Dean Smith

[Dave-R]

5 hours ago, Philosopher said:

For me our lack of pace in midfield, our wastefulness out wide and the lack experience are our main weaknesses. Throw in the lack of a threatening striker and we were always there for the taking. We are tailor made for man city.

Smith should revert to 4.3.3 with Guilbert and hause as fullbacks, play a higher defensive line to squeeze the space in midfield and nullify the lack of pace issue in midfield and play two holding players make us harder to play through. Put Grealish in the middle where he can properly run the game. We need our wingers to stop easily giving away possession and finally we MUST sign a quality striker.

One thing the Pundit said yesterday and he was right us that our midfield today and for large parts of the season is ineffective, it isn't working and it's working against itself. He also said that it isn't helping the defence out one bit and something isn't right there.

We've all said it but the winger crap needs dropping or at least make the formation more compact. Players when to wide are not realising to shrink the formation back in at times when gaps are exposed. 

I don't care what anyone says that was a collective smashing and it was each and everyone of our players fault, it was coming, it's how they go from here that counts. They need to bring themselves back out of this defeat and pick it up and move as a collective and make this start happening somehow.

Id be tempted to hire some ex SAS soldiers and drill them in harsh conditions and get there minds working properly, because what's going on here is as much of a mental challange than it is physical. The SAS trainers can install that mindset into individuals, the stuff they do is amazing. 

Edited January 13, 2020 by Dave-R

[maqroll]

This is Aston Villa, we cannot get relegated again, full stop. Owners have to open the pursestrings right now, and maybe take on one or two unfavorable contracts to get the right players in. 

[Fairy In Boots]

if We lose vs Brighton would you sack him? 

[maqroll]

3 minutes ago, Fairy In Boots said:

if We lose vs Brighton would you sack him? 

No. 

[Fairy In Boots]

42 minutes ago, maqroll said:

No. 

No we have to make a decision, we’re a poorly run football club that lurches from disaster to disaster.   Our newrecruiting policy is now buy young with potential so value grows. 

With this in mind we need a good coach to get the best out of this, Dean is a nice guy but not this man. 

This is Sherwood and Paddy Reilly again. 

[KenjiOgiwara]

They are one of the best teams in the world. This wasn't remotely good enough from the players or Deano, but we have to stay some what rational on this. We are fielding championship quality players. They got a bench that would walk into most teams in the league, if not the world. 

[dudevillaisnice]

Losing to city is nothing to be ashamed of but the manner of how we did is.  Other teams pick up points when they really aren’t expected to - we hardly do and being honest we sometimes don’t pick up points when we should either (Southampton etc). Just not good enough really for this league.

[Delphinho123]

Watford will get out of it because they have enough premier league quality players in their squad and a manager firing them up. I think it will be between us, Bournemouth, Brighton, Burnley and Newcastle for the remaining 2 relegation spots. 

I think most on here are now coming to the realisation that the summer, whilst exciting, was fairly disastrous in terms of the quality of player we signed. 

We aren’t good enough for this league and what we lack in quality, we don’t make up for in fight. That’s my main concern. I think Burnley and Brighton will want it more. 

[Villarocker]

I think that quite a lot of people on here realised that, whilst the summer dealings were all exciting, we were signing players that were young, inexperienced and coming in from inferior foreign leagues. They were all a gamble. We had no other choice but to sign so many new players and then have to spend time getting them to gel together. Clearly, for whatever reason, this is taking longer than expected. 

Smith now finds himself in a similar situation whereby he's having to bring even more players in to bolster the squad that is now looking a bit threadbare. For me, the obvious thing he's looking for his experience - Drinkwater and Reina. However, he needs to add one or two quality players to complete Grealish at the other end of the pitch. 

My concern is what Smith said yesterday when quizzed about signings. He said that if he hasn't got a new striker before the next game then they simply have to just get on with it. His words seemed a bit despondent. 

Is it possible that we simply cannot afford to buy anyone and if a deal cannot be done we will have to go with what we've got already? 

[vreitti]

40 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

We aren’t good enough for this league and what we lack in quality, we don’t make up for in fight.

THIS. I think most of us knew the squad wasn't good enough, but I never thought we'd capitulate they way we've done. Whilst I'm not advocating sacking Smith (yet), I really have a hard time seeing how he's turning this around.

[New_Hope]

Tbh...what else is he meant to say regarding a striker?

We do have to get on with it!

[Rob182]

1 hour ago, Fairy In Boots said:

No we have to make a decision, we’re a poorly run football club that lurches from disaster to disaster.   Our newrecruiting policy is now buy young with potential so value grows. 

With this in mind we need a good coach to get the best out of this, Dean is a nice guy but not this man. 

This is Sherwood and Paddy Reilly again. 

Is this a sarcastic post?

You're not really comparing Tim "pashun" Sherwood, who had a handful of games overseeing Spurs and then a couple of seasons managing their youth team, to Dean Smith who has managed for years in the lower leagues, done well at Walsall, done well at Brentford, got us promoted against all odds and has shown that he's a good coach who improves players?

[Danishlad]

7 hours ago, Tomaszk said:

352 is the way to go for me, but I don't know what that was today, right mess.

I don't think Smith knows what to do with anything beyond 433 sadly.

However, you can play any formation you want and you'll lose with those effort levels....just unacceptable.

Miracle if we stay up.

343 or 3421 for me, get Jack in his naturel position. 

[Rob182]

9 hours ago, omariqy said:

Smith has made a lot of mistakes this season and I love the guy but today was bad again. I was expecting a loss but a bit more fight.

Guilbert was one of our best players and dropped. Hourihane can only play agains the likes of Norwich and Newcastle. He hides too much. Drinkwater first game back in a long time and here you go mate, mark the best player in the PL. 2 attackers only and no Trez who has bundles of energy. No Nakamba who yes is bad at passing but is our only midfielder who can tackle. Very poor today. Never mind the lack of strategy or in game cohesion today. 

I agree with all of this, except for the Nakamba/Drinkwater part. Nakamba has been really, really poor for a while now, so I think 90% of fans were suggesting before Sunday that Drinkwater and Luiz would be a half-decent CM partnership, with Drinkwater being able to do Nakamba's job but also retain possession more.

As I say, the rest, I agree with. Smith was to blame for yesterday's defeat, in my opinion. Setting out to defend for 90 minutes is as bad a plan as you can get. One team in a couple of seasons might manage to scrape a 0-0 in that way, but most teams will just buckle under the pressure, so we should have played to our strengths (Grealish) and replicated our set-up against Leicester.

[LondonLax]

1 hour ago, Fairy In Boots said:

No we have to make a decision, we’re a poorly run football club that lurches from disaster to disaster.   Our newrecruiting policy is now buy young with potential so value grows. 

With this in mind we need a good coach to get the best out of this, Dean is a nice guy but not this man. 

This is Sherwood and Paddy Reilly again. 

The bit in bold is exactly why we need to break the cycle of sacking our manager and starting again from scratch.

Time for a bit of planning and stability. 

[Danishlad]

The biggest dissapointment for me yesterday was that we set the team up so defensively and passively. We played in a similar way to that of Newcastle when they visited villa park and just parked the bus.

They didn't have any attacking intent, and we didn't yesterday. 

We don't look like a good defensive team unit  or a threatening counter attacking team.

Our team is an attacking one. Guildbert and Targett running forward. Jack, Trez and ElGhazi combining and dribbling. These our our strengths. We need to play to them. 

                              Goalie

               Konsa.   Mings.  Hause

    Guilbert.    Nakamba. Luiz.  Targett

              Trez.                    Grealish

                           El Ghazi

This is the best we can put out right now. 5 players with attacking intent. Instead of yesterdays two. 

 

 

 

[Nabby]

City's weakness is defence , it's why they are miles of Liverpool we should of stayed with the 3 in attack and gone at them  , instead we or Smith decided that adding a CM and staying tight was the better option ..I'm also concerned that he mentions often about speaking to players about their roles but on pitch it isn't working , too often it doesn't work.Too often it seems there is a lack of effort on pitch ,players have to be accountable but I think there is a deeper issue than the players.

 

[tomav84]

when you go up against a top quality opposition you need to beat them with workrate, aggression and intensity. we had none of that yesterday. i dont know how much the manager can influence that...once they cross the white line, it's largely down to the players. yesterday the midfield 3 made 4 tackles combined...you cannot legislate for that. i don't want to see luiz in a villa shirt again. conor has moments of magic but goes missing so i'm leaning towards feeling the same about him. drinkwater shouldn't have played as we all know but i do think he'll come good. i think we need to add CM to the shopping list this month

my concern is that luiz has some work permit reasons for playing every game...we talked about playing with 10 men when wesley is on the pitch, but at least he was up front out of the way. when you're missing a CM then you're totally ****

[floody555]

1 hour ago, Danishlad said:

The biggest dissapointment for me yesterday was that we set the team up so defensively and passively. We played in a similar way to that of Newcastle when they visited villa park and just parked the bus.

They didn't have any attacking intent, and we didn't yesterday. 

We don't look like a good defensive team unit  or a threatening counter attacking team.

Our team is an attacking one. Guildbert and Targett running forward. Jack, Trez and ElGhazi combining and dribbling. These our our strengths. We need to play to them. 

                              Goalie

               Konsa.   Mings.  Hause

    Guilbert.    Nakamba. Luiz.  Targett

              Trez.                    Grealish

                           El Ghazi

This is the best we can put out right now. 5 players with attacking intent. Instead of yesterdays two. 

 

 

 

Yep Should've been Guilbert for Elmo and Targett for Taylor. Completely agree. Not sure why he keeps dropping Guilbert I think he's really exciting to watch and by far a better RB or RWB than we've had for a long time.

[MikeMcKenna]

I fear yesterdays performance was more about a team who have lost heart, direction and possibly faith in the coaching staff. Morale and confidence must be through the floor. It is very hard to see how this is going to be turned round. 

Starting Drinkwater with so little game time and dropping Guilbert and Targett was irrational. We then parked the bus and left all the doors and windows open.

Edited January 13, 2020 by MikeMcKenna