Dean Smith

[villalad21]

Those first teamers are just shot of any sort of confidence.

We should consider fielding out our 2nd string team. At least they are used to the winning feeling.

[Risso]

Based on yesterday's performance, there certainly aren't three worse teams than us.  Ings was excellent all game and showed what we are sadly missing.  Smith is out of his depth and needs to be replaced, sharpish, before we fall too far behind.

[Humanoid]

44 minutes ago, TRO said:

In view of the fact he has been omitted for so many games and clearly not the worst player yesterday, probably the best header of the ball we have.....is it any wonder, he don't want to put his head above the parapet.

I agree he wasn't one of the underperformers on the pitch, but this IS the perfect opportunity for someone like him to come in to show some bottle and gumption, particularly when others aren't.  A player should come in and fight for his place and show himself to be a winner.  This is the basics of having competition in a squad for places.  It should be absolutely natural for a central defender to be verbal and complusive about organisation.

[M_Afro]

We need to see where we are after the next two games. Two wins and things will feel much better. At the very least we must get 4 points. We cannot afford to lose another game to a relegation rival. Yesterday was painful.

[zab6359]

33 minutes ago, SuffolkVillan said:

Given drop off in form, system not working, lazy midfielders and ineffective wingers I think for Norwich we should have the following;

                                    Heaton

               Konza          Chester       Hause

Elmo                          Luiz                        Targett

               Hourihane               Grealish

                      Kodjia       Wesley

 

After yesterday I don't think Nakamba works hard enough to track back. If he did his job properly I would of liked to go him holding with Luiz in for Hourihane.

With this system we should give Norwich more to worry about and still remain a bit stronger in defence, Chester to play almost as a sweeper guiding the young lads.

Thoughts?

 

                  

I do think our gung ho 4-3-3 has been an issue, the best managers adapt and DS seems to be all or nothing, we just don't have the talent to play 4-3-3 properly.

I actually like the idea of a back 3/5 but under DS it will never happen.

[wilko154]

I think Smith has 3 games before his job is even up for discussion.

Norwich, Watford & Burnley.

A bare minimum of 5 points to scrape on through. 6 or 7 points to steady the ship. 9 points to put us back into the driving seat.

Based on yesterday I don't know where those performances are coming from unfortunately.

Edited December 22, 2019 by wilko154

[foreveryoung]

44 minutes ago, Laughable Chimp said:

Did we play that well tbf? We knicked an early goal and then hung on for dear life as Spurs sent wave after wave of attack at us. The moment they scored one suddenly the defence was in complete tatters and they look like they could score 5 more.

We lost against 10 men Arsenal. A very mediocre Arsenal side that has dropped poings against pleny of other teams around us with 11 men.

Look at a list of our wins we've had this season and they've all had a large caveat to them.

Everton-Who were apparently utterly horrific and a poster here described it as "the worst he's ever seen that team play".

Brighton-Who were down to 10 men for most of the match.

Norwich-Most of their first team was out due to injury.

Newcastle-Dean Smith always beats Steve Bruce. 

 

 

The squads good enough chap. You forgot the big one against Liverpool without Jack. Just run out of steam in the end, but we played fantastic, against the Champions (grieves me to say). 

I think Smith may have his favourites, Jack being one, everything centres around Jack, maybe the rest of the squad are bored of it.

We have been found out a bit though, an if you don't adjust, change tactics, your gonna lose. Norwich will be watching that Leicester an Southampton game and probably out do us, we will see.

[Zhan_Zhuang]

Surely they'll be a reaction next match and hopefully we can get a win!

[briny_ear]

1 hour ago, mikeyp102 said:

The board have a long term plan in place. They are not going to make rash decisions now, sacking the manager, sacking the scouts, changing everything. They’ve given Smith a long term contract for a reason. He’s changing the whole style of the football club, through the youth teams into the first team. Everyone knows we are struggling at the moment, but that was probably expected. We can turn this around, and I’m sure we will.

We keep hearing this line of argument. Just don’t see much evidence of the long term plan in practice.

[hippo]

1 hour ago, SuffolkVillan said:

Given drop off in form, system not working, lazy midfielders and ineffective wingers I think for Norwich we should have the following;

                                    Heaton

               Konza          Chester       Hause

Elmo                          Luiz                        Targett

               Hourihane               Grealish

                      Kodjia       Wesley

 

After yesterday I don't think Nakamba works hard enough to track back. If he did his job properly I would of liked to go him holding with Luiz in for Hourihane.

With this system we should give Norwich more to worry about and still remain a bit stronger in defence, Chester to play almost as a sweeper guiding the young lads.

Thoughts?

 

                  

You lost me at Konza ! Another £9m down the pan

[hippo]

1 hour ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

The ideal scenario would be that they have a long chat, identify the problems, ask him what he needs and vice versa.

Talk about understanding he wants to play a certain way but it is obviously not working currently, and that they have to compromise with each other until we can do better.

It's true, it doesn't have to end in animosity or falling out.

If they have a good relationship, we should all be working for the good of the club.

I want him to succeed, but obviously if it gets to a point where he doesn't want to take any advice then it won't work.

Do we need to bring in a couple of new top coaches, would that help?

Smith is head coach - if we need to bring in "top coaches" to help him ....well then the obvious question looms .....

[Tomaszk]

23 minutes ago, Risso said:

Based on yesterday's performance, there certainly aren't three worse teams than us.  Ings was excellent all game and showed what we are sadly missing.  Smith is out of his depth and needs to be replaced, sharpish, before we fall too far behind.

If I gave you Ings in this squad from the start of the season. Where do you think we'd be? Certainly wouldn't sort the midfield out!

I think we'd probably have about 8 more goals and 5 or 6 more points at least.

[hippo]

24 minutes ago, wilko154 said:

I think Smith has 3 games before his job is even up for discussion.

Norwich, Watford & Burnley.

A bare minimum of 5 points to scrape on through. 6 or 7 points to steady the ship. 9 points to put us back into the driving seat.

Based on yesterday I don't know where those performances are coming from unfortunately.

I remember in relegation battles past - sure we had poor results - but we also got some good results - remember spurs away under Sherwood - beating man city 3-2 under Lambert.

We haven't had any such results this season - so we simply have to beat the dross around us - unfortunately form and confidence have disappeared as we enter a run of games against poor sides

Edited December 22, 2019 by hippo

[hippo]

53 minutes ago, Pimlico_Villa said:

A lot of this is because there isn’t an ounce of quality beyond our starting XI. There just aren’t any players that can come in as like for like when there are injuries or players need resting. 
 

Similarly, when an opposition has sussed us out, it might look like he doesn’t have a Plan B but the issue is that there just isn’t the personnel or quality to take a different approach. 
 

This is why quality has to be brought in during January. Over a course of a season it is very important to have quality in depth, given the intensity of the league. It would have been too much bringing in all of those players in  pre-season, so it might have always been the plan to do it in Jan once that crop of players had settled in. 
 

It’s also situations like this where Grealish is too young to Captain the side. He can lead by example and, yes, will be better for it, but when we need to get out of rut we need a a more experienced player. 

To be honest I don't think there is much in the first 11. With Ming's and Mcginn out of the picture we have to rely on the dross brought in the summer...........gulp !

 

[AntrimBlack]

Smith has just got a new 4 year deal. I think it is unlikely that they will replace him. He is part of a long term plan.

[Zatman]

19 minutes ago, hippo said:

You lost me at Konza ! Another £9m down the pan

He has made about 4 appearances. Better players have looked poor when they debut in this league 

[hippo]

1 minute ago, Zatman said:

He has made about 4 appearances. Better players have looked poor when they debut in this league 

So what ? He was £9m - when would couldn't afford Maupay @ £16m.

We always knew this season would be tough - so why spend £9m on a player - who only gets to play if Courtney Hause isn't available ? 

 

[Zatman]

1 minute ago, hippo said:

So what ? He was £9m - when would couldn't afford Maupay @ £16m.

We always knew this season would be tough - so why spend £9m on a player - who only gets to play if Courtney Hause isn't available ? 

 

Because thats not how football works, we had to buy centre backs. Konsa had a release clause too, Maupay didn't 

[hippo]

6 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

Smith has just got a new 4 year deal. I think it is unlikely that they will replace him. He is part of a long term plan.

I think he is the easy option. Let's not forget we came within back whisker of appointing Theiry Henry - and the decision makers at our club sanctioned £22m for Wesley.

They are probably shitting themselves about finding a replacement head coach. The plan is to hope Smith comes good. 

[useless]

If at any stage the club think bringing in a new manager will give us a better chance of staying in the premier league they will sack him, all this talk of new contracts and being a year ahead of where they thought will make no difference whatsoever. Hopefully we can get back on track in the coming games though, a couple of wins and a good transfer window could turn our season around.

Edited December 22, 2019 by useless