Dean Smith

[Spoony]

I’m a bit on the fence. I don’t want another managerial change but there have been moments during his tenure which have been nothing short of alarming.

I’ll give him to next season but at the start of next season we absolutely cannot ship goals at the rate we have been. What I will say though is his own signings have been quality so that does give me some confidence that he knows what he’s doing. 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

13 hours ago, screwdriver said:

Massive boost getting Jack fit again. However Deano "inferiority complex" Smith will obviously leave him on the bench just to prove he's the boss. especially after the chelsea subs shenannigans

 

Do you even deal in logic?

You mean the same Smith who has said he has been harassing the medical team to clear him so he can get him involved?

Either way I'd suggest "leaving him on the bench" would have more to do with him being out for 3 months and not being 100 percent match fit.

Then again, don't know why I've even responded to obvious nonsense be fair.

Maybe the jokes on me

Edited February 27, 2019 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN

[DCJonah]

6 minutes ago, Spoony said:

I’m a bit on the fence. I don’t want another managerial change but there have been moments during his tenure which have been nothing short of alarming.

I’ll give him to next season but at the start of next season we absolutely cannot ship goals at the rate we have been. What I will say though is his own signings have been quality so that does give me some confidence that he knows what he’s doing. 

We have shipped slightly less goals than under Bruce.

In defence of smith, he was left with a defensive mess thanks to bruce. A shocking keeper, elphick out on loan, chester playing injured and then axel gets injured. 

Like you say, his signings have improved on areas we needed. 

[A'Villan]

If you look at in depth analysis from our last two fixtures the only place we come up short is on the scoreboard.

Over 60% possession with over 80% pass completion. More shots. More dribbles at a higher success rate. More duels won. More corners etc. The list goes on.

[Jay.P.A]

30 minutes ago, Stockport_Villain said:

I’ve read a lot on this thread and often find myself swearing I’m not going to look at it again but have some kind of weird need to inflict further angst on myself. The problem I have is dealing with comments about Smith from supporters that want immediate success and when this fails to materialise it must all be Smith fault because of his tactics, decisions etc.

 

I 100% get the frustration that were not doing what we thought we would be doing and challenging the top 6 but life is not that straight forward.

 

You look at the teams Smith has previously had and the way they play and the personnel he has had to play that way which has brought him success. Then  you look at the players he’s inherited and how they tried to play, initially with success, but cannot keep up with his demand because they are not his type of player.

 

If we want success there is a much better chance by giving Smith time to get his playing staff sorted in the summer, with a full preseason of players that sign for him because they want to play for him. Rather than players inherited who aren’t capable or don’t want to. Only at this point will we know whether Smith is capable of taking us to where we all aspire.

 

In my head to get rid of him before he has had this opportunity would be madness and driven by the insatiable desire of some to change because we haven’t has immediate success. Life isn’t like this and people need to be given a proper change to succeed.

 

Dean Smith is my man 100% .

 

Absolutely 100% bang on. 

[Mark Albrighton]

3 hours ago, DCJonah said:

We have shipped slightly less goals than under Bruce.

In defence of smith, he was left with a defensive mess thanks to bruce. A shocking keeper, elphick out on loan, chester playing injured and then axel gets injured. 

Like you say, his signings have improved on areas we needed. 

Just on defence, one comment I see on here is along the lines of “we won’t challenge as Smith’s defensive record is poor, we ship too many goals.” (to paraphrase). Since he’s come in we’ve conceded 33 goals in 22 games. Six clean sheets. Not good enough, think we can all agree. 

However, Bielsa and Farke, those two managers that have been routinely praised on here....both Leeds and Norwich have conceded 29 goals in their last 22 games. Six cleans sheets for Norwich, 6 for Leeds. I would like to know whether those who knock Smith for our defensive frailties consider those Leeds and Norwich defences to be nearly as embarrassing? Are those 4 fewer goals over 22 games the difference?

Yes, they’ve been getting results (pretty much all season) and we haven’t, but I’m not fully on board with this idea that a Smith organised defence is the outstanding reason for it.

Edited February 27, 2019 by Shropshire Lad

[Zatman]

1 hour ago, Spoony said:

I’m a bit on the fence. I don’t want another managerial change but there have been moments during his tenure which have been nothing short of alarming.

I’ll give him to next season but at the start of next season we absolutely cannot ship goals at the rate we have been. What I will say though is his own signings have been quality so that does give me some confidence that he knows what he’s doing. 

I think defence has been good recent weeks. Mings and Elphick look a good partnership and Hause improving. 

In summer replace Whelan and maybe Hourihane with dynamic ball players and we are on to something

[Stuartc445]

On 26/02/2019 at 11:07, DCJonah said:

I think part of the issue is it became pretty clear in that first season we would struggle to achieve promotion in a short spell under him. There was nothing being built, no real consistency and a reliance on kodjia to get us points. Ultimately those that had little faith in what they saw were proved correct. 

The expectation now is not to just have short term fixes and hope for the best. Its a different era, a different approach and that's going to cause it to be judged differently. 

 

Reliance on Kodjia to get us points,  you mean just like we are doing with Grealish under Smith? 

You'll say Derby, and Boro prove Smith will get it right nut i give you Wigan, Preston (who were playing youth team players against us), Reading, QPR x2, Sheffield United (except for a surprise 15 mins) , Hull City and even the 1 win in this terrible run Vs Ipswich was extremely unconvincing and could have easily been a loss or draw. What does that prove?  so far there is more evidence he won't get it right then there is that he will get it right.

[A'Villan]

2 hours ago, Shropshire Lad said:

Just on defence, one comment I see on here is along the lines of “we won’t challenge as Smith’s defensive record is poor, we ship too many goals.” (to paraphrase). Since he’s come in we’ve 33 goals in 22 games. Six clean sheets. Not good enough, think we can all agree. 

However, Bielsa and Farke, those two managers that have been routinely praised on here....both Leeds and Norwich have conceded 29 goals in their last 22 games. Six cleans sheets for Norwich, 6 for Leeds. I would like to know whether those who knock Smith for our defensive frailties consider those Leeds and Norwich defences to be nearly as embarrassing? Are those 4 fewer goals over 22 games the difference?

Yes, they’ve been getting results (pretty much all season) and we haven’t, but I’m not fully on board with this idea that a Smith organised defence is the outstanding reason for it.

Our standing in each category per game for the division:

2nd worst record for interceptions.

3rd worst for tackles made.

3rd worst for passes blocked.

4th worst for shots blocked.

On the ball though we are 1st for accurate passes per game as it stands.

We have the 4th best record for key passes played per game.

6th best for successful dribbles per game

6th best for accurate short passes and the least amount of inaccurate short passes per game.

Edit: As you can see, we are one of the divisions better performers with the ball. This would explain lower totals for defensive tasks per game than other sides, as we have to defend less. However we are consistently poor in most, if not all, categories for defense. Whether we are seeing this due to a systemic issue or individual players not carrying out their duties is up for debate. In my opinion it's a combination of the two.

Edited February 27, 2019 by A'Villan

[Stuartc445]

On 26/02/2019 at 12:24, MaVilla said:

So you didn't watch the games where our style and attacking play was as good as anything I have seen in the last 10 years?

Is that not potential to you??

you mean the 2 or 3 games where we've played that attacking play?? that doesn't sound that great once you take into account he's been in charge for 23 games,  So thats 3 games awesome and 20 games either crap or the worst I've ever seen. 

I hope he comes good but his managerial Honours so far are: Football League Trophy Runner up and 1 League 1 manager of the month.  

He may come good as all the good managers have to get their 1st promotion at some point but the problem with having a managerial record like Smiths is he has to show he can do it pretty much from day 1 as  Smith doesn't have the luxury of a past history of being able to achieve where we want to go to fall back on and like it or not a manager with that record will be given more time than someone who hasn't.

[AntrimBlack]

5 hours ago, bannedfromHandV said:

Half of them aren't even getting into the first team at the likes of Newport and Cambridge.

But they're going to be great for us next season, allegedly.

They were sent on loan to find out how good, or bad, they are. The contracts of a number of them are up in the summer, so I suspect we will see a number of them not coming back.

Does anyone really expect many of them to come back and slot into the first team or even the squad? I doubt it.

I think we will be buying young players, and it will be curtains for most of those on loan.

[A'Villan]

11 minutes ago, Stuartc445 said:

you mean the 2 or 3 games where we've played that attacking play?? that doesn't sound that great once you take into account he's been in charge for 23 games,  So thats 3 games awesome and 20 games either crap or the worst I've ever seen. 

I hope he comes good but his managerial Honours so far are: Football League Trophy Runner up and 1 League 1 manager of the month.  

He may come good as all the good managers have to get their 1st promotion at some point but the problem with having a managerial record like Smiths is he has to show he can do it pretty much from day 1 as  Smith doesn't have the luxury of a past history of being able to achieve where we want to go to fall back on and like it or not a manager with that record will be given more time than someone who hasn't.

It's been more than 2 or 3 games though, hasn't it? Results may be left wanting, sure, I agree.

We lost 3-0 to Brentford and 3-1 to Barnsley at this time of year under Bruce in his first year.

Smith's worst championship defeat has been 3-0 to Wigan. Yet somehow that equates to 20 'crap' performances.

Two 3-0 wins over Derby and Boro is better than Bruce achieved by this time in his Aston Villa career.

Who says Smith has to prove it from day one by the way? You? The board may have different ideas.

As far as I'm concerned he's shown promise. We are easily one of the best ball playing sides.

People get frustrated when their expectations and wants aren't met and make uncalled for or inaccurate commentary.

We all do it. However it is in no way a reliable insight as to whether or not Smith will succeed as Aston Villa manager.

[AntrimBlack]

7 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

No worries. I probably give this impression that I am anti Smith but I am not j wnat him to succeed but I am worried he can't handle the pressure here. Its a different animal to brentford. Last thing we need is to gamble give him the little money we have to bring in players and then we have to sack him mid season again and then have this whole scenerio again. 

For me there has to be improvement form now until end of season otherwise we will have to look at a change. If that were to happen jokanovic is the man I think. 

Things have changed. Smith will have a big say on transfers, of course, but a lot of the decision making as far as transfers go is now being made by others, in order to lessen the effect of changing manager.

So if we have to dump him the upcoming transfer business will not be wasted.

That's the theory, anyway! 

 

[Stuartc445]

2 minutes ago, A'Villan said:

It's been more than 2 or 3 games though, hasn't it? Results may be left wanting, sure, I agree.

We lost 3-0 to Brentford and 3-1 to Barnsley at this time of year under Bruce in his first year.

Smith's worst championship defeat has been 3-0 to Wigan. Yet somehow that equates to 20 'crap' performances.

Two 3-0 wins over Derby and Boro is better than Bruce achieved by this time in his Aston Villa career.

Who says Smith has to prove it from day one by the way? You? The board may have different ideas.

As far as I'm concerned he's shown promise. We are easily one of the best ball playing sides.

People get frustrated when their expectations and wants aren't met and make uncalled for or inaccurate commentary.

We all do it. However it is in no way a reliable insight as to whether or not Smith will succeed as Aston Villa manager.

Wigan, Preston, Reading, Sheffied United 82 mins, Swansea FA Cup, QPR x 2,, Hull City, Brentford, West Brom (home), Ipswich (i include that because even though we won if they had been slightly better we wouldn't have won.) so out of 23 games 10 1/2 (i'm counting Ipswich as half)  have been truly awful,  Boro and Derby were great West Brom also good,  Blues was lucky they hit the post instead of scoring the 2nd, Leeds Smith should have shut the game down but kept piling attacking players on despite that being the stupid thing to do 

so out of 23 games 3 have been great, 1 tactical stupidity, 1 lucky and the rest ranging from average to horrendous.  Hardly a glowing reference to say he's the guy to get us to where we need / want to be.

[DCJonah]

1 hour ago, Stuartc445 said:

Reliance on Kodjia to get us points,  you mean just like we are doing with Grealish under Smith? 

You'll say Derby, and Boro prove Smith will get it right nut i give you Wigan, Preston (who were playing youth team players against us), Reading, QPR x2, Sheffield United (except for a surprise 15 mins) , Hull City and even the 1 win in this terrible run Vs Ipswich was extremely unconvincing and could have easily been a loss or draw. What does that prove?  so far there is more evidence he won't get it right then there is that he will get it right.

Smith, like Bruce, may end up failing and leaving a mess. I have no clue. I'm not 100% convinced he will be amazing. However, he has been hired to rebuild the squad so i see little point being incredibly critical or wanting him sacked before he has chance to do this. 

[Keyblade]

8 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

Smith, like Bruce, may end up failing and leaving a mess. I have no clue. I'm not 100% convinced he will be amazing. However, he has been hired to rebuild the squad so i see little point being incredibly critical or wanting him sacked before he has chance to do this. 

This is really the long and short of it.

By all means, go crazy on him this time next year but as it stands, he hasn't even gotten started.

[Zatman]

8 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

This is really the long and short of it.

By all means, go crazy on him this time next year but as it stands, he hasn't even gotten started.

Short term mentality as usual. Sack Smith bring in Big Sam or Pardew spend all our money and hope for the best

[TRO]

8 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

So we are all agreed he is under achieving? As there are various posters who say they are happy with what Smith has done but I don't see how anyone can be happy with this? 

He is under performing badly. If this form continues until the end of season I don't want him here next season. I don't want to take a gamble hoping he will get better. 

If the form improves then I'll happily give him the summer. But the most alarming thing for me is how is unable to get ghe best out of what he has. Listening to elphicks interview really is alarming  as it seems there are problems in the dressing room

yes it does appear to endorse that.....as opposed to blaming Dean, I have sympathy....but it think in the fullness of time he will sort it.

I see certain traits in this team under both managers, which makes me lean towards too many bad eggs....some could be redeemed, but some need to go.

[Keyblade]

3 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Short term mentality as usual. Sack Smith bring in Big Sam or Pardew spend all our money and hope for the best

I mean, it worked so well the last time right?

[TRO]

4 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Short term mentality as usual. Sack Smith bring in Big Sam or Pardew spend all our money and hope for the best

The club need to make it clear to the players, if they haven't already....The manager is staying here to rebuild the team.....you are either on board or not.