Popular Post romavillan Posted August 28, 2021 VT Supporter Popular Post Share Posted August 28, 2021 Went into today thinking a point woudl be a good return and it has proved to be. Mostly through the ref's work though to be fair. Dean will earn his corn in the international break and he'll get us firing again. Keep the faith. The fact there's already been some mumblings on here in other threads about "Smith lovers" says it all for me, there's a few people that would seemingly be bang up for him failing this season to justify old comments about Walsall or the Championship being his ceiling. Not true and he'll prove them all wrong again this season. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delphinho123 Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 If you’re ever down about Smith and Villa in general, read this. https://newcastle-online.org/topic/36685-steve-bruce/page/263/ Makes for fun reading. It could be a LOT worse. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Condimentalist Posted August 28, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted August 28, 2021 Deano is an absolute legend who has stepped up to every challenge he has been set so far. Promotion - done Survival - done Progress - done He has proven himself adaptable, intelligent and forward thinking. This off season and early season has been a mess for reasons outside his control. Every manager would struggle with the hand he's been dealt. I couldn't be more confident that he will overcome these challenges, as he has all those before, but clearly patience is going to be needed this term for what should be obvious reasons. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 54 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said: If you’re ever down about Smith and Villa in general, read this. https://newcastle-online.org/topic/36685-steve-bruce/page/263/ Makes for fun reading. It could be a LOT worse. Its like the last days of Lambert on here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 Social Media is pretty brutal re: Smith right now as well. It's bizarre. Under normal circumstances, I'd probably be dissappointed and have a little.moan as well. But I find it crazy that people can't see the team we HAD to field today, and how mental the circumstances have been. I'm actually happy we never lost, and I don't actually think we were bad. With Ming's, McGinn and Ramsey in that team today ( Last minute outs ) I feel we carry that game easily. Then again, maybe I'm just fickle and bipolar 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 He is in a very difficult situation at the moment and we haven't fallen apart. It might not have been particularly good today, but it wasn't the horror show I thought it could be when the team news was announced. He managed to cobble together a team which included a left back in the centre of midfield and got them to at least appear like a team against an actual team who have been playing together as a unit for 12 months. All in all, a good day for him. I am desperate for him to have something close to a full quota to pick from so we can start to get an idea of what direction he wants to take us in, but I fear we may have a while to wait still. It is going to be a tricky season, lots of questions will be asked, but I think patience is key. From us and from him. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudevillaisnice Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 Meh, decent point we move on. Would’ve taken it before kick off. I’m more concerned going forward with the difficult fixtures coming in and having what is essentially half a squad. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Made In Aston Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 I find all this negativity absolutely bizarre. We have been nowhere max strength in any of the games and still managed 4 pts. Yes it's not been an ideal start, but you can't judge the team and Smith until we have something of a full squad. People on here really go over the top. Man City had a terrible start and won the league, Southampton was in the relegation zone until Christmas and finished mid table. We were in the top 6 for the first part of last season and finished 11th. Bad starts or good starts mean nothing. When everyone is back I've got every confidence that we will be absolutely fine. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwivillan Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 23 minutes ago, Made In Aston said: I find all this negativity absolutely bizarre. We have been nowhere max strength in any of the games and still managed 4 pts. Yes it's not been an ideal start, but you can't judge the team and Smith until we have something of a full squad. People on here really go over the top. Man City had a terrible start and won the league, Southampton was in the relegation zone until Christmas and finished mid table. We were in the top 6 for the first part of last season and finished 11th. Bad starts or good starts mean nothing. When everyone is back I've got every confidence that we will be absolutely fine. West Ham lost first 2 and finished 6th 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villarocker Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 Today, we started the game with half of our first eleven from last season... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 40 minutes ago, dudevillaisnice said: Meh, decent point we move on. Would’ve taken it before kick off. I’m more concerned going forward with the difficult fixtures coming in and having what is essentially half a squad. True, although you'd hope by then that we'll have the majority of those players back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 Can't see our season really getting going until October tbh. Next month could easily be 3 defeats given Chelsea and Man. United are two of the toughest aways around and ones we lose most seasons and Everton have started well and are tougher to break down under Benitez. Going to take a while to warm up this year so any points are good for me currently. Will judge Dean when he has Bailey, Watkins and McGinn all available and see what sort of regular formation and style of play he comes up with. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M_Afro Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 8 minutes ago, VillaChris said: Can't see our season really getting going until October tbh. Next month could easily be 3 defeats given Chelsea and Man. United are two of the toughest aways around and ones we lose most seasons and Everton have started well and are tougher to break down under Benitez. Going to take a while to warm up this year so any points are good for me currently. Will judge Dean when he has Bailey, Watkins and McGinn all available and see what sort of regular formation and style of play he comes up with. Why will you only judge Dean when he has all his players available? Surely his job is to get the best out of what he has available? It’s ridiculous to think that you can only judge a manager on his record when he has everyone available. How often does that happen? So far, I would say, that given the circumstances, we are probably 1 point maybe if you are being harsh 2 points down. That’s judging Dean on reality not utopia. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WHY Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 Can’t judge him based on 3 games this season, given the injury situation and the fact the preseason was a non starter. He will get time but with the difficult run coming up he will need a decent set of results after these games. A bit confused with his comments after the game regarding the Emi’s. He said he didn’t know what their plans were, you are the manager of the club ffs, it’s your right to know. Couldn’t imagine many PL managers not knowing what was going on with their own players. I like Smith but sometimes think he is too pally with the players, I would like him to distant himself a little more sometimes. Sort of get the impression he might be a bit of a soft touch. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitvilla Posted August 28, 2021 Share Posted August 28, 2021 4 minutes ago, WHY said: Can’t judge him based on 3 games this season I don't think you can necessarily "judge" a manager's relationship with the players based what we see in the public eye. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomaszk Posted August 29, 2021 Share Posted August 29, 2021 Bearing in mind the XI today I'm pleased with the performance and the point. Something we simply must improve on is building through the middle. It's been an issue for a long long time. Watkins allows us to be lazy at times because he's so good at making something from relatively aimless long balls, but it's a big gap in our game I think. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaFaninLondon Posted August 29, 2021 Share Posted August 29, 2021 13 hours ago, string28 said: Got to admit dean did a great job today and we now have a break so can get all the players back fit and ready to go. until the next press conference comes around and Dean is saying yet again that we're missing 4 or 5 first team players. Boring and irritating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DCJonah Posted August 29, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted August 29, 2021 8 hours ago, M_Afro said: Why will you only judge Dean when he has all his players available? Surely his job is to get the best out of what he has available? It’s ridiculous to think that you can only judge a manager on his record when he has everyone available. How often does that happen? So far, I would say, that given the circumstances, we are probably 1 point maybe if you are being harsh 2 points down. That’s judging Dean on reality not utopia. It is. Did you see we played a lb and a 17 year old in CM today. Did you see the performance or El Ghazi? People talk about him being judged, like he hasn't been here for the last few years. He's been judged and he's done everything asked of him and more. He doesn't have to be judged now. Now is about seeing what we do with new players, new plans and if that can solidify us and progress us. And we can't see what that looks like till we've got those players fit. Especially our expensive summer signings. You're desperate to judge him because that means you can criticise. Most sensible people can wait and see what the plan will look like and how it will work. 11 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dubbs Posted August 29, 2021 Share Posted August 29, 2021 I really hope DS has time to replace ROK and JT whilst there's an international break. Fresh faces bring new ideas (hopefully). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danishlad Posted August 29, 2021 Share Posted August 29, 2021 what's all this this judging Smith nonsense. He has been here for three or four years. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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