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Dean Smith

Demitri_C

By Demitri_C
in Other Football

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TrentVilla
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Absolutely, utterly delighted. I've really admired Smith's work for some time now, both at Walsall and Brentford and anyone who witnessed our games against the later in recent times should be the

GarethRDR
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Mark Albrighton
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avfc1982am Grand Master

avfc1982am

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I think with Greedlish and one or two others we would have seen a marked improvement on last season. I'm not sure with his loss and the amount of bodies we are/have brought in that Smith will find any continuity with the squad for a couple of months at least. We seemed to have started this season in a mish mash state. I hope not but I think Smith is in for a difficult time over these next few months.  

 

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Dave_jW Apprentice

Dave_jW

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9 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

I think with Greedlish and one or two others we would have seen a marked improvement on last season. I'm not sure with his loss and the amount of bodies we are/have brought in that Smith will find any continuity with the squad for a couple of months at least. We seemed to have started this season in a mish mash state. I hope not but I think Smith is in for a difficult time over these next few months.  

 

has he built up enough goodwill to get the next few months?

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desensitized43 Mentor

desensitized43

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1 hour ago, villalad21 said:

Intensity wasn't the problem.

Team shape was the problem.

He is absolutely crazy if he thinks he can keep going with a 2 man midfield.

I'd add the complete catastrophe of a preseason we've had. We aren't even close to ready for the season at this point. Other teams have been able to get themselves into better shape than us. That's on him I'm afraid.

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romavillan Grand Master

romavillan

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40 minutes ago, Lerner's Driver said:

What else do Villa fans do? 

Seeing as you ask, my big concern about the full house tomorrow is I can imagine us being booed off at half time if the performance is in any way sketchy! 

As for the preseason being Smith's fault, not sure it's his fault that 3 preseason games got called off is it? even with Salernitana coming in for one of the Sevilla games that's 180 minutes of football less than what Smith had planned for.
 

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Lerner's Driver Mentor

Lerner's Driver

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Posted (edited)
10 minutes ago, romavillan said:

Seeing as you ask, my big concern about the full house tomorrow is I can imagine us being booed off at half time if the performance is in any way sketchy! 

As for the preseason being Smith's fault, not sure it's his fault that 3 preseason games got called off is it? even with Salernitana coming in for one of the Sevilla games that's 180 minutes of football less than what Smith had planned for.
 

My comment was in relation to false dawns and the waiting that brings.

I didn't make reference to any of of the things you have mentioned. 

Nobody knows what the future will bring, but if you are a Villa fan you can be sure there will be a jarring reality check smacking you in the face, sooner than anyone had expected.

It's just the way it is.

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HKP90 Grand Master

HKP90

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1 hour ago, desensitized43 said:

I'd add the complete catastrophe of a preseason we've had. We aren't even close to ready for the season at this point. Other teams have been able to get themselves into better shape than us. That's on him I'm afraid.

As this has been discussed over and over again this week, could I ask what part you think Dean Smith could have done better. Injuries? Covid? International Competition? Losing best player? Buying players late? Which?

 

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HKP90 Grand Master

HKP90

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1 hour ago, beachboys1 said:

notn going to play bailey tomorrow didn't he want him

He said in the presser he's not up to fitness yet, as he pulled out of international injured a while back and missed pre-season. 

 

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jacketspuds Grand Master

jacketspuds

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Pre-season has been a bit of a nightmare, but it’s not really Smith’s fault. Team selection and tactics against Watford, especially in the first half, are on him but on the flip side we were playing a team with a fantastic home record, in their first game back in the PL.

I do think that he will be under quite a bit of pressure this season though, which I think is right if we are as ambitious as we say we are. A small part of me wonders if that’s why we haven’t replaced either Terry or O’Kelly yet. Hope not.

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M_Afro Veteran

M_Afro

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Interesting press conference. It sounded as though he feels the selection was right last week and the players just let him down. I suspect, from what he said, that we will see the same starting 11 tomorrow. I hope I am wrong because that 2 man midfield is likely to get rinsed again! Hopefully he will go 4-3-3 instead. 

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KevinRichardsonsMoustache Grand Master

KevinRichardsonsMoustache

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The questions in the press conference were just atrocious. They all follow this awful model:

 

Jerknalist: 'Here's *something* that's obvious that's going on in football. Is *that issue* something that you think is important, too?'

DS: 'Yeh, *restate issue*'

 

It's almost like they've got the headlines written about 'something important' and then just need a manager to nod his head. 

 

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desensitized43 Mentor

desensitized43

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28 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

As this has been discussed over and over again this week, could I ask what part you think Dean Smith could have done better. Injuries? Covid? International Competition? Losing best player? Buying players late? Which?

 

Some of it is beyond his control I admit. He isn't responsible for some of our players getting to the late stage of the euros (although maybe we could have forseen it?) or Grealish's disgusting betrayal.

We booked too many low level opponents that our players barely broke sweat to play. We had 4 matches, 3 against pretty poor Championship sides and 1 that would have been against a good level of opponent to show where we were which ended up being against a very poor opponent. Booking a foreign team when it was always going to be risky whether they could play or not wasn't very clever. It's not like covid isn't a problem we couldn't have forseen.

In those games the lineups we put out were strange at best. The young players that we then either sent on loan, benched or worse threw back to the U23s...what was the point of that?

It did take a shocking amount of time to get Bailey into the country. What was he doing!?

Injuries are more often than not a consequence of poor preparation so yes, I'd say he's partly responsible for the situation with Watkins and Traore.

 

Doesn't it bother you even slightly that we don't seem remotely prepared for the season?

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M_Afro Veteran

M_Afro

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It seems some posters are using Grealish leaving as an excuse for us not doing so well this season! This is clearly not what our board think and I totally agree.
We finished eleventh last season despite Grealish missing a third of our games. In Bailey, Ings and Buendia we have added three very expensive and talented attackers. We have a very settled defence which should be getting better and better. Although most of us think the midfield is not good enough, it is the same one we had last year. We also have some youngsters who are now good enough to at least be a part of the squad plus Sanson who is effectively a new player. All in all we are in a better overall position.

It is only right that the board expects us to do better. There should be no excuses. Dean must get it right and deliver the goods. That means getting to at least 60 points. Too many games like last week in our first 10 matches will spell the end I am sure. It starts tomorrow. Get it right in front of the fans and launch the season in style.

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hippo Grand Master

hippo

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35 minutes ago, jacketspuds said:

Pre-season has been a bit of a nightmare, but it’s not really Smith’s fault. Team selection and tactics against Watford, especially in the first half, are on him but on the flip side we were playing a team with a fantastic home record, in their first game back in the PL.

I do think that he will be under quite a bit of pressure this season though, which I think is right if we are as ambitious as we say we are. A small part of me wonders if that’s why we haven’t replaced either Terry or O’Kelly yet. Hope not.

When we just had Terry and O,Kelly we escaped relegation by a whisper.

Bring in Shakespeare and we get 11th.

I know there are other factors - but was the question asked what are they doing ?

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