Dean Smith

[TRO]

44 minutes ago, romavillan said:

It's a hangover from post MON for me, we've always had a large percentage who don't give a toss apart from the wages. This summer I think most of the old guard will be on their way. I agree though our recruitment has been pathetic for a long time. You only have to look at what has been achieved in a lot of other places with less resources.

I just couldn't possibly agree more....as opposed to being happy, when the transfer window opens a certain sense of melancholy takes over me and as the days turn to weeks, the feeling gets stronger.

I have been like this under so many managers for so long.

[TRO]

2 hours ago, praisedmambo said:

Thanks for taking what I said in good spirits. It is a credit even if we don't agree.

Our squad is awful bar Grealish, Abraham, Tuanzebe, Chester of last season and...I'm struggling. Some of the others are passable but they definitely don't represent the best squad in the league. We've been playing three right backs for a few games, had one of the worst keepers I've ever seen until he did his achillies—we have to replace Grealish with BB or Whelan. I think there are plenty of better squads than ours in the league—squads with players on the up, not on the way down. We are saddled with dead wood on big wages—we can't shift these players if we wanted to, which makes that first bit in bold mind-blowing from my perspective!

Of the two disastrous games, we have been missing in part or all three of Grealish, Abraham and Tuanzebe. Our bad form has come exactly when Tuanzebe and Grealish got injured. We were great with them and we're not without them. We over-rely on these players, which is not a sign of a good squad—and to further that, again, once Tuanzebe was injured we went with right backs everywhere. Our strongest team is good, but lose a few and the cracks quickly begin to show.

I think the reason why I get so defensive is that this kind of context never seems to come near the thinking of those who seemed to have, yep, entrenched opinions against the manager from the off. I also get defensive, because we'll get nowhere if we keep changing manager. Of course we need to find the right one before we stick to them but who could we get that has managed a bigger club than Villa who is going to come down to the Championship. To me this is an answer that doesn't need answering for about another ten months, maybe more.

I tend to think its SOME players too.....We have been worse since we lost Jack and Axel accepted, but we had games like Blues and Forest where they were playing and we had similar issues in parts of the game....There were periods, first 35, when Blues just carved us up.....There were periods when Forest, just opened us up like a can of beans.

We have players, who see fit to just stand off, when there is danger and it happens game after game after game.

The likes of Jack, Axel and Tammy are expected to mask over these deficiencies by playing at another level, to compensate, they can't do it every match.

sure it shows up when Jack is not there....but the issues are still there, if you look, when he is.

Dean Smith knows.....He is well aware, but he can't say directly.....its his job to motivate them....He needs new players and those new players need to know how to IMPOSE their talent on the opposition, not wait for a team with an off day, or a bad mistake or a day when our best players raise their game collectively and capitalise and claim initiative....we want players who drive themselves and impose their talent to get results.

We rely on too few to give us 80% of our performance.....we have to deal with it as quick as possible.

[Dave J]

12 hours ago, MaVilla said:

Then maybe we deserve to stay in this god forsaken league for being such a self important bunch.

We need to get promoted on merit, hard work and doing things right, not some historic idea of being a big club that deserves to be in the PL but has done sweet nothing expect decline for the last 20 year's.

Well on one hand I agree - however on the other hand you must appreciate that there are many villa fans myself included who have travelled across Europe and witnessed us winning pretty much everything there is to win - try telling those fans we are not a big club and not retain high expectations for the club? Yes the reality is that we are in the championship that's the facts of the matter - but football is an emotionally charged battleground memories live on a long time and supporters dream big.

Try telling Leeds they are no longer a big club ?

[MaVilla]

4 minutes ago, Dave J said:

Well on one hand I agree - however on the other hand you must appreciate that there are many villa fans myself included who have travelled across Europe and witnessed us winning pretty much everything there is to win - try telling those fans we are not a big club and not retain high expectations for the club? Yes the reality is that we are in the championship that's the facts of the matter - but football is an emotionally charged battleground memories live on a long time and supporters dream big.

Try telling Leeds they are no longer a big club ?

Im not saying we shouldn't consider ourselves a big club, or want to be a big club back in the prem.

What I am saying is we don't have a god given right to be there and only hard work and the right structures will get us back there.

My comments are more pointed at the people who think we should be back in the prem just because we have some god given right, which we don't.

Edited January 15, 2019 by MaVilla

[Stevo985]

8 hours ago, hippo said:

Theres only so much that can be said in press conferences. I think people read way to much into them.

Yep I agree.

I said when Smith first started that we're only liking what he's saying in interviews because he's new and we're all behind him.

If we all want him out in 6-12 months then we'll hate all his press conferences even though he'll probably be saying the exact same stuff.

[CosmicVillan]

Wagner In 

[Brumstopdogs]

11 minutes ago, CosmicVillan said:

Wagner In 

 

[Villarocker]

Deano, Jackie boy is out for a while and we've not found an answer to his loss during the time he's been absent. Sir Gary Cahill has the answer - Jacob Ramsey! If Leeds can top the league with kids, why not follow their lead? Give it a go - it's not like we're doing so well that it looks like a gamble! 

[Dave J]

26 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

Im not saying we shouldn't consider ourselves a big club, or want to be a big club back in the prem.

What I am saying is we don't have a god given right to be there and only hard work and the right structures will get us back there.

My comments are more pointed at the people who think we should be back in the prem just because we have some god given right, which we don't.

That's a slightly different argument - however it's one I do agree with

[villalad21]

You say we have a poor squad, still our squad demolished Derby and Boro at their ground.

Now that the squad is underachieving we magically have a poor squad. Good job lowering the bar. DS is not getting the best out of his players and that is a fact.

[MaVilla]

38 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Yep I agree.

I said when Smith first started that we're only liking what he's saying in interviews because he's new and we're all behind him.

If we all want him out in 6-12 months then we'll hate all his press conferences even though he'll probably be saying the exact same stuff.

Us in 12 months after after a DS conference:

"He is trying to blind is with some honest fake cr** and he keeps telling the truth but does nothing about it!

We need a manager who is a bit more guarded and doesn't sprout truth so often and then not act on it!!

Truth and honesty is overrated we need someone who keeps his cards close to his chest and tells the fans they are wrong!

STEVE BRUCE SHOULD BE THE NEXT MANAGER I HEAR HE HAS A GOOD RECORD OF GETTING TEAMS OUT OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP HIS PROMOTION RECORD IS WAY BETTER THAN SMITH AT LEAST HE HAD WON SOMETHING!!!!"

 

 

The end

Edited January 15, 2019 by MaVilla

[Dave J]

2 hours ago, TRO said:

I tend to think its SOME players too.....We have been worse since we lost Jack and Axel accepted, but we had games like Blues and Forest where they were playing and we had similar issues in parts of the game....There were periods, first 35, when Blues just carved us up.....There were periods when Forest, just opened us up like a can of beans.

We have players, who see fit to just stand off, when there is danger and it happens game after game after game.

The likes of Jack, Axel and Tammy are expected to mask over these deficiencies by playing at another level, to compensate, they can't do it every match.

sure it shows up when Jack is not there....but the issues are still there, if you look, when he is.

Dean Smith knows.....He is well aware, but he can't say directly.....its his job to motivate them....He needs new players and those new players need to know how to IMPOSE their talent on the opposition, not wait for a team with an off day, or a bad mistake or a day when our best players raise their game collectively and capitalise and claim initiative....we want players who drive themselves and impose their talent to get results.

We rely on too few to give us 80% of our performance.....we have to deal with it as quick as possible.

I agree - the way things stand right now we'll do well to limp into the play offs and goodness only knows if we did manage to go up - it beggars belief just how much money would be needed - just to stay out of the bottom 3.

This squad has the potential to be the worst ever in the prem - however I wouldn't expect this squad to be the same should we go up.

Unfortunatley TRO it does come down to Tammy and Jack to drag us over the line

[srsmithusa]

17 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

You say we have a poor squad, still our squad demolished Derby and Boro at their ground.

Now that the squad is underachieving we magically have a poor squad. Good job lowering the bar. DS is not getting the best out of his players and that is a fact.

While true, it's also true that DS got the most from this squad that anyone has ever gotten.  did you see Derby and Boro at their ground?  What DS was able to pull from this squad was quite impressive.  perhaps even overachieving?  certainly overachieving relative to what any of them had done previously.  That too, is a fact.

[DaveAV1]

3 hours ago, TRO said:

You would never get a contract signed if you included such a caveat.

I am with you on the third line...it frightens me watching the passiveness from certain players at times....John McGinn has just become a folk hero for getting his foot in, that is how sad its become.

The tactics thing is a bit of a red herring for me, Bruce dismissed it, I am led to believe and other top managers have too.

quote : Brian Clough

On Football Tactics

• “Players lose you games, not tactics....There is so much crap talked about tactics by people who barely know how to win a game of Dominoes”

I am not dismissing tactics out of hand, but I agree with cloughie....too much emphasis on it as a cop out....when players not doing there job , go undetected.

I think your other points are valid.

I think it needs a major culture change in the playing personnel.

Brian Clough was an outstanding manager, as he famously said, “I’m not saying I’m the best, but I’m certainly in the top 1”. However that was a long time ago and I’m not sure he would view the game now in the same way now as he did then. I still agree that ultimately the players win or lose matches, but the days of dismissing tactics are gone. In fact Cloughie probably had his tongue in his cheek when he said that. Tactics have always been relevant, but they need carrying out by players. Both are equally important. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

We need a win so bad.

Smith looks like he’s about to cry on the sidelines.  If we concede first on Saturday it’s going to turn toxic. 

[praisedmambo]

59 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

You say we have a poor squad, still our squad demolished Derby and Boro at their ground.

Now that the squad is underachieving we magically have a poor squad. Good job lowering the bar. DS is not getting the best out of his players and that is a fact.

It's a good squad (team really) when we have Grealish and Tuanzebe and few injuries. It's a bad squad when we don't have them. We demolished Boro and Derby with those players and we look lost without them. You've ignored that and that is a fact.

[villalad21]

7 minutes ago, praisedmambo said:

It's a good squad (team really) when we have Grealish and Tuanzebe and few injuries. It's a bad squad when we don't have them. We demolished Boro and Derby with those players and we look lost without them. You've ignored that and that is a fact.

Football is a team game.

Having good individuals can help giving you the edge in close games.

Wigan and Reading were not close games, we got outplayed, outfought and outhought. Having Grealish and Axel in those games would not make us win those games. Only McGinn and Kalinic looked bothered in those games, rest looked un interested. You can't win if you don't put the effort in.

Edited January 15, 2019 by villalad21

[praisedmambo]

Nonsense. You're twisting things with a cliche. As if you don't miss your best players. Look at City when they lost Fernandinho and a million other examples every week every year.

Losing your best players makes no difference? 

[villalad21]

I'm not saying it doesn't make a difference. I'm saying if your whole eleven is underperforming or worse lacks effort, having good individuals won't give you the edge.

Good players are dependent on the rest of the team performing.

[dounavilla]

25 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

I'm not saying it doesn't make a difference. I'm saying if your whole eleven is underperforming or worse lacks effort, having good individuals won't give you the edge.

Good players are dependent on the rest of the team performing.

Good individuals do give you an edge.