Dean Smith

[VillaChris]

Total passing of the buck to suddenly say we hardly have any good players.

Martinez has been a revelation for Argentina so he's secured himself as top 20 keeper in world football. What isn't really helping though is him flying regularly halfway around the world for different reasons so you can see his reactions aren't quite as sharp as before.

Konsa and Mings haven't been themselves in recent weeks but they've got good credit in the bank for last 18 months. Think Cash has actually had a decent season aswell although he's obviously not England standard quality hence him going Polski.

In midfield Douglas Luiz is one of those who'll leave us eventually and have a Veretout/Gana type career imo, the quality is there if not quite the consistancy. McGinn has his pros and cons as we all know but on his day with right type of game for him he's an excellent box to box midfielder e.g. Man. United away.

Then upfront....well everyone on here was telling me Buendia was this wonder attacker when he signed so I'd like to think the next manager will fit him in the team more effectively. Bailey is proved in major league for europa/CL proven team and has provided genuine moments of quality in a handful of cameos already.

Ings and Watkins are hardly terrible strikers to inherit either.

There's a decent spine here if you can get them all 100% fit and confident again. People are giving DS a massive pass if they aren't suddenly good enough to finish higher than 14th-15th, huge lack of ambition there.

[villalad21]

It's annoying that Smith is highlighting problems but isn't addressing them. 

[DevonIsAPlaceOnEarth]

This is probably the first time the owners have a genuine decision to make regarding the manager. Bruce was such an easy decision.

I think the players body language might be telling us everything. Just so lost out there.

[villalad21]

21 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Odds slashed to evens for him to be next manager sacked. He’s the favourite. 

Reality is we have no idea what is going on behind the scenes. 

The betting companies have no inside info. 

But these owners aren't the types of people who sack for he sake of it with no replacement already lined up. 

[villalad21]

Just now, DevonIsAPlaceOnEarth said:

This is probably the first time the owners have a genuine decision to make regarding the manager. Bruce was such an easy decision.

I think the players body language might be telling us everything. Just so lost out there.

I think he will get the saints game. 

But lose that and I can't imagine he'll be here. 

[est1874]

16 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

What would be your 3-4 man shortlist if Nuno isn't deemed good enough to be on it out of interest?

Ultimately he did get a newly promoted team up and finish 7th two years in a row.

Last 18 months been disappointing but he had same thing as DS, losing his best player to injury. I mean Wolves were actually top 6 I think when Jimenez got injured at Arsenal in late November and then results inevitably dipped although probably still better than the 3 month period we were G***lish less.

Also did a decent job at Valencia which isn't easy in last 6-7 years and plenty of european experience. Perhaps we could do better, certainly could do much worse.

If we have a managerial vacancy in next few weeks, he'd be interviewed for sure.

3 man shortlist would be:

• Potter (provided Spurs don't jump quickly)
• Favre
• Conte

Honestly if we can't get any of those, I wouldn't bother removing Smith, Purslow and the rest of us will just have to stomach the drudgery for now.

[VillaChris]

Just now, est1874 said:

3 man shortlist would be:

• Potter (provided Spurs don't jump quickly)
• Favre
• Conte

Honestly if we can't get any of those, I wouldn't bother removing Smith, Purslow and the rest of us will just have to stomach the drudgery for now.

Conte is joining Spurs by what's being said so he simply isn't realistic for us.

Yeah I'd have Favre over Nuno, no argument.

Potter is younger and plays better football but in terms of general achievement Nuno done better in top leagues so far.

[HeyAnty]

2 minutes ago, DevonIsAPlaceOnEarth said:

This is probably the first time the owners have a genuine decision to make regarding the manager. Bruce was such an easy decision.

I think the players body language might be telling us everything. Just so lost out there.

I thought Sanson kicking the bottle was bad, but Buendia heading off down the touchline spoke volumes.  He has lost the players.

[Johnnyp]

Does Smith get sacked if we lose Friday night ? I do suspect Southampton will be particularly smarting still, over this fixture last season, they bet us from pillar to post throughout . Cash’s “ hit the knee “ non goal. Martinez lots of saves. Admittedly we scored a great goal but it was one where i was nervous throughout.

Edited November 1, 2021 by Johnnyp

[VillaCas]

I’m a fan of Smith and a bigger fan of consistency but I think his tenure now rests on Fridays game with Southampton. A win, but more importantly a good performance seems essential if he is to retain his position

The ownership must be looking for an advance on last season but for me we’ve regressed in every aspect - coaching, attitude and particularly recruitment (for which Smith can’t carry the can entirely) -   It’s early days but not fixing central midfield gaps and fullback cover seems a huge mistake. Ings is a very good player but he has provided a problem rather than a solution 

[birdman]

Psychologically the defeat to Wolves has had a huge impact. Now the players nerves are shredded and its affecting our play. It's imperative we wipe the fear from our minds. 

We need to stop shooting ourselves in the foot and giving ourselves a mountain to climb.

I'm fully behind Smith, I just hope he can bring the team together and get back on track. 

[TrentVilla]

3 minutes ago, birdman said:

Psychologically the defeat to Wolves has had a huge impact. Now the players nerves are shredded and its affecting our play. It's imperative we wipe the fear from our minds. 

We need to stop shooting ourselves in the foot and giving ourselves a mountain to climb.

I'm fully behind Smith, I just hope he can bring the team together and get back on track. 

Why would he now when he hasn’t been able to get a result without Grealish over 3 years?

[VillaChris]

2 minutes ago, Johnnyp said:

Does Smith get sacked if we lose Friday night ? I do suspect Southampton will be particularly smarting still, over this fixture last season, they bet us from pillar to post throughout . Cash’s “ hit the knee “ non goal. Martinez lots of saves. Admittedly we scored a great goal but it was one where i was nervous throughout.

Yeah that win was daylight robbery as they battered us second half. They've beaten us 3 of last 4 games anyway so not an opponent we generally match up well against.

We'll do well to get a point.

[jim]

16 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

It's annoying that Smith is highlighting problems but isn't addressing them. 

He has been saying the same thing for the last two seasons, identify where we have issues and nothing changes the next game.

[tomsky_11]

On 26/10/2021 at 14:16, tomsky_11 said:

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.

Now 18 changes to personnel game-to-game in the first 10, and two formation changes, compared to 6 personnel and no formation changes in first 10 last season. Cash and Konsa (not for much longer) the only everpresents this season, whereas we still had 9 positions entirely unchanged by this point last season.

Until we are able to consistently put out our best XI (we were probably a Dougie and a Mings away from that yesterday IMO) we are going to continue to struggle.

[Nabby]

I don't think you can completely rule out 3 at the back when the current champs league holders and current league leaders are playing it ...

[birdman]

5 minutes ago, TrentVilla said:

Why would he now when he hasn’t been able to get a result without Grealish over 3 years?

Because he needs time to get the new players firing together? It's been a rocky road for sure but now is not the time for panic sackings. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

I don’t think it’s just about this poor run of form because whilst it’s been bad; there have been a lot of changes to players and constant injuries. We haven’t been able to field a settled 11 all season.  I also don’t think we are about to get relegated with Smith in charge. 
 

So the question is how far can Smith really take us?  I’m sure he will turn this rut around but then what about after that?   If Smith is not the man for the job long term then it’s probably time for a change. 

[NurembergVillan]

6 minutes ago, TrentVilla said:

Why would he now when he hasn’t been able to get a result without Grealish over 3 years?

That's the big thing isn't it?

A bunch of players - Mings, Grealish, Konsa, Watkins, etc - have developed tremendously while working with Smith, but let's not discredit their natural ability.

Bruce didn't get the best out of Grealish, Smith did. And that one player having a great game was enough to win us 10 games in a row in the Championship and beat a good few teams in the Prem.  He's gone now and we've still got some good players, but it's still feeling like the football we played under Bruce - no real plan and hope one of the attackers can produce a bit of magic but without the reliability of Jack in there.

Grealish has talked since leaving about wanting to develop further as a player and how Guardiola will help him do that. A more accomplished coaching team than we currently have will get more out of our squad.

We don't suddenly have crap players. We don't suddenly have a crap manager. I do feel, though, that we've got a manager who has reached his ceiling and a group of players who are yet to reach theirs.

[sne]

Just now, Nabby said:

I don't think you can completely rule out 3 at the back when the current champs league holders and current league leaders are playing it ...

Our issue when we play it is mainly the wide players. Cash and especially Targett are not good enough. Cash might grow in to it, Targett never will. Compare that to the players Chelsea or Inter have on the flanks and it's night and day (obviously)