Nigel Posted August 5, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted August 5, 2021 Smith will really earn his crust this season...we will finally see how his idea of an attack will work without grealish! I'm really looking forward to it tbh! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillanousOne Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 7 minutes ago, lexicon said: I was wondering how Smith feels about all of this. Of course he'll say the right things and how he didn't want to lose a great player etc. but I do wonder if he's actually relieved that with Grealish out of the club, he can balance the side a lot better and make us a better team overall. Any good manager would have done what he did in terms of building the side around Jack, but we all saw what happened when he was out. Now he has the opportunity to not rely on an individual so much, so it'll be interesting to see what he does. All in all, Smith has been excellent for us and I trust him 100% moving forward. This. Building a club around one player has it's limitations, Jack was an awesome player but I never understood why he was made Captain, he was too young and inexperienced, it should have been Mings all day long. I think a fresh approach where the balance of the team has a more even feel and not so Jack centric will actually benefit us, even if it make take a bit more time to bed everyone in. The core of our team is still the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 Just now, VillanousOne said: This. Building a club around one player has it's limitations, Jack was an awesome player but I never understood why he was made Captain, he was too young and inexperienced, it should have been Mings all day long. I think a fresh approach where the balance of the team has a more even feel and not so Jack centric will actually benefit us, even if it make take a bit more time to bed everyone in. The core of our team is still the same. Wasnt Jack made captain when Smith arrived with Chester staying as club captain. I think Mings is the real club captain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 13 hours ago, Johnnyp said: He has to expect that he won’t get X amount of free hits with the calibre of player coming in the door, if he doesn’t get results. His record without Grealish isn’t spectacular and that safety net to appease the media and fans when he’s out injured, is gone now. No excuse though, has a fine squad with probably 2 to 3 more in too. for his own sake....He must strengthen centre Mid. We can't have teams prancing through the middle of us this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 44 minutes ago, lexicon said: I was wondering how Smith feels about all of this. Of course he'll say the right things and how he didn't want to lose a great player etc. but I do wonder if he's actually relieved that with Grealish out of the club, he can balance the side a lot better and make us a better team overall. Any good manager would have done what he did in terms of building the side around Jack, but we all saw what happened when he was out. Now he has the opportunity to not rely on an individual so much, so it'll be interesting to see what he does. All in all, Smith has been excellent for us and I trust him 100% moving forward. We don't always agree....but I see some credence in this. I think in one way he will be sad, and in another relieved. like you say, he can get back to a balanced outlook. I think Dean had to tread on egg shells to a degree, with Jack, thats now gone. It would be interesting to hear Deans true inner thoughts, we probably never will. It was hard not to direct everything through Jack, but it was our achilles Heel IMV.....only time will tell. I think the owners have/will back Dean to build a more balanced team, but more focus will be on him to do just that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillanousOne Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 45 minutes ago, Zatman said: Wasnt Jack made captain when Smith arrived with Chester staying as club captain. I think Mings is the real club captain I don't know, i always presumed he was the full on club captain, wears the armband and all that, unless it was just symbolic even if he was, you would expect Ming's to do most of the heavy lifting. either way i feel we have had to heavily placate Jack in order to pander to his ego and make him stay - not saying that was necessarily the wrong thing to do, just saying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 For all my criticism of Dean there is no doubt he had an amazing relationship with Grealish. Grealish really done him dirty, leaving him like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 6 hours ago, Zatman said: Wasnt Jack made captain when Smith arrived with Chester staying as club captain. I think Mings is the real club captain I don’t recall Mings ever been mentioned as captain apart from deputising for Jack. He will get it now though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wurzel Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 7 minutes ago, villalad21 said: For all my criticism of Dean there is no doubt he had an amazing relationship with Grealish. Grealish really done him dirty, leaving him like that. I'm sure Dean will just see it as football tbh. What more could the club do, we offered more cash, we built a team around him, made him captain, did our best to support him in his off field shenanigans. I think Dean will miss the talent, but will see this as an opportunity to change the team a little and get some round pegs in round holes sorted. Our transfer business so far has shown that he wasn't prepared to be a one man team anymore, and I guess we all agree with that. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 (edited) Massive task in hand now. Grealish loss will have a huge impact on the whole fanbase. Only way we can forget about it is to kick off the season in a good manner. Win games. Score goals. Get the crowd excited. Edited August 5, 2021 by villalad21 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 (edited) 3 hours ago, villalad21 said: For all my criticism of Dean there is no doubt he had an amazing relationship with Grealish. Grealish really done him dirty, leaving him like that. I have little doubt Dean feels partially a little disappointed, but mostly incredibly pleased one of his young players has made a big step up. He's gone through this rodeo before, There'll be other players, and the project will continue, Edited August 5, 2021 by Davkaus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 2 minutes ago, villalad21 said: Massive task in hand now. Grealish loss will have a huge impact on the whole fanbase. I think the Ings signing undid the vast majority of the negatitvity within the fanbase tbh. Onwards and upwards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinker Posted August 5, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted August 5, 2021 He has a massive task , our midfield is weak and the starting 2 have had busy summers. We are going to struggle if we don't reinforce this area and we can't expect our strikers to dig us put of games everytime. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villarocker Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 27 minutes ago, villalad21 said: Massive task in hand now. Grealish loss will have a huge impact on the whole fanbase. Only way we can forget about it is to kick off the season in a good manner. Win games. Score goals. Get the crowd excited. You've often said in the past that Dean Smith was nothing without Grealish (or something along those lines) so how do you feel about him now? Do you think he'll cope without him? Do you have sympathy for him? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted August 5, 2021 Share Posted August 5, 2021 2 minutes ago, Villarocker said: You've often said in the past that Dean Smith was nothing without Grealish (or something along those lines) so how do you feel about him now? Do you think he'll cope without him? Do you have sympathy for him? We will have to see how he builds the team now. Almost like a fresh start in a lot of ways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avfc1982am Posted August 6, 2021 Share Posted August 6, 2021 His biggest season coming up. Now we'll see what he can do without the need to pander and a squad to choose from. Over to you Deano. Hopefully we play quicker, press higher and hold the ball better as a team. Get those right with our defence and it will be fun to watch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Silvers Posted August 6, 2021 Share Posted August 6, 2021 Love the way Deano refs his training ground games, stop start talk blows whistle and shouts play really fast. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post GENTLEMAN Posted August 6, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted August 6, 2021 This now becomes a ‘Smith’ team. He built around JG because of his extreme talent. It was expedient to do so. He has slowly moulded a squad to the way to which he wants to play. Which, I actually thing JG style was counter to. He needs to use the criticism of his record without JG as fuel. Smith’s biggest value is his player development. The one thing I am sure of, JG was not a £100 million player before Smith arrived. He can be and probably is, given his relaxed demeanour in preseason camp, proud of that. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hank Scorpio Posted August 6, 2021 Share Posted August 6, 2021 (edited) The main issue i still see Smith needing to resolve is the inability to retain possession and control of the ball, especially in midfield. The players that have been bought in mainly will not improve that except maybe Buendia. The central midfield give the ball away too cheaply, and for a while now we have been unable to control games when pressed, especially when we are in the lead. Games like Burnley last season being a perfect example. We will not compete with and beat the top 6-8 teams regularly until we can maintain possession and impart our ability on the opposition. We have attacking talent, but that is nullified if you cant get the ball to them in spaces where they can take defenders into areas they do not want to be in. Maybe Sanson can help, but he will be some way off full 90 min fitness for a while. Edited August 6, 2021 by Pissflaps 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted August 6, 2021 Share Posted August 6, 2021 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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