Dean Smith

[Zatman]

3 minutes ago, barry'sboots said:

No-one will ever know.  Of course it is, by definition, hypothetical.  However, what I do know, having watched us for the last 10 games or so, is that bringing on El Ghazi and Barkley would not deliver a positive outcome. 

And you are wrong, most of the criticism is not because he doesn't follow my or anybody else's hypothetical scenarios, it is because he doesn't try anything other than what he has repeatedly tried over the past 10 games or so and that is just not getting us anywhere.

As for KD's record, I don't get how anyone who watched the Fulham game could say that KD is not a better option at the minute than most of our front line, Watkins and Jack excluded.  KD, supporting Ollie, certainly made a difference last week! 

I accept that the squad has deficiencies and I don't expect us to qualify for Europe - although I do think we had a chance given our strong start and a more tactically astute manager might have got us there given everyone else's deficiencies this season - but I do want us to at least give it a go.  To do that, at the minute, he has to try something different and he just can't seem to look past his 4-3-3 with ineffective wide players that produces nothing.

 

I think Liverpool backline are ok with physical players, they struggle against pace which we lack big time

[Delphinho123]

Frustrates me at times as a manager but still love the bloke. 

Should have dragged Traore off at HT and played Davis at some point today. 

[VillanousOne]

16 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

Well last season is the reason some of those same negative posters get jumped on. Because they've done nothing but moan about Smith from day 1. 

If you criticise pretty much everything he's done or create these wild expectations, it's no doubt some defend the manager. 

You're entitled to defend the manager, but if you stand back and take the emotion out if it, the majority aren't criticising everything he does, the majority don't have wild expectations.

Of course there are some that get carried away when criticising Dean, he gets flak he shouldn't, but unfortunately we are in a poor run of form and people want to see the team play better and get more points. I don't think it would be any different on any other forum with any other group of fans.

But again this is just an opinion.

[DCJonah]

3 minutes ago, VillanousOne said:

You're entitled to defend the manager, but if you stand back and take the emotion out if it, the majority aren't criticising everything he does, the majority don't have wild expectations.

Of course there are some that get carried away when criticising Dean, he gets flak he shouldn't, but unfortunately we are in a poor run of form and people want to see the team play better and get more points. I don't think it would be any different on any other forum with any other group of fans.

But again this is just an opinion.

Absolutely, and I don't get defensive with the majority on here. 

As I said, it's pretty obvious the ones who have had an agenda or create ridiculous expectations to have a moan. 

I think as a fan base, the vast majority of villa fans are right behind Dean and happy for him to have more time. 

[Tomaszk]

14 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

But hopefully not a repeat where he gets to spend £100m or so yet again on players and then it counts for nothing if Jack gets another long term injury and he has no plan B.

Our form since Jack has been injured is relegation form.

Don't really get what you're saying here.

You don't want to spend £100m on players again? Do you not think it'll help us get better?

Dean of course doesn't sign the players solely. Big department for that. My concern is the ones Dean has pushed for...Watkins...Cash...Konsa...Martinez are actually all our best players and whenever others get involved the quality dips.

[bose]

Despite everything we should finish at least top half and if (unlikely) Grealish is back early enough we can still make a push for Europe.

Very important summer though and if he gets backed (very probable) there will be pressure to get into Europe next season which is very exciting.

[sheepyvillian]

7 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Frustrates me at times as a manager but still love the bloke. 

I get that totally. 

[VillanousOne]

1 minute ago, DCJonah said:

Absolutely, and I don't get defensive with the majority on here. 

As I said, it's pretty obvious the ones who have had an agenda or create ridiculous expectations to have a moan. 

I think as a fan base, the vast majority of villa fans are right behind Dean and happy for him to have more time. 

Fair enough dude.

[KentVillan]

I’m just struggling to understand how a 2-1 away loss against the league champions, where we’ve been in with a realistic shout of a win or draw, is indicative of “poor form”.

I was much more disappointed with our performance against Fulham tbh. Today I thought we put up a decent fight against a top side.

Obviously Smith didn’t get everything right, and obviously I wish we had 3 points. But the project is still moving in the right direction, and it’s far too soon to be replacing Smith imo.

[M_Afro]

I think the story leaking about Gerrard in the week is interesting. It is probably bs but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Dean did come under pressure from the board. Purslow stated at the end of last season that the expectation had been higher than a seventeenth place finish. They invested again and would have been happy with the first half of the season.

They then invested again in January and we have plummeted! They will not be at all happy with our post Christmas form. They will also not be happy with the fact that no matter how much they give the manager to buy new players we are still totally dependent on a kid who was already at the club when they took over!

Taking the above into account, I think they gave Dean a second chance after last season. I think they will give him another one at the end of this season. I do not think he will get another one after that. A poor start next season or another one of his awful long runs next season and I think they will make a change.

If the above is true then I would be happy with that. I think that would be fair on all parties concerned. Hopefully he will turn it around and we will fly next season. You can’t help but want him to succeed. Not convinced though to be honest.

[MotoMkali]

I like him but he has been very frustrating this last run of form. 

The handling of Jack's injury has been annoying. I understand that e had a set back. But when you go he is onyl out because he is ill against spurs. Then we find out he hadn't even trained that week. And wasn't ready for the games 2 weeks after that. 

Barkley shouldn't even be on the subs bench let alone the pitch at this point. As much as I haven't thought much of Davis this season. He won us the game last week. And I'm disappointed that he wasn't brought on instead of barkley. You basically only play with 10 men with barkley may as well have put someone who can hold the ball up on. 

We also never show for the ball as a team. Which can only be down to coaching. Even shitty teams like Fulham regularly have easy passing options which we don't have. Once we start advancing the ball. 

[hippo]

2 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

I’m just struggling to understand how a 2-1 away loss against the league champions, where we’ve been in with a realistic shout of a win or draw, is indicative of “poor form”.

I was much more disappointed with our performance against Fulham tbh. Today I thought we put up a decent fight against a top side.

Obviously Smith didn’t get everything right, and obviously I wish we had 3 points. But the project is still moving in the right direction, and it’s far too soon to be replacing Smith imo.

What would you think though if our recent form (1 win in 8 is it) continues until the end of the season.? Would that still be moving in the right direction ? 

[hippo]

2 minutes ago, M_Afro said:

I think the story leaking about Gerrard in the week is interesting. It is probably bs but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Dean did come under pressure from the board. Purslow stated at the end of last season that the expectation had been higher than a seventeenth place finish. They invested again and would have been happy with the first half of the season.

They then invested again in January and we have plummeted! They will not be at all happy with our post Christmas form. They will also not be happy with the fact that no matter how much they give the manager to buy new players we are still totally dependent on a kid who was already at the club when they took over!

Taking the above into account, I think they gave Dean a second chance after last season. I think they will give him another one at the end of this season. I do not think he will get another one after that. A poor start next season or another one of his awful long runs next season and I think they will make a change.

If the above is true then I would be happy with that. I think that would be fair on all parties concerned. Hopefully he will turn it around and we will fly next season. You can’t help but want him to succeed. Not convinced though to be honest.

Much as I see it TBH.

[Delphinho123]

6 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

Don't really get what you're saying here.

You don't want to spend £100m on players again? Do you not think it'll help us get better?

Dean of course doesn't sign the players solely. Big department for that. My concern is the ones Dean has pushed for...Watkins...Cash...Konsa...Martinez are actually all our best players and whenever others get involved the quality dips.

My worry is that we’re pushing this stats/moneyball angle with signings. Players like Sanson who runs around more than anyone in the French league as an example. That’s all well and good but do they have the quality and is it what we need?

Honestly, I’d be happier this summer just signing 3 players that Smith wants and are proven in this country. 

[tom_avfc]

24 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

But hopefully not a repeat where he gets to spend £100m or so yet again on players and then it counts for nothing if Jack gets another long term injury and he has no plan B.

Our form since Jack has been injured is relegation form.

 

 

If you take £100 million of talent out of any team they’re going to struggle. We struggled to stay up with him last season and will finish around about mid table this season without him for a large part of the season.

Wolves lost Jiminez and have struggled badly. We’ve lost Jack and have struggled badly. It happens.

The progress is there for all to see in that we’ll likely finish around 6 or 7 places higher in the table. In order to progress any further up the table it’s going to take a lot more money and that’s just how the premier league is.

While Smith continues to get our club finishing higher in the table than the level of the players suggests we should I’m not going to join the Smith out club.

To be honest the attitude towards Smith is putting me off going back to the ground pretty quickly. The immediate success that many seem to crave is completely unrealistic and I don’t fancy going back to the days where Villa Park had a toxic atmosphere that was more of a hinderance for our own players. 

Look at the turnaround over the past couple of years yet we were still playing a team that could bring on Thiago and Mane whilst we had Elmohamady on the bench. 

[Delphinho123]

His unwillingness to change the formation to accommodate our strengths and weaknesses really frustrates me as well at times. 

Look at our squad. We don’t have one decent winger in it, I think as a Villatalk community, it’s the one thing we unanimously agree on. That, and my username is s**t.

So, why not try a 3-5-2 / 5-3-2 with Targett and Cash offering the width and play Watkins off Davis? It could completely fail but surely it couldn’t be much worse than what we’ve witnessed in the last 10 matches? 

I get it, you work on a system and then sign players to fill that system but there comes a time where you can’t keep persisting with the same below par players week in, week out.

But what do I know.

[VillanousOne]

1 minute ago, KentVillan said:

I’m just struggling to understand how a 2-1 away loss against the league champions, where we’ve been in with a realistic shout of a win or draw, is indicative of “poor form”.

I was much more disappointed with our performance against Fulham tbh. Today I thought we put up a decent fight against a top side.

Obviously Smith didn’t get everything right, and obviously I wish we had 3 points. But the project is still moving in the right direction, and it’s far too soon to be replacing Smith imo.

Losing 2-1 away against the league champions would normally be nothing but you left out the fact they haven't won at home for six games and have lost to teams like Burnley and Brighton. Also they are a shadow of the team they were last season. And finally we whopped them 7:2 earlier in the season, sure we don't have our best player, but we could have got a point out of this game, if Grealish was playing we could have got something from this game, that's not on Dean.

But we have had a lot of opportunities to beat teams above us who have been on a crap run of form, look at Spurs, they were utterly dreadful and suffering dire form and yet beat us with ease.

The project has stopped going in the right direction, it's going nowhere. But I would argue we've improved enough for Dean to be given more time, he's earned that.

[PaulC]

I guess when you consider Barkley was magnificent in the home game against Liverpool you can see the reason he brought him on. Liverpool have underachieved this season but they still have better players in most positions to us, and a better bench. They can bring a world class forward off the bench like Mane we are talking about brining on a  player who has never scored a goal in the Premier League. 

[MotoMkali]

5 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

His unwillingness to change the formation to accommodate our strengths and weaknesses really frustrates me as well at times. 

Look at our squad. We don’t have one decent winger in it, I think as a Villatalk community, it’s the one thing we unanimously agree on. That, and my username is s**t.

So, why not try a 3-5-2 / 5-3-2 with Targett and Cash offering the width and play Watkins off Davis? It could completely fail but surely it couldn’t be much worse than what we’ve witnessed in the last 10 matches? 

I get it, you work on a system and then sign players to fill that system but there comes a time where you can’t keep persisting with the same below par players week in, week out.

But what do I know.

It completely dialed last season and it made us concede more and score less. It was horrific I don't see the point in changing to a more defensive system when our defence is already elite. 

[barry'sboots]

23 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

And this is where you look silly, because you stamp and moan about not getting anywhere, when no club has progressed as much as us since he arrived. 

We improve every season, so I think we are getting somewhere and will continue to do so. And when we stop, then I'm sure he will be replaced 

I'm afraid, my friend, that this is where you look silly, because I don't recall ever "stamping and moaning about not getting anywhere"! 

You seem to automatically jump to anyone that criticises Smith is, and always has been, a "Smith hater" and give no consideration at all to the validity of the underlying criticism!  I like Smith - I like him as a person, I like the way he goes out to win, I love that he is one of our own and I believe he has a good relationship with the players.  I have never, yet, called for him to be sacked/replaced and will not, at least at present.  I just want him to evolve and have stated that I hope he can become an elite manager.

However, I have and will continue to be critical of him for his inability to try different things when we are in a terrible run of form!  I've said numerous times that the definition of madness is to keep trying the same thing and expecting a different result.  That is what we seem to be doing.  He did it in the Championship when Jack was injured when he persisted with the same 4-3-3 and we just didn't have the players and we went on a terrible run.  Jack came back and we won 10 in a row.

El Ghazi and Barkley have proven, over the last 10 games or so, that they are not the answer.  KD, supporting Ollie, gets half an hour or so against Fulham and we score three goals.  Doesn't mean it will work every week, I accept that, but it does, in my mind, mean that he should have pushed himself well ahead of Barkley and El Ghazi in the manager's thinking and that a two up top should be an option.