Dean Smith

[QldVilla]

I think it comes down to knowing yourself as a person. When I was young I was good at a number of sports, football and athletics in particular, but I used to get frustrated on the football pitch as I was reliant on the team (I know, never played well with others). I was more comfortable in athletics as it was all on me, training, performance etc. Hence I drifted towards athletics when I was older. I eventually went into coaching but worked hard, studied and now continue to coach to this day.

Coaching has so many facets, but being able to communicate your vision and unlocking people's potential with the right information is key. Smith seems to have this in abundance.

 

[Thats2]

32 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

The problem is we talk about moments of "genius" in football all the time, but often they aren't. They're just brilliant execution of something that anyone could have thought of.

It was no surprise when Shearer turned out to be a crap manager, because his whole game was roughing up defenders, winning headers, and banging the ball very hard into the top corner. Brilliant, brutal simplicity, and made him one of the best players of his generation... but he wasn't exactly delivering a tactical masterclass every time he stepped on the pitch.

Henry was made out to be a genius because he drifted out to the left wing and sidefooted the ball into the net (wow, 4D chess), but his main attributes were blistering pace, amazing ball control, and superb finishing under pressure.

It's usually the slower, physically unremarkable midfielders and defenders, who don't have unbelievable ball skills, who turn out to be good managers. They have to think more about movement and positioning, and how to get the better of more talented players. There's a lovely quote from Klopp where he says he "had a first division brain, and fourth division feet".

On that basis, you'd give Lampard half a chance. He was definitely an overachiever.

The good thing about our setup is we have that mix of a clever football brain (DS) and world class playing career (JT), so the players can learn from both of them.

I agree that Lampard was the right kind of brilliant player to make it as a manager, more willfully excellent than a born talent. Terry too, I think, and they both played a ‘thinking man’s’ position more conducive to management. I expect there are far more midfielders and defenders in the coaching ranks than strikers and wingers, no matter the level. 

That Klopp quote sums it up quite nicely for me. I think there’s this sort of belief that says the better your players are, the better your manager needs to have been to gain the respect of those players. Not only is that nonsense to me, I think it’s counter-productive. Hopefully Dean can join Klopp in helping to overturn that narrative.

[Stevo985]

Really happy with the business Smith and team have done.

Not that I know the ability of some of them. But I've said several times that we need to spend money on the spine. 

If we have a good goalkeeper, CB, CM and CF then we stand a chance.

 

Heaton looks like the final piece of that puzzle. We couldn't head into the season with Steer as Number 1 and Kalinic has failed to impress so far so that was well needed.

Quietly optimistic

[foreveryoung]

17 hours ago, LakotaDakota said:

Huddersfield beat wolves twice last season, Just sayin....

Still a great achievement by Huddersfield. But also proves they are still work in progress.

[villalad21]

34 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Still a great achievement by Huddersfield. But also proves they are still work in progress.

Not really. 

We beat them 4-1 with Bruce. All Wolves does is park the bus and counter.

Works great against top 6 sides, works not so well against lesser sides. Can see Newcastle doing well against them.

[Vive_La_Villa]

1 hour ago, villalad21 said:

Not really. 

We beat them 4-1 with Bruce. All Wolves does is park the bus and counter.

Works great against top 6 sides, works not so well against lesser sides. Can see Newcastle doing well against them.

Seemed to work great in 16 games.

[Vive_La_Villa]

11 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

Really happy with the business Smith and team have done.

Not that I know the ability of some of them. But I've said several times that we need to spend money on the spine. 

If we have a good goalkeeper, CB, CM and CF then we stand a chance.

 

Heaton looks like the final piece of that puzzle. We couldn't head into the season with Steer as Number 1 and Kalinic has failed to impress so far so that was well needed.

Quietly optimistic

Still think we need one more striker to conclude the business. Too much reliance on Wesley at the moment. 

[Stevo985]

1 minute ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Still think we need one more striker to conclude the business. Too much reliance on Wesley at the moment. 

Yep I’d probably agree. 

It wasn’t really a point about every transfer, just that we needed to sign quality in those key positions. 

[KenjiOgiwara]

15 hours ago, KentVillan said:

It's usually the slower, physically unremarkable midfielders and defenders, who don't have unbelievable ball skills, who turn out to be good managers. 

Like Steve Bruce ?

[KentVillan]

7 minutes ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

Like Steve Bruce ?

I wouldn't describe Steve Bruce as "physically unremarkable". Have you seen his nose?

[A'Villan]

On 31/07/2019 at 11:15, Thats2 said:

I’ve always found this a quite interesting facet of football management. Here in the States, there’s a belief that the best players don’t usually make for the best managers. The thinking goes that the game comes too easily for them and to impart that greatness to lesser players is difficult (‘just do what I did’). Across the most popular leagues, there have been very few great players who made great managers. Larry Bird maybe. Mike Ditka. Forrest Gregg. It’s far more likely to find managers who never reached anywhere near the highest levels as players and if they did, they usually did so as backups or ‘role players’. Bill Belichick, Steve Kerr, Greg Popovich, Sean McVay all fall into this category. So does Dean Smith.

How many great players are honestly investing the time and effort necessary to develop themselves as coaches as well as athletes? Not many.

It's not, in my view, an inability to impart their greatness onto others, it's simply down to whether the athlete has the discipline and patience to invest in others development.

Playing and coaching are unique from each other. They share a purpose and work in tandem, but the skills that one must hone are different for each.

Playing is about physicality. How you train and develop your body to do what you want it to do at any given time, and having a tangible presence in your environment.

Coaching is abstract. It's essentially conveying philosophy so to enable an idea from one person to manifest through the actions of someone else. You're responsible for others.

Then you've got to man-manage. Delegate responsibility. Develop, implement and maintain training routines. Be tactically and technically adept etc.

It's more than just making sure your own skills are up to the desired standard like it is with playing, coaching means you are responsible and accountable for the whole squad.

Players know what it takes to compete in the moment, they have the understanding of experiencing everything firsthand.

When a player of great ability takes the time to understand the careful planning and serious thinking that goes in to developing others, then they can offer insight like no other.

[sheepyvillian]

On 31/07/2019 at 04:57, KentVillan said:

The problem is we talk about moments of "genius" in football all the time, but often they aren't. They're just brilliant execution of something that anyone could have thought of.

It was no surprise when Shearer turned out to be a crap manager, because his whole game was roughing up defenders, winning headers, and banging the ball very hard into the top corner. Brilliant, brutal simplicity, and made him one of the best players of his generation... but he wasn't exactly delivering a tactical masterclass every time he stepped on the pitch.

Henry was made out to be a genius because he drifted out to the left wing and sidefooted the ball into the net (wow, 4D chess), but his main attributes were blistering pace, amazing ball control, and superb finishing under pressure.

It's usually the slower, physically unremarkable midfielders and defenders, who don't have unbelievable ball skills, who turn out to be good managers. They have to think more about movement and positioning, and how to get the better of more talented players. There's a lovely quote from Klopp where he says he "had a first division brain, and fourth division feet".

On that basis, you'd give Lampard half a chance. He was definitely an overachiever.

The good thing about our setup is we have that mix of a clever football brain (DS) and world class playing career (JT), so the players can learn from both of them.

I like it.

[sheepyvillian]

On 31/07/2019 at 05:57, Thats2 said:

I agree that Lampard was the right kind of brilliant player to make it as a manager, more willfully excellent than a born talent. Terry too, I think, and they both played a ‘thinking man’s’ position more conducive to management. I expect there are far more midfielders and defenders in the coaching ranks than strikers and wingers, no matter the level. 

That Klopp quote sums it up quite nicely for me. I think there’s this sort of belief that says the better your players are, the better your manager needs to have been to gain the respect of those players. Not only is that nonsense to me, I think it’s counter-productive. Hopefully Dean can join Klopp in helping to overturn that narrative.

Gerrard might be the one to buck the trend. 

[fightoffyour]

Dean Smith did a Q and A tonight, my family went. Work permits sorted for Doug  and Marv, they’ll be in Germany, and we are looking for a striker. He can’t recommend that the club buy Maupay at Brentford’s asking price and we overpaid for Mings because it was like having your son held to ransom.

Edited August 1, 2019 by fightoffyour

[ferguson1]

[Tomaszk]

50 minutes ago, fightoffyour said:

Dean Smith did a Q and A tonight, my family went. Work permits sorted for Doug  and Marv, they’ll be in Germany, and we are looking for a striker. He can’t recommend that the club buy Maupay at Brentford’s asking price and we overpaid for Mings because it was like having your son held to ransom.

That's good stuff, where was this?

[New_Hope]

That's great thanks....really like DS and his whole philosophy.

Overpaid?? Not if he is our very own John Terry and becomes a club legend like McGrath!

[Zatman]

Really happy with the signings we have made, lot of managers with a big budget would have been looking for big name players but I think every player we have signed was needed. Also every person that come in seem to be good characters

[A'Villan]

2 hours ago, fightoffyour said:

Dean Smith did a Q and A tonight, my family went. Work permits sorted for Doug  and Marv, they’ll be in Germany, and we are looking for a striker. He can’t recommend that the club buy Maupay at Brentford’s asking price and we overpaid for Mings because it was like having your son held to ransom.

Thanks for that.

Smith, seems to me at least, like he is going to go far in this game of football.

Upon joining Newcastle, Bruce gave his default speech, "it'll be tough, don't get your hopes up."

And in highlighting that, I actually think it's fair to say Bruce has earned the right to PL managerial roles.

He has held his own in the top and second tier. Albeit unimpressive and unimaginative, he has.

Smith, in my view, talks in a similar way to his approach in football. Without fear of failure, rather he is confident and considerate.

I am only really positive about Grealish at this level regarding our squad, not that I'm doubtful of the rest, just that they'll need to make me a believer.

Anyway, I am so excited to see how it all comes together, and for us to face the challenge of being a newly formed team, with technical skill yet to be proven on this stage.

It'll be nothing like last season in the championship, we will have to rise to new levels to enjoy success this time around.

I obviously want us to thrive, but in the event we sink before we learn to swim to our destination of winning games and being a competitior. I just hope the support continues.

I believe Smith has earned at least half a season, if not a whole season to get it right. We need to be accountable as supporters, as does Smith as a coach.

[Villarocker]

I love Dean Smith's attitude.

That interview he did with Christian Purslow on the day after the play-off final showed his ambition. The guy asked him what the club's aims were for the coming Premier League season and Deano said we will try to win the league. He said that you have to go into every game trying to win it.

I think that's brilliant and makes for entertaining football, which after the dross we've had served up under some recent managers, is absolutely welcomed by me. We might get a tanking against one or two of the big boys but at least we'll go down fighting and playing the game in the right manner. 

I am beginning to believe that Dean Smith, whenever his tenure comes to an end, will leave as a legend of this football club.