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Dean Smith


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14 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said:

4 defeats in the 14 matches prior to the winning streak is a club record is it? 

That 2015/16 season was a horrible nightmare after all.
 

Or 2 wins in 14.

I rate him for that winning streak after I really do, no doubt Grealish coming back saved the day, but it was overdue to say the least. 

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7 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Maybe not club record, but record or not 2 wins in 12 was not the best.

No it was rubbish. We were a mess. That's the point. We reached a point where a fan chucked a cabbage at the manager and he was sacked. We had glaring issues in the squad and morale was heading in one direction. 

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Just now, foreveryoung said:

Or 2 wins in 14.

I rate him for that winning streak after I really do, no doubt Grealish coming back saved the day, but it was overdue to say the least. 

Grealish coming back was obviously a huge, huge boost. No one has ever denied that.

But if Grealish was the winning ingredient (and some like to think it was really just him), I don’t know why we hadn’t achieved ten wins on the bounce before his injury - under Smith or Bruce.

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11 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Or 2 wins in 14.

I rate him for that winning streak after I really do, no doubt Grealish coming back saved the day, but it was overdue to say the least. 

Grealish didn't play in all them 10 games

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48 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

No it was rubbish. We were a mess. That's the point. We reached a point where a fan chucked a cabbage at the manager and he was sacked. We had glaring issues in the squad and morale was heading in one direction. 

Are we a mess at the moment?
3rd October 2018 after 11 games we had 15 points and two points off the playoffs. After nine games this season we have 10 points, not too dissimilar PPG. 

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16 minutes ago, jim said:

Are we a mess at the moment?
3rd October 2018 after 11 games we had 15 points and two points off the playoffs. After nine games this season we have 10 points, not too dissimilar PPG. 

I’d have to check to be sure, but were the current champions of Europe among one of the opponents Bruce had to face in those 11 championship matches?

It would be just his luck to have a midweek away trip to play Real Madrid when he should be preparing for Ipswich at the weekend.

Edited by Mark Albrighton
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38 minutes ago, jim said:

Are we a mess at the moment?
3rd October 2018 after 11 games we had 15 points and two points off the playoffs. After nine games this season we have 10 points, not too dissimilar PPG. 

 

25 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said:

I’d have to check to be sure, but were the current champions of Europe among one of the opponents Bruce had to face in those 11 championship matches?

It would be just his luck to have a midweek away trip to play Real Madrid when he should be preparing for Ipswich at the weekend.

Here you go, my less sarcastic answer. 

Here are those 11 fixtures complete with the final league position of each club. This isn’t a 100% fool proof way of looking at things because it doesn’t take into account temporary periods of good form. But as a general rule of thumb, it gives a reasonable indication as to whether the result against them was ultimately ok or not.

Hull 13th

Wigan 18th

Ipswich 24th

Brentford 11th

Reading 20th

Sheff Utd 2nd

Blackburn 15th

Rotherham 22nd

Sheff Wed 12th

Bristol 8th

Preston 14th

Notice how many bottom half clubs there are there. One fixture against an eventually promoted club. The next “hardest” opponent was Lee Johnson’s Bristol City who Bruce and Villa had previously hammered 5-0.

Now, go through the 9 fixtures so far this season. I asked the same question to @villalad21 and not yet had a reply. How many are you expecting to be in the bottom half? I think Watford, Newcastle and probably Brentford. Maybe one of Everton/Wolves at a push. The others I would have expected to be thinking 8th and above and both Everton and Wolves will also rightly feel they have designs on 8th place. 

So to summarise, comparing Villa’s fixtures against fairly substandard opposition 3 years ago isn’t really going to wash when comparing them to fixtures against opposition that’s not so substandard.

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1 hour ago, useless said:

I'm expecting between eight and twelve points from the next four that's not what I think he needs to achieve to keep his job, but rather what I think we will achieve, the full twelve points really wouldn't surprise me.

It would very much surprise me. I don't know the historical data but I would be very surprised if a team that scored 1.1 points per game over a 9 game run would then go on to win 4 PL games in a row. 

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11 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said:

 

Here you go, my less sarcastic answer. 

Here are those 11 fixtures complete with the final league position of each club. This isn’t a 100% fool proof way of looking at things because it doesn’t take into account temporary periods of good form. But as a general rule of thumb, it gives a reasonable indication as to whether the result against them was ultimately ok or not.

Hull 13th

Wigan 18th

Ipswich 24th

Brentford 11th

Reading 20th

Sheff Utd 2nd

Blackburn 15th

Rotherham 22nd

Sheff Wed 12th

Bristol 8th

Preston 14th

Notice how many bottom half clubs there are there. One fixture against an eventually promoted club. The next “hardest” opponent was Lee Johnson’s Bristol City who Bruce and Villa had previously hammered 5-0.

Now, go through the 9 fixtures so far this season. I asked the same question to @villalad21 and not yet had a reply. How many are you expecting to be in the bottom half? I think Watford, Newcastle and probably Brentford. Maybe one of Everton/Wolves at a push. The others I would have expected to be thinking 8th and above and both Everton and Wolves will also rightly feel they have designs on 8th place. 

So to summarise, comparing Villa’s fixtures against fairly substandard opposition 3 years ago isn’t really going to wash when comparing them to fixtures against opposition that’s not so substandard.

So does the 10 game winning streak wash as a success for Deano or is that different or were we not playing against substandard opposition?

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3 hours ago, jim said:

A shambles that was a gnats dick away from the playoff places when Smith arrived.

Regardless we were still a shambles. During that horrible run over Christmas, we had a central defence of James Bree and Mile Jedinak, with Neil Taylor supporting them on the left and Nyland/Kalinic in nets. Andre Green, Glen Whelan and Yanick Bolasie were vital members of the first team. 

Yes, there were some high quality individuals interspersed amongst them, but overall it wasn't "by far the best squad in the league". Perhaps it had the most recognisable names and cost the most money, but I think that's still blinding some from reality. As it did at the time. 

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18 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said:

Individually, no. Altogether, yes.

So does individually No and altogether yes apply to the 2 wins from 12? If he gets credit for one of the runs he takes the flak for the other. You can't have it both ways

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17 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

I think you're all missing a trick here. Smith's problem is not that he isn't capable manager, he has proven that beyond reasonable doubt. It's that he isn't consistent enough. 

The question should be can he ever find that consistency. 

100% agree

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Just now, Peter Griffin said:

So does individually No and altogether yes apply to the 2 wins from 12? If he gets credit for one of the runs he takes the flak for the other. You can't have it both ways

2 wins from 12 was poor. I’m not trying to have it both ways (Kenneth).

Have people been saying it was good form?

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