Dean Smith

[Sulberto21]

25 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

Give it to Grealish is plan A, B and C. 

Same tactics FC Barcelona employ with Messi.

[AV82]

Much improved second half. We need more of that along with a recognised striker.

[Condimentalist]

Just now, M_Afro said:

His time is up I’m afraid. He simply can’t get a coherent performance out of his players. Ok, we got a very important point today but what were our tactics? You can at least see what Brighton are trying to do but our lot.,......answers on a postcard please. He lacks courage, experience and ability.

Ps thanks for all you’ve done Deano. The play off final will live long in my memory as will the semi. Thanks for also being a thoroughly decent bloke full of dignity and humility. No room for sentiment here though I’m afraid.

WTF are you on about. It's Smith's tactical switch whic has given us  4 points in our last 3 games, one of which was against City and the other two of which were away. We also held Leicester at their place in the cup. 

That's without our first choice keeper, our best centre mid, or literally any forward.

It may not be pretty at the moment but we are keeping ourselves in the mix in the face of major adversity. 

It's on the board to help Smith out now.

[foreveryoung]

6 minutes ago, Danishlad said:

Nice point. Made changes and it worked. Well done.

Brighton settled for the point and let us play!!

[Danishlad]

2 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Brighton settled for the point and let us play!!

They only had two shots.

[markavfc40]

4 hours ago, TRO said:

Yeah, I accept that.

I think the inherited bit, is being a bit laboured, now....He has now had 3 windows....A manager has to take responsibility, like he took the plaudits rightfully for the promotion, not many calls then for inheriting a poor side....that's a cop out for me.

As you know Mark, I don't take kindly to changing managers at the drop of a hat......However,I do think the Dean Smith that came in, is different to the present day Dean Smith...that's just my opinion. The one who came in was bright, fresh, full of effervescence and idea's now its melancholy and nervous laughs to mask the pain....no animation from the sides, just a stoney reaction to events unfolding before him...The pro active Dean has been replaced by the damaged Re-active Dean.

I think the pressure is getting to him.

I sincerely hope you are right and I am wrong.

 

He has had 2 and a bit windows. If you seriously think that is anywhere near enough to right the wrongs of the past, whilst also stepping up a division, I don't know what to say to you to be honest. I also don't know how much responsibility Smith has for signings but that is a whole other debate entirely. Regardless of that though it was an unbelievably tough task to have to bring in the amount of players we needed over the summer and try to bring in enough quality to keep us up.

He is a man under pressure there is no doubt about that but that is hardly a surprise and we knew that like many of his players he was also taking a step up. I don't think a lack of experience at this level is costing him though as managers with far more experience at this level who have had far longer at their clubs in Howe and Dyce show experience guarantees nothing.

I am not happy with where we find ourselves but I am not in the least bit surprised. I knew this season would be really tough, I knew we'd be in and around the bottom three all season and I saw 17th as success. I still think we are well capable of staying up though. We have played our last 3 games without a centre forward and have managed to draw 2 of those games. I think a decent forward in this team, in the new formation and we can hopefully see more performances like we showed against Burnley a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully we can bring the 2 or 3 players in we desperately need but that isn't in Smiths hands and he desperately needs help from others at the club in that regard. 

Edited January 18, 2020 by markavfc40

[Danishlad]

I thought defensively we were sound. But we are definitely lacking confidence on the ball. But the tactics were ok.

Edited January 18, 2020 by Danishlad

[HKP90]

The Villa way:

1. Take a team languishing in the championship with an average age of around 30

2. Add new filthy rich owners with ambition. 

3. Add a young manager with promise with a record of possession football

4. Put a five year plan together to get into and establish yourself in the premier league

5. Get promoted at first time of asking

6. Get rid of old journeymen footballers on massive wages who can't play football. 

6. Inject a ton of money to replace all of the players we lost. Buy young unproven players which will hopefully do a job in the prem, but if not then will be good championship players.

7. Fans get frustrated in the first six months of being back in the prem. that we are not challenging for the champions league. 

8. Due to fan pressure, sack manager and bring in a clogger like Sam Allerdyce 

9.  Spunk a bunch more money on old journeymen on massive wages who can't play football, but can head and break knees.

10. Completely alter playing style to fit said cloggers

11. Get relegated anyway

12. Old journeymen get bored and dial it in.

13. First season in championship we finish 13th. Average age of team is now >29. Football is derisive. Sack clogger of manager who is now considered a 'dinosaur'.

14. Goto No. 1

 

This is why we will never be successful again.  Unless we completely ignore fan pressure. 

[M_Afro]

5 minutes ago, PatrickCousens said:

WTF are you on about. It's Smith's tactical switch whic has given us  4 points in our last 3 games, one of which was against City and the other two of which were away. We also held Leicester at their place in the cup. 

That's without our first choice keeper, our best centre mid, or literally any forward.

It may not be pretty at the moment but we are keeping ourselves in the mix in the face of major adversity. 

It's on the board to help Smith out now.

Admire your optimism and loyalty. What were his tactics today though. He changed the formation away at Burnley to something that many of us had wanted for a long time. The new formation, City match aside, has made us a bit more solid but what are his tactics? He does not seem to have a plan. We just go through the motions and hope for a bit of Grealish magic. 
It was the same last year. We were woeful when Jack was injured. Jack came back and we weren’t woeful anymore.

[foreveryoung]

3 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

He has had 2 and a bit windows. If you seriously think that is anywhere near enough to right the wrongs of the past, whilst also stepping up a division, I don't know what to say to you to be honest. I also don't know how much responsibility Smith has for signings but that is a whole other debate entirely. Regardless of that though it was an unbelievably tough task to have to bring in the amount of players we needed over the summer and try to bring in enough quality to keep us up.

He is a man under pressure there is no doubt about that but that is hardly a surprise and we knew that like many of his players he was also taking a step up. I don't think a lack of experience at this level is costing him though as managers with far more experience at this level who have had far longer at their clubs in Howe and Dyce show experience guarantees nothing.

I am not happy with where we find ourselves but I am not in the least bit surprised. I knew this season would be really tough, I knew we'd be in and around the bottom three all season and I saw 17th as success. I still think we are well capable of staying up though. We have played our last 3 games without a centre forward and have managed to draw 2 of those games. I think a decent forward in this team, in the new formation and we can hopefully see more performances like we showed against Burnley a coupe of weeks ago. Hopefully we can bring the 2 or 3 players in we desperately need but that isn't in Smiths hands and he desperately needs help from others at the club in that regard. 

It's hard work totally agree. Smith with his inexperience wasn't really the man to take us forward from the start though was he. We needed a top manager (or the best we could get), knowing it was always going to be too difficult for an inexperienced manager, the board should really have seen this coming, I certainly did.

Like in the Championship it's shown yet again today, Grealish is going to be the saviour of Villa not Smith.

[AV82]

2 minutes ago, M_Afro said:

Admire your optimism and loyalty. What were his tactics today though. He changed the formation away at Burnley to something that many of us had wanted for a long time. The new formation, City match aside, has made us a bit more solid but what are his tactics? He does not seem to have a plan. We just go through the motions and hope for a bit of Grealish magic. 
It was the same last year. We were woeful when Jack was injured. Jack came back and we weren’t woeful anymore.

Would you like to suggest some 'tactiks' when 2 of your front 3 consists of an out of position El Ghazi and a struggling Trezeguet?

[foreveryoung]

4 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

The Villa way:

1. Take a team languishing in the championship with an average age of around 30

2. Add new filthy rich owners with ambition. 

3. Add a young manager with promise with a record of possession football

4. Put a five year plan together to get into and establish yourself in the premier league

5. Get promoted at first time of asking

6. Get rid of old journeymen footballers on massive wages who can't play football. 

6. Inject a ton of money to replace all of the players we lost. Buy young unproven players which will hopefully do a job in the prem, but if not then will be good championship players.

7. Fans get frustrated in the first six months of being back in the prem. that we are not challenging for the champions league. 

8. Due to fan pressure, sack manager and bring in a clogger like Sam Allerdyce 

9.  Spunk a bunch more money on old journeymen on massive wages who can't play football, but can head and break knees.

10. Completely alter playing style to fit said cloggers

11. Get relegated anyway

12. Old journeymen get bored and dial it in.

13. First season in championship we finish 13th. Average age of team is now >29. Football is derisive. Sack clogger of manager who is now considered a 'dinosaur'.

14. Goto No. 1

 

This is why we will never be successful again.  Unless we completely ignore fan pressure. 

Load of bollocks chap!!!

Most of us are happy just to survive, an it's not looking good even for that.

An where is this possession football you talk of????

[foreveryoung]

16 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

Same tactics FC Barcelona employ with Messi.

Errrrrrr? If you think Barcelona are all about Messi, you don't really watch alot of football do you??

[M_Afro]

3 minutes ago, AV82 said:

Would you like to suggest some 'tactiks' when 2 of your front 3 consists of an out of position El Ghazi and a struggling Trezeguet?

I would like to think that I would be able to see a discernible pattern of play that had been coached into the players all week. Is that too much to ask?

[TRO]

3 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

He has had 2 and a bit windows. If you seriously think that is anywhere near enough to right the wrongs of the past, whilst also stepping up a division, I don't know what to say to you to be honest. I also don't know how much responsibility Smith has for signings but that is a whole other debate entirely. Regardless of that though it was an unbelievably tough task to have to bring in the amount of players we needed over the summer and try to bring in enough quality to keep us up.

He is a man under pressure there is no doubt about that but that is hardly a surprise and we knew that like many of his players he was also taking a step up. I don't think a lack of experience at this level is costing him though as managers with far more experience at this level who have had far longer at their clubs in Howe and Dyce show experience guarantees nothing.

I am not happy with where we find ourselves but I am not in the least bit surprised. I knew this season would be really tough, I knew we'd be in and around the bottom three all season and I saw 17th as success. I still think we are well capable of staying up though. We have played our last 3 games without a centre forward and have managed to draw 2 of those games. I think a decent forward in this team, in the new formation and we can hopefully see more performances like we showed against Burnley a coupe of weeks ago. Hopefully we can bring the 2 or 3 players in we desperately need but that isn't in Smiths hands and he desperately needs help from others at the club in that regard. 

can't disagree with that.

But here's my thing.

I knew like you, it would be difficult, what I didn't expect to see as the season progressed, is the team struggle with the basic ingredients required of a football player at this level.....first touch, vision, aerial dominance, and ability to get touch tight, running off the ball etc.etc

I was expecting to see incremental improvement in some of these players as a mirror of the work at BMH.....The only player for me that looks incrementally better is Ironically our best player, why, my guess, he works and works and works at his game...He wants to get better and it shows in bucket loads.

I was a close friend for some time of an ex Villa star, so I have a reason to be biased, I used to be in Brian Littles company regularly and John Gidman.......but Jack Grealish is the most influential player I have ever seen play for us....He stands alongside Paul McGrath for me and I don't say that too lightly.

I hope we sign the right players to be effective for us....but I equally have to say the Manager of Head coach has to speak out if the players are not right for us.....I don't want a puppet, who is just grateful for the 4 year contract.....If the players being offered are not right, he needs to tell them in no uncertain terms.

Where we find ourselves in the league is tough on us all, but some things like above are not acceptable......players need to work harder and he needs to drive them to do so.....The players don't need to like him, just respect him...i have my doubts.

We cannot guarantee good results......what we can guarantee is a damn commitment to eradicate, some of the basic errors and flaws in our game, in some games more than others.

I see things in players, I have seen all season, you can't tell me they are working on some of these things, if they are, they are simply not good enough and the manager has to be responsible for that too.

[Bunnski]

Big credit to him for the second half performance, we need to see more of that and in fairness bar the City game he's got us battling lately so hopefully with a bit more quality up front and a couple of changes to the line up we can improve.

[Dodgyknees]

6 minutes ago, TRO said:

can't disagree with that.

But here's my thing.

I knew like you, it would be difficult, what I didn't expect to see as the season progressed, is the team struggle with the basic ingredients required of a football player at this level.....first touch, vision, aerial dominance, and ability to get touch tight, running off the ball etc.etc

I was expecting to see incremental improvement in some of these players as a mirror of the work at BMH.....The only player for me that looks incrementally better is Ironically our best player, why, my guess, he works and works and works at his game...He wants to get better and it shows in bucket loads.

I was a close friend for some time of an ex Villa star, so I have a reason to be biased, I used to be in Brian Littles company regularly and John Gidman.......but Jack Grealish is the most influential player I have ever seen play for us....He stands alongside Paul McGrath for me and I don't say that too lightly.

I hope we sign the right players to be effective for us....but I equally have to say the Manager of Head coach has to speak out if the players are not right for us.....I don't want a puppet, who is just grateful for the 4 year contract.....If the players being offered are not right, he needs to tell them in no uncertain terms.

Where we find ourselves in the league is tough on us all, but some things like above are not acceptable......players need to work harder and he needs to drive them to do so.....The players don't need to like him, just respect him...i have my doubts.

We cannot guarantee good results......what we can guarantee is a damn commitment to eradicate, some of the basic errors and flaws in our game, in some games more than others.

I see things in players, I have seen all season, you can't tell me they are working on some of these things, if they are, they are simply not good enough and the manager has to be responsible for that too.

So weird how you backed Bruce and blamed everything but, yet Smith gets no excuses. 

Is your name Alex?

[TRO]

19 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

The Villa way:

1. Take a team languishing in the championship with an average age of around 30

2. Add new filthy rich owners with ambition. 

3. Add a young manager with promise with a record of possession football

4. Put a five year plan together to get into and establish yourself in the premier league

5. Get promoted at first time of asking

6. Get rid of old journeymen footballers on massive wages who can't play football. 

6. Inject a ton of money to replace all of the players we lost. Buy young unproven players which will hopefully do a job in the prem, but if not then will be good championship players.

7. Fans get frustrated in the first six months of being back in the prem. that we are not challenging for the champions league. 

8. Due to fan pressure, sack manager and bring in a clogger like Sam Allerdyce 

9.  Spunk a bunch more money on old journeymen on massive wages who can't play football, but can head and break knees.

10. Completely alter playing style to fit said cloggers

11. Get relegated anyway

12. Old journeymen get bored and dial it in.

13. First season in championship we finish 13th. Average age of team is now >29. Football is derisive. Sack clogger of manager who is now considered a 'dinosaur'.

14. Goto No. 1

 

This is why we will never be successful again.  Unless we completely ignore fan pressure. 

I got to 7. and realised it was a hoax

You are clearly not listening to the concerns.....I know of not one of the 42,000, that was expecting  us to be anywhere, near challenging for Champions league.....pure Hyperbole.

9. Are you telling me heading the ball and winning territorial advantage is not important to create sorties and who has suggested breaking knees, this is a joke of course?

Balderdash!!!!!!!!

[Danishlad]

31 minutes ago, Bunnski said:

Big credit to him for the second half performance, we need to see more of that and in fairness bar the City game he's got us battling lately so hopefully with a bit more quality up front and a couple of changes to the line up we can improve.

Spot on Bunski. 2-1 v Burnley, 1-1 Leicester, 1-1- Brighton. All away from home too. Fair play to Deano. The squad is very green. And in fairness so is Smith. So credit where it is due.

Edited January 18, 2020 by Danishlad

[VillanousOne]

we badly miss having a striker on the field, dare i say we miss Wes even if he had his bad points. Tres and Ghazi were so easily pushed off the ball all game against Brighton.