Dean Smith

[M_Afro]

18 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

To be fair chap, you could win with Rangers, he is getting big praise, but Rangers and Celtic are far the best football clubs in Scotland. An the players wanna play, not many overpaid premadonnas up there.

That’s not quite true. Celtic have won 8 on the bounce and Gerrard started a fair way behind where Celtic were at the time. This season, Rangers have just had the better of things so far. He is also going well in Europe.

[villalad21]

5 minutes ago, wazzap24 said:

Me too mate, but honestly - we’d all regret Fat Sam, even if we did stay up this year. 

He’s the managerial equivalent of a ‘five to three’. 

You’re in the club, it’s five to three, last orders has been called and your’e that desperate to get your willy wet, you’ll go home with any snaggletoothed monstrosity you can find. 

Now I understand the ‘any port in a storm’ argument, but it’s barely even heavy rain at this point. 

Back Smith in Jan and we’ll be fine. 

Smith was backed in the summer. Haven't delivered. Had a whole summer working with them, at least the vast majority of them.

It's all a matter of opinions but to me he has to go. He's defensive records at both Walsall and Brentford speaks for themselves.

Thankful for last season but he is not a Prem level manager in my opinion.

Edited December 31, 2019 by villalad21

[useless]

If Rangers weren't managed by Steven Gerrard, but some random Scottish football manager instead, but who was doing exactly the same job that Gerrard is doing, no one would be mentioning him as a possibility for our next manager, the complaints would be that it's easy to do well with Rangers because of the advantage they have over other clubs. In other words he's only being suggested because of his name, you only have to look at some of Rangers' siging in the last two or three seasons to see that it doesn't take a great manager to do well with them.

[Zatman]

21 minutes ago, useless said:

If Rangers weren't managed by Steven Gerrard, but some random Scottish football manager instead, but who was doing exactly the same job that Gerrard is doing, no one would be mentioning him as a possibility for our next manager, the complaints would be that it's easy to do well with Rangers because of the advantage they have over other clubs. In other words he's only being suggested because of his name, you only have to look at some of Rangers' siging in the last two or three seasons to see that it doesn't take a great manager to do well with them.

If we signed Neil Lennon or Ally McCoist be uproar

[M_Afro]

Rangers finished 40 points behind Celtic 3 years ago. They are now favourites for the league. That is some progress.

[PrimevalVillan]

I think Dean is the right man. But right now, our transfer strategy of relying on El Ghazi and Trez on the wings has back fired. Neither of them are playing team ball and they constantly make mistakes in all phases of the game. Jota doesn't look quick enough either as coverage. Kodjia can cover too but he would have the same issues as the other two but may actually create more. AEG is the kicker because he has all of the ability in the world, he just needs to change his mentality. When he plays well, usually we look a lot better. 

[Dr_Pangloss]

Gerrard has genuinely done absolutely **** all of merit.

[wazzap24]

1 hour ago, villalad21 said:

Smith was backed in the summer. Haven't delivered. Had a whole summer working with them, at least the vast majority of them.

It's all a matter of opinions but to me he has to go. He's defensive records at both Walsall and Brentford speaks for themselves.

Thankful for last season but he is not a Prem level manager in my opinion.

Yes he was backed, no doubt about that (and this isn’t a criticism of the owners by the way - far from it), but when you average out the money spent over the number of players signed, we’ve had to find bargains which was always going to be risky. We signed 12 players in one summer, with an average fee of about £10-12m. We’ve only just about built the foundations of a premier league quality squad. 

We are about where we should be for the squad we currently have. We’d all like to be doing better than we are, but I thought the general consensus on here in terms of expectation was basically 17th? We’re one point away from that as it stands, so I don’t understand the level of criticism being chucked at pretty much anybody and everybody on the playing and coaching staff. 

We were pretty decent for 15 games and probably didn’t get the results we deserved. Now form/confidence has taken a bit of a hit and the last few games have been poor, but we’ve got the chance now to give the squad a lift with an injection of quality and if we do, I honestly think we’ll be fine. It’s too soon to be chucking all the good stuff that’s gone on at this club for the past 12 months away and trying to start again. 

[Villastine]

1 hour ago, villalad21 said:

Smith was backed in the summer. Haven't delivered. Had a whole summer working with them, at least the vast majority of them.

It's all a matter of opinions but to me he has to go. He's defensive records at both Walsall and Brentford speaks for themselves.

Thankful for last season but he is not a Prem level manager in my opinion.

The football his teams played at Walsall and Brentford is the very reason we signed him. 

His win rate here is still well over 40%. 

As pointed out we had a similar bad run last year with folks on here calling for his head. We ended up getting promoted. 

He clearly deserves more time to turn things around. 

But he needs the backing of the board to bring in the quality we need on the pitch also. 

 

[OLDVILLAIN]

2 minutes ago, Villastine said:

The football his teams played at Walsall and Brentford is the very reason we signed him. 

His win rate here is still well over 40%. 

As pointed out we had a similar bad run last year with folks on here calling for his head. We ended up getting promoted. 

He clearly deserves more time to turn things around. 

But he needs the backing of the board to bring in the quality we need on the pitch also. 

 

You simply cannot compare a run in the championship to a run in the premiership..they are different animals..in the championship anyone can beat anyone in a crazy topsy turvy league,im not so sure its the same in the premierleague.

The team needs a leader in midfield and if smith persists in his crazy wingers "tactic" he is going to have to replace trez and elghazi with 2 wingers that want to wear the shirt.

[Phil Silvers]

11 minutes ago, wazzap24 said:

Yes he was backed, no doubt about that (and this isn’t a criticism of the owners by the way - far from it), but when you average out the money spent over the number of players signed, we’ve had to find bargains which was always going to be risky. We signed 12 players in one summer, with an average fee of about £10-12m. We’ve only just about built the foundations of a premier league quality squad. 

We are about where we should be for the squad we currently have. We’d all like to be doing better than we are, but I thought the general consensus on here in terms of expectation was basically 17th? We’re one point away from that as it stands, so I don’t understand the level of criticism being chucked at pretty much anybody and everybody on the playing and coaching staff. 

We were pretty decent for 15 games and probably didn’t get the results we deserved. Now form/confidence has taken a bit of a hit and the last few games have been poor, but we’ve got the chance now to give the squad a lift with an injection of quality and if we do, I honestly think we’ll be fine. It’s too soon to be chucking all the good stuff that’s gone on at this club for the past 12 months away and trying to start again. 

I posted something similar recently and the day I felt like I wanted Deano out, I now feel he should be given time. In addition to an almost new squad, Dean himself is new to the league and is on a massive learning curve too, I’d love to know how much influence JT has on things, he’s the one who has sat in on meetings with management elite, surely he isn’t confusing things with that knowledge ? and why are we making so many errors at the back? 

[Villastine]

41 minutes ago, OLDVILLAIN said:

You simply cannot compare a run in the championship to a run in the premiership..they are different animals..in the championship anyone can beat anyone in a crazy topsy turvy league,im not so sure its the same in the premierleague.

The team needs a leader in midfield and if smith persists in his crazy wingers "tactic" he is going to have to replace trez and elghazi with 2 wingers that want to wear the shirt.

Our target last year was promotion, he succeeded when it looked unlikely. 

If the Board back him in the transfer market I believe he can keep us up

[sheepyvillian]

2 hours ago, M_Afro said:

That’s not quite true. Celtic have won 8 on the bounce and Gerrard started a fair way behind where Celtic were at the time. This season, Rangers have just had the better of things so far. He is also going well in Europe.

Excuse me, but they haven't had the better of things. Celtic beat them in the cup, they are still top of the league and still in Europe. Let's have it right. 

[Zatman]

1 hour ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

Gerrard has genuinely done absolutely **** all of merit.

Just like when he played,  the Gerrard hype is incredible 

[M_Afro]

2 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

Excuse me, but they haven't had the better of things. Celtic beat them in the cup, they are still top of the league and still in Europe. Let's have it right. 

Lost at home last week and Rangers go top if they win the game in hand. Rangers also battered Celtic in the final. 9 times out of 10 they win that game.

[tinker]

3 hours ago, villalad21 said:

Smith was backed in the summer. Haven't delivered. Had a whole summer working with them, at least the vast majority of them.

It's all a matter of opinions but to me he has to go. He's defensive records at both Walsall and Brentford speaks for themselves.

Thankful for last season but he is not a Prem level manager in my opinion.

Yea good idea ..... lets forget he's improved us.more than any other team in the top two divisions over the last 18 months, a whole league up and 3 rd from the bottom, completely rebuilt the team having lost the top striker in the division and arguably the division above and also lost one of the best CB I have seen at the villa.

Lets forget all that and concentrate on the last 3 games . ........we would be almost as stupid as the thugs down the road.......clowns 

[TRO]

1 hour ago, wazzap24 said:

Yes he was backed, no doubt about that (and this isn’t a criticism of the owners by the way - far from it), but when you average out the money spent over the number of players signed, we’ve had to find bargains which was always going to be risky. We signed 12 players in one summer, with an average fee of about £10-12m. We’ve only just about built the foundations of a premier league quality squad. 

We are about where we should be for the squad we currently have. We’d all like to be doing better than we are, but I thought the general consensus on here in terms of expectation was basically 17th? We’re one point away from that as it stands, so I don’t understand the level of criticism being chucked at pretty much anybody and everybody on the playing and coaching staff. 

We were pretty decent for 15 games and probably didn’t get the results we deserved. Now form/confidence has taken a bit of a hit and the last few games have been poor, but we’ve got the chance now to give the squad a lift with an injection of quality and if we do, I honestly think we’ll be fine. It’s too soon to be chucking all the good stuff that’s gone on at this club for the past 12 months away and trying to start again. 

If we finish the season 1 point below 17th, where we are now......we are toast.

forget the league position its crap......its fight and conviction we need in every remaining game.

Do you honestly think Chris Wilder would struggle with £10-12 m  per player.?

because Wilders pre requiste of Workrate - organisation & Conviction would help players settle in to a fighting unit, that all play for each other for a common cause.

Thats what Saunders did blended a bunch of modest signings in to a fighting unit.....with the backdrop of Liverpool, Arsenal and the likes with the bigger purses.

His mantra was workrate which if applied correctly can negate a certain level of talent.

I fear we are missing a trick.

ps I also fear Dean has left it too late to bark on about Workrate....should have been addressed months ago.

Edited December 31, 2019 by TRO

[TRO]

33 minutes ago, tinker said:

Yea good idea ..... lets forget he's improved us.more than any other team in the top two divisions over the last 18 months, a whole league up and 3 rd from the bottom, completely rebuilt the team having lost the top striker in the division and arguably the division above and also lost one of the best CB I have seen at the villa.

Lets forget all that and concentrate on the last 3 games . ........we would be almost as stupid as the thugs down the road.......clowns 

Have you seen our depressing stats, forget the last 3 thats just highlighted it more and deeper.....we have had shortfalls of sorts for some time.

its like winning the lottery......and then pissing it all up the wall.

This league had a strong leaning towards physicality and athleticism as well as talent.we have shown to be short on both.

Dean has not shown an appreciation for it and I fear it will be his undoing.....maybe he is just learning the reality.

 

 

[TRO]

I am not advocating Deans sacking, but i think the possible new recruits, should give us an indication of the lessons he has learnt from this league and what the demands are.

I will watch with baited breath, but I am not convinced, he has learnt the crucial lessons....hope he proves my doubts wrong.

 

[TRO]

1 hour ago, Villastine said:

Our target last year was promotion, he succeeded when it looked unlikely. 

If the Board back him in the transfer market I believe he can keep us up

Only if he has recognised our issues and brings players in to deal with those issues....if he pursues a similar path of signing many passive players, with no idea of how to stop the opposition from playing as a pre requisite.....i fear for him,and us.