Dean Smith

[Mantis 7,322]

24 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

Mings, Engels, Heaton, McGinn had good games. Full backs were passable at best. Naturally people's opinions of their game may be over-egged because they're both poor players.

If we've spent £20m on two full backs worse than than Elmo and Taylor I'm worried our recruitment team.

I doubt Smith does think they're worse - he probably just wants to ease them in.

[Tomaszk 3,243]

18 minutes ago, av1 said:

If you think Elmo and Taylor were " passable at best" you have absolutely no idea about football. 

Oh what a shame.

Let's see if we improve when we have better players in their positions. Bet we do.

What's your point again? You can't criticise anything when we lose a game? I disagree.

[Tomaszk 3,243]

1 minute ago, Mantis said:

I doubt Smith does think they're worse - he probably just wants to ease them in.

No problem with that. Sensible.

[Villaphan04 377]

4 hours ago, MaVilla said:

link anywhere?

Not sure if this works for you but here

[VillaChris 5,335]

3 hours ago, Farlz said:

 

With 7 subs many teams go with three strikers on the bench. Certainly should have more than one out and out frontman so don't get the Davis exclusion at all particularly with Lansbury on there.

[7392craig 591]

Got it wrong yesterday . Hourihane is dreadful as a DM. Guilbert and Targett should have started, God knows why we’d spend all that money on two new full backs just to play the old ones. Elmo wasn’t too bad, but Taylor embarrassed himself imo, his positioning is comical at best. Need better going forward.

[ender4 906]

1 hour ago, 7392craig said:

Got it wrong yesterday . Hourihane is dreadful as a DM. Guilbert and Targett should have started, God knows why we’d spend all that money on two new full backs just to play the old ones. Elmo wasn’t too bad, but Taylor embarrassed himself imo, his positioning is comical at best. Need better going forward.

But did you watch the match?

[MNVillan 78]

Smith certainly seems like the best manager we’ve had since I’ve followed Villa (2013 under Lambert). Not perfect today, bringing on Jota didn’t work. I don’t blame him for trying out Kodjia, he was about as ineffective as I expected, but Wesley wasn’t doing much either. I’m confident that he will learn from today and we will be competitive going forward.

[QldVilla 209]

I think Smith wanted experience on the pitch against Spurs and was willing to trade off young legs. We needed an experienced team on the pitch and for 70 minutes looked to be a master stroke. The team will get better every game, by Xmas I expect Targett and Guilbert will be starting, they just need to be brought along slowly.

Theres a very good team in the making there and it was always going to take 10-12 games to have those new players understanding the system. Most of that Spurs team has been together for 3-5 seasons, Grealish is the only player we have left from our relegation year. Patience.

[granto 77]

His team selection was surprising, especially the full backs, but it seemed to work.

Jota for Trez sub didn't work, think it should have been El Ghazi off for Luiz and really thrown bodies into the centre of midfield.

I wonder if he listened to too much noice from outside by not starting more of our new signings. Expect to see 1-2 more of them next game.

[blunther 412]

What i like about Smith is in his post match interviews it sounds like he's actually watched the same match as me, rather than living in some fantasy land like a few previous managers. We'll be fine. Smith will learn from this. Let's not start getting tetchy after losing our first match against top opposition when were still trying to integrate about a billion new players please. 

 

Bournemouth at home next. I haven't looked forward to a match like this for decades. 

[Lerner's Driver 1,114]

8 hours ago, Jareth said:

I think this will be like when Dean first took over. Load of new players (to him) but he got a tune in the end and then some. 

Agree.

[villalad21 3,363]

Seem to be going for the core of the team that played with us last season.

Weren't really that many new boys yesterday. If he's viewing Elmo and Taylor as starters, well that's interesting.

[7392craig 591]

5 hours ago, ender4 said:

But did you watch the match?

Got to apologise guys. Was out last night and had an absolute shit load to drink. Anything I posted on here please ignore.

[villan-scott 3,203]

2 minutes ago, 7392craig said:

Got to apologise guys. Was out last night and had an absolute shit load to drink. Anything I posted on here please ignore.

I imagine a few posters have cooled a bit on yesterday’s performance this morning. We were 1-0 until about 70 odd minutes and only ended up losing with 2 very late goals. 

Hope you had a good night mate

[MarkLillis 281]

I think it possible that we view Elmo and Taylor as starters in games such as yesterday when we know we won’t be getting much possession?

 

[7392craig 591]

1 minute ago, villan-scott said:

I imagine a few posters have cooled a bit on yesterday’s performance this morning. We were 1-0 until about 70 odd minutes and only ended up losing with 2 very late goals. 

Hope you had a good night mate

Yeah I got a bit excited while I was out, then got a bit upset by the final whistle, decided to make the most of the night. Slightly regretting it this morning lol

[villalad21 3,363]

8 minutes ago, MarkLillis said:

I think it possible that we view Elmo and Taylor as starters in games such as yesterday when we know we won’t be getting much possession?

 

Or he's taken that doing a Fulham thing way more seriously than he needs to

[jacketspuds 3,116]

I think he did the right thing not sticking all of our new signings in for the first game. The likes of Elmo, Taylor and Hourihane helped us get in to this league and I'm sure he wanted to show some respect for those players instead of just dropping all of them the first chance he gets. Plus the likes of Nakamba and Luiz haven't played much for us in pre-season.

Yesterday was a free hit and I think Smith's decisions were all in all spot on.

[Jareth 7,525]

55 minutes ago, 7392craig said:

Got to apologise guys. Was out last night and had an absolute shit load to drink. Anything I posted on here please ignore.