Dean Smith

[KentVillan]

Just now, Laughable Chimp said:

Those are some mighty high expectations imo. I guess it really depends on the summer signings we make but i would generally be satisfied if we finished in midtable again but I could take finishing in 11th, 12th or 13th. I don't buy into this, continuous progressive march forward we should have every season. Most clubs don't continuously keep moving forward and I wouldn't expect Smith's position to be untenable just for being slightly worse than last season's performance.

Most clubs don't have a lot of money. I think we're a fair bit wealthier than the clubs around us, and should be expecting progress.

I'd be more understanding if things stall around top 6, where our rivals are very rich. But for now we should keep kicking on.

[PaulC]

9 minutes ago, Laughable Chimp said:

Those are some mighty high expectations imo. I guess it really depends on the summer signings we make but i would generally be satisfied if we finished in midtable again but I could take finishing in 11th, 12th or 13th. I don't buy into this, continuous progressive march forward we should have every season. Most clubs don't continuously keep moving forward and I wouldn't expect Smith's position to be untenable just for being slightly worse than last season's performance.

Be difficult to keep your best players if we dont kick on from this next season. We need to be aiming for a europa league spot. 

[nick76]

6 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

Most clubs don't have a lot of money. I think we're a fair bit wealthier than the clubs around us, and should be expecting progress.

I'd be more understanding if things stall around top 6, where our rivals are very rich. But for now we should keep kicking on.

I think we have to expect city, United, Leicester, Liverpool and Chelsea to spend. Everton will spend given they brought in Carlo, Spurs will spend when they appoint a new manager, Arsenal are already talking about spending.  West Ham will waste money as usual....So that’s 9 above us they are likely to spend good, if not significant amounts....so there is more than just the top six and all have a healthy squad size over us to begin with.  We should still kick on but I’m not sure it’s as easy as you are implying even with our owners.

[KentVillan]

3 minutes ago, nick76 said:

I think we have to expect city, United, Leicester, Liverpool and Chelsea to spend. Everton will spend given they brought in Carlo, Spurs will spend when they appoint a new manager, Arsenal are already talking about spending.  West Ham will waste money as usual....So that’s 9 above us they are likely to spend good, if not significant amounts....so there is more than just the top six and all have a healthy squad size over us to begin with.  We should still kick on but I’m not sure it’s as easy as you are implying even with our owners.

You're misunderstanding what I'm saying, or I haven't explained myself well enough. I don't think we should finish top 6 next season, but we should certainly be scrapping for it, and if we finish 13th that will be a failure. I'd be satisfied with anything 9th or above, but I'd like to see us a bit higher than that.

Edited May 13, 2021 by KentVillan

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

33 minutes ago, nick76 said:

I think we have to expect city, United, Leicester, Liverpool and Chelsea to spend. Everton will spend given they brought in Carlo, Spurs will spend when they appoint a new manager, Arsenal are already talking about spending.  West Ham will waste money as usual....So that’s 9 above us they are likely to spend good, if not significant amounts....so there is more than just the top six and all have a healthy squad size over us to begin with.  We should still kick on but I’m not sure it’s as easy as you are implying even with our owners.

Their performances and position this season suggest different. Also, Moyes is no mug.

[Zatman]

4 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Their performances and position this season suggest different. Also, Moyes is no mug.

They have a 40 million winger out on loan and in January lost money on Haller and snoddy who cost 55 million combined 

Moyes has got a good few signings but is capable of spending money on crap

[VillaChris]

13th next season would be pretty disappointing, can't really see how it would be spun any other way.

Currently we're 11th. As frustrating as it is we have to accept with wage bills and stuff there's no shock to all the teams above us bar Leeds being where they are. Leeds have hit great run in last 6 weeks taking many points off top 6 teams so that's given them the slight edge as it stands but still all to play for last 3 games.

Finishing two places lower would mean two of Wolves, Palace, Southampton, Brighton, Newcastle, Burnley or a newly promoted club coming up and storming it finishing above us. It really shouldn't happen bar Wolves getting Jimenez fit again and also signing really good players again rather than young projects which has cost them a bit this season.

Also no idea how we'd keep Grealish finishing in that position so don't think there should be this reluctance to keep trying to move forward all the time. After 06/07 we didn't finish bottom half for another 5 seasons for example so the upward approach and demands worked o.k for that period.

 

[TRO]

There is going to have to be a very strong recruitment campaign, to improve on this season, next season.

 

[QldVilla]

17 minutes ago, TRO said:

There is going to have to be a very strong recruitment campaign, to improve on this season, next season.

 

I think the club need to be smart with the pre season training and most importantly ensure those players in the Euros have a proper break and pre season, even if that means not playing for the first 3-4 weeks.

Hence, the strong recruitment, can see teams struggling with long term injuries if they don’t get the balance right. Players have been stressed for 18 months, they need to be smart, even if that’s an extra 2-3 week break.

[fruitvilla]

Reading through comments on Villa Talk, I get an appreciation of what variables Dean Smith has to take into account, weigh, balance, implement and take responsibility for. I suppose this is true for most elite managers.

 

Dean Smith has my respect.

[Demitri_C]

The game waa crap but i dontvhave any complainants against smith for this one.

Everton are not a easy team by any means. Getting 4 points from this year is a good return.

[Dave-R]

It's a tough one with Smith against this Everton side. Part of me Wonders if there is anything more that could of been done by pulling the sodding Wingers into the midfield. We are wasting players because they are not doing as much as they could be doing because they are stuck out on the wings waiting for there possession. I felt like a formation change in the ways of having our Wingers join our midfield would of been good.

As for the team,it was a weakened team and not much could be done about that. Even makeing a sub for Grealish wouldn't of yielded much of a result because it's his first game back in 12.

I didn't expect much from this game to begin with, you can read my comment in the Everton thread before the game began. I actually thought Everton was going to win, so the fact we did not is a surprise and a delight for me.

Roll on till season end and were all being driven nuts by the waiting for our first signings.

 

[Demitri_C]

If i could grade the 1st half the season i would give it a A

 

the 2nd half would be a C-

[WallisFrizz]

43 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

The game waa crap but i dontvhave any complainants against smith for this one.

Everton are not a easy team by any means. Getting 4 points from this year is a good return.

I was actually surprised at the negativity. We kept a clean sheet, McGinn and Luiz both played well. Jack got some minutes. We looked a bit toothless up front but they have a very good defensive record away from home. Yes it was boring but I felt pretty positive about things until I came on here and Twitter. 

The worst things for me were the injuries to Cash and possibly Mings (who I thought was excellent and his shot on goal was in no way as easy as the commentary made out as he had an Everton player stood right in front of him).

[Awol]

8 hours ago, PaulC said:

Be difficult to keep your best players if we dont kick on from this next season. We need to be aiming for a europa league spot. 

Realistically we’d need to sign 4 or 5 players this summer who either improve on what we have (wingers, 10 & 6) or are as good as current starters (Watkins) for rotation. 

That’s probably the thick end of £200M and doesn’t account for other teams strengthening further. It’s possible, but far from easy or guaranteed and I’ve full confidence in the coaching team to get the best from whatever squad we have next season. 

[Demitri_C]

49 minutes ago, WallisFrizz said:

I was actually surprised at the negativity. We kept a clean sheet, McGinn and Luiz both played well. Jack got some minutes. We looked a bit toothless up front but they have a very good defensive record away from home. Yes it was boring but I felt pretty positive about things until I came on here and Twitter. 

The worst things for me were the injuries to Cash and possibly Mings (who I thought was excellent and his shot on goal was in no way as easy as the commentary made out as he had an Everton player stood right in front of him).

I did think we were quite poor as a attacking threat but generally the performance  was good in terms of our defensive work and shape and passing was improved 

I thought el ghazi was poor and traore can do something brilliant one minute than do something so simple absolutely poorly the next.

My biggest issue with smith is the standard of set pieces. We are absolutely hopelelss. This is 100% a coaching issue. Sonething smith needs to improve on

Why barkley is taking corners i will never know

[Zatman]

2 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

The game waa crap but i dontvhave any complainants against smith for this one.

Everton are not a easy team by any means. Getting 4 points from this year is a good return.

It was a typical mid table end of season snoozefest. We didnt lose and kept a clean sheet so wasn't all bad unless your a neutral 

[Vive_La_Villa]

9 hours ago, Zatman said:

They have a 40 million winger out on loan and in January lost money on Haller and snoddy who cost 55 million combined 

Moyes has got a good few signings but is capable of spending money on crap

Forgot all about Anderson. They really have blown a lot of money in recent years. 

[WallisFrizz]

51 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

I did think we were quite poor as a attacking threat but generally the performance  was good in terms of our defensive work and shape and passing was improved 

I thought el ghazi was poor and traore can do something brilliant one minute than do something so simple absolutely poorly the next.

My biggest issue with smith is the standard of set pieces. We are absolutely hopelelss. This is 100% a coaching issue. Sonething smith needs to improve on

Why barkley is taking corners i will never know

Oh I totally agree re set pieces. We could have had 100 corners and wouldn’t have scored any of them. I wish we had someone like James Ward-Prowse or actual James Ward-Prowse. But yes, it’s an area Smith needs to work on.

[Vive_La_Villa]

58 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

I did think we were quite poor as a attacking threat but generally the performance  was good in terms of our defensive work and shape and passing was improved 

I thought el ghazi was poor and traore can do something brilliant one minute than do something so simple absolutely poorly the next.

My biggest issue with smith is the standard of set pieces. We are absolutely hopelelss. This is 100% a coaching issue. Sonething smith needs to improve on

Why barkley is taking corners i will never know

Players have to take their chances. Mings missed a sitter. Konsa probably could have had double figures the amount of chances his had from set pieces this seasons. Had he even taken a couple of those chances you’d be saying we are good at set peices. 
 

edit: We’ve scored 10 goals from set pieces this season. 6th best in the league. 

Edited May 14, 2021 by Vive_La_Villa