Dean Smith

[markavfc40]

16 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

I'm still waiting to see any sort of innovation from Smith. 4-5-1 does not work without a player like Grealish in midfield, without him (or a creative player) we are dull and uninspiring. Smith has to explore 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 as far as I'm concerned. 

I just don't see that happening with Smith. He is very much about players adapting to his system not him adapting his system to suit the players he inherited/at his disposal. They'll either adapt or be replaced.

We won't see the benefits of that approach this season but you'd hope that those that remain come the start of next season Smith will have identified as being those that can play the way he wants and by then will have had Smiths ways drilled into them. Then any players we bring in will also be able to play the high press, high energy game Smith plays.

In terms of promotion you can write this season off but we can still get something out of it and use this season as a springboard into next by seeing what the younger players can do. Whelan, Bjarnason, Hutton, Taylor, Bolasie, Adomah, Elphick almost certainly won't be here next season and in fairness we know what they can and can't do already. Lets's find out if Hause, O'Hare, Green. Bree, Doyle Hayes, Davis can stake a claim over the remaining games to be regulars next season. 

[Dr_Pangloss]

2 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

I just don't see that happening with Smith. He is very much about players adapting to his system not him adapting his system to suit the players he inherited/at his disposal. They'll either adapt or be replaced.

We won't see the benefits of that approach this season but you'd hope that those that remain come the start of next season Smith will have identified as being those that can play the way he wants and by then will have had Smiths ways drilled into them. Then any players we bring in will also be able to play the high press, high energy game Smith plays.

In terms of promotion you can write this season off but we can still get something out of it and use this season as a springboard into next by seeing what the younger players can do. Whelan, Bjarnason, Hutton, Taylor, Bolasie, Adomah, Elphick almost certainly won't be here next season and in fairness we know what they can and can't do already. Lets's find out if Hause, O'Hare, Green. Bree, Doyle Hayes, Davis can stake a claim over the remaining games to be regulars next season. 

The problem is that this does not resemble his approach and system at Brentford...

Edited January 19, 2019 by Dr_Pangloss

[Reivax_Villa]

Promotion was a write off after the first transfer window.

There was no real foundations put into place.

It is very hard to see how far we have fallen but we are a mid table Championship club and next season will solidify that when we will have a smaller budget.

I was not impressed this game despite us scoring two goals. Our players do not fit Smith's system.

The main issue is the defence and DS cannot just purchase players to paper over the cracks, there needs to be some tactical structure to our defence because we struggle with long balls from the middle and wide areas.

Our full backs are not like wing backs so naturally they will tuck inside to defend whilst leaving wide areas exposed.  When we do not have the ball and we are in our own half. our shape has to change to a 5 4 1 to support the middle and wide areas for the second ball. 

The way the game is played today,  high endurance modern full backs that can attack and defend is very important. Man City, Liverpool, Leeds, Norwich they have those type of players at their respected level.

DS had the luxury of two DOF bringing in coaches to assist him when they felt it was necessary, he does not have that here.  I personally think that we need another coach to assist him because 15 goals conceded in the last 8 games is very bad.

There are players that lack the fluidity,  endurance and decision making ability to suit Smiths needs.

There is so much more to say but DS needs the summer. There is real expectation at this club which I believe is to our detriment because many crumble here and very very few succeed here.

A season of no expectation may actually work in our favour.. just like Norwich & Sheffield United

 

Edited January 19, 2019 by Reivax_Villa

[AndyM3000]

58 minutes ago, jim said:

Shame we’ve got the wrong man then as we’ll be back to square one in 12 months.

We won't be back to square one no matter what happens now as we have a different set up. We have a head coach and a sporting director, we get a manager in who fits the way we want to play with the players we have in place. There will be no more complete overhaul of squads.

Edited January 19, 2019 by AndyM3000

[Davkaus]

1 minute ago, AndyM3000 said:

There will be no more complete overhaul of squads.

....I hope you're wrong.

[markavfc40]

9 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

The problem is that this does not resemble his approach and system at Brentford...

In fairness I think we did initially when Grealish was in the side. The last few weeks though, due to personnel and the players he is picking that simply don't have the legs to play Smiths high press game, then you are right the tripe we are serving up bares no resemblance to the way Brentford played under Smith.

Edited January 19, 2019 by markavfc40

[Demitri_C]

25 minutes ago, Wainy316 said:

2 must win games coming up now 

The last 5 games have been must win also apparently. Smith has no excuses for the lack of wins in the run. Bloody Preston spanked QPR 4-1 AND Smith only got one point out of those two games .  Then we get battered by a out of form Wigan.

For me he is doing no better than bruce. I give him time because bruce has shafted him with the scrap squad. But he is failing badly at the moment 

[Stevo985]

30 minutes ago, Johnnyp said:

When were we a top 2 squad ?. 

We weren't. Not this season anyway.

But when Bruce was in charge there were plenty saying we were and we were underperforming.

Now that we've reverted back to more or less how we were under Bruce, it's apparently because the squad is so bad. 

 

You can't have it both ways.

In reality it's a bit of both. Bruce wasn't as bad as many people liked to make out, although he was still underperforming this season and made some questionable decisions in the summer.
And Smith isn't doing as well as probably the same people are trying to make out. It's early days and I'm more than happy to give him time. I'm still very optimistic about our chances under him long term. But you can't overlook that at the moment we are really shit, and he takes some of the blame for that.

[Stevo985]

47 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

Probably not top 2 but it was underperforming. It still is. It's also seriously weak in certain areas, has massive wages being spent on players either sitting on the bench, the stands or playing poorly and will need massive work in the summer due to expiring contracts and loans. 

Bruce left a **** mess. A mess with some talent in areas but an absolute mess. 

The defence is a mess, I don't think there's much wrong with the rest of the squad. It's certainly better than the shit we've been serving up recently.

Smith needs to add some of his own players quickly, if that is indeed the problem.

[danceoftheshamen]

Another new keeper needed for me urgently

[Johnnyp]

1 minute ago, Stevo985 said:

The defence is a mess, I don't think there's much wrong with the rest of the squad. It's certainly better than the shit we've been serving up recently.

Smith needs to add some of his own players quickly, if that is indeed the problem.

There is not much wrong with our midield ? Agree with you on our defence but our midfield are so lightweight and lack positional and actual footballing ability on the ball that our back 4 is constantly under siege. Midfield is the root of our problem in my opinion.

[DCJonah]

6 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

We weren't. Not this season anyway.

But when Bruce was in charge there were plenty saying we were and we were underperforming.

Now that we've reverted back to more or less how we were under Bruce, it's apparently because the squad is so bad. 

 

You can't have it both ways.

In reality it's a bit of both. Bruce wasn't as bad as many people liked to make out, although he was still underperforming this season and made some questionable decisions in the summer.
And Smith isn't doing as well as probably the same people are trying to make out. It's early days and I'm more than happy to give him time. I'm still very optimistic about our chances under him long term. But you can't overlook that at the moment we are really shit, and he takes some of the blame for that.

He was massively underperforming, built nothing that resembled a plan, played a large role in the summer financial issues and deserved to be sacked. 

[DCJonah]

5 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

The defence is a mess, I don't think there's much wrong with the rest of the squad. It's certainly better than the shit we've been serving up recently.

Smith needs to add some of his own players quickly, if that is indeed the problem.

The defence is a huge mess though. I believe only rotherham have conceded more. That's a massive hurdle for the rest of the squad to overcome. 

[Stevo985]

1 minute ago, Johnnyp said:

There is not much wrong with our midield ? Agree with you on our defence but our midfield are so lightweight and lack positional and actual footballing ability on the ball that our back 4 is constantly under siege. Midfield is the root of our problem in my opinion.

It's missing Jack grealish, that's it's biggest problem right now. And we need a better long term solution at DM.

But no, I think our group of CMs are decent enough for this level. I think Smith's biggest problem is he's more or less abandoned having a dedicated DM and it's costing us badly at the back. Maybe that's because he doesn't think we have one good enough, I don't know.

[Stevo985]

1 minute ago, DCJonah said:

He was massively underperforming, built nothing that resembled a plan, played a large role in the summer financial issues and deserved to be sacked. 

I agree. Apart from the word massively on the underperforming bit.

I absolutely wanted him sacked. 

But my point is people were making out like we should be shoe ins for automatic promotion, and a change of manager would bring that. Now suddenly we have a terrible squad thaty's nowhere near good enough.

As usual the reality is somewhere in the middle.

[DCJonah]

2 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

I agree. Apart from the word massively on the underperforming bit.

I absolutely wanted him sacked. 

But my point is people were making out like we should be shoe ins for automatic promotion, and a change of manager would bring that. Now suddenly we have a terrible squad thaty's nowhere near good enough.

As usual the reality is somewhere in the middle.

I felt the squad was good enough to seriously challenge for promotion on paper, hindsight and the evidence of games has shown me that was wrong to view that early on in the season. 

The squad are better than they are currently showing under smith but it really is a mess. Lots of old players on massive contracts, defence a shambles and relying on a loan striker to score goals. The decisions Bruce made and his failure to gain promotion has caused issues that will take time to fix. 

[srsmithusa]

I think we have four types of players.  Those that are not and never will be (again) great ability.  (Whelan, Taylor, Elmo, Jedi, bunn, Richards, as examples)

players with individual skills and strengths, but no ability to play in a system or with a team. ( kodjia, Hutton, Bolasie, Hourihane, Adomah, maybe Lansbury). I think Steve Bruce recruited most of those because he thought great individual skill was enough to win games)

Then we have those who don’t have great ability, but can play a role and do the job assigned, reasonably well. (Thor, Davis, Green, Chester, Elphick)

Finally,  we have a few that have great ability AND can play a role within a team  (Abraham, grealish, McGinn)

the first two groups are what’s killing us  especially the second   We don’t play as a team   The player in possession never seems to have good options   Passes go to run option A while the intended recipient makes run option B, or stand flat footed.  We pass into traffic because runners are not moving to space   I think it comes down to too many players with great individual skills that show in occasional flashes of brilliance, but they can’t think or act in a useful role in a team.  

Dean smith wants us to play as a team and we just don’t have a roster with enough players capable of doing that.  I’m hopeful that our scouting is searching for those that have both individual skill AND the ability to understand and play a role in a team strategy     If not, DS is not going to work   

 

[New_Hope]

It is plain to see that most of our players are just not the type of players that can play a modern techinical game.....most if then are cloggers to play the long ball game that Bruce deployed. 

Most evident was Thor....I find it hard to believe that a modern footballer can have such poor control over a ball.

I just think the saying 'silk purse out of a sow's ear' with some if these players.

[Zatman]

1 hour ago, Stevo985 said:

Our squad was a top 2 squad that was badly underperforming when Bruce was here.

Weird how things change.

last season it was Top 2 but I said in summer that it was a mid-table squad and play-offs be a good season. We have 2 or 3 players of great quality in this division in Jack, Tammy and maybe McGinn. 

Its equivalent of Oceans 11 with Clooney, Pitt and Damon but supporting cast is 8 guys from Hollyoaks

[Mark Albrighton]

10 minutes ago, Zatman said:

last season it was Top 2 but I said in summer that it was a mid-table squad and play-offs be a good season. We have 2 or 3 players of great quality in this division in Jack, Tammy and maybe McGinn. 

Its equivalent of Oceans 11 with Clooney, Pitt and Damon but supporting cast is 8 guys from Hollyoaks

Brave. I wouldn’t want to be you when Don Cheadle, Casey Affleck and Elliot Gould read that and come looking for you.