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Dean Smith


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10 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

You obviously have difficulty reading things. I didn’t mention this window I mentioned the window in which we did spend more. The point? It’s irrelevant mentioning that the same way it’s irrelevant mentioning where we were 12 months ago etc as it’s done . We are a premiership club now so fans are entitled to criticise the manager if the opposition score with a header From a corner which would have hit a defender sat on the post.

Some fans prefer defending for 73% of the time others see value in trying to keep the ball better.  Some of us have been season ticket holders since 87-88 and have seen many false dawns but a common theme is we did well but just lacked that extra quality. 

It's not irrelevant though? It's a good barometer of our progress and helps keep us grounded. We're very clearly heading in the right direction. Harping on minutia and individual results or stats, especially in games we had a 3% chance of winning according to most bookmakers seems to be missing the forest for the trees.

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3 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

It's not irrelevant though? It's a good barometer of our progress and helps keep us grounded. We're very clearly heading in the right direction. Harping on minutia and individual results or stats, especially in games we had a 3% chance of winning according to most bookmakers seems to be missing the forest for the trees.

I have repeatedly said today and last week are free passes in terms of performance and result. So im totally vanilla about today and last week . The barometer for us should be from the spurs game. Yes in some areas we have improved ( fitness, strength) but in others we have stood still. Imo

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4 hours ago, Sulberto21 said:

The constant ‘ twelve months ago we were playing yadda yadda yadda’. It’s gone we are now in the premier league. I wasn’t talking about this summer i was talking two windows back. 

Then wtf has it got to do with Smith?

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46 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

You obviously have difficulty reading things. I didn’t mention this window I mentioned the window in which we did spend more. The point? It’s irrelevant mentioning that the same way it’s irrelevant mentioning where we were 12 months ago etc as it’s done . We are a premiership club now so fans are entitled to criticise the manager if the opposition score with a header From a corner which would have hit a defender sat on the post.

Some fans prefer defending for 73% of the time others see value in trying to keep the ball better.  Some of us have been season ticket holders since 87-88 and have seen many false dawns but a common theme is we did well but just lacked that extra quality. 

And you obviously have difficult remembering the name of the league Villa play in. It’s not been called that for more than 10 years.

 

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54 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

You obviously have difficulty reading things. I didn’t mention this window I mentioned the window in which we did spend more. The point? It’s irrelevant mentioning that the same way it’s irrelevant mentioning where we were 12 months ago etc as it’s done . We are a premiership club now so fans are entitled to criticise the manager if the opposition score with a header From a corner which would have hit a defender sat on the post.

Some fans prefer defending for 73% of the time others see value in trying to keep the ball better.  Some of us have been season ticket holders since 87-88 and have seen many false dawns but a common theme is we did well but just lacked that extra quality. 

So it’s irrelevant mentioning where we were 12 months ago but relevant to mention the window before last that pre dates our current manager..... 

And no, I don’t think anyone prefers defending for 73% of the time. That’s just another of your false narratives.

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3 hours ago, ozvillafan said:

Hmm.... I find it acceptable.

Liverpool had 25 shots to our 5. 75% possession to our 25%. Are unbeaten in the league and Champions of Europe.

Last week we conceded our advantage after 26 seconds of the 2nd half restart. We were outplayed for most of the game today, but hung tough to almost clinch a win and but for a great header late would have snuck a point.

Liverpool aren't our competition this year.....

... but after that performance, I have great confidence we'll get results against the teams that are.

Losing a game from 87 minutes is never acceptable

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21 minutes ago, KHV said:

Losing a game from 87 minutes is never acceptable

The disappointment for me was the move was repeated during most of the game.......crossfield ball to the far post and still we failed to defend it....you would have thought the penny might have dropped.

We are not the best equipped in the air, outside the 2 centre backs......and it shows.

Liverpool is a great team, but not one of their better days today, they looked predictable to me and that is taking nothing away from Villa.

However, we do seem to be vulnerable from aerial assault.

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Love Smith, love the intent. He's an ambitious so and so, and I'm not convinced we have the quality to play how he wants, especially in the PL. We have too many players who are just not good enough.

I understanding him persisting, why would you not try and play the way you want? I pray it doesn't cost us though. I think some good teams will go down this year who feel like they've had an OK season. Could be us, Watford, Burnley, Brighton, West Ham anyone outside the top 7 basically.

We're too narrow in midfield a lot of the time.

When full backs come forward, for anyone, they have so much space and our midfield gets spread too thinly. Today we played the best pair of full backs in the world (I think Trent AA is actually the best in the whole world at the moment, ffs what a player) and being honest, with some decent shooting, Liverpool could have had 4 or 5. Their finishing was abysmal.

Wolves and Sheffield Utd for example, if they play 352 against us, I'm very very concerned they'll open us up for fun. Newcastle as well are playing a 541 with full backs pushing forward.

In many ways we're playing with house money here. Forget a year ago...in February we were absolutely out of it, no chance of promotion.

Almost got a win v European champs! Not overly disappointed though because I don't think we deserved anything, got thumped for much of the match. Only frustration is the Hourihane pass to Trez could have been better, or he could have shot. And the other was I thought for some real fun McGinn could have shot from about 45 yards instead of play El Ghazi (?) in, Allison was charging out. Both tricky chances, well defended though.

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3 hours ago, KHV said:

Losing a game from 87 minutes is never acceptable

I think that's a little disingenuous.

While we performed admirably, we had 25% possession. We were chasing the ball all game and that takes a lot out of you both physically and mentally. Our starting right back had departed the field and both our wingers were out on their feet.

It took a surprising 5 minutes of extra time (3 was more than enough) and a great header from Mane to win it.....

... and I haven't even mentioned that no other club this season has beaten them.

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6 hours ago, MikeMcKenna said:

Reading some of the comments here is depressing and makes me despair of some Villa fans. IMHO that was the best the Villa performance of the season despite losing..... ....in the last minute. Smith nearly pulled off the result of the season.

Delusion at it's finest.

We did as well as we could, but it's Liverpool's finishing that let them down for most of the game.

A normal day at the office and they would have scored 4-5 goals.

Even if it ended in a draw Liverpool should have felt absolutely robbed.

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10 hours ago, villalad21 said:

Steve Bruce is currently doing better than him with a worse squad.

You've been waiting weeks to be able to say that eh? We've just played two of the bets teams in the world. None of this matters until May. I have confidence that we'll continue to improve over the season and pull off some shock results. 

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Just now, Dale said:

You've been waiting weeks to be able to say that eh? We've just played two of the bets teams in the world. None of this matters until May. I have confidence that we'll continue to improve over the season and pull off some shock results. 

You need to give credit where it's due.

Bruce beat both Spurs and Man Utd. Can't see us doing that.

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Just now, Dale said:

You've been waiting weeks to be able to say that eh? We've just played two of the bets teams in the world. None of this matters until May. I have confidence that we'll continue to improve over the season and pull off some shock results. 

Also worse squad is questionable. They spent £40M on a striker this summer, have decent seasoned Premier League players through their team. I'd say we've got a squad with a higher ceiling but more work to do to get it right. 

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1 minute ago, villalad21 said:

You need to give credit where it's due.

Bruce beat both Spurs and Man Utd. Can't see us doing that.

Also lost 3-1 to Norwich and 5-0 to Leicester, can't see us doing that. Bruce will finish as he always does somewhere between 16-19th. 

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We are getting closer to beating top 4 teams with every game, we haven't been in this position in twenty years.+ 

Anyone that would argue Bruce over Smith is quite frankly on the wind up, a football novice or related to Steve Bruce.

Smith is already a legend and give him 2 more seasons with the backing he has had continuing and we will be top 6 and competitive.

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14 minutes ago, Dale said:

Also worse squad is questionable. They spent £40M on a striker this summer, have decent seasoned Premier League players through their team. I'd say we've got a squad with a higher ceiling but more work to do to get it right. 

That's the thing. I think we have better potential in the squad and better players in certain positions but Newcastle are a club who have been in the premier league for like three seasons, finished 13th last season and have been coached by Rafa Benitez. That experience is pretty valuable. They also saw fit to spend £40m on a striker (who looks a waste of money in fairness), that's almost 1/3 of our entire budget in the summer.

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I feel very positive about yesterday for obvious reasons, but I also feel very comfortable with project Deano. It seems we are making a lot of right decisions lately, and even our player recruitment has largely been a success. We also are able to pass the ball around and look quite decent against the very best teams in the world already. Even without our captain. Not bad for a team that where in the championship struggling 12 months ago. I am quite satisfied I must say.

We can't afford Deano thinking he's made it, but he and everyone involved have done a remarkable job so far. It's the first time in my life I think I have 100 percent confidence in everyone associated with the club, from boardroom to the manager. 

Matches like yesterday will turn from losses to wins with a bit of time and more investment. I personally think Liverpool deserved the win (even if the referee was a RS knob), but we did rather well without our captain and best player methinks. 

Edited by KenjiOgiwara
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Bruce or Smith? Wow!

With Bruce we would have played totally defensively yesterday and got beaten comfortably whilst trying to sneak a goal from a set piece and everyone gone home saying "well, only got what I expected". 

Yesterday, people would have watched a Villa team that tried to beat the Champions elect and felt gutted at losing the game. 

I would prefer Smith over Bruce any day! 

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