 24 against Newcastle, Burnley, Brighton and Sheffield united. 

Yes, the season is going well above our expectations, but we showed what we are capable of and we are not living up to the standard we set up. 

And on top of that we went from one of the most entertaining teams to watch to one of the least. 

If we'd lived up to the standard we set earlier, we'd be looking at a top 4 place. With our squad that was never going to be a realistic pace to keep. 

Look at last night. Elmo rb, trez and el ghazi our main attacking options and Davis as the only other striking option. That's not a squad capable of keeping that standard we set at the start. 

If you're angry about that then you've allowed your expectations to become unrealistic IMO. 

[DCJonah]

9 hours ago, bobzy said:

I don't think we will.

That would be disappointing but I think we will. They will dip as well and I don't think we will play like this till the end of the season

 

[Demitri_C]

This year was probably our best chance of getting Europe.

When fans return its going to be much more difficult. Our away form will go back to being shit again

Edited March 13, 2021 by Demitri_C

[AVTuco]

Does Smith order players to waste time in the end of games at the corner flag? Or do players decide to do it themselves? 

[WooJung]

31 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

If we'd lived up to the standard we set earlier, we'd be looking at a top 4 place. With our squad that was never going to be a realistic pace to keep. 

Look at last night. Elmo rb, trez and el ghazi our main attacking options and Davis as the only other striking option. That's not a squad capable of keeping that standard we set at the start. 

If you're angry about that then you've allowed your expectations to become unrealistic IMO. 

But we were playing against a Newcastle side who's just as depleted as we are, and the same goes for sheffield united and these are the two (or two of the three) worst teams in the league even with alla players available 

And we didn't have those problems against Burnley (twice) and brighton (twice), did we?

I'm disappointed because we're throwing away opportunities against weaker opposition. I wasn't upset we lost against leicester and I wasn't upset we drew against Wolves. Those are fair results. Sure, I'm upset when there are entire spells where we are entirely unable to string two passes together and that has become a theme, even with Jack and cash in the side.

I don't thinking that winning 7 more points from these games would have been unrealistic and that would have placed us just beneath west ham with a game in hand. 

We're really not far away from top 4. If we then drop off losing to the likes of tottenham, city, manu, Liverpool, Everton then fair enough. 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

3 hours ago, paul514 said:

I think there is a few million per place in prize money so let’s not chalk that one out and the more competitive we are the more attractive we are in the summer for those players we need.

If the players are " killing time ", they need to realise that some of them are also effectively killing their Aston Villa careers in the process.

[DCJonah]

20 minutes ago, WooJung said:

But we were playing against a Newcastle side who's just as depleted as we are, and the same goes for sheffield united and these are the two (or two of the three) worst teams in the league even with alla players available 

And we didn't have those problems against Burnley (twice) and brighton (twice), did we?

I'm disappointed because we're throwing away opportunities against weaker opposition. I wasn't upset we lost against leicester and I wasn't upset we drew against Wolves. Those are fair results. Sure, I'm upset when there are entire spells where we are entirely unable to string two passes together and that has become a theme, even with Jack and cash in the side.

I don't thinking that winning 7 more points from these games would have been unrealistic and that would have placed us just beneath west ham with a game in hand. 

We're really not far away from top 4. If we then drop off losing to the likes of tottenham, city, manu, Liverpool, Everton then fair enough. 

Not in isolation no. But this is the thing on VT, in these hypothetical situations, we always keep all the good things and then still expect more. That's the unrealistic side of it. Yes we've had some poor performances and results but then we've also had some excellent ones and picked up lots of points. 

It's what a midtable premier league club does.

You can't look at this squad and think it's as competitive as those teams above us? 

Our attacking options at the moment are horrendous. 

[sne]

The season has been fizzling out since the new year, we're slowly running out of steam. Both physically and mentally. No doubt Covid helped speed up the process but we have a weak squad outside the starting 11 and have been relying heavily on 7-8 players. Been visibly clear that the va-va-voom has been gone for some while now even thou we've managed to scrap some results.

We all remember the seasons under MON and rightly like to point out what usually happens to teams managed by Bielsa. This is whats happening to us too this season, we're drained. The whole subs thing has been done to death but this was why some were bringing it up all the time in the match threads. Squad management and trying to prevent injuries.Then again as pointed out countless times we don't have much of a squad yet.

Thing is thou I'd much rather be where we are now sitting safe on 41 points with 11 games to with a tired out of form squad than sitting on 30 points with a slightly fresher squad. We did brilliantly during the 2020 part of this season and that's what we should build on for next season.

I never for a second believed we would get into Europe this season, even when we were flying high as I always expected our players to tire in the 2nd half of the season. And frankly there is at least 8 teams that should finish ahead of us unless they have a meltdown season.

Season is not over, but it kinda feels like it. Hopefully we'll use it to blood some of our youngsters. In those situations where it's suitable so maybe not against Man C.

Edited March 13, 2021 by sne

[DCJonah]

2 minutes ago, sne said:

The season has been fizzling out since the new year, we're slowly running out of steam. Both physically and mentally. No doubt Covid helped speed up the process but we have a weak squad outside the starting 11 and have been relying heavily on 7-8 players. Been visibly clear that the va-va-voom has been gone for some while now even thou we've managed to scrap some results.

We all remember the seasons under MON and rightly like to point out what usually happens to teams managed by Bielsa. This is whats happening to us too this season, we're drained. The whole subs thing has been done to death but this was why some were bringing it up all the time in the match threads. Squad management and trying to prevent injuries.Then again as pointed out countless times we don't have much of a squad yet.

Thing is thou I'd much rather be where we are now sitting safe on 41 points with 11 games to with a tired out of form squad than sitting on 30 points with a slightly fresher squad. We did brilliantly during the 2020 part of this season and that's what we should build on for next season.

I never for a second believed we would get into Europe this season, even when we were flying high as I always expected our players to tire in the 2nd half of the season. And frankly there is at least 8 teams that should finish ahead of us unless they have a meltdown season.

Season is not over, but it kinda feels like it. Hopefully we'll use it to blood some of our youngsters. In those situations where it's suitable so maybe not against Man C.

Good post but the bit in bold is all sorts of wrong to me. 

We have no idea if these injuries wouldn't have occurred if Dean made a sub when VT wanted. 

We've rotated lots of positions in cm and out wide. We don't have any options to rotate other positions. 

Watkins has to play every single game, as do the back 4. 

 

[sne]

1 minute ago, DCJonah said:

Good post but the bit in bold is all sorts of wrong to me. 

We have no idea if these injuries wouldn't have occurred if Dean made a sub when VT wanted. 

We've rotated lots of positions in cm and out wide. We don't have any options to rotate other positions. 

Watkins has to play every single game, as do the back 4. 

 

Yeah, as I mentioned in my post we lack options.

We disagree on the subs thing, that's fine.

[foreveryoung]

So are they fatigued, poor players or just not doing as the manager tells them???

We look absolutely toothless in the final third without Grealish, it's like Smith relies so much on him, that without him, he is struggling to set up a team to get goals and win a game. Surely with Grealish out, Watkins should be the main goal threat and so we should try get everything to him.

[OxfordVillan]

1 hour ago, AVTuco said:

Does Smith order players to waste time in the end of games at the corner flag? Or do players decide to do it themselves? 

I thought McGinns attempt to waste time from our corner at the end was ridiculous, and McGinn has become very predictable in trying to turn his arse into opposition players to try and shield the ball. It’s nonsensical to play a short corner and to only commit one player to try and retain the ball. Newcastle were obviously desperate to get the ball and get up field, and they inevitably won the ball quickly and went upfield. What they would have been dreading was the possibility of conceding a chance on their goal from a well delivered corner, or at least the possibility that, with well positioned players outside of their penalty area, we recycled any clearance out of their box. It was really poor game management from us, poor execution of poor game management. FFS, make the opposition defend the set piece from their penalty box, the danger area. You don’t have to over commit players for the corner, but FFS put ball into box and have yourselves set up to challenge for any potential clearance. Newcastle equalised by swinging a ball into the box, a cross that went completely unchallenged by McGinn as he ambled out with a token gesture of a challenge. 

 

 

[nick76]

2 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

So are they fatigued, poor players or just not doing as the manager tells them???

We look absolutely toothless in the final third without Grealish, it's like Smith relies so much on him, that without him, he is struggling to set up a team to get goals and win a game. Surely with Grealish out, Watkins should be the main goal threat and so we should try get everything to him.

To be fair that isn’t surprisingly, he’s our superstar creator, just like Man U stats without Fernandes is wildly different to with Fernandes.

I agree though that without Grealish, everything should focus on Watkins and suit his best qualities whereas we don’t seem to be doing that at the moment.  Whether we are trying but we have poor quality through either players, form or opposition know we would do that without Grealish playing....who knows, probably a mixture of all.

[DCJonah]

3 minutes ago, nick76 said:

To be fair that isn’t surprisingly, he’s our superstar creator, just like Man U stats without Fernandes is wildly different to with Fernandes.

I agree though that without Grealish, everything should focus on Watkins and suit his best qualities whereas we don’t seem to be doing that at the moment.  Whether we are trying but we have poor quality through either players, form or opposition know we would do that without Grealish playing....who knows, probably a mixture of all.

The problem is though when Watkins plays like he did last night. Incredibly difficult to build attacks when your forward can't hold the ball up. 

[nick76]

6 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

The problem is though when Watkins plays like he did last night. Incredibly difficult to build attacks when your forward can't hold the ball up. 

Very true!

Just amazing what form does to a player/team.  Only three/four months ago we were one of the most exciting teams to watch but now it’s like watching paint dry. This poor form didn’t start when Jack got injured, it started a few games before.

We are just going through a bad spell which we will come out of as all good teams do.

We aren’t the top six team a lot we’re hoping for but we aren’t a lower half team either.  We have to take the good with the bad, we know we are a couple of transfer windows from a good squad and we still have players learning (one of the youngest teams around).

So I’m disappointed about the performance yesterday but this season has been great overall.