Dean Smith

[DCJonah]

1 hour ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

Once again, ignoring my original post and it seems like you're twisting it to suit some other agenda... correct me if I'm wrong.

Smith chose to loan out Guilbert and Keep Elmo - Not the fans.

El Ghazi and Trezeguet are not our main creative wide players, I would say it's Grealish and Traore with the formers being back up to these two.

Davis as backup, correct.

However, Smith has had oppurtunitys to rectify the striker problem but chose to stick with an injured Wesley and a player who see's 5 minutes a game on odd occasions, it was always a dangerous idea and it's coming back to haunt him.

So I have no idea what this "Crying" bollocks that you are mentioning is all about, but back to my original post...

For you to come out now and use the squad depth issues as an argument is laughable, when many posters - including me - stated this back in September that we are still very light in many positions and lack squad depth and it's going to take it's toll come the latter stages of this season, but we got laughed off the forum for even trying to suggest this by some posters.

Smith has had more money to spend in these last two seasons than any other manager outside the top 4, but again we appear to be fading and going backwards.

We could have easily cemented a top 6 finish this season and looked like doing so until 6 weeks ago, Now we will be lucky if we finished in the top 12 due to looking like a one man team.

With Grealish out and Barkley in awful form, these two have had to be key parts of our creative attack. And they're not good enough. As shown last season. 

Guilbert and elmo are both average at this level. Neither are a strong replacement for cash. 

I'm not its all down to Smith to not buy a new striker. I believe we would have tried but with FFP and spending £50 million on Watkins and Wesley, I don't know how realistic it was. 

 Honestly, that large bold bit, what are you on about? Who said our squad didn't have depth problems? It's been obvious we need improvements in many areas. But your post stinks of I want it all right now. Purslow and Smith have said it will take staying in the prem for a few years to allow us to build a competitive squad. Stamp your feet all you want but this is the fact. 

I honestly don't get why some of you bring up the money spent (well actually i do) you know the situation last summer and why we had to spend so much. Let's not pretend he was able to spend it bringing in nothing but quality Premier league players. 

We could have easily cemented a top 6 place? This is your issue, you've allowed your expectations to reach delusional levels. That's not Dean's problem.

[DCJonah]

3 hours ago, tomav84 said:

i'm angry because we've dropped points vs shite teams and i'm angry because in jack's absence we have persisted with a style of play that doesn't suit the personnel we have, and have not even attempted something different to change our fortunes. i'm not angry about what might happen.

 

i expected us to be the bolded part to be honest and was fine with that but expectations change throughout the season. had we started shit, expectations would've shifted to the 'lets just stay up' mentality. do you not agree that it would be disappointing to finish bottom half seeing as we've been in the top half all season? because that's where we're headed. and this started before jack got injured.

we set a benchmark for the first half so some of us are rightly questioning why we are having this bad spell. it's not been through shitty VAR decisions, or a tough run of games. yes jack has been injured but we still should have done better vs the teams we've played with the team we had available. for the 6 games we've missed jack for we have looked totally toothless because of smith's insistence on using the wings despite them being inadequate and folks are rightly asking questions. the bad spell has been largely our own doing. it wasn't due to dodgy VAR decisions or a tough run of games. you accept those.

i watched the shite teams earlier in the season like sheff utd, newcastle, baggies etc thinking "thank **** this isn't my team anymore". i think it's OK to be annoyed that we are no better than those teams right now

Yeah I'd be a little disappointed. But seriously, what happens if we finish 8th or 13th? What's the major impact that has got everyone freaking out like the club is on the verge of destruction? 

This I do not get. Our owners got Jack Grealish to sign a new contract with the vision they have for this club. We need to chill the **** out and enjoy the journey. These owners are going to take us places and if Smith can't deliver, he will be sacked and I've no doubt we will attract a top manager. But until that moment, he's done nothing to deserve anything but support. 

 

[wilko154]

Once again I don't agree with the Dean Smith out shouts; it's also getting quite boring after losses.

Football has now become such a demanding sport, with an obsession with immediate actions for immediate results. Losing a game of football, or having a bad run of form shouldn't result in a manager losing their job just to please a section of supporters.

Smith has proven himself to be a good enough manager at this club over the last three seasons. Unfortunately for him right now, the club overachieved at the beginning of the season which is now provoking a backlash on him for recent results.

 

We really need to put some context into our current form:

• Currently missing Jack Grealish, our best player (ever?) in recent season
• Post Covid outbreak the performances have dipped possibly due to long covid effects
• A dip in performance from some of the squad during a strange season with little time to rest
• Injuries have played a big part this season. Cash being missing for 5 games was massive, El Ghazi and Barkley picking up injuries hasn't helped with Barkley not looking the same since. Wesley's prolonged route back has also not helped the striker situation. We just don't currently have the squad depth to deal with these problems.

 

The way forward:

• Grealish will soon be back which will lift the entire squad
• We are still mid rebuild and need to continue our Summer transfer activity to build a strong squad. Last season quality in the first team was a major problem and has largely (not completely) been fixed. This season squad depth has hit us hard in the recent weeks and needs addressing this Summer along with some quality.
• Smith is still learning in the PL and he will have learnt some lessons in recent week. But we have to remember how limited our squads options are.

 

It's not gone our way in recent weeks; but we are miles ahead of where I thought we would be this season. We still have a chance to finish the season strongly. And we then have another Summer where we can continue to rebuild this football club and squad; and there's no one else I would rather have at the helm than Dean Smith right now.

[Sulberto21]

I still believe that we will exceed my pre season prediction of 15 wins. Just 3 more to go. Hurry up you barstools and get them. We've been the better team in at least 18 games this season just the Covid stuff has hit us harder than expected.

[nick76]

54 minutes ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

10-12 games isn’t really a short term thing like you say, as we’re talking about 3 months there, but ok. 

But it’s two months not three but ok

56 minutes ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

To beat the weaker teams in the league and not drop unnecessary points (OK, can’t guarantee you might slip up once or twice in these games, but it’s happened 6-7 times to us this season)

Because Smith is looking to lose against these teams

58 minutes ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

To tweak the system and occasionally spring some surprises (tactics, formation, preparation etc) – Smith is too easy to get the better of tactically

We have done this many times in the season, yes mostly first half of the season but we did it against Leeds recently for example where Smith tactically out thought Bielsa who is loved by some on here

1 hour ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

I don’t want Smith gone, but I believe the final 10 games of the season are important. If this form continues and we slip badly down the table (not saying this will happen, just hypothesizing), then serious questions have to be asked of his management. 

I don’t know what these means....you don’t want Smith gone but then serious questions have to be asked....seems a contradiction.

You have other points but I’m bored having the same discussion over and over.

Just feels like we have some down form and then Smith’s management comes under question again like pre first covid last March.  Smith always takes one step backwards and two forward so I’m ok it with it all.  

In two years weve gone from a struggling Championship team to a struggling top ten Premier League team.  Looking forward to being a struggling top six team next season and hopefully a struggling top four team the season afterwards.  It’s so hard improving but struggling...

[nick76]

1 hour ago, mykeyb said:

So do we just persist? Dont try something new?

Again I’ll ask again, like what?

[romavillan]

3 hours ago, barry'sboots said:

Because he is so wedded to one system 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 which he just doesn't want to change, even though he doesn't have the personnel, without Jack, to play it effectively.

We don't know if the other systems would be better BUT they cannot be any worse than what we are getting at the minute!!

He did this in the Championship when Jack was injured and we went on a long losing streak before Jack came back and we won 10 in a row.

He is good at building a squad to play the way he wants to play - as he demonstrated at Brentford - but he is not good at showing any tactical flexibility, which he most definitely needs to do at the minute as we are half way through the squad build programme.

Compare him to Rodgers, for example, who switched them to a diamond in their game against Liverpool and saw a turnaround and has stuck with two strikers since and it is working.

It won't always work, but it is worth a try when what you keep trying is getting you nowhere!!

Hmmm, he shifted to a 4-4-2 diamond in the last game. 4-3-3 can be a million things. You think we won 10 on the bounce because and only because Jack came back? 

I disagree on the tactical flexibility. When he came in he got us trying to play proper attacking football, getting instant results with an unbalanced squad. After the 5-5 with Forest it was clear that perhaps balls out might not be the right thing to be doing, we went through a bad patch, he changed the way we played and we went on a great run. Last year we were going down till the break. Smith looked at it and worked hard with the players and when we came back we were transformed. That defensive transformation is the reason why we've been so solid this year at the back. Inside the 4-3-3 he's wedded to, that's already 3 or 4 different ways to play it tactically and he's evolved the tactics to solve our problems. 

I think he'll do this again and come up with the solutions to our problems again. I think he's far from limited, I think he is always learning and thinkign of ways to improve. Rodgers has had failure with far more talented squads than ours currently is, he's bounced back though and he's doing really well. I don't think he's a better coach than Smith though and hopefully Smith will get the time and backing his success thus far deserves and he gets a chance to prove it with more talent at his disposal.

[Demitri_C]

2 hours ago, lexicon said:

So bad? Our downs this season are way better than last season, and then if you compare them to our last season before that in the prem... 

We're happily on our way - this isn't a great period but it won't last forever. It's all part of the journey. 

Id aay this recent run has been as bad as last year to be honest. Its relegation form and we have played some poor sides recently. 

I want to see more from smith winning games and being able to play without grealish

Edited March 22, 2021 by Demitri_C

[Follyfoot]

1 hour ago, Zatman said:

I think some people got caught out by the freak start to the season and the hype about its unpredictability. if i remember we were the last team to lose

City and Chelsea got there act together and West ham is the only overachieving team in the league who in the end will probably still finish behind Liverpool or Spurs

I see us a conparison to Leicester last season, in the title race at Christmas, top 4 all season and didn't even make Champions League in the end. Bet Leicester fans werent as aggressively against Rodgers all the time

It was a bit more than that, in all of the games until COVID we got outplayed in two half's of football, Leeds and Southampton. We were ridiculously consistent, yes some of the results did not go our way but that was due to us not putting the ball in the net more from the 20 or more chances we created each game, Burnley I think we had 20 shots in the first half. Something has happened since the 2nd half away at Turf Moor and I can not put my finger on it 

[Mjvilla]

57 minutes ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

 

Thanks. I can see this from both sides really. I can see what Dean is trying to do. He's right in what he says, when I was 18-24 before the missus and kids, I was up all hours. There's no doubting that in my mind. He's trying to allow footballers to live as normal lives a possible, I guess. 

But, I also see the discipline side to it. A player gets paid enough, he should be able to train at 10.30am. 

Is it specifically a change we made after the covid break to change our form? Because we were fantastic before it. Was discipline an issue then? Was being up late a problem then?

[Zatman]

20 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Id aay this recent run has been as bad as last year to be honest. Its relegation form and we have played some poor sides recently. 

I want to see more from smith winning games and being able to play without grealish

Have we lost 6-1 at home and a 4-0 away or 3-0 to a relegation battling team

[DCJonah]

In the last decade, there have been two seasons where a club, outside of the usual top teams, managed to finish in the top 6. 

Has a team ever gone from bottom half of the championship to top 6 in the prem in 2 and a half years? 

How many teams have gone from barely survived to top 6 in just one season? 

You'd think it happens all the time the way some make out how easily we should have done it. 

[DCJonah]

1 minute ago, Zatman said:

Have we lost 6-1 at home and a 4-0 away or 3-0 to a relegation battling team

Short memories. 

 

[Zatman]

Just now, DCJonah said:

In the last decade, there have been two seasons where a club, outside of the usual top teams, managed to finish in the top 6. 

Has a team ever gone from bottom half of the championship to top 6 in the prem in 2 and a half years? 

How many teams have gone from barely survived to top 6 in just one season? 

You'd think it happens all the time the way some make out how easily we should have done it. 

but Leicester did why cant Villa 

[Giro]

4 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

In the last decade, there have been two seasons where a club, outside of the usual top teams, managed to finish in the top 6. 

Has a team ever gone from bottom half of the championship to top 6 in the prem in 2 and a half years? 

How many teams have gone from barely survived to top 6 in just one season? 

You'd think it happens all the time the way some make out how easily we should have done it. 

Agreed mate, Jesus some of the reactions on here 

[Zatman]

Dean Smith record at Villa is 40 percent win ratio, without Jack its 4 wins in 20 league games when he was injured (he was rested one game which I dont count) which is 25 percent. Its not really as bad as the OTT reactions from some

Edited March 22, 2021 by Zatman

[PaulC]

 

5 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

In the last decade, there have been two seasons where a club, outside of the usual top teams, managed to finish in the top 6. 

Has a team ever gone from bottom half of the championship to top 6 in the prem in 2 and a half years? 

How many teams have gone from barely survived to top 6 in just one season? 

You'd think it happens all the time the way some make out how easily we should have done it. 

But we are Aston Villa and expectations are higher here than a lot of other clubs. I am very happy with Smith myself. think hes done a great job. Next season will be make or break. If we continue to make progress that will be great, if we slip back into a relegation battle that wont be tolerated

[AvfcRigo82]

1 hour ago, DCJonah said:

With Grealish out and Barkley in awful form, these two have had to be key parts of our creative attack. And they're not good enough.

Guilbert and elmo are both average at this level. Neither are a strong replacement for cash. 

I'm not its all down to Smith to not buy a new striker. I believe we would have tried but with FFP and spending £50 million on Watkins and Wesley, I don't know how realistic it was. 

 Honestly, that large bold bit, what are you on about? Who said our squad didn't have depth problems? It's been obvious we need improvements in many areas. But your post stinks of I want it all right now. Purslow and Smith have said it will take staying in the prem for a few years to allow us to build a competitive squad. Stamp your feet all you want but this is the fact. 

I honestly don't get why some of you bring up the money spent (well actually i do) you know the situation last summer and why we had to spend so much. Let's not pretend he was able to spend it bringing in nothing but quality Premier league players. 

We could have easily cemented a top 6 place? This is your issue, you've allowed your expectations to reach delusional levels. That's not Dean's problem.

So now Grealish isn't good enough!?

The large bit in bold comes - believe it or not - where many posters had a mindset that we didn't need squad depth and were posting as if we would be immune to suspensions and injuries etc. this season like it wouldn't happen to us (tbf, we've been quite lucky up until now).

They wouldn't have it that we were light in all positions outside of our strongest XI and many posters were shot down for suggesting we needed further improvement.

(I am sure if you can be arsed to scroll through the hundreds of pages of threads you will eventually find these posts I mention).

It's okay saying we tried for a striker but then shrugging it off as acceptable that we didn't find one?

Listen, I give up with you as we are going round in circles due to you going off in different directions with each reply you're posting while seemingly putting words in my mouth, twisting my posts and making bullshit remarks of people crying and stamping their feet.

So we will leave it at that.

[Zatman]

1 minute ago, PaulC said:

 

But we are Aston Villa and expectations are higher here than a lot of other clubs. I am very happy with Smith myself. think hes done a great job. Next season will be make or break. If we continue to make progress that will be great, if we slip back into a relegation battle that wont be tolerated

Why? In the last 10 years we have been one of the biggest jokes in English football. Just because we have a great name means nothing. Celtic, Hamburg and Nottingham Forest are great names too but it means nothing. We havent finished above Crystal Palace, Newcastle, Southampton or West Ham since 2013 

Leicester, PSG and Man CIty are lesser names and are a billion miles ahead of us

[mykeyb]

1 hour ago, DCJonah said:

We're 10th and people are having a meltdown. It's been constant moaning all season by some, regardless of performances and results. 

If they aren't demanding we finish higher then what's the issue?

Dean can, and has done things wrong. But I never get the desire to focus on these when overall the bigger picture is very good. 

Like with Martinez, he's been superb so I see no reason to really focus and criticise his error, that led to the goal last night. 

 

So you won't name your side for Fulham if Jacks not fit?

Maybe the issue is the lack of performance. No attempts on target at home to Spurs with just missing our best player..................