Dean Smith

[cheltenham_villa]

Our back 4 was right yesterday, everybody said their praises. Our mistakes were in midfield and up front where they didn't do enough to relieve the pressure. For every goal I think our midfield had the chance to clear the ball or hold it up. Can see how any changes in the back 4 would have prevented that, especially 2 different fullbacks who are known to be more attacking.

[Bazmonkey]

As much as we were playing spurs who have different aims this year and are in different league when it comes to players.

I was surprised by the team selection. You could argue putting all of them in at the same time is bad but we were never going to get anything against a good spurs side.

We could have played target guilbert luiz and just said go out there and see what you what you can do...its 90 mins and good prep for Bournemouth next week.  We cant judge against spurs it's the Bournemouth's Norwich's palace etc...these are games we need to focus on.

I thought we sat back too much and gave them too much respect...1st goal there were 9 villa players to 4 spurs in the box and the 2nd where grealish lost it there were 7 players behind him and he couldn't pass.

Sitting to deep just invited spurs to come on to us and anything that came out of the box just went straight to them and they came back over and over again. With effectively two wingers we had three midfielders against spurs' 5

I thought there was some good play at times with trez mcginn grealish and some good passing moves.

Its Bournemouth next week and as mcginn said on MOTD we should have been more bolder today...next week we need to be.

[sne]

A harsh welcome to the big leagues. Both for the players and Smith.

It will take time to adjust and get used to the much higher quality opposition.

Staying up while building for the future remains the goal for me and while there are teams we can compete with there are also teams and players who are just miles better than us.

As soon as Eriksen was on the pitch it was game over.

It will be a long and difficult season, just need to remain calm and believe in what we do.

 

[ChrisVillan]

59 minutes ago, Danishlad said:

Two new full backs and a quality def mid in January please. 

 

You don't think we should at least try the ones we already bought first?

[blunther]

1 hour ago, Danishlad said:

 

Two new full backs and a quality def mid in January please. 

 

Good news for you. We've already done that. Perhaps we should just sack them off though because they didn't start one. Single. ****. Game. 

 

**** sake. 

[blunther]

1 hour ago, Danishlad said:

 

Two new full backs and a quality def mid in January please. 

 

..

Edited August 11, 2019 by blunther

[PieFacE]

Thought he actually got everything spot on yesterday. Bringing on subs changed the game for sure, but he could only pick from what we've got. Personally I'd have preferred Davis instead of Kodjia but it is what it is. 

 

[terrytini]

Part of the problem here is expectations.

From Poll.

Managers Performance - Poor = 10 Votes...for getting within 10 minutes or so of beating CL finalists. (Smith).

Managers Performance - Poor = 5 Votes...for getting beaten 4-1 Away at Sheffield United last season in one of the most embarrassing and insipid showings I’ve seen from us. ( Bruce).

That, to me, says some people’s expectations have sky rocketed.

Unless anyone actually thinks the two performances were similar ?

Edited August 11, 2019 by terrytini

[sne]

2 minutes ago, PieFacE said:

Thought he actually got everything spot on yesterday. Bringing on subs changed the game for sure, but he could only pick from what we've got. Personally I'd have preferred Davis instead of Kodjia but it is what it is. 

 

We also needed someone with pace to bring on in the second half, but we don't have anyone so not much he could do.

Jota wasn't really suited to this game at that point, just like Hourihane probably wasn't ideal in his role against Spurs.

But as soon as Eriksen was on it really didn't matter what we did or didn't do. Too much class.

[terrytini]

7 minutes ago, sne said:

 

But as soon as Eriksen was on it really didn't matter what we did or didn't do. Too much class.

True.

And I think too little has been made of the fact he brought him on.

He didn’t want to play him...as he is probably leaving. That’s why he was benched.  

But we forced him into it. A small plus, but a plus.

[nick76]

2 hours ago, Bazmonkey said:

As much as we were playing spurs who have different aims this year and are in different league when it comes to players.

I was surprised by the team selection. You could argue putting all of them in at the same time is bad but we were never going to get anything against a good spurs side.

We could have played target guilbert luiz and just said go out there and see what you what you can do...its 90 mins and good prep for Bournemouth next week.  We cant judge against spurs it's the Bournemouth's Norwich's palace etc...these are games we need to focus on.

I thought we sat back too much and gave them too much respect...1st goal there were 9 villa players to 4 spurs in the box and the 2nd where grealish lost it there were 7 players behind him and he couldn't pass.

Sitting to deep just invited spurs to come on to us and anything that came out of the box just went straight to them and they came back over and over again. With effectively two wingers we had three midfielders against spurs' 5

I thought there was some good play at times with trez mcginn grealish and some good passing moves.

Its Bournemouth next week and as mcginn said on MOTD we should have been more bolder today...next week we need to be.

Sitting back? I thought it was more like we couldn’t get out because the quality of the opposition pressured us so much, on and off the ball that we couldn’t do anything.  

We know Dean isn’t a sit back type of manager which suggests we just couldn’t get out. Sometimes you have to realise that the opposition was better.

[KevinRichardsonsMoustache]

2 hours ago, DCJonah said:

 

As a club we need to change our mindset for 12 months. Never before has 17th been an achievement, so i get why people will struggle to change but we really need to. 

This is a superb post. I’ll just leave it here and hope people see that the ‘we are Aston villa’ BS didn’t allow us to escape the trap door last time and we are owed nothing at all by this league. We’re a newly promoted team and we’re going to get a kicking from time to time.

Let’s take the positives from yesterday - of which there were many - and move on. Dean is the man to lead us. 

[Dr_Pangloss]

43 minutes ago, sne said:

We also needed someone with pace to bring on in the second half, but we don't have anyone so not much he could do.

Jota wasn't really suited to this game at that point, just like Hourihane probably wasn't ideal in his role against Spurs.

But as soon as Eriksen was on it really didn't matter what we did or didn't do. Too much class.

Some are slamming Smith for not adapting to Eriksen. But if anyone can confidently name 5 better number 10s in world football then I'd be amazed. Eriksen is one of the best in his position in the world and when you look at our bench it's very difficult to see who could have been deployed to mitigate his quality and impact.

I think some Villa fans, when they see Spurs, still think of the side we used to compete with over 10 years ago, whereas they're now an established top four side who are having relative success in the Champions League, they're a few levels above us, not sure on what planet we were expected to go there and play expansive football and have success, they're light years above us athletically and technically, we did very well to give them a hard game.

Edited August 11, 2019 by Dr_Pangloss

[Daweii]

Play like we did yesterday against Bournemouth and we'll dismantle them. Spurs are just another level entirely, I mean they are challenging for the title this season and might even win it. So for us to go there and compete for 73 minutes before they equalised is nothing to scoff at. Most teams in this league will go to that stadium and lose, we will likely see teams like Liverpool and Man city go to that stadium and lose this season so we did pretty well. This league isn't as hard as Spurs made it out to look, the only thing yesterday told us is that we're not vying for Top 4 this season, but I think we all knew that anyway.

[Dr_Pangloss]

46 minutes ago, terrytini said:

Part of the problem here is expectations.

From Poll.

Managers Performance - Poor = 10 Votes...for getting within 10 minutes or so of beating CL finalists. (Smith).

Managers Performance - Poor = 5 Votes...for getting beaten 4-1 Away at Sheffield United last season in one of the most embarrassing and insipid showings I’ve seen from us. ( Bruce).

That, to me, says some people’s expectations have sky rocketed.

Unless anyone actually thinks the two performances were similar ?

I'd argue a lot of fans are just out of touch with the Premier League. £150m isn't that big of an investment these days and given the side we came up with will realistically give us a good shot of survival, rather than a top 10 push that a handful of fans, to their absolute delusion, expect. 

I've also read a few fans misrepresenting what the premier league is about. I've seen comical comments about how some of our players are 'better suited' to this level, claiming that the premier league 'gives you more time on the ball' and is less 'physical'. This couldn't be anymore wrong and the opposite is true. This league at a minimum is populated with significantly better conditioned athletes combined with a better reading of the game, meaning you get less time on the ball and are put under pressure much more quickly and aggressively. This level is a massive learning curve for everyone involved.

[terrytini]

2 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

I'd argue a lot of fans are just out of touch with the Premier League. £150m isn't that big of an investment these days and given the side we came up with will realistically give us a good shot of survival, rather than a top 10 push that a handful of fans, to their absolute delusion, expect. 

I've also read a few fans misrepresenting what the premier league is about. I've seen comical comments about how some of our players are 'better suited' to this level, claiming that the premier league 'gives you more time on the ball' and is less 'physical'. This couldn't be anymore wrong and the opposite is true. This league at a minimum is populated with significantly better conditioned athletes combined with a better reading of the game, meaning you get less time on the ball and are put under pressure much more quickly and aggressively. This level is a massive learning curve for everyone involved.

Out of likes but fully agree.

Watched a fan video of the Spurs game on YouTube a bit earlier and pretty much every fan asked was predicting a Win.

Hardly surprising that some were disappointed, deflated, and critical.

 

[terrytini]

5 minutes ago, Daweii said:

Play like we did yesterday against Bournemouth and we'll dismantle them. Spurs are just another level entirely, I mean they are challenging for the title this season and might even win it. So for us to go there and compete for 73 minutes before they equalised is nothing to scoff at. Most teams in this league will go to that stadium and lose, we will likely see teams like Liverpool and Man city go to that stadium and lose this season so we did pretty well. This league isn't as hard as Spurs made it out to look, the only thing yesterday told us is that we're not vying for Top 4 this season, but I think we all knew that anyway.

 

Now there’s part of the peculiarities.....I thought we showed plenty yesterday to say we should pose a big threat to Bournemouth.

Yet never in a million years would I expect a Win. Just a bigger chance of one.

But, paradoxically, those who were very critical of what we showed yesterday, will, I guarantee, be those who will be even more expectant of a Win next week.

Odd, that.

[DCJonah]

8 minutes ago, terrytini said:

 

Now there’s part of the peculiarities.....I thought we showed plenty yesterday to say we should pose a big threat to Bournemouth.

Yet never in a million years would I expect a Win. Just a bigger chance of one.

But, paradoxically, those who were very critical of what we showed yesterday, will, I guarantee, be those who will be even more expectant of a Win next week.

Odd, that.

I think fans expectations could really hurt us this year. I'm hopeful those selling out VP are the realistic ones. 

Look at Sheff Utd yesterday, fans going absolutely mental because they got a draw at bournemouth. This is the mentality we need to adapt to for this season. 

[Stevo985]

14 hours ago, Tomaszk said:

He chose to start Elmo and Taylor and leave Guilbert and Targett out. Grim decision making. Damn grim recruitment if we've signed full backs worse than those who weren't very good in Championship. Newbies both look like they have strengths to me so for now I'll stick with the decision making.

Think he was throwing old dogs a bone. Place is yours unless your play yourself out. Hopefully both full backs and Hourihane all out of next week's team.

 

I think it was more likely he was wary of having so many new players in the starting XI

I’m sure the plan is for those two to be first choice soon. 

This is coming from someone who thinks Neil Taylor is dog shit. But I can see the logic in bringing the new signings in a bit slower. 

[villalad21]

Bournemouth is an established Premier League side.

I certainly don't expect a win against them. We need to have a bit of realism