Dean Smith

[TRO]

4 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

If the previous manager had put in yesterday's performance this site would be in meltdown  

That is er difficult to argue with.

despite the ramping up of spectator value.....i still see traits from the Bruce era.

He needs his own players in.

[Stratvillan]

unfortunately it was the previous managers defence which caused the collapse. Feel sorry for Smith that he's inherited such a deficient squad.

[MaVilla]

16 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

If the previous manager had put in yesterday's performance this site would be in meltdown  

My retort to that is I don't believe for one second we would have even had the opportunity to lose the game in the last minute, we would have been dead and buried way before that under SB

[Brumstopdogs]

26 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Leeds are better than us in sorry to say.. We are a work on progress though I think give it 12 months we will be alot better. Smith without question is a bettee ciach than Bruce.

Bettee Ciach - isn't that the name of the new tea lady?

Edited December 24, 2018 by Brumstopdogs

[Brumstopdogs]

Prior to the Stoke game I would say the difference in performance levels was remarkable compared to what Bruce generally served up.

However the loss of Grealish and Axel has meant we haven't been able to sustain those performances.

Overall though Smith's start has been very positive and I like that he can what is wrong. Give him time and hopefully he will fix it.

 

[TRO]

1 hour ago, honest_bertie said:

I think the reason smith went for the ref in his post match interview is because if he said what he truely thinks about the defense he might alienate the players, which he has no choice but to use in the next few games b4 jan. his tone and body language screamed frustration amd annoyance. To me he was probably protecting players as it was plain to see our defense was really why we lost, not the ref, even though he was poor moat ofbthe game.

Nail on head.

I am sure you have it one here......someone watching their first game would know our defence is suspect......it has been before Dean Smith imo......we just masked it by deploying more than necessary to the cause.

[Mark Albrighton]

26 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

If the previous manager had put in yesterday's performance this site would be in meltdown  

That would be certainly true of Bruce this season or last season. I think if yesterday’s game occurred in the first couple of months of Bruce’s tenure he would have been given a similar amount of slack that Smith has generally been given.

[hippo]

Does boxing day at Swansea count for one of the easier matches  for DS ?  - they are 12th now  bearing in mind stoke at home 11th at the time wasn't  (so I was told) 

[markavfc40]

The only real issue I have with Smith at the moment is his game management and not nullifying the threat of the opposition. Yesterday pretty much from the get go Leeds targeted the wide areas.

Whilst I think Smiths gung ho style is applaudable given we were fortunate to go in at half time 2-0 up I think he should have tried to protect that lead. Instead we came all out looking for the third, and in fairness had a good 7 or 8 minutes straight after half time, but rather than do that he should perhaps have brought Adomah and Bjarnason on for Kodjia and Bolasie to help out Elmo and Hutton who were often finding themselves two against one and in Huttons case he was getting dragged inside perhaps mindful of how weak we are there. Down both flanks Leeds had a field day and Smith should have tried to address that.

I do feel for him as he has been dealt a poor hand defensively including poor goalkeepers but to counteract that I don't think you can go all out attack and hope to score 3,4,5,6 goals to win a game. It just isn't realistic. You have to have players in front of the defence who will help out and that would be the case regardless of personnel as no full back is capable of stopping the opposition when they have two players coming at them and no help.

Failing to see out games from winning positions has cost us 17 points this season which is a diabolical statistic. We are also only 5 goals short of the total amount we conceded last season. New personnel will hopefully improve that but Smith also needs to be a little more cute in making changes to help us see games out.

Edited December 24, 2018 by markavfc40

[Mark Albrighton]

12 minutes ago, hippo said:

Does boxing day at Swansea count for one of the easier matches  for DS ?  - they are 12th now  bearing in mind stoke at home 11th at the time wasn't  (so I was told) 

I would say Swansea away is a game we should be looking to win. I don’t consider it as easy on paper as the January fixtures, but it’s probably the “easiest” fixture since Bolton.

But then you don’t seem to think playing a team who are on a current ten game unbeaten run is relevant to whether we beat them, so who knows. Probably best deciding for yourself.

[QldVilla]

How many clubs in the Championship could rightly lay claim to going through the same period of games starting with Derby and ending with Leeds and say they would do better than Villa for points in the same period of games?

The squad has looked tired the last two games and due to key injuries we haven't been able to rotate some players to keep them fresh. I know a lot of people don't like Jedinak, but we are missing a no nonsense DM who makes opposition players look for fear of being put on their backsides, we needed this against Leeds yesterday and a couple of other games in past weeks.

The same frailties are still there that were there at the start of the season, but with a couple of CD's a ball playing CM and cover for Grealish, this Villa team is still good enough to go up, but we need a little luck like every club needs to get promoted.

[macandally]

19 hours ago, hippo said:

He hasn't been here. long and has to work totally with someones squad.  That said I don't get the blind faith in him  - a few posts back someone said "we will steamroller the league next season"  and "Sure DS will take us to our highest league position in 20 years"  - 

Why do people think this ?  - his best finish is 9th with Brentford - and he doesn't have a promotion to his name - to me he just seems like a reasonable lower league manager

You have made it abundantly clear since day one that you do not rate him, today got out thought by one of the most tactical astute managers in world football.

There is not blind faith, there is confidence that we are now putting in place the right structure and style of play to see us promoted and keep us up.  You cannot undo 10 years plus of mismanagement in 8 games, let’s have a bit of common sense!

We are now approaching games as we should have done when we went down and as Newcastle did, by believing we should fear no one and going after everyone!

[Wainy316]

Under Bruce with his extremely negative approach we were still conceding as many.  Attack is the best form of defence until we can buy some actual defenders. 

[Wainy316]

Our better performances do some to be coming away from home.  Hammered Boro and Derby and beat West Brom (I don’t care what the record books show).

At Home we’ve struggled against Stoke and Forest and had to survive an almighty scare against SHA. 

[Lerner's Driver]

Every Villa fan deep down knew it was very possible we might lose yesterday, so any anger/frustration/disappointment, can be put into perspective by remembering that we nearly went out of business in the summer.

That we have rallied in the way we have, with the players we have, is basically nothing short of extraordinary. To expect 'unending extraordinary' is unrealistic.

Smith is not immune from criticism, any more than any other manager, but he most definitely is deserving of way more praise than he is criticism and that alone means the criticism he does get ought to be tempered.

[VillanousOne]

Grealish keeps possession in midfield and always keeps attacks ticking over in the attacking third, winning countless free kicks along the way.

Connor is not a like for like replacement, he goes missing far to often. Adding Whelan in the mix doesn't help either. I presume Smith is doing that to offer some defensive cover but whilst Whelan covers a lot of ground and has a good footballing brain, he is too slow and limited to really help the defence. 

Axel plays the ball out from the back and drives forward, without him Nyland is just hoofing it to no one.

Presently attack is our best form of defence, but without Axel and Grealish we are surrendering so much possession that our crap defence is under pressure all the time.

We have to get through another 3 games with this defence and that could likely mean we pick up a few points or even none, even if we play Revan at centre back and Bree at right back it is a huge gamble.

Edited December 24, 2018 by VillanousOne

[OutByEaster?]

1 hour ago, markavfc40 said:

The only real issue I have with Smith at the moment is his game management and not nullifying the threat of the opposition. Yesterday pretty much from the get go Leeds targeted the wide areas. Whilst I think Smiths gung ho style is applaudable given we were fortunate to go in at half time 2-0 up I think he should have tried to protect that lead.

I get where you're coming from and after January, I'd like it to be true, but right now, and certainly yesterday I don't think we've got the personnel to do that.

Trying to manage games, or protect the lead isn't something we have players for. If we'd tried it yesterday, I think the end result would have been the same. Our best chance of winning the game was a third goal, not trying to keep Leeds to two.

We've got four fit defenders in the squad - three of them are most natural at right back. Revan is nowhere near ready for this team - for me, I'm not sure he should be starting for the reserves. He's behind Bedeau and Bazeley-Grahame in that side for me - and I don't think either of those two are ready yet either. We could have bought Bjarnason on I guess and taken off Bolasie but there are so few options on our bench other than wingers and forwards that it would be hard to make an effective shape. I genuinely feel that with the players we've got, our ONLY chance of winning games is scoring three or more goals.

I think as a team you have to try to do what you're good at, and on top of that you have to do as little of what you're not good at as you can. Us trying to defend a game is like Hutton taking all our set pieces - it'd be awkward and ineffective.  

I think you're absolutely bang on with a full squad - but we haven't got one. We're light three defenders and a central midfielder - even with the injured players back.

 

 

[markavfc40]

59 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I get where you're coming from and after January, I'd like it to be true, but right now, and certainly yesterday I don't think we've got the personnel to do that.

Trying to manage games, or protect the lead isn't something we have players for. If we'd tried it yesterday, I think the end result would have been the same. Our best chance of winning the game was a third goal, not trying to keep Leeds to two.

We've got four fit defenders in the squad - three of them are most natural at right back. Revan is nowhere near ready for this team - for me, I'm not sure he should be starting for the reserves. He's behind Bedeau and Bazeley-Grahame in that side for me - and I don't think either of those two are ready yet either. We could have bought Bjarnason on I guess and taken off Bolasie but there are so few options on our bench other than wingers and forwards that it would be hard to make an effective shape. I genuinely feel that with the players we've got, our ONLY chance of winning games is scoring three or more goals.

I think as a team you have to try to do what you're good at, and on top of that you have to do as little of what you're not good at as you can. Us trying to defend a game is like Hutton taking all our set pieces - it'd be awkward and ineffective.  

I think you're absolutely bang on with a full squad - but we haven't got one. We're light three defenders and a central midfielder - even with the injured players back.

 

 

Scott I agree with some of what you say but right from the get go yesterday Leeds targeted our wide areas. Having fortunately gone in two nil up Smith looked the gift horse in the mouth really as he still set us up in a way where Leeds could exploit the wide areas and in the second half we inevitably never got away with it.

I think Adomah is quite adept at going both ways and can defend quite well. Bjaranson is not for a second a wide player but can do a job out there defensively. I wouldn't advocate playing like this at 0-0 or even 1 up but being 2 up surely there has to be an argument for trying to shut up shop and nullify the opposition but we didn't even try to. It doesn't excuse Elmo's errors yesterday but he was often finding himself up against 2 players with Kodjia offering little help. Hutton on the other side was getting dragged into the middle and Bolasie didn't help him at all. In fairness though that is not his game.

That 7 or 8 minute spell right at the start of the second half was the best we played all game and we could have got a third but I am not even sure that would have been enough had we have continued to allow Leeds so much space out wide. I actually said to my daughter at half time we need another couple to win this if we continue to play as we are and sadly so it proved.

We could replace both full backs in January but when the opposition are over loading the flanks with 2 or even 3 players coming at you then regardless of personnel you have to provide your full back some cover as otherwise they will be left exposed and over ran.

 

Edited December 24, 2018 by markavfc40

[Vive_La_Villa]

3 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

If the previous manager had put in yesterday's performance this site would be in meltdown  

I suspect if we have performances like this in to Smiths third season there will be melt downs.  Saying that if we are still in this league by then I wonder if Smith would still be in the job. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

2 hours ago, markavfc40 said:

The only real issue I have with Smith at the moment is his game management and not nullifying the threat of the opposition. Yesterday pretty much from the get go Leeds targeted the wide areas.

Whilst I think Smiths gung ho style is applaudable given we were fortunate to go in at half time 2-0 up I think he should have tried to protect that lead. Instead we came all out looking for the third, and in fairness had a good 7 or 8 minutes straight after half time, but rather than do that he should perhaps have brought Adomah and Bjarnason on for Kodjia and Bolasie to help out Elmo and Hutton who were often finding themselves two against one and in Huttons case he was getting dragged inside perhaps mindful of how weak we are there. Down both flanks Leeds had a field day and Smith should have tried to address that.

I do feel for him as he has been dealt a poor hand defensively including poor goalkeepers but to counteract that I don't think you can go all out attack and hope to score 3,4,5,6 goals to win a game. It just isn't realistic. You have to have players in front of the defence who will help out and that would be the case regardless of personnel as no full back is capable of stopping the opposition when they have two players coming at them and no help.

Failing to see out games from winning positions has cost us 17 points this season which is a diabolical statistic. We are also only 5 goals short of the total amount we conceded last season. New personnel will hopefully improve that but Smith also needs to be a little more cute in making changes to help us see games out.

I agree with this. Whilst it’s refrehsing to try and kill teams off when you are playing arguably the best team in the league, have a 2 nil lead and your fullbacks are getting hammered. You have to address the situation.  Saying that had we got the third when on top we would have probably won the game. 

Smith took a chance and it backfired yesterday. I’m sure he’ll be the first to admit it.