Dean Smith

[TRO]

19 hours ago, DCJonah said:

What are your reasons that we should expect more right now, at this point in the journey? 

I'd love to know. 

I hope you don't mind me answering that.....Overall, I think Dean has done a very decent job, we all call on the good bits and dubious bits, but overall, I have been well pleased with his appointment.

So where do I think we could have done better?

Midfield....

I would like to have seen a bit more power, aggression  & pace in there, sure we need passing ability , vision  and positional Nous,and  I think we have some good players in there now, but too samey for me...not enough attributes to form a whole.i.e complete midfield.

I think The full backs could be better too.

The front line 2 England Internationals, not sure we could have done better there....The Goal Keeper is world class.

The one centre back is also an England International, but  also has mercurial tendencies....The other is a very good signing indeed, in general.

Dean for me, has too much vanity in his midfield, not enough substance....I think we could have done better there.

But hey ho....we all have our opinions.

 

 

Edited October 29, 2021 by TRO

[VillanousOne]

Smith lost JT and Richard O’Kelly during the preseason.

Yes he gained Danks & McPhee, but I think the Kelly and JT were important and influential and it will take time for Danks and McPhee to stamp their mark on the team, they might not be direct or even good replacements.

Interestingly our set pieces, pointless long throw ins aside (ok so one paid off) looked much improved to start with, but vs Wolves and Arsenal it's almost as if the players stopped bothering to even try and implement them.

The body language on the field (and bench) felt like the players actually were telling Smith that they had enough of the tactics and formation, which is something I have not seen in a long time.

Hard to judge what has impacted our season the most, but easy to see that so many changes in coaches and players has really disrupted things.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

For as much stick as we sometimes give him ( myself included ) , got to admit, The pre season, injuries, international players all over the place, until late before games, not being able to train properly etc has not helped him AT ALL.

Must be an absolute nightmare for him so far this season.

 

[Phil Silvers]

11 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

For as much stick as we sometimes give him ( myself included ) , got to admit, The pre season, injuries, international players all over the place, until late before games, not being able to train properly etc has not helped him AT ALL.

Must be an absolute nightmare for him so far this season.

 

That's exactly why he needs breathing space. Add bent refs to the above. I'm convinced they've been told to not book players from certain teams till after 60mins, and for the rest, get the card out asap, gives an in game advantage to some... See Ollie Vs Arsenal after 45 seconds, in what looked like a 50/50mto the rest of the world. 

Dean just gets on with it with class, as you say JV, it's been a nightmare for him.

Edited October 29, 2021 by Phil Silvers

[Made In Aston]

I thought it is interesting that Smith said we lost to wolves because of some freak goals in last weeks presser, but this week admits that we threw the game away in the last 10 minutes. 

[Zatman]

27 minutes ago, Made In Aston said:

I thought it is interesting that Smith said we lost to wolves because of some freak goals in last weeks presser, but this week admits that we threw the game away in the last 10 minutes. 

Pretty sure he said it was a freak event

[avfc1982am]

I'm personally not taken with the freak incident. And yes we threw the game away against Wolves but why? Was it because they found something to exploit and we didn't counter it? Similar to the Arsehole result, we didn't counter them tactically until the second half by which time the advantage had been relinquished. I'm willing to back Smith on most things but in these instances I think he just got things wrong. Him and his team. 

[hippo]

4 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

I'm personally not taken with the freak incident. And yes we threw the game away against Wolves but why? Was it because they found something to exploit and we didn't counter it? Similar to the Arsehole result, we didn't counter them tactically until the second half by which time the advantage had been relinquished. I'm willing to back Smith on most things but in these instances I think he just got things wrong. Him and his team. 

Luiz + Buendia off - Nakamba & Ramsay on - you don't need to look much beyond that imo.

[Indigo]

28 minutes ago, hippo said:

Luiz + Buendia off - Nakamba & Ramsay on - you don't need to look much beyond that imo.

+ Young on for Cash as well. We basically had no means of retaining possession at all up the pitch due to the formation and players within it at that time, and just had to deal with the pressure that came with it. Obviously could have defended better in that situation but that's how it came to pass. 

[cbr600rr]

when jack left the club , the CEO put out a video, that video showed ambition, the owners have a model of avfc, a vision , if they want that vision to become a reality i dont think DS is the man 

 

 

[TRO]

6 hours ago, M_Afro said:

I never wanted us to appoint Smith but I would never call myself anti-Smith. I think that most fans love Dean, I just felt that his cv was a little underwhelming to be considered to be manager of our great club. 
In his time as manager there have been some great spells where he has really won me over but the nagging doubts keep returning. I still want Dean to turn things around but for various reasons that I have posted over the past week or so, I am still unsure that he is capable. I am absolutely certain that he is on the edge now and a decent run must be forthcoming. Hopefully it starts with a sensible balanced team selection on Sunday, a motivated team, a good performance and something other than another defeat.

I have never wanted or been against any of our managers from the off, even McLeish,  I just give them a chance on the basis of the club doing its due diligence.....Martin O'Neill was the last one, I was wanted.....and I was wrong, despite 6-6-6, which was looking back tremendous finishes.

We all want him to turn these recent results and perfomances around, but my fear is the team is still imbalanced and it will be difficult against the next opponent.

I would say, outside of Man City and Liverpool, probably the hardest fixture to face, in turning bad results around.

I think it would be wrong to expect him to do it against them....but,don't get me wrong, would be great if we could.

[TRO]

54 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

I'm personally not taken with the freak incident. And yes we threw the game away against Wolves but why? Was it because they found something to exploit and we didn't counter it? Similar to the Arsehole result, we didn't counter them tactically until the second half by which time the advantage had been relinquished. I'm willing to back Smith on most things but in these instances I think he just got things wrong. Him and his team. 

Nor me.

[zenda]

You sense he gets a bit defensive in pressers when he's asked about systems and formations. Apparently, being outnumbered in midfield had nothing to do with Arsenal tearing us a new one last week. Dean, you're trying to put square pegs into round holes, just admit it. 

[Made In Aston]

3 hours ago, Zatman said:

Pretty sure he said it was a freak event

He didn't quite say that, but the general gist was that it wasn't the players who collapsed but a couple of 'weird' goals. This week he said that we threw the game away, which suggests it was in our control to win our lose.

[OutByEaster?]

3 hours ago, TRO said:

I would say, outside of Man City and Liverpool, probably the hardest fixture to face, in turning bad results around.

Oddly enough, the third best team in the country on form over the last half a dozen games is Arsenal, so in theory, this one is easier than the last one.

(Of course, we got our arses handed to us in the last one.)

I think what will be important for Dean is in addressing the positional issues we've faced - the front two don't work, either for the team as whole or as a partnership, Buendia isn't a central midfielder, five at the back doesn't seem to make us any more secure than four does, and we've got a bunch of wingers sitting on the sidelines watching the whole thing. 

I'd like to see those things addressed for this game - win, lose or draw.

 

[Vive_La_Villa]

4 hours ago, hippo said:

Luiz + Buendia off - Nakamba & Ramsay on - you don't need to look much beyond that imo.

It was enforced to be fair. 

[hippo]

15 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

It was enforced to be fair. 

Was it ?  Luiz was fit enough for 68 minutes but not 90.

Buedina - "signalled" he wanted to come off. Would like to have seen Ron Saunders or Brian Clough reaction to players signalling they want to come off in a local derby and a capacity crowd.

[Vive_La_Villa]

2 minutes ago, hippo said:

Was it ?  Luiz was fit enough for 68 minutes but not 90.

Buedina - "signalled" he wanted to come off. Would like to have seen Ron Saunders or Brian Clough reaction to players signalling they want to come off in a local derby and a capacity crowd.

Love how the narrative changes to suit. Smith was pretty much blasted all of last season for not taking players off when we were winning games. I very much doubt he would have wanted to take both of those players off if he had a choice. 

I get the stick Smith is getting because we ain’t been great at all. But boy some of these posts are getting tiring. 

[hippo]

1 minute ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Love how the narrative changes to suit. Smith was pretty much blasted all of last season for not taking players off when we were winning games. I very much doubt he would have wanted to take both of those players off if he had a choice. 

I get the stick Smith is getting because we ain’t been great at all. But boy some of these posts are getting tiring. 

Wot narrative ?

There's 42k at villa park. And at the last count we could make 3 subs from a possible 9. Whatever he does some people will see it differently.

Imo - those two subs were a mistake. The given reasons were questionable (again imo)

He had a choice. He could have left Luiz on.

People up and down the country about 4.45 tommorow will be debating subs made / not made. We haven't got tired of it in many a year. So I don't get why people discussing subs are "getting tiring" 

 

[Vive_La_Villa]

9 minutes ago, hippo said:

Wot narrative ?

There's 42k at villa park. And at the last count we could make 3 subs from a possible 9. Whatever he does some people will see it differently.

Imo - those two subs were a mistake. The given reasons were questionable (again imo)

He had a choice. He could have left Luiz on.

People up and down the country about 4.45 tommorow will be debating subs made / not made. We haven't got tired of it in many a year. So I don't get why people discussing subs are "getting tiring" 

 

He had no choice. They were both ****!  (Shattered).if Marvelous can’t come and do the same just for 20 minutes then why is he even in the squad ?

Edited October 29, 2021 by Vive_La_Villa