Dean Smith

[tomav84]

couple of brilliant performances followed up by a couple of shit ones. sounds like a mid table team to me, which the majority expected us to be come end of the season.

today **** hurts...it really does. they're the only thing that remotely resembles a rival in this league and they've done us from 2 down.

buendia signalled to come off, so there were zero complaints around me in the stands when one of our best players of the season so far took his place. not one. he was the logical choice. most didn't expect luiz to start, so it was no surprise when marv was bought on to sure things up and give luiz a rest. again, it was a logical change. hindsight is a wonderful thing regarding subs but ultimately shite performances from the 3 centre backs cost us 3 points today. tuanzebe had an absolute shocker, should've been 1-0 down at HT because of a hospital pass. what hause did to get dropped i'll never know. i hope we're not back to feeling obliged to field loan players though.

funny though the usual comments about how smith is suddenly not good enough for where we want to go have started again. the guy that won 10 on the bounce to get us up. stuffed teams like liverpool and arsenal. beat utd. turned no less than 6 players into internationals for top international sides since he was appointed, one of which he turned into a 100m player.

smith's still the man...i don't think we'll see this formation much when bailey and traore are fit anyway. people saying drop the 532...the alternative was el ghazi back on the pitch as we had no other wingers. and no one wants that.

[foreveryoung]

4 minutes ago, GingerCollins29 said:

Beat man united - smith is absolutely amazing, we are so lucky to have him.

Anniversary of DS appointment - happy deano day everyone, look at how far he has taken us, long live dean smith.

Lose to wolves - smith out.

FFS

Or you could ask yourself, why we beat a top 4 team convincingly and cannot see off Wolves after a 2 goal lead with 10 minutes to go.

[nick76]

10 hours ago, foreveryoung said:

Either that, or take Pep's place at Man City to be back with Grealish.

Always pretty quiet on the media front with Smith, since he is thought of as this great coach. Potter gets more praise, maybe because we are doing exactly as expected with the money we have spent,  no better.

Or just at different size and quality of club.  Potter is at Brighton which is a lot different to being at a club the size and level of Villa.  Gary Neville literally just praised us post the Brentford v Chelsea game on Sky…or do they specifically have to say Smith is a great coach? Or talking about Villa does Smith not some credit. I think Smith gets a lot of credit in the media for what he’s done.  I think Potter is flavour of the month at moment which is fine despite two very average seasons before hand.  

Although nobody mentions Brighton had a poor result today and probably should’ve lost against Norwich of all teams. Josh Sargent’s open goal was crazy! Poor result for Potter, just as it was a poor result for Smith today.

[villalad21]

7 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Or just at different size and quality of club.  Potter is at Brighton which is a lot different to being at a club the size and level of Villa.  Gary Neville literally just praised us post the Brentford v Chelsea game on Sky…or do they specifically have to say Smith is a great coach? Or talking about Villa does Smith not some credit. I think Smith gets a lot of credit in the media for what he’s done.  I think Potter is flavour of the month at moment which is fine despite two very average seasons before hand.  
 

 

Although nobody mentions Brighton had a poor result today and probably should’ve lost against Norwich of all teams. Josh Sargent’s open goal was crazy! Poor result for Potter, just as it was a poor result for Smith today.

They are 4th 

[foreveryoung]

17 minutes ago, tomav84 said:

because we're a mid table team and that's what mid table teams do best. they're inconsistent

we've had to change from a tactic whereby we gave the ball to 1 player any chance we get, and also adjust to a new formation. one of the key players we brought in has been injured most of the season. there were always going to be bumps in the road this season

as i said above most fans expected us to finish somewhere between 9th-12th and we're on course for that.

Sorry I can't get my head round beating man U and Everton with style and being the better team. Then seeing a half arsed performance against Tottenham and losing in the last 10 minutes against a poor Wolves team.

The team has the quality, noted with the wins stated above. Inconsistency is surely down to mentality, which can only be drilled by the coaching staff. We have always been the same, it never changes and this is what worries me with the current coaching.

[VillaFaninLondon]

1 hour ago, andym said:

Needs to stop the obsession with shoe horning players in everygame, and i dont mean the 2 up top.

For me, the issue is forcing the extra centre back in and then trying to rely on targett and cash getting forward as the creative outlets. They are simply not good enough at this. We need our actual talented attackers to be doing that.

We just end up with 5 defenders sitting deep, midfielders not too much further infront, then the forwards just getting outnumbered.

We had a good result at Man U admittedly, but the Everton game was as much as the impact of Bailey as formation. However we've shipped 3 against Chelsea and Wolves, and 2 at an out of form Spurs, resulting in 0 points from those 3 games, so we havent exactly been defensively sound with that formation.

There's still ways to get Ings and Watkins in, while playing 4 at the back. Maybe actually supporting them properly would turn their partnership around.

Very well said.

[Peter Griffin]

37 minutes ago, GingerCollins29 said:

Beat man united - smith is absolutely amazing, we are so lucky to have him.

Anniversary of DS appointment - happy deano day everyone, look at how far he has taken us, long live dean smith.

Lose to wolves - smith out.

FFS

If you read the comments on here it is not quite the extremes you suggest. I think most people really like DS and would love him to be our manager for years to come. However, some people recognise some weaknesses and would like to see those improved. Suggesting it is Smith is God v Smith out only adds to the stupid rhetoric

[M_Afro]

2021 generally seems to have been pretty crap so far in terms of performance and results. I have just tried to google the actual stats but can’t find them anywhere. It would be interesting to see them to fully understand where we are over a reasonably long period. Anybody able to assist?

[Peter Griffin]

38 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

I have read it. October and we're talking about his job security next season because some are desperate for him to be under more pressure this season. 

It's madness. 

More bullshyte. We are talking about DS because it is a DS forum. What are we meant to discuss?

[VillaFaninLondon]

Let's be honest, whether we're Smith in or out, it's been a pretty cr*p season so far. We're not playing particularly well, we don't look particularly creative or enterprising, and we don't seem to be getting any better even though we're 8 games into the season. 

People say we've had 2 brilliant performances and then two bad ones, I really don't agree with that opinion. Against Everton we were the inferior side until Bailey came on against an Everton team that had 3/4 of their best players out. Against Manure we had some good chances on the break but in the end had about 8 shots to their 30 odd and were reliant on them skying a penalty in the final minute of the game to get the win. To me those aren't brilliant performances at all. 

Our best performance this season was Chelsea away and we lost 3-0. All the others we either won with an element of luck or drew/lost and played poorly. Even the Newcastle game we got lucky with Wilson missing that clear chance early on and then winning a penalty but being called for offside.

We really need to start getting more points but we also need to play a lot better. I think Smith has to take an awful lot of blame for the way we're playing because he's persisting with the 2 up front and 5 at the back and we're playing like shit. He's supposed to be an attack-minded forward-thinking coach but we look a bang average team at best at the moment and he has to sort it out asap.

[Risso]

9 minutes ago, M_Afro said:

2021 generally seems to have been pretty crap so far in terms of performance and results. I have just tried to google the actual stats but can’t find them anywhere. It would be interesting to see them to fully understand where we are over a reasonably long period. Anybody able to assist?

 

A quick back of the fag packet calculation and I make it 39 points from 31 games in 2021. Roughly 1.25 points per game. Lower mid table form basically, which points to the lack of consistency we always show under Smith.

[string28]

I really like dean and i want him to get villa to the next level but its worrying the way we are playing at the moment. I really do hope that this is just because of the so many breaks we have had and not down to the system we are playing.

[M_Afro]

2 minutes ago, Risso said:

 

A quick back of the fag packet calculation and I make it 39 points from 31 games in 2021. Roughly 1.25 points per game. Lower mid table form basically, which points to the lack of consistency we always show under Smith.

Thanks mate. Much appreciated. That’s not great at all but it’s actually better than I thought it was going to be. Is it good enough for NSWE? I’m not sure. The whole Newcastle position adds a further dynamic to the mix. Will NSWE be more or less patient now? 

[maqroll]

40 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Sorry I can't get my head round beating man U and Everton with style and being the better team. Then seeing a half arsed performance against Tottenham and losing in the last 10 minutes against a poor Wolves team.

The team has the quality, noted with the wins stated above. Inconsistency is surely down to mentality, which can only be drilled by the coaching staff. We have always been the same, it never changes and this is what worries me with the current coaching.

Has the departure of Terry and O'Kelly left the team with a mentality deficit?

[CVByrne]

12 hours ago, hippo said:

I can point you in the direction of some evidence that suggests otherwise.!!!

But again if the calibre is there - wots the issue. ?  Preparation, coaching, application ?  ....

We've conceded quite a few goals this season. We have regular England CB and a top notch international keeper.  We have the personnel to shut sides out. Do we have the organisation and prep ?

We have a good record of holding on for victory based on last season.

Sometimes games like this happen. Yes the players lost concentration but at the same time it's a bit of a freak event. We were much the better team for 80 mins. 

Poor to throw the game away but it was the players errors nothing to do with how the the was set up. Tactics worked, we were 2 0 up and could have been more. 

Can't see how we can criticise Dean for this

[VillaChris]

I think this season has been o.k although last two games been big negatives so really it's no time at all to have annual DS three month winless run now, we have plenty of winnable games up to middle of December so we need to be in decent position going into xmas period.

It's a work in progress season. Dosen't mean losing a game when you're 2-0 up with ten left is ever acceptable though.

[Wainy316]

Smith or no Smith there just seems to be a mental fragility and ability to completely capitulate on such a regular basis that is only present at Aston Villa.  Even with some of our better teams this kind of thing seems to happen an abnormal amount of times.  

[Mantis]

14 minutes ago, Wainy316 said:

Smith or no Smith there just seems to be a mental fragility and ability to completely capitulate on such a regular basis that is only present at Aston Villa.  Even with some of our better teams this kind of thing seems to happen an abnormal amount of times.  

I don't think it's *only* Villa but yes we do seem much more mentally fragile than average.

[meregreen]

What we think of Dean, and whether or not his time is up, is irrelevant. It’s our owners who will decide. I have a feeling they will be beginning to look at all possibilities now. It may come down to who’s available out there. Footballs a pretty ruthless business.

[MaVilla]

gotta say, in his interview he seemed a cross between depressed and shocked in to a stupor, and raging mad, all at the same time, but he did a good job trying to sound and look neutral.

looking at his expression when he said "ok thanks, bye" at the end of the interview, as he turned to walk away he looked like he had literal murder in mind.