Dean Smith

[New_Hope]

9 hours ago, AshVilla said:

This was my favourite.

 

What a word removed!

[bannedfromHandV]

On 30/05/2019 at 00:51, dont_do_it_doug. said:

Wait... some of you wanted him sacked in January? Get out, that can't be true?

I know it was rough but there were a lot of mitigating factors, also we had surely shown enough early doors to earn him time? I feel like my decision to stay away is vindicated. 

There weren’t many calling for his head in January, just a lot of concerns and questions which at the time, and given all we’ve been through over the past decade - were valid enough.

Anyway, time to move on from the dark days of division on here I think, the next decade could be the most beautiful this forums ever seen, sure we’ll bicker over trivial shit, it’s Villa(talk), but I think we’ll be fully united behind the Manager, the Board and the majority of the squad.

Edited June 1, 2019 by bannedfromHandV

[Brumstopdogs]

https://www.avfc.co.uk/News/2019/06/01/dean-smith-on-wembley-win-and-future

Quote

Dean Smith joked this week that he hasn’t been able to get ‘Sweet Caroline’ out of his head after Aston Villa’s Wembley triumph – but now he’s looking for his team to be on song in the Premier League.

Smith, a cool and calculating Head Coach, admits he was able to drink in the atmosphere after the final whistle on Monday.

But now he’s focused on the coming campaign.

On feeling the emotion, he said: “It was the song ‘Hi Ho Aston Villa', I let myself go a little bit.

“To be honest, that night, I went to bed and I couldn’t get Sweet Caroline out of my head either.

“I had a moment on the pitch, definitely, where I could see myself there in the 1994 League Cup when we beat Manchester United.

“So yes, there were a few moments.”

On the upcoming 2019/20 campaign, he added: “We will try to finish first. That’s what you’ve always got to try to do. 

“Any time you start the season and tell your supporters ‘we’ll try and finish 12th’, it doesn’t wash with me. 

“People might laugh at me, but when we come up against the likes of Pep Guardiola at Manchester City and Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool, I want to try and win those games. 

"You try and win every match you play in. That’s how we will approach it.”

 

[sidcow]

[fightoffyour]

Page 2 for our Messiah? Has he been a naughty boy?

Love you Deano. Throwback to when he when he won this prestigious EFL award in March:

[dounavilla]

4 minutes ago, fightoffyour said:

Page 2 for our Messiah? Has he been a naughty boy?

Love you Deano. Throwback to when he when he won this prestigious EFL award in March:

Looks a little like Robert De niro in this pic.

Edited June 5, 2019 by dounavilla

[Demitri_C]

He literally is the messiah. Honestly he ha sto be up there with the likes of Gregory little. What he has done in less than twelve months has been absolutely nothing shirt of remarkable. 

Give him a new bloody contract 

[fightoffyour]

4 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

He literally is the messiah. Honestly he ha sto be up there with the likes of Gregory little. What he has done in less than twelve months has been absolutely nothing shirt of remarkable. 

Give him a new bloody contract 

[MaVilla]

18 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

He literally is the messiah. Honestly he ha sto be up there with the likes of Gregory little. What he has done in less than twelve months has been absolutely nothing shirt of remarkable. 

Give him a new bloody contract 

Gregory Little, was he a good manager?

 

[sheepyvillian]

2 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

He literally is the messiah. Honestly he ha sto be up there with the likes of Gregory little. What he has done in less than twelve months has been absolutely nothing shirt of remarkable. 

Give him a new bloody contract 

What did Gregory achieve, aside from one of the most awful displays by a team in an FA cup final.

I actually think, from the first minute he set us up to play for penalties .

He had a little bright spot when he arrived, but when the going got tough he soon lost that swagger and so did the team.

[nick76]

Just catching up on the last few pages and thought while we love Dean at the moment it’s just going to happen that at some point in the future that we’ll be loathing him.  Either he’ll leave for another club or results will go wrong and he’ll be hounded out of the club.

I hope that won’t happen and he’ll have a “Alex Ferguson” type reign or if he moves to a bigger club or England he’ll be loved like Taylor was when he left. Likelihood is that he will be hounded out given modern football.

i love what we have now and the hope for next season

[fightoffyour]

15 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Likelihood is that he will be hounded out given modern football.

Seriously hope not! He's already stockpiled a huge amount of goodwill after performing miracles to get us promoted this season. I hope he'd be able to carry on even if we get relegated next season, given the size of the rebuild - though of course a counterargument to that would be that they'll all be his players. Not going to happen though, looking forward to wishing Deano the best after his retirement from football as Villa manager in 30 years!

Edited June 5, 2019 by fightoffyour

[Tomaszk]

Something I really really think Smith needs to decide on is some sort of alternate system.

If he really wants to, I've got no problem with him going to Man City, playing 433 and trying to beat them. We could try 25 different things away at City and lose every match, we might even win playing Dean's style, who knows.

But with such a defined shape, if we are suddenly not getting results or goals or possession in five successive home matches, confidence will dry up and it's become even harder to pick up points. Attacking teams wildly in the Championship is what I wanted the whole time we were down there, it was brilliant for the most part. Ended up being one of my favourite seasons ever.

From memory I can only remember one match we played a different formation under Smith and that was 4231 at Swansea away,  a 1-0 win with a last minute Bony penalty being missed (greatest moment of Nyland's Villa career). I think going up we need something in our back pocket to go with if we're in sticky form, or are hanging on to a 1 goal lead, or want to play a match on the counter, something, anything. The run without Jack through Dec/Jan/Feb was grim viewing, we weren't even getting into half the games, just swept aside.

[Teale's 'tache]

4 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

Something I really really think Smith needs to decide on is some sort of alternate system.

If he really wants to, I've got no problem with him going to Man City, playing 433 and trying to beat them. We could try 25 different things away at City and lose every match, we might even win playing Dean's style, who knows.

But with such a defined shape, if we are suddenly not getting results or goals or possession in five successive home matches, confidence will dry up and it's become even harder to pick up points. Attacking teams wildly in the Championship is what I wanted the whole time we were down there, it was brilliant for the most part. Ended up being one of my favourite seasons ever.

From memory I can only remember one match we played a different formation under Smith and that was 4231 at Swansea away,  a 1-0 win with a last minute Bony penalty being missed (greatest moment of Nyland's Villa career). I think going up we need something in our back pocket to go with if we're in sticky form, or are hanging on to a 1 goal lead, or want to play a match on the counter, something, anything. The run without Jack through Dec/Jan/Feb was grim viewing, we weren't even getting into half the games, just swept aside.

Dean Smith is an experienced manager, I'm sure he has numerous plans and formations up his sleeve, he seems the type, he's very thorough.

At the moment he doesn't even know what tools he will have to work with, we need to get the players in before he can even nail down a plan A.

I think the poor spell last season was obviously down to the absence of Jack but also the player were still learning his system and style of play, it takes a while, and that is a concern for the start of the season with so many incoming, but he persisted because he had faith that the system would suit the players and it worked. After that when we went on the run there was simply no need to change the way we were playing, and the stakes so high there was no real opportunity to try something different even if we wanted to, others changed their game plan for the play offs and it cost them, we stuck to what got us there and it worked.

The work done in January and so far in this window suggests Smith like to have players that can play in multiple positions, it gives him more scope to change things.

He will need to be more flexible tactically in the Premier League, but I've seen nothing to suggest that he can't be flexible, just that he knows when he's on to a good thing and not to change it too soon. 

 

[Tomaszk]

16 minutes ago, Teale's 'tache said:

Dean Smith is an experienced manager, I'm sure he has numerous plans and formations up his sleeve, he seems the type, he's very thorough.

At the moment he doesn't even know what tools he will have to work with, we need to get the players in before he can even nail down a plan A.

I think the poor spell last season was obviously down to the absence of Jack but also the player were still learning his system and style of play, it takes a while, and that is a concern for the start of the season with so many incoming, but he persisted because he had faith that the system would suit the players and it worked. After that when we went on the run there was simply no need to change the way we were playing, and the stakes so high there was no real opportunity to try something different even if we wanted to, others changed their game plan for the play offs and it cost them, we stuck to what got us there and it worked.

 The work done in January and so far in this window suggests Smith like to have players that can play in multiple positions, it gives him more scope to change things.

He will need to be more flexible tactically in the Premier League, but I've seen nothing to suggest that he can't be flexible, just that he knows when he's on to a good thing and not to change it too soon. 

 

Hope so, it will benefit us. 

Brentford played 433 every time we played them. We played 433 every match except one last season, I think we might even have switched back to it towards the end of that Swansea game. 433 has been 100% his plan A in the past. 

Player ability, workrate and attitude is definitely more important than any discussions like this btw. I think Dean will get that side right and it'll help if he's got some formation flexibility to go alongside it.

Edited June 6, 2019 by Tomaszk

[Teale's 'tache]

1 minute ago, Tomaszk said:

Hope so, it will benefit us. 

Brentford played 433 every time we played them. We played 433 every match except one last season, I think we might even have switched back to it towards the end of that Swansea game. 433 has been 100% his plan A in the past. 

Player ability, workrate and attitude is definitely more important than any discussions like this btw. I think Dean will get that side right and it'll help if he's got some formation flexibility to go alongside it.

4-3-3 in itself can actually be a very flexible formation allowing for quick changes in-game, you have the option to change the midfield 3 around to be more/less defensive, you can switch the wingers to mix it up, it's easy to change to a 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 without even needing to make a substitution as long as your players are flexible enough.

I don't think formation is everything, but being flexible and reacting to the game is an important part of management.

I could argue that teams like Liverpool/Man City always play the same way and don't really have a much used plan B either, but that's because they are so good they don't need to.

I think we might need to work on a shape when the backs are against the wall and we are under pressure as it's not something we've had to face much the past few seasons, but going forward I think we have enough variety and options providing we bring in the right players.

[Adam2003]

I think we play 4-1-4-1 anyway so...

[Teale's 'tache]

4 minutes ago, Adam2003 said:

I think we play 4-1-4-1 anyway so...

It just depends on if you count the El Ghazi/Adomah positions as forwards or midfielders, and if you count one of the center midfielders as being entirely defensive, technically you could call it a 4-1-2-2-1.

Either way it's flexible and it worked! 

Edited June 6, 2019 by Teale's 'tache

[romavillan]

5 minutes ago, Adam2003 said:

I think we play 4-1-4-1 anyway so...

With the ball quite often yeah  But 4-3-3 as mentioned above is super flexible like that. We did line up 4-4-1-1 a couple of times as well I think last season? 

[romavillan]

On 01/06/2019 at 00:12, AshVilla said:

This was my favourite.

 

So many to choose from though, felt like being in a very thin minority defending Smith through that period.