Dean Smith

[nick76]

Just now, MotoMkali said:

We were also mainly playing counter attacking football which was certainly entertaining but not the type of football Smith is known for. Just because it is entertaining doesn't mean it is "Smith" Ball as villalad put. 

Can’t change the parameters to your original argument now.  Glad you accepted we were playing entertaining football or “pretty stuff” as it was called this season, even just first half of the season and not your original comment that we haven’t this season.

[MotoMkali]

Just now, nick76 said:

Can’t change the parameters to your original argument now.  Glad you accepted we were playing entertaining football or “pretty stuff” as it was called this season, even just first half of the season and not your original comment that we haven’t this season.

Whatever. You are misinterpreting my statement. I was referring to the possession and attacking football he was known for at Brentford and not the counter attacking stuff we played at the start of this season. Despite the fact that we are pretty damn effective at the possession stuff when we try it. 

[nick76]

2 minutes ago, MotoMkali said:

Whatever. You are misinterpreting my statement. I was referring to the possession and attacking football he was known for at Brentford and not the counter attacking stuff we played at the start of this season. Despite the fact that we are pretty damn effective at the possession stuff when we try it. 

See if you’d been clearer then all would’ve been good than saying he isn’t doing the pretty stuff this season.  Glad you cleared up your error so we all understand what you meant.  

Now I agree we haven’t played that type of football but there are many reasons for that, which have been discussed on here many times so I won’t bore people repeating them.

[DaveAV1]

22 hours ago, villalad21 said:

The squad was somewhat overrated. 

We had capable players at that level much like we have now. But we really didn't have any world beaters except for maybe Ash 

When I think about it I would actually say our current squad is stronger. 

What MON did was getting the most out of his players. We were very consistent for the most part except our players burning out the last 10 games. 

Smith is way too streaky and cannot seem to find consistency. 

Pass me my Elasticated Rubber Pants (ERP) image. 

Edited May 9, 2021 by DaveAV1

[DaveAV1]

3 hours ago, villalad21 said:

..Give me David Moyes football anyday if Smith's pretty on the eye stuff can only get you mid table.

West Ham play good stuff at times but a lot of the time they are getting those ugly wins. They are by no means what i would call a "good on the eye" type of team.

Leeds play a lot better football than West Ham but it comes with a price and it ain't as effective.

Twang! There goes the elastic. 

[yayoboy]

4 hours ago, villalad21 said:

 

Give me David Moyes football anyday if Smith's pretty on the eye stuff can only get you mid table.

West Ham play good stuff at times but a lot of the time they are getting those ugly wins. They are by no means what i would call a "good on the eye" type of team.

Leeds play a lot better football than West Ham but it comes with a price and it ain't as effective.

 

3 hours ago, MotoMkali said:

He's not done any of the pretty on the eye stuff this season and it is why we have sucked for half the season. 

[MotoMkali]

53 minutes ago, yayoboy said:

 

Makes no sense. I was saying lately we have been playing shit football and are ineffective.

Besides I'm generally really positive about our players. And such but I have felt since Christmas we have dramatically underperformed. We don't play possession football except for 10-15 minute stretches and when we do we look pretty damn amazing. I Don't think the players choose not to play nice passing football so it must be a mandate from. Elsewhere. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

4 minutes ago, MotoMkali said:

Makes no sense. I was saying lately we have been playing shit football and are ineffective.

Besides I'm generally really positive about our players. And such but I have felt since Christmas we have dramatically underperformed. We don't play possession football except for 10-15 minute stretches and when we do we look pretty damn amazing. I Don't think the players choose not to play nice passing football so it must be a mandate from. Elsewhere. 

You think they are instructed not to play nice passing football? 

[MotoMkali]

Just now, Vive_La_Villa said:

You think they are instructed not to play nice passing football? 

I think we are instructed to counter attack and defend. Which is why our midfielders never come short. Otherwise it is an issue that would have already been addressed this season. When we actually try to play the ball we look so smooth and fluid. 

[VillanousOne]

1 hour ago, MotoMkali said:

I think we are instructed to counter attack and defend. Which is why our midfielders never come short. Otherwise it is an issue that would have already been addressed this season. When we actually try to play the ball we look so smooth and fluid. 

Luiz was coming short against Everton.

[MotoMkali]

59 minutes ago, VillanousOne said:

Luiz was coming short against Everton.

He's normally the only one who comes short.

Everton was the only game since Christmas where we have actually tried to play "football". And we were actually really good and deserved the victory against a pretty good side even without our best player. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

Fans talk about how we play as if there is no opposition and then conclude the instructions have come from Smith. Everton didn’t really press well and it allowed our players to have more time on the ball and move it around. There was also large spaces all over the pitch for us to exploit.

I think we always try and play a passing game. We just get unstuck against better opposition as we do not have the quality to take the ball under pressure and keep it moving. More often than not we lose possession and eventually end up dropping and looking like a counter attacking team. 
 

Basically we need to keep the ball a lot better than we do and that might mean upgrading on certain players in the summer.

Edited May 9, 2021 by Vive_La_Villa

[a m ole]

6 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Fans talk about how we play as if there is no opposition

My absolute number one pet hate.

[Dave-R]

1 hour ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Fans talk about how we play as if there is no opposition and then conclude the instructions have come from Smith. Everton didn’t really press well and it allowed our players to have more time on the ball and move it around. There was also large spaces all over the pitch for us to exploit.

I think we always try and play a passing game. We just get unstuck against better opposition as we do not have the quality to take the ball under pressure and keep it moving. More often than not we lose possession and eventually end up dropping and looking like a counter attacking team. 
 

Basically we need to keep the ball a lot better than we do and that might mean upgrading on certain players in the summer.

Ahhh the story of keeping the ball better.

So where do we need to keep the ball better, where are the usual culprits, this is where many of us arrive at a point we critise our final third players which are usually our Wingers and attacking players. Which you know full well which players are failing us at keeping possession up front, many do but the moment you mention them a swift defence is mounted against any critism that comes there way. 

Point blank we need to spend on players that can keep control of the ball for longer. Look at how City do it, they will dance around the edges of your box all day, only have to look at last season's carabao cup final to see how they did it against us. Sure they have much better quality than what we did last season and though we're slowly bridging a gap, we must improve the quality of signings who can do exactly what City players do. You can see were trying to do exactly what City do, it's just having that calibre of player at the club and finally pulling it off.

I think the system is in place, but I do think we need a much better all round level of player at the club to pull it all off and fit the jigsaw puzzle properly.

Edited May 9, 2021 by Dave-R

[AvfcRigo82]

Mentioned it in that match thread, but fair play to Deano today for giving it a real go.

It was great to see him make changes when needed and throwing two more strikers on to try and salvage something.

Unlucky in the result against a horrible corrupt little club.

 

[DCJonah]

I was quite happy with how we played. Luiz stupidity completely changed momentum and then Mings and Martinez aren't good enough for the 2nd. 

We make some really poor decisions at time. 

[holteend1982]

Can't fault him today, the referee was a joke and individual errors cost us 

[paul514]

Pretty much the same as the last three posts.

[Indigo]

Played well on the whole but it's the fine margins you get stung by against good teams and that's what happened today. Silly decisions in isolated moments from individual players let us down, hopefully the squad can take encouragement from the performance and not let the result knock us back. 

[AV82]

Two individual errors and a silly red card will take the attention off what was a really strong performance in the first half. This is the next step. Playing smart, cutting out mistakes and keeping our cool over 90 minutes is what will propel us into Europe.