Dean Smith

[Peter Griffin]

3 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

For those interested, this is the Premier League 2021 Calendar Year table, so from 1st Jan 2021 to today, regardless of season, just a years worth of performance, compared.

for info, you can see total games played and total points, but i also added the average points per game in 2021, and ranked according to that average.

Bloody hell, only 2 points more than Newcastle and they are crap, much worse squad, crap owner for most the year, toxic environment and Bruce as manager

 

EDIT: Only 1 point more than Toon, that's even worse

Edited October 31, 2021 by Peter Griffin

[jim]

5 minutes ago, vreitti said:

3 minutes ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

I've watched both his interviews with Sky and AVFC and he says the same things: "We aren't starting games with enough energy".

It's worrying as it says to me the players aren't onboard or reacting to him the coaching team and still they make individual errors.

I think he's done unfortunately. 

Yep, after 3 defeats on the spin you would expect some sort of reaction. We are getting worse with every game. 

[Tommo_b]

22 minutes ago, jim said:

Is it? He’s been here 3 years and spent over £300m.

We have no style of play and this season we have regressed. These runs of poor firm are far too frequent and this current one we have shipped 12 goals and have looked worse in every game. 7 wins in 29 suggests now is the time.

I do not have the slightest inkling about football tactics, but I’m curious, how many styles of play are there, I know Arsenal from over a decade ago used to play a lot of short passes and never shot until they got to like the 6 yard line. 

Under O’Neil I guess you could say we were speedy counter attack merchants..

But like, what is a style of play?

I enjoy watching Brighton play, but it’s similar to that old Arsenal way, lots of good passing the ball around… and also not much end product.  

[Mark Albrighton]

I know it’s all shit and people are rightly pissed off.

But I can’t get on board with this “he’s been here three years now” comment as if we’ve been stagnating all that time, there’s been no major squad over haul required, some transfer activity beyond his control and there’s been nothing to enjoy along the way.

I’m sure, or rather I know it’s not meant that way, but “he’s been three years now” comments really comes across like we’re exactly where we were when he took over. It’s not like Bruce where ultimately we treaded water.

Just is slightly irksome.

[MaVilla]

3 minutes ago, Peter Griffin said:

Bloody hell, only 2 points more than Newcastle and they are crap, much worse squad, crap owner for most the year, toxic environment and Bruce as manager

 

EDIT: Only 1 point more than Toon, that's even worse

you are looking at games played mate, we had 9 more points, but played one more game, Newcastle avg PPG 0.9, ours 1.1.

Edited October 31, 2021 by MaVilla

[mykeyb]

43 minutes ago, thefeet1980 said:

Too soon to pull the trigger.  But the next three games are critical.  We not only need points, but we need to play much, much better.  Team looks devoid of ideas (horizontal passing at the back, hoofing to the wings) and low on confidence.  The nature of the Wolves defeat no doubt had an impact, but it does feel as though something isn’t right in the dressing room - not sure about the various rumours, but  there’s likely no smoke without some sort of fire.  If he’s lost the dressing room he has an absolute mountain to climb to keep hold of his job….

So say he gets 4 points from that, do we persevere. What happens if we get minimal points from the 3 after that?

I think we can see that we lack a playing style or philosophy. We look exactly like we did under Bruce.

Enough is enough, sorry Dean

[Peter Griffin]

2 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

you are looking at games played mate, we had 9 more points, but played one more game, Newcastle avg PPG 0.9, ours 1.1.

Phew, that makes me feel about 3 wins better. Thanks for pointing out. It still isn't great though

[Spoony]

18 minutes ago, TrentVilla said:

I don’t agree, it is rotten.

Have to agree. It all feels so wrong (and upsettingly familiar)

[jacketspuds]

I wonder what our PPG average is in total PL games we've played without Grealish, since our return to the top flight.

[Peter Griffin]

1 minute ago, jacketspuds said:

I wonder what our PPG average is in total PL games we've played without Grealish, since our return to the top flight.

That number may need more than one place of decimal 

[AvfcRigo82]

2 minutes ago, jacketspuds said:

I wonder what our PPG average is in total PL games we've played without Grealish, since our return to the top flight.

Probably safe to say that it won't be many!

[Zhan_Zhuang]

3 minutes ago, jacketspuds said:

I wonder what our PPG average is in total PL games we've played without Grealish, since our return to the top flight.

That would be relegation form.

[TrentVilla]

14 minutes ago, vreitti said:

Fair enough. Do you care to explain your view in more detail? 

I have at length before today, I mean no offence at all so please don't take any but what is the point? 

If you or anyone else don't think it is looking like a rotten mess at this moment in time fair enough, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I can't though quite comprehend how people can't see it and if they can't I'm not sure anything I say will change their view. 

I've had really big doubts about Smith almost throughout his tenure, the first time in the promotion season, then I thought he should go after the 4-0 at Leicester. Grealish saved him the first time and lockdown the second.

Last season alarm bells were ringing loud after Christmas, we were so poor, then Grealish returned and we finished well but the doubts remained.

People argued the squad wasn't good enough without Grealish last season, well he had a fortune in the summer and it looks an absolute mess. People can rightly point to player absences but it isn't justification for what we are seeing.

Anyway, I've started doing what I said I wouldn't, I'm not out to try and change peoples views, I know mine and a win on Friday wouldn't change it.

[ozvillafan]

6 minutes ago, Keener window-cleaner said:

Biggest problem for me is that we don't seem to have a plan, we are chopping and changing and dont seem to know how to best use our players, and they start looking frustrated by it.

5-3-2 failed and now we don't really know what to do.

This is my issue too.

We moved to a 4-3-3 today - but I feel that was forced by personnel, not a plan. Yet we couldn't even get that right, since:

• We had to change our front 3 because of Ings
• We had to change our middle 3 because of Luiz
• We had no reason to change our usual back 4, but Dean chose to drop our captain.

We had the opportunity to get "back to normality", play a side that - defensively at least - know how to play together and instill some confidence in a team that is clearly reeling from recent results. But Dean decided not to.

Unsurprisingly, we looked better when Mings was on the pitch, even with 10 men. None of this speaks to a plan, but a manager and coaching staff that are clutching at straws.

I still hope that Smith will turn it around (he has done so before) but without our former captain, there's no easy way out.

[M_Afro]

The fact that Dean has had 3 years and over £300m and has never been able to consistently play well without Grealish is all anybody needs to know. Another few weeks is not going to change that. It’s time to move on.

[string28]

With the team we have i would of thought dean would of had them playing some really beautiful attacking football its just flat and i dont get it.

[ciggiesnbeer]

Strange business football. I imagine (just a guess not itk) that Purslow and owners had started to discuss Smiths new contract in the boardroom after the summer and Man U. Now thats obviously off the table.

[Guest av1]

I know the debate over the last few pages is between people that think he should/shouldn’t go, where do we think the club is?

[ciggiesnbeer]

5 minutes ago, string28 said:

With the team we have i would of thought dean would of had them playing some really beautiful attacking football its just flat and i dont get it.

This is what surprises me the most. Dean smith doesnt usually play crap "roll the dice" counter attacking football like we have seen recently. He used to have us at least try and control games and I have seen with my own eyes he has had us play some electric football previously, even without Grealish. Now we seem in a massive rush to get rid of the ball. I just dont get it either.

Edited October 31, 2021 by ciggiesnbeer

[useless]

Potter has achieved less with Brighton, than Lambert did with Norwich, and McCleish had done with small heath, when we appointed those two.

No thanks to appointing another manager just because they're deemed to be doing well at an unfashionable club, we've been there before, in Potter's case, a good start to this season aside, he hasn't even done that well, and didn't exactly do well at Swansea either.

Another thing with Potter, he's not a manager that comes into a club a does well straight away, Swansea were poor when he was their manager, slightly improved towards the end of the season but by then was too late for them to get in the play-offs, Brighton were poor for two seasons under him, and even now that they've improved this season, we don't know if that's something that's going to last...

They haven't actually won any of their last six games, so already we're seeing signs that they're reverting back to their normal form.

Brighton under Potter kind of remind me of Wigan under Martinez, except that Martinez didn't have anywhere near as much money to spend as Potter has had.