Dean Smith

[Peter Griffin]

2 minutes ago, VillanousOne said:

but yes back on point sometimes I crave consistency and even draws rather than a constant rollercoaster of random results.

This. 100%

[weedman]

9 minutes ago, VillanousOne said:

but yes back on point sometimes I crave consistency and even draws rather than a constant rollercoaster of random results.

I mean pretty much the only teams that offer that are the top 2 or 3 and Norwich 

[nick76]

11 minutes ago, VillanousOne said:

but yes back on point sometimes I crave consistency and even draws rather than a constant rollercoaster of random results.

I’m not sure supporting any club except for the elite 1 or 2 are you every going to be happy then.

[DCJonah]

28 minutes ago, Peter Griffin said:

DC

Would you not be better putting the effort into something else than stalking my comments looking for something to try and push your agenda and what's worse is if you can't find anything you just make it up. 

You said it was a concern that we couldn't pick up more points without Jack and we looked clueless. 

Most people acknowledge the position we were in when he came and the almost miracle he worked getting us up first time. Yet you focus on the worry that we couldn't do the same when Jack wasn't playing. 

Same as when most people acknowledge the achievement of staying up first time, but you like to focus on the sheff u ghost goal. 

Most people were pleased with the improvement last year, but you focus on the fact 55 pts came from having a good half and a bad half of the season. 

It's odd.

[DCJonah]

22 minutes ago, weedman said:

I mean pretty much the only teams that offer that are the top 2 or 3 and Norwich 

Yep. 

I posted the results of the 10th place team for the last 5 or 6 years. No surprise its a complete mixture of results. But again, people want us to be a kind of mid table team that has never existed. 

[Peter Griffin]

13 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

You said it was a concern that we couldn't pick up more points without Jack and we looked clueless. 

Most people acknowledge the position we were in when he came and the almost miracle he worked getting us up first time. Yet you focus on the worry that we couldn't do the same when Jack wasn't playing. 

Same as when most people acknowledge the achievement of staying up first time, but you like to focus on the sheff u ghost goal. 

Most people were pleased with the improvement last year, but you focus on the fact 55 pts came from having a good half and a bad half of the season. 

It's odd.

You really can't help yourself with the narrative and twisting of my comments. The addition of 'focus', that is just BS and another attempt by you to misrepresent. Show me where I have said I wasn't pleased with the improvement last year (you won't be able to find this as I never said it). 

Edited October 26, 2021 by Peter Griffin
Fixed a typo

[DCJonah]

7 minutes ago, Peter Griffin said:

You really can't help yourself with the narrative and twisting of my comments. The addition of 'focus', that is just BS and another attempt by you to misrepresent. Show me where I have not said I wasn't pleased with the improvement last year (you won't be able to find this as I never said it). 

Like I said, your focus is on the way we made that improvement. It wasn't to your approved standard. You also spent multiple posts claiming the sheff u ghost goal was a key reason we stayed up. There was no twisting of your comments. You made those posts. 

And you've just made those comments about our performances without Jack during that first season Smith was here. 

[PussEKatt]

People are going on about losing our last 3 games and saying,if we win our next 3 and mentioning things like other teams and other teams win/loss etc etc etc.

How about this then.In our 9 games since this season started,we have won 3 and not won 6.IMHO this is classic inconsincinsity.If we keep on being inconsistant then we Will go down.So,surley you must all agree that something needs to change.You also must agree that its the manager that has to change it.

Bottom line.Nine games into the season we are probably the most inconsistant team in the division,if this carrys on where will we finish ?and finally who is going to fix this inconsistanct problem,is it down to the squad or the manager.  

[Tomaszk]

3 hours ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

Depends what you class as unrealistic expectations.

I think a realistic expectation this season would be to see us improve on last year's league position and try and overtake some established teams and aim for 7th-8th, or a good cup run?

The word aim is being used in relation to expectation here.

6/7/8/9 is our aim certainly. Dean and the players have spoken about it. What's their expectation? Their minimum expectation? What is the board's minimum expectation? Not a clue. I suppose we'll find out if Dean is sacked after finishing 10/11/12/13/14 let's say. I would imagine the team's performances will be judged as much as the manager's results which is very important to me personally. I think they'll look at what other clubs are doing and bear in mind uncontrollable factors like injuries as well.

I'd love to win a cup yes. I think we've had a fair jab at them since we've been in the PL:

• A final
• Largely good performances and results whenever we play teams we 'should' beat
• Given Liverpool and Chelsea a fright playing some children against their much stronger XIs

[Tomaszk]

People going with this consistency line are really dying on the wrong hill.

Chelsea's last seven...four wins, a draw and two losses.

INCONSISTENT

[VillanousOne]

1 hour ago, weedman said:

I mean pretty much the only teams that offer that are the top 2 or 3 and Norwich 

To clarify I mean performances more than I mean results, I don’t mind as much if we show some fight and backbone and just get beaten by the better team on the day. Usually if you perform consistently you get results eventually (barring var and ref issues), but there will always be teams that just have better players and managers or just simply better on the day. Not saying good teams can't have off days either.

With us we could play Norwich or Man City and I’d be clueless as to how we’d actually perform against either at the moment, that happened last season also even with Gresford.

Appreciate all mid table teams struggle with consistency that is why they are mid table, but for us the drop off in effort and quality from our players from one week to the next is staggering sometimes. Against Arsenal we were like headless chickens, completely unable to press, pass or function as a team, that isn’t just being a bit inconsistent or even just down to formation. 

We also tend to stink up the entire 90 mins, save for a 15-20 minute spell when we play well when the game is already dead and buried. 

Edited October 26, 2021 by VillanousOne

[Indigo]

JLA has a good channel as a whole for those who don't know, but on topic he did a nice little breakdown of where Villa are at right now in the beginning of this video today:

 

[Indigo]

Being inconsistent generally won't see you relegated considering there are going to be a number of teams who are consistent...ly bad.

[PussEKatt]

11 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

People going with this consistency line are really dying on the wrong hill.

Chelsea's last seven...four wins, a draw and two losses.

INCONSISTENT

So,Chelsea WON MORE than they didnt win.Just a tiny bit different to our results for our last nine.You also failed to mention that of the last 9 games,Chelsea have won 7.A bit different to our 3 wins ?!

[hippo]

I don't get the debate.

If he loses the next 3 - that will be six losses on the trot. I doubt any manager in the prem could survive that.

The real debate will come in the summer if we finish around 15th or worse. Do we accept it as keeping the club in the prem after loosing a once in a generation player.

Or do we make the change.

[tomsky_11]

2 hours ago, VillanousOne said:

but yes back on point sometimes I crave consistency and even draws rather than a constant rollercoaster of random results.

Might have more chance of this happening when we can consistenly put out our best XI, which we haven't managed once yet IMO because it will include Bailey.

In fact, we have barely managed any kind of consistent team so far this season, only twice* has the starting line up not changed at all from the previous game.

Here's some comparison to the first 9 games of last season:

Opening games of both seasons saw 3 new brand new players start opening game. But last season all three of those changes made us stronger than the previous season, whereas this season that's not the case.**

From games 1 to 9 last season we made a total of 4 personnel changes*** between games. There were no significant formation changes, only moving between 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1/4-5-1. Our back 5 of Martinez, Cash, Targett, Konsa, Mings, plus Luiz, McGinn, Grealish and Watkins started all 9 games.

Compare that to this season: 14 personnel changes between games, plus 4 positional changes across games 2 and 3 and an entire formation shift from 4-2-3-1 to 5-3-2/3-5-2 from game 4 onwards. Our back 5/6 has only remained unchanged twice. Only Cash, Konsa and Ings have started every game.

We've used 23 different players this season with 18 different starters so far this season, compared to 18 different players and 13 starters last season in the first 9 games.

Our week 1-9 results are W3 D1 L5 F13 A15 P10 this season vs. W5 D0 L4 F20 A13 P15 last. Given we've lost our best player, have had little consistency in team selection, significantly changed formation, haven't played our best XI yet, and also had a highly disrupted preseason (especially compared to last season when our first game was a week later than most other teams) I don't think being 2 wins for a loss and a draw off last season's start is too bad considering.

 

* Spurs and Arsenal, both times with the 3-5-2 formation that IMO really did not suit us against the opposition

** Compared to how we finished the previous season, last season we had Martinez for Reina, Cash for Guilbert and Watkins for Samatta. The rest of the team and formation was unchanged. This season Buendia, Young and Ings started instead of Grealish, Traore and Watkins.

*** Barkley for Hourihane game 3, the reverse in game 9, Traore for Trez game 6 (Trez subbed back in for Traore 29th min of this game!), then Trez back game 7.

Edited October 26, 2021 by tomsky_11

[Big Salad]

It will take a monumental collapse from Dean for him to get sacked anytime soon imo.

[nick76]

24 minutes ago, hippo said:

I don't get the debate.

If he loses the next 3 - that will be six losses on the trot. I doubt any manager in the prem could survive that.

The real debate will come in the summer if we finish around 15th or worse. Do we accept it as keeping the club in the prem after loosing a once in a generation player.

Or do we make the change.

But the debate is slightly slanted as if he is going to lose the next 3.

I agree the real debate will be later in season depending where we are.

[VillaFaninLondon]

1 hour ago, hippo said:

I don't get the debate.

If he loses the next 3 - that will be six losses on the trot. I doubt any manager in the prem could survive that.

The real debate will come in the summer if we finish around 15th or worse. Do we accept it as keeping the club in the prem after loosing a once in a generation player.

Or do we make the change.

Of course we have to make the change. I don’t know why they’d wait that long if we were doing that badly. This squad is good enough for an 8th-10th placed finish in all honesty. Smith may get away with finishing a couple of places below that, but anything below that and surely he’s a goner.

[Peter Griffin]

51 minutes ago, Indigo said:

Being inconsistent generally won't see you relegated considering there are going to be a number of teams who are consistent...ly bad.

I would hope that relegation is not something for Villa fans to be concerning themselves with this season