Dean Smith

[Dave J]

8 minutes ago, kurtsimonw said:

Won ugly, had a but of luck go for us for a change. He's not perfect as a coach, but we've definitely improved under him. If we can get a couple in at the back, I believe we can beat anyone in the league. 

Agreed - just too much to bridge that gap to auto

[Stevo985]

Not a great performance but a very good result, especially after the disappointment of the last game.

Players returning from injury, new signings and a favourable fixture run should all be coming at the right time for Smith and the team. I'm very excited about next year.

[New_Hope]

24 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

So that's: 

P12 W6 D3 L3 Points 21/36

In a fixture list that's included the teams placed:

1st 2nd 3rd 5th 6th 7th 8th 10th 11th 13th (twice) and 22nd.

That is quite remarkable when you think about it. Never in my wildest dreams did I think we'd still be in playoff contention after this set of fixtures. Incredible job by Smith.

This....this and this again. Exactly what I said on Monday. Considering the players at his disposal, injuries to key players, shit decisions from officials and the fixtures in his first 12 games. Remarkable job. Well done Dean and the team.

[KMitch]

Some of the worst football we've seen this season in the first half, but the team improved drastically in the second half.  Both teams had good chances and the scoreline could have been a lot different today.  Glad for the 3 points, but we badly need some reinforcements in January. 

• Hutton isn't a left back and it shows.  Takes too long on the ball and teams pressure him when he has possession.  
• Apart from the occasional good cross, Elmo is awful as a fullback. 
• Bree has done alright these past two games as a CB, but we need a natural central defender to replace Axel.
• Nyland had probably his best game in a Villa shirt today.  It's amazing what competition for places does to players, isn't it?
• Without Grealish, our midfield struggles.  We don't have anyone in the squad to fill in if he is out.

Need 3 more players this window if we want to continue to be in playoff contention.  CB, LB, & CM.

[abdulaziz1]

14 minutes ago, KMitch said:

Some of the worst football we've seen this season in the first half, but the team improved drastically in the second half.  Both teams had good chances and the scoreline could have been a lot different today.  Glad for the 3 points, but we badly need some reinforcements in January. 

• Hutton isn't a left back and it shows.  Takes too long on the ball and teams pressure him when he has possession.  
• Apart from the occasional good cross, Elmo is awful as a fullback. 
• Bree has done alright these past two games as a CB, but we need a natural central defender to replace Axel.
• Nyland had probably his best game in a Villa shirt today.  It's amazing what competition for places does to players, isn't it?
• Without Grealish, our midfield struggles.  We don't have anyone in the squad to fill in if he is out.

Need 3 more players this window if we want to continue to be in playoff contention.  CB, LB, & CM.

Do u think Bree would do well as a right back?

I’ve watched some of Leeds game and was a bit busy while watching Swansea on my phone. So haven’t been following him properly. But I guess he deserves his chance there. 

And I hope this clean sheet can give him more confidence.

[KMitch]

1 minute ago, abdulaziz1 said:

Do u think Bree would do well as a right back?

I’ve watched some of Leeds game and was a bit busy while watching Swansea on my phone. So haven’t been following him properly. But I guess he deserves his chance there. 

And I hope this clean sheet can give him more confidence.

He would do a better job than Elmo has done these past few games.  I'm still not sure about him long term, but he's worth a shot, provided we get a new CB in quickly.

[abdulaziz1]

6 minutes ago, KMitch said:

He would do a better job than Elmo has done these past few games.  I'm still not sure about him long term, but he's worth a shot, provided we get a new CB in quickly.

I heard he was doing a very great job with Barnsley. Theyre still remembring him. So its not that he’s not proven at this level.

[Dr_Pangloss]

We can't always play great football, this was a hard game given our injuries and collapse against Leeds, we've done very well to get three points. Smith has done a very good so far.

[TrentVilla]

How we played today was largely immaterial it was more about mentally how we responded to the Leeds game. The defeat to Leeds took a lot out of the players both physically and mentally, today was about attitude and spirt.

 

[Dave J]

Just now, TrentVilla said:

How we played today was largely immaterial it was more about mentally how we responded to the Leeds game. The defeat to Leeds took a lot out of the players both physically and mentally, today was about attitude and spirt.

 

I'd go one step further and say Leeds took a lot out of the whole club and you rightly point out - today was about the whole fortitude of the club.

we might well look back on this win in crucial light come next May.

If we had lost today - the momentum could have been lost long enough for us to be out of the race.

[Spoony]

I’m actually loving life under Smith to a slightly irrational level. I think what it is is I just enjoy feeling like we are competing in games and the football is entertaining again. Results may be slightly hit and miss but I just feel fully invested in Villa again and I haven’t felt like this in ages. It’s like he just “gets” us. 

[Guest av1]

4 minutes ago, Spoony said:

I’m actually loving life under Smith to a slightly irrational level. I think what it is is I just enjoy feeling like we are competing in games and the football is entertaining again. Results may be slightly hit and miss but I just feel fully invested in Villa again and I haven’t felt like this in ages. It’s like he just “gets” us. 

Agreed. I know we can't win every game, but I'm glad we are trying to win every game. 

[KMitch]

6 minutes ago, Spoony said:

I’m actually loving life under Smith to a slightly irrational level. I think what it is is I just enjoy feeling like we are competing in games and the football is entertaining again. Results may be slightly hit and miss but I just feel fully invested in Villa again and I haven’t felt like this in ages. It’s like he just “gets” us. 

Well, he is "one of our own"...

[Tomaszk]

7 minutes ago, Spoony said:

I’m actually loving life under Smith to a slightly irrational level. I think what it is is I just enjoy feeling like we are competing in games and the football is entertaining again. Results may be slightly hit and miss but I just feel fully invested in Villa again and I haven’t felt like this in ages. It’s like he just “gets” us. 

It's incredible.

The football. The entertainment. The pride. The respect.

It's easily the best feeling since MON days, and the best football for around 20 years.

[Vive_La_Villa]

Smiths form is now 1.75 ppg which is the 4th best in the league. Shows great improvement, especially when you consider that in those 12 games we’ve played 10 of the top 13 teams. Only team lower we played was Bolton which was a relatively comfortable win. 

We now have 6 games coming up against 5 teams currently lower than us in the league.

If we can try and get 15 points from these games which is very much achievable. I believe it would put Smiths form back on to 2 ppg. This puts us back on target for 82 points which would comfortably make playoffs. 

We also still have Norwich, wba, Derby, Boro and Shef United all to come to villa park. Will all be massive games. 

I personally do not think we’ll manage that many points but I do think we’ll make playoffs.  Second time lucky...

 

[Indigo]

It's been mentioned already but think it really does need putting in perspective how well Smith has done since he's come in, and how promising it looks if we can get a little bit of luck for the remainder of the season.

The teams in red are who we played when Bruce was manager, the green being since Smith has taken over.

Automatics are very ambitious I think, as regardless of how well we do, it's more the amount of teams we'd have to overtake and Leeds, Norwich and WBA are all very strong, while if through nothing else but sheer pragmatism Boro will be up there.

However at this point I'd be very surprised not to see us looking strong for the play-offs come the end of the season. Hopefully a bit of fortune with injuries, a couple of necessary additions, and more time for Smith & co to further implement their methods are all to come. Villa have thought me more than enough times down the years to never be too confident, but it speaks to the job Smith has done thus far that I'm - perhaps naively - ignoring it all over again.

[MaVilla]

15 minutes ago, Indigo said:

It's been mentioned already but think it really does need putting in perspective how well Smith has done since he's come in, and how promising it looks if we can get a little bit of luck for the remainder of the season.

The teams in red are who we played when Bruce was manager, the green being since Smith has taken over.

Automatics are very ambitious I think, as regardless of how well we do, it's more the amount of teams we'd have to overtake and Leeds, Norwich and WBA are all very strong, while if through nothing else but sheer pragmatism Boro will be up there.

However at this point I'd be very surprised not to see us looking strong for the play-offs come the end of the season. Hopefully a bit of fortune with injuries, a couple of necessary additions, and more time for Smith & co to further implement their methods are all to come. Villa have thought me more than enough times down the years to never be too confident, but it speaks to the job Smith has done thus far that I'm - perhaps naively - ignoring it all over again.

This is a seriously good post, and shows the perspective we should have when assessing how we are doing under smith, but also how we can assess that against Bruce considering who each manaher has played in their tenure this season.

Very insightful, those colours speak a thousand words.

Edited December 27, 2018 by MaVilla

[GENTLEMAN]

31 minutes ago, Indigo said:

It's been mentioned already but think it really does need putting in perspective how well Smith has done since he's come in, and how promising it looks if we can get a little bit of luck for the remainder of the season.

The teams in red are who we played when Bruce was manager, the green being since Smith has taken over.

Automatics are very ambitious I think, as regardless of how well we do, it's more the amount of teams we'd have to overtake and Leeds, Norwich and WBA are all very strong, while if through nothing else but sheer pragmatism Boro will be up there.

However at this point I'd be very surprised not to see us looking strong for the play-offs come the end of the season. Hopefully a bit of fortune with injuries, a couple of necessary additions, and more time for Smith & co to further implement their methods are all to come. Villa have thought me more than enough times down the years to never be too confident, but it speaks to the job Smith has done thus far that I'm - perhaps naively - ignoring it all over again.

Wow, thanks for that. Very stark in the pictorial format. The only team we played under Bruce of note was Sheff Utd, easily the most one-sided, tactical mismatched and gutless defeat of the season.

[Tony]

Steve Bruce really did ruin our season didn’t he. 

[Daweii]

45 minutes ago, Tony said:

Steve Bruce really did ruin our season didn’t he. 

It's not over yet. We have all of those lower placed teams to come again, while we have just had arguably our hardest run of games this season. If we can get into the habit of winning against the lower placed teams then we could still get pretty high up the table. We're 3 points off the play-offs with 22 games to go and 14 points off the leaders. Now the latter is likely pretty hard to claw back, but we only have to win 4 games while they lose 4 and we're right back up with them. Nothing is impossible yet, it's just harder than it likely should have been thanks to Bruce.