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Dean Smith


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20 minutes ago, Paul33 said:

So many pages about our manager and speculation that is based on what exactly ? Some tin pot clickbait websites that have no credibility ? Steven Gerrard inbound ? Based on a season of success in a tinpot league ? 

Dean Smith is going absolutely nowhere but Villa Park. He is part of the long term plans at the club and will be here for many seasons to come and if anybody doubts that, I'll take any wager you want to make. Progress this season has been very good and that progress will continue next season so strap yourselves in, stop whinging about the last few games and start thinking long term and beyond the end of your noses because we are going places ..... trust me !

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1 hour ago, Paul33 said:

So many pages about our manager and speculation that is based on what exactly ? Some tin pot clickbait websites that have no credibility ? Steven Gerrard inbound ? Based on a season of success in a tinpot league ? 

Dean Smith is going absolutely nowhere but Villa Park. He is part of the long term plans at the club and will be here for many seasons to come and if anybody doubts that, I'll take any wager you want to make. Progress this season has been very good and that progress will continue next season so strap yourselves in, stop whinging about the last few games and start thinking long term and beyond the end of your noses because we are going places ..... trust me !

So do you have any concerns about our current form or lack of plan b when jacks not available?

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2 hours ago, TRO said:

We can all call on stats.....but,you only have to watch the games to know, something is amiss....Too many fans know this too.

You simply cannot do some of the things we are doing and expect to win games.....sure, we win a few, but you can't expect to.

Yeah but people say our form is relegation form which is a factual question with a correct answer. If you’re unhappy with the way we’re playing at the moment that’s fair enough, but there’s no way we’re one of the 3 worst teams in the league, and we haven’t been at any point.

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for the record, we have improved this season under Dean (as we have every season he has been manager) and I believe we will continue to improve next season under Dean.

But that doesn't stop me and other people being disappointed in current results and form and pointing out some of the problems. Not seen any people who want Dean sacked (maybe there has been but on the whole I think it's a minority) and deep down we don't see what he does in training to justify the decisions he makes that we don't understand. 

We got a taste of Top 6 football but a Top 10 finish would still be a massive improvement. 

Our form is dreadful though and we have a lot of tough games left, I don't know how the majority fans or the owners would feel if this form continued to the end of the season. I personally still wouldn't sack Dean but there are a lot of things that need sorting out in the summer.

Edited by VillanousOne
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26 minutes ago, VillanousOne said:

for the record, we have improved this season under Dean (as we have every season he has been manager) and I believe we will continue to improve next season under Dean.

But that doesn't stop me and other people being disappointed in current results and form and pointing out some of the problems. Not seen any people who want Dean sacked (maybe there has been but on the whole I think it's a minority) and deep down we don't see what he does in training to justify the decisions he makes that we don't understand. 

We got a taste of Top 6 football but a Top 10 finish would still be a massive improvement. 

Our form is dreadful though and we have a lot of tough games left, I don't know how the majority fans or the owners would feel if this form continued to the end of the season. I personally still wouldn't sack Dean but there are a lot of things that need sorting out in the summer.

Ofc there are things that will need sorting out come the summer. We're a midtable team with higher ambitions. New recruitment to improve on what we have will be needed. Do we trust Dean et al to see what needs improving? I haven't heard a lot of post-match interviews to indicate otherwise.

I think Dean wants to be play fluid attacking football from a solid backline and prefers the 433 formation. With our current squad we don't have enough quality to consistently execute on this. Maybe he thinks the more we persist with it the better we will adapt to it even though our form bounces. He has shown it can work wonders too as shown by our performances earlier in the season.

I think we'll see a summer of more talent coming in to give us better options to suit this style. Then we will see if we're able to push on.

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4 hours ago, TRO said:

I think the sort of things that are wrong, Dean has the ability to fix them.

It doesn't take the worlds best managers to fix us.....its doable for Dean.

Dean Smith, is not going anywhere.....Dean Smith just needs to address the issues, being spelled out on this site and it might take alternative playing personnel to do it.....but he must sign the right players.

as an example......Its no good signing a full back, when we need a striker or its no good signng another attacking midfielder, when he need a commanding General.....its getting the round pegs in the round holes and the square pegs in the square holes.

That is not beyond, Dean Smith.....our problems are not Rocket Science.

I don't think it's quite as easy as you're laying out here.

Everyone is trying to make it work. Only one team can win the league, three will go down even if there's 20 good sides in the league.

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I think you start having problems as a team when you stop creating chances. It’s why earlier in the season I didn’t mind so much when we lost games like Brighton and West Ham because when you know you create that many chances in each game the results will eventually come. For a while now we’ve been relying on our solid defence keeping the opposition out and nicking a goal.  When that becomes the trend it doesn’t become so enjoyable to watch and a little worrying. 

I think it’s why teams such as Leeds and to an extent (please don’t shoot me down) Brighton were probably not as worried during periods of bad form as in the games they were dropping points they were still creating  a lot of chances. 
 

I hate the fact our creativity has totally dried up. So desperate for Jack to return.

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6 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I think you start having problems as a team when you stop creating chances. It’s why earlier in the season I didn’t mind so much when we lost games like Brighton and West Ham because when you know you create that many chances in each game the results will eventually come. For a while now we’ve been relying on our solid defence keeping the opposition out and nicking a goal.  When that becomes the trend it doesn’t become so enjoyable to watch and a little worrying. 

I think it’s why teams such as Leeds and to an extent (please don’t shoot me down) Brighton were probably not as worried during periods of bad form as in the games they were dropping points they were still creating  a lot of chances. 
 

I hate the fact our creativity has totally dried up. So desperate for Jack to return.

There's no hiding from the fact we've been crap for a fair old time now.

We seem to be able to get one end of the pitch right and not the other.

If the balance is found consistently, my word what a side we'll be.

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On 12/04/2021 at 01:25, TRO said:

I think our form is the issue, not the season.

I think the argument to sack the manager has holes in it.....and yes it would be stupid to contemplate it.....but here's the thing.

  • We are 16th in the form League after 6 games
  • We are behind WBA in that form league,who are going down.
  • If the games are being watched with any discerning eye, there are many area's of Concern.....are we just drifting/sleep walking to the end of the season, because we are safe.
  • We have won 1 in 6 games.

So, I have heard the manager make references to these poor performances, so its not our imagination.... what I haven't heard is any suggestions of how to remedy it....or how to deal with the errors....we need a motivation vaccination.

Now, The manager is responsible for our play, through the good times and the bad times, what I am not seeing at present, is any sign of some of our weaknesses, being remedied....I see the same concerns, match in match out lately, with no redress...that is concerning.

The simple remedy, which I’m sure Dean and the rest of the coaching and recruitment staff are fully aware of, is to increase the quality of the squad. We have become very jaded and high energy was the basis of out early season success. Many of our better players have played the majority of games and the options on the bench just aren’t there this season. Klopp and Pepe never shut up about players being tired and playing too many games. Just look at their squads compared to ours. 

I’m not suggesting for a minute that Dean Smith is a perfect manager that doesn’t make mistakes. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t see himself that way either but at the end of the day we have an average squad that is probably a below average squad when you take Jack out of it. To criticise what he says in public is frankly daft. Would you suggest he says stuff like, the players are all knackered but I have to keep playing them because the rest of the players aren’t very good? Or perhaps me and the rest of the coaches have told player x not to do that until we’re blue in the face but he’s clearly an idiot and we’re dumping him at the end of the season? 

The club, the team and the manager are all a work in progress and over a reasonable amount of time we are progressing. If after every dozen games or so we decide that we need to make a change as fundamental as changing the head coach, we would rightly be viewed as a complete basket case of a club, which for once in a long time we’re not. 

With the army of data and other analysts the club employs and with a co-owner that is very publicly supportive of such a set up, there’s absolutely no way that we aren’t fully aware of all the faults and failings of the first team including the head coach. However don’t expect those faults and failings or indeed the strengths to be discussed publicly. 

Edited by DaveAV1
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16 hours ago, TRO said:

Dave....just one point to consider, some players have not played every game, Hause, Jack, Nakamba, Ramsey, Sanson, Barkley, Cash, we are not in any cups or in Europe.....so I don't see how the fatigue argument has any legs.

I’m fully aware that some players haven’t played all the games. I’m aware that we have played less games than some of the other teams, but in general those teams that are in Europe or who have progressed further in the domestic cups have much higher quality squads than we have. I’m not arguing that the players are out on their feet, but they are quite definitely jaded compared with the first half of the season. 

The defence picks itself every week, there is nobody pushing any of them for a place. Ollie Watkins has absolutely no adequate cover. It’s only in our weakest area of the pitch, midfield that we have any decision making to do as to team selection and apart from Jack. The exercise in midfield is to select the least bad combination. 

Your list of players that haven’t played every game includes Jack and Matt Cash. Are you suggesting that they have been rested? Ramsey is a development player and Sanson is now injured and only joined us in January, so to include him in a list of players that hasn’t played every game is rather silly. Barkley hasn’t played every game because he’s rubbish, nothing to do with adequate quality to allow rotation. If you think that our squad is anything like strong enough over a whole season to be a top 6/7 squad then I’d have to disagree. 

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8 hours ago, Tomaszk said:

There's no hiding from the fact we've been crap for a fair old time now.

We seem to be able to get one end of the pitch right and not the other.

If the balance is found consistently, my word what a side we'll be.

This defensive improvement could be under question also. I mean, have we improved that much, the shots are still getting past the defence, it's just Martinez saving them all, his stats for saved goals are up there with the bottom 3-4

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56 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

This defensive improvement could be under question also. I mean, have we improved that much, the shots are still getting past the defence, it's just Martinez saving them all, his stats for saved goals are up there with the bottom 3-4

The 14 clean sheets would suggest the defence has improved

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