Dean Smith

[Vive_La_Villa]

I personally am going to stick to my original views of when Smith took over and that is not to fully judge his management until he has had 2 transfer windows and a chance to work with his own players. 

However I’ve seen enough in his first 12 games to be very confident we can make playoffs with what we currently have. 

[Dave J]

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 don't go along with those who speak of closing the game out.

1. It's not his style.

2. We did not particularly play well in the first half. I would have had a go at the team and tell them it wasn't enough.

attack is the best form of defence after all.

3. We could have gone 3-0 in that initial period after half time and I doubt Leeds could have clawed this back.

4. If we sat back - Leeds would most likely have carried the same threat as they had done most of the game.

5. Leeds were just better on the day - and we missed important players for us.

I'm happy to go with a bad day at the office and move on to the next game.

Edited December 24, 2018 by Dave J

[Cjay]

Personally i found it odd that Dean Smith changed his style. 

You sat deeper, went long, tried to play on the break for most of the game. 

But your best periods were when you passed the ball to feet and pressed high like a normal Dean Smith side does. 

Just odd that Smith would invite pressure onto his flimsy defence. Kind of makes sense going long, beat our press but as the home side thought it was a strange choice and maybe showed us to much respect.

Especially given how he referenced the Brentford Vs Leeds match just before he left, they didnt set up how you did that day at Elland  Road.

[Tomaszk]

27 minutes ago, Cjay said:

Personally i found it odd that Dean Smith changed his style. 

You sat deeper, went long, tried to play on the break for most of the game. 

But your best periods were when you passed the ball to feet and pressed high like a normal Dean Smith side does. 

Just odd that Smith would invite pressure onto his flimsy defence. Kind of makes sense going long, beat our press but as the home side thought it was a strange choice and maybe showed us to much respect.

Especially given how he referenced the Brentford Vs Leeds match just before he left, they didnt set up how you did that day at Elland  Road.

Backup/weak players too intimidated to pass the ball around with a press on them.

[Vive_La_Villa]

27 minutes ago, Cjay said:

Personally i found it odd that Dean Smith changed his style. 

You sat deeper, went long, tried to play on the break for most of the game. 

But your best periods were when you passed the ball to feet and pressed high like a normal Dean Smith side does. 

Just odd that Smith would invite pressure onto his flimsy defence. Kind of makes sense going long, beat our press but as the home side thought it was a strange choice and maybe showed us to much respect.

Especially given how he referenced the Brentford Vs Leeds match just before he left, they didnt set up how you did that day at Elland  Road.

I don’t think that was the game plan. We just didn’t keep the ball anywhere near well enough and our midfielders didn’t track the ways your did. You defend very well as a team with high energy levels.  It helps when your team is quite young. I believe Smith expects the same. It just didn’t happen yesterday. 

[ROTTERDAM1982]

Earlier in the season, Brentford played Leeds at Elland Rd, Brentford , under Smith, dropped McEchran, for a more aggressive, faster battling midfielder, cant remember his name, he changed the style, they were the better team, and the player who Smith brought in was MOM.

My point is, Smith can and will change his style if he is confident with his playing staff,I would argue we haven't got a good defensive midfielder at this club.

Also, Brentford, under Smith had the youngest average age 1st team , we have the eldest. We lost yday because they had much more energy, and workrate than us.They are a lesson for how we have to develop, ability needs workrate, and that was emphasised yday.

As someone said earlier, give Smith 2 or 3 transfer windows before you fully judge him, but overall, I like where we are going, and I still fully expect us to get in the play offs, and hopefully promotion.

UTV

[Stevo985]

4 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.

Agreed. 

I’m all for the attacking style we’ve changed to. But there are times when you have to tighten up and see a game out. 

A better defence in Jan should help though. 

[Farlz]

I do wonder why managers we have never seem to give our youth a chance. With the state of our defence and just how much we miss Grealish, you'd think it would be a good chance to play O'Hare or Revan?

Leeds themselves have had issues and Bielsa isn't afraid to play his youth. Just makes me wonder what our managers seem to be waiting for.

[villaglint]

12 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Agreed. 

I’m all for the attacking style we’ve changed to. But there are times when you have to tighten up and see a game out. 

A better defence in Jan should help though. 

You play the hand your dealt. Everyone in the ground new even at 2-0 the next goal was crucial. If we got it it was game over if they did you knew they’d get a second at minimum. 

It was the right thing to do to go all out for the third in my opinion. 

2 of the three goals were dire errors. Nothing any manager can do about that. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

7 minutes ago, Farlz said:

I do wonder why managers we have never seem to give our youth a chance. With the state of our defence and just how much we miss Grealish, you'd think it would be a good chance to play O'Hare or Revan?

Leeds themselves have had issues and Bielsa isn't afraid to play his youth. Just makes me wonder what our managers seem to be waiting for.

They are probably waiting for youngsters that are good enough. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

1 minute ago, villaglint said:

You play the hand your dealt. Everyone in the ground new even at 2-0 the next goal was crucial. If we got it it was game over if they did you knew they’d get a second at minimum. 

It was the right thing to do to go all out for the third in my opinion. 

2 of the three goals were dire errors. Nothing any manager can do about that. 

But everyone could see our full backs were getting hammered with the overlap and our wide players weren’t tracking back to help.  It was a matter of time before they scored.

I reckon Albert would have come on early in second half had he been fit. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

51 minutes ago, ROTTERDAM1982 said:

Also, Brentford, under Smith had the youngest average age 1st team , we have the eldest. We lost yday because they had much more energy, and workrate than us.

This. Our players didn’t have the legs to compete with a fitter Leeds team. 

[srsmithusa]

5 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

This. Our players didn’t have the legs to compete with a fitter Leeds team. 

Exactly.  

[Farlz]

1 hour ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

They are probably waiting for youngsters that are good enough. 

We have a talented bunch of young players. I don't agree that none of them would be good enough. 

[Dave J]

1 hour ago, villaglint said:

You play the hand your dealt. Everyone in the ground new even at 2-0 the next goal was crucial. If we got it it was game over if they did you knew they’d get a second at minimum. 

It was the right thing to do to go all out for the third in my opinion. 

2 of the three goals were dire errors. Nothing any manager can do about that. 

You have called it bang on the head - all this stuff about seeing the game out is nonsensical - we were never in command of the game enough to manage it out - and as you say the third goal was always going to be crucial - Smith knew this and he also knew if we didn't go for it - we wouldn't be good enough to hold on.

 

[Stevo985]

1 hour ago, villaglint said:

You play the hand your dealt. Everyone in the ground new even at 2-0 the next goal was crucial. If we got it it was game over if they did you knew they’d get a second at minimum. 

It was the right thing to do to go all out for the third in my opinion. 

2 of the three goals were dire errors. Nothing any manager can do about that. 

I mean I would say based on the evidence that we lost 3-2 that it absolutely was not the right thing to do. But that’s just me. 

Anyway like I said I have no complaints over our style in general, just feel a bit Moreno game management would have helped yesterday

[Dave J]

2 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

I mean I would say based on the evidence that we lost 3-2 that it absolutely was not the right thing to do. But that’s just me. 

Anyway like I said I have no complaints over our style in general, just feel a bit Moreno game management would have helped yesterday

You are correct - it is just you, you cannot manage a game that you do not control. Leeds had the upper hand in every department.

Lets leave the Smith naivety comments alone and give Leeds their due credit.

[Junxs]

On 23/12/2018 at 16:20, villalad21 said:

Glad to see him not being happy about the 1st half performance. He is 100 % honest and i fully agree

 

I absolutely love the fact despite losing to Leeds he says that the aim is still the top 2.

Whether we get there or not, he openly states thats the aim and will look to win every game we go into, this is a major plus in my book. I love this positive optimism from him.

He knows thats the end of the hard run now so we can look to go on a winning streak, take each game as it comes and try to win taking no prisoners, keep the players positive and keep chasing. No shame in losing to the league leaders in injury time.

None of this chasing 6th and claiming we'll be there or thereabouts every week. I for one hope he never changes this attitude.

[Junxs]

On 24/12/2018 at 12:10, Stevo985 said:

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

If you're going to compare then compare properly: The previous manager won his 12th game in charge 2-1 against Burton Albion then failed to win the next 10 games against some shit opposition.

I'm not so sure whats so embarrassing to losing in injury time to the league leaders.

 

[Stevo985]

11 minutes ago, Junxs said:

If you're going to compare then compare properly: The previous manager won his 12th game in charge 2-1 against Burton Albion then failed to win the next 10 games against some shit opposition.

 

That’s got nothing to do with what I said. What a weird comparison. 

11 minutes ago, Junxs said:

 

I'm not so sure whats so embarrassing to losing in injury time to the league leaders.

 

You really think that if Bruce blew a 2 goal lead at halftime to lose 3-2 to Leeds that this site wouldn’t have gone crazy?

merry Christmas