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Dean Smith


Demitri_C

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2 minutes ago, sne said:

Having both Hourihane and a rusty as can be Drinkwater in midfield in a game against City where we knew we would be chasing shadows for 90 minutes was a odd and as predictable poor choice.

I get that Drinky needs time on the pitch but it was almost cruel. 

City has too much class for us either way but this certainly wasn't helping us.

It really makes no difference who we have starting, when we've got no gameplan. It's difficult for sure to match them regardless, I'm just really disappointed with DS because we seem to be giving up without a fight.

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Brentford have the best defence in the championship this year and the best goal difference, when Smith was there it was a different story. We let in so many soft goals and that doesn't look like stopping.

 

I don't dislike him but his team's are too easy to play against and yesterday's performance was pathetic. When grealish looked dangerous he got fouled by a city player, when de bruyne looked dangerous we stood off him rather than fouling him. We are too soft and it's not just the likes of man city that are taking advantage, Watford destroyed us a few weeks ago because they were fired up while we just looked shell shocked for the whole game.

 

Playing Drinkwater stunk of desperation to me, to rely on him while taking into account how his career has gone the last few years was crazy. I don't see how things are going to improve as it currently stands and if we stay up I'll be amazed.

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4 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

It also horribly isolated our best player, the only player we have who can live with a team like Man City

I don’t think the formation isolated him. He always looks isolated against the better teams because they know how to do that whatever shape we play. The only way to avoid that with the current squad is to play him very deep, and then Smith would be criticised for playing him too deep.

What Jack really needs is better attacking talent around him, so that teams can’t afford to double up on him.

Instead he had Neil Taylor, playing arguably the most important position in a wingback system, standing in acres of space unmarked because City knew it was actually a good thing for them if he received the ball in space. It was heartbreaking to watch. Taylor must know he’s been identified as the weakest link in an already fairly weak chain. He’s like an old dog who needs to be taken out the back and quietly put out of its misery.

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7 minutes ago, lapal_fan said:

I mean, I'd agree with you that we would have probably lost no matter what formation we played, but the 352/532 formation yesterday just meant we had no midfield, no out ball from our wing backs and Man City could overload us in midfield against 3, not-very-quick midfield players.  

It certainly didn't help us, and that is on Dean Smith. 

I agree, Smith is to blame. We have a terrible squad no question, but he isn't helping himself at the moment. I really wan't to believe he can turn this around, but I struggle.

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I think we could have witnessed Smith using the surrender tactic to maneuver  the board to get their wallets out.

Probably/possibly Smith wasn;t happy about the Drinkwater signing. He gave a coded message with the hungry eyes interveiw.  ie he said danny want a fat word removed.  (he's not wrong)

Then Drinkwater is thrown in at the deep end looking lbs overweight and breathing through his ring piece. Villa get battered in a game we were expected to get nothing from, but didn't show anywhere near the desire we did against liverpool. Smith looked pretty relaxed in the after game interview in comparrison the watford game he looked really stressed. Then he goes on about the squad costing less than Man City's front 3 even tho Sheffield united could of said the same when they spanked us at brammel! Then this morning we wake up to Grealish stirring up waters on social media.

It's possible Smith is screaming at the board for extra cash. and using Grealish too.

 

Is Smith clever enough for such a daring manlipulation of the board using the media and the star player?

We all know he's good at BSing the fans (grealish's injury last year, McGinn playing through injury, Davis etc)

This would be next level stuff if he pulls this off.

 

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1 hour ago, bannedfromHandV said:

We seem to be regressing under Smith, whilst Brentford seem to have worryingly improved since he left.

Mainly because Brentford have managed to tighten up their defense since he left. Smith's main weak point.

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15 hours ago, terrytini said:

Indeed, we weren’t offensive either. 
At least not in one sense..

we just couldn't get the ball Terry......to mount an attack.....jack usually picks up deep balls, but he was too far away.

The midfield was non-existent....They couldn't even rustle up nuisance value.

Edited by TRO
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Dean Smith clearly knows what the central problem is by his remarks in an interview quote " As good a team as Man City are, if you're not making physical contact with them, you're going to get punished"....He said " we contributed to our own downfall"   ....he also talks about flimsy challenges.

what I want to know is what are the club doing about it.

our midfield is soft and lightweight.....Luiz-Nakamba-Hourihane-Lansbury.....Drinkwater, we will wait and see.

McGinn has had his finger in the dam, along with Jack for too long......There is no steel in the middle, no player with an appetite for combat. ( maybe Nakamba, but no first touch or ball control)

This has been an issue for years not months.....some of us on here have made ourselves unpopular, stating these very facts.....Now the manager admits it too.

BIG burning question, what are we going to do about it?

 

Edited by TRO
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My main concern is that I don't see the new players that come in, get noticeably better.

I accept it takes time.....but some incremental improvement, even if its only certain attributes....but I don't see it.

Another possible issue

Is Dean just having to put up with whoever has been signed as fait accompli.

 

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1 hour ago, villan-scott said:

A lot of Villa fans summed up in one tweet. Let’s show a bit of faith. Still plenty to play for. 

Wow, even teamtalk fell for that fake tweet. Christ.

Edited by lexicon
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13 minutes ago, TRO said:

My main concern is that I don't see the new players that come in, get noticeably better.

I accept it takes time.....but some incremental improvement, even if its only certain attributes....but I don't see it.

Another possible issue

Is Dean just having to put up with whoever has been signed as fait accompli.

I get the impression that Dean would like to build the team around a solid core of British players who don't struggle with the language or settling into the culture, playing style, etc.

The club hierarchy seem to prefer looking for "value" signings overseas, but the problem is all those overseas players take longer to settle, and no doubt the language barrier is causing a few problems with tactical instructions (especially mid-game).

I (genuinely) don't think there's anything wrong individually with any of our signings, although I know others will disagree. I could see all of them doing a job at this level. But throw them all together as a team, and it all looks disjointed and flimsy. There's no sense of a "spine" to the time at the moment - and I mean that in both senses: the central spine of the formation, and the lack of backbone from our players.

In fairness, though, I think the number of first team players we have been forced to integrate into this team in a single season (it's around 7 new players in a typical matchday 11)  is unprecedented. I checked Fulham 18-19, Wolves 18-19, Man City 09-10, etc. (see the January transfers thread) and even they had more regular first team players starting for them when they went on their shopping sprees.

So Smith doesn't have much choice but to start players like Douglas Luiz at age 21, because McGinn has a broken ankle, and his alternative is Championship players like Hourihane or Lansbury. It's a horrible position to be in.

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56 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Mainly because Brentford have managed to tighten up their defense since he left. Smith's main weak point.

It was always our weakest point with DS at the helm, and he seemed very reluctant to change the system, but we spent nearly £35 million (an astronomical amount for us) in the summer on a GK, 3 defenders, one midfield and two forwards, I think we were able to purchased very wisely mainly due to the fact we made £45 million in sales, it has taken us a few months to gel, but is now all coming together and fitting in place, as we now have the best defensive record in the Championship.

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1 hour ago, Stevo985 said:

It also horribly isolated our best player, the only player we have who can live with a team like Man City

Yeah I was thinking it would be a good idea to play Grealish deeper as he is the most capable player of getting the ball and doing something with it (either carrying it forward or playing a pass) and then get Hourihane higher up the pitch as his biggest/only asset is shooting within 20 yards of the goal.  Then again I'm not really sure we had any way of balancing the team properly with the players available to us at the mo and we'd get stuffed whichever XI we put out. 

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1 hour ago, villalad21 said:

Mainly because Brentford have managed to tighten up their defense since he left. Smith's main weak point.

I’ve noted the manager continually getting it in the neck over the past few weeks concerning Villa’s defensive capabilities and maybe it’s warranted but what about John Terry?

Clearly Terry has been employed as defensive coach yet has mainly escaped criticism.

Smith is not noted for his defensive organisation hence why Terry was employed to help out so Terry must also be answerable to Villa’s present woes but you cannot blame either for player’s basic mistakes.

What is most worrying for me is Villa being far too easy to play through aside from the game against Leicester and particularly ball retention which at this moment in time is awful.

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30 minutes ago, jonjon said:

It was always our weakest point with DS at the helm, and he seemed very reluctant to change the system, but we spent nearly £35 million (an astronomical amount for us) in the summer on a GK, 3 defenders, one midfield and two forwards, I think we were able to purchased very wisely mainly due to the fact we made £45 million in sales, it has taken us a few months to gel, but is now all coming together and fitting in place, as we now have the best defensive record in the Championship.

I guess Hogan was part of that £45 mill?........thanks.

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I was disappointed with Smith yesterday as it was obvious before they scored their second that what system we were supposed to be playing was not working and he should have acted to change it. He didnt and they scored. They then scored another and another. Still no change.

No change at half time and he didnt change until the 5th went in.......................far to little to late.

Sorry Dean I expected better than that from you.

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2 hours ago, Bunnski said:

Brentford have the best defence in the championship this year and the best goal difference, when Smith was there it was a different story.

They also broke their wage structure for the first time in their history to sign Pontus Jansson over the summer. Incidentally Leeds had the 2nd best defence in the league last year when he played for them.

It does look like they’ve tightened up under Frank but it’s not quite as simple as it being solely because Smith left.

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12 minutes ago, striker said:

I’ve noted the manager continually getting it in the neck over the past few weeks concerning Villa’s defensive capabilities and maybe it’s warranted but what about John Terry?

Clearly Terry has been employed as defensive coach yet has mainly escaped criticism.

Smith is not noted for his defensive organisation hence why Terry was employed to help out so Terry must also be answerable to Villa’s present woes but you cannot blame either for player’s basic mistakes.

What is most worrying for me is Villa being far too easy to play through aside from the game against Leicester and particularly ball retention which at this moment in time is awful.

I think Dean was Centre back himself in his playing days.

However, I think it works like this.

Defence....John Terry

Midfield.....Dean Smith

Forwards....Richard O'Kelly

Goalkeeper.....Neil Cutler.

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