Dean Smith

[MaVilla]

2 hours ago, Farlz said:

Let's all agree on 45 minute games 

Jesus, that's......insightful.

In a way that makes me want to cry.

[briny_ear]

44 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

Clearly a great coach. Looks where he's taken us from!

Utter crap under the anti-coach Bruce to a team that looks, at times, like they can coast to PL victories.

All his black marks are really odd. Seemingly easy to fix, but we're getting stubborn refusal thus far. Problems all the fans can see that Dean Smith can't.

• Formation is 4141, never changes, ever
• Seven games until he's named the correct full backs. Still brought on Taylor, the worst player at the club
• Refusal to make subs, either tactical or through fatigue

Isn’t that exactly what people used to say about Steve Bruce though?

[Tomaszk]

44 minutes ago, briny_ear said:

Isn’t that exactly what people used to say about Steve Bruce though?

Bruce's list of problems was endless. He hardly had anything right. Other than positioning himself at a club with incredible resources.

Smith has done so much right in comparison. It feels like these final issues are close to being solved. He obviously has issues with the quality available in some areas, but should still do better with some sensible adjustments.

[MaVilla]

Dear Mr Smith

You have 7 subs, 4 of which were Douglas Luiz, Jota, Hassan and Davis.

When players start to tire around the 60 minute mark, please use them, for reference you can use 3, all at once if required, it would really help the team.

Thank you for considering my point(s).

Regards

A man who wants us to get fresh legs on the pitch when a few of our players look like they are running in treacle at about 65 minutes. (And to remind Welsey that he has competition for that lone striker slot)

xxx

Edited September 28, 2019 by MaVilla

[Zatman]

Often forgotten but Brentford were slow starters in the league under Smith

[villalad21]

15 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Often forgotten but Brentford were slow starters in the league under Smith

But they didn't have to play the likes of Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea and Man Utd

[Zatman]

16 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

But they didn't have to play the likes of Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea and Man Utd

So. Whats the point? Are these our only fixrures left

[Tomaszk]

Just now, Zatman said:

So. Whats the point? Are these our only fixrures left

Don't feed.

[Chindie]

We've never had a manager where the fans are happy with how the subs are used, and we will never will.

[TRO]

4 hours ago, terrytini said:

Incredible.

I guess the optimists will say it shows we are nearly there ( I’d agree) and the pessimists would say it shows something is seriously wrong !! 

I agree on both counts.

[TRO]

7 hours ago, Farlz said:

Let's all agree on 45 minute games 

They said on MOTD we are top of the league of teams dropping points from winning positions.

I think if you watch the game carefully, sadly, you can see it coming.

He has some work to do.

Edited September 29, 2019 by TRO

[mikeyp102]

4 hours ago, briny_ear said:

I think there is an issue with selecting Wesley  atm.

He scored last game, there was no way he’d be dropped for Davis at this stage and we have no one else

[mikeyp102]

8 hours ago, VillaChris said:

This season is reminding me of 12/13 under Lambert. What at the time people thought was a decent transfer window quickly showed we were short in key areas. We were competitive in games but couldn't get many points on the board for various reasons. Also glimpses from likes of Lowton and Benteke there were decent players in the squad.

That season showed there's always time to turn a season around. We were properly dead and buried from that xmas period and still stayed up relatively comfortably in the end. Worry for me is I don't see a front three that will fire us to safety like Gabby-Benteke-Wiemann did in second half of the season. January transfer window will be huge. Can't afford to just sign more "project" players in final third.

I’d actually say it’s more like the Houllier season in that you could see there was seeds of progress, we just weren’t getting the  final ball correct. I think like that season, add a striker and we’ll kick on.

[Dave-R]

Can't even believe some of the posts I've read this morning. The thought that some of you are trying to compare Smith to Bruce or the fact your even bringing that guys name up again is laughable.

We were always short in areas, a full rebuild can't be done in one window and maybe come January we can now bring in quality instead of quantity. That's what we had to do bring in quantity for cheaper we needed those players like a full squad pretty much. January i can feel some big signings coming in, that should hopefully give us that extra advantage weve been lacking in the second half.

Our performance have not been bad, that's the crazy thing. Some of your are making out our performances havnt been great but we've been playing pretty decent, it's just those errors tear away at a teams 90 mins, even if they played excellent.

For a squad thats still piecing it together and learning how to work it out, I don't think we're to far away from seeing wins. We have been so close on so many times and against teams that are well and truly down in this league.

You also can't complain when you have to take the officiating into account. If VAR wasnt around we could of possibly won that game yesterday 3-2 and we've had much go against us already. No doubt VAR will continue to mean what Dan Bardell called it as (Villa arnt Reviewed), good name but its as if its working against us.

I would say let's see what January brings before people start going on about Smith's not up for it, even then you have to give time for those new signings to gel in.

It's all ok saying Smith isn't upto the job, but really then who is, that's a question nobody seems to be able to answer, why???  because it was always a tall order staying in the premier with a squad put together at short notice with more quantity over quality  The way I see it is we have done the best we can do in the situation we was in and I for one cant ask for anymore at the moment apart from the squad to try and win.

Edited September 29, 2019 by Dave-R

[AVTuco]

6 hours ago, mikeyp102 said:

He scored last game, there was no way he’d be dropped for Davis at this stage and we have no one else

No, we need to still give Wesley time, even if we don't really like like it. 

However, Davis needs to come on earlier once it's clear Wesley struggles, which was the case yesterday.

[Delphinho123]

Smith has no idea how to use his substitutes. It’s costing us points. 

[KenjiOgiwara]

I can rarely say I've felt this, but the performances so far this season, leads me to have complete trust in that our manager will get it right. 

In Deano we trust. 

[cheltenham_villa]

55 minutes ago, AVTuco said:

No, we need to still give Wesley time, even if we don't really like like it. 

However, Davis needs to come on earlier once it's clear Wesley struggles, which was the case yesterday.

I wonder how well they would play together. Using Davies to hold up the ball could get wesley into the box more.

[Pimlico_Villa]

27 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Smith has no idea how to use his substitutes. It’s costing us points. 

Should definitely have brought Davis on sooner. Coming on on 87 is pretty pointless. 

It might be that he looks at the calibre of player he has on the bench and just doesn’t trust or rate them.  

[foreveryoung]

He just needs to understand when the players look tired, make a bloody change. I'm with Smith if he believes he hasn't got the quality on the bench, but fresh legs are always better that a player blowing out his arse at 65 minutes. An to me that's what's losing us the game.

Someone said on here who was at the game we weren't sitting back after the second goal, didnt look that way on MOTD. But as I said some players, were knackered. Smith either needs to get the subs on sooner or work on there fitness.