Dean Smith

[MaVilla]

12 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.

Big credit for actually WORKING HARD AND TRYING?

Sorry but for me that a minimum expectation, since when do we pat players on the back for just grafting and working hard??????

The fact is we aren't doing even that more than half the time, just not acceptable.

Edited January 18, 2020 by MaVilla

[Genie]

Game came to us when Brighton sat back and tried to see out the win.

Funny because it’s the same small club mentality which we adopt when we find ourselves in front, with a similar outcome.
 

[HKP90]

Quote

1 minute ago, TRO said:

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!!!!!!!!

 

Yes it was a joke. 

 

 

 

 

 

[foreveryoung]

5 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

Yes it was a joke. 

 

 

 

 

 

We don't do jokes like that on here, especially after the frustration of an away game, it's called trolling.

[Skruff]

We more or less made wholesale changes to the squad last summer. Most of the new players in were both young and without or with  little Premier League experience. Even seasoned quality players struggled in their first season when they make the move to the Premier league, and thats in teams that's settled.

Add injuries to key players and that fact that we don't have a striker. I'd say we're doing quite well under the circumstances. 

 

 

[TRO]

19 minutes ago, avfcDJ said:

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

Is your name Alex?

that's my middle name, well speculated.

er, If you read my posts correctly.....I didn't back Bruce unconditionally, I backed him against what I thought was unfair criticism from certain fans I felt had a case against him...some of the criticism was just....some smacked of just being Steve Bruce. I have never met him, but my wife who is a season ticket holder and worked in a famous retail store has and said he and his wife were charming folk....and I happen to trust her judge of character.

you may recall or not.....that I was not a fan of his style of football , but recognised through gritted teeth the need to stop the hemorrhaging of goals, which  was paramount....that is still with us ,sadly.

You have to understand too, Dean is the step up from Steve Bruce, so the gig is more challenging to live up to....I hope you accept that.

We have dumped our cautious, uninspiring ,boring football  under Bruce for the free flowing, enterprising, swashbuckling style we all crave under Dean.

So where has it all gone wrong? or why has it not lived up to its headline?

15th/16th/17th would be fine for me......but we are struggling our nuts off to achieve, even that......but then there would still be a further building job in the summer, to save flirting with relegation.

but this is the crucial thing......many of the basics are not on display, in many of our games.....that is the claim of the critics......not champions league as you suggest....lets at least get some perspective here.

If He can bring players like Steven Nzonzi a warrior who can play......I might believe, we have learnt something.

Edited January 18, 2020 by TRO

[eholm]

After listening to his post match I/view, I hope he starts IV on Tuesday. He was quick to mention his tuning off the ball. That is what created the space for Jack as it pulled the CBs across. If Samatta isn’t signed in time I would defo start Vas....as a striker he has the instinct to mate those runs that a winger up top would not. IV starting is not about him scoring but prob more likely to create space for others to utilise as he did today. Go on Dean, have some balls mate

[AV82]

Smith has made some interesting comments regarding the outside centre halves stepping out and helping the midfield win the ball back, and to no surprise we were much more competitive in the second half when we managed to do that. We're definitely not playing the way Smith wants us to and I'm hoping as time goes on we'll look a lot more comfortable in this new formation. Add to that a new ST and CM and I think we'll be okay. 

[Danishlad]

22 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

Big credit for actually WORKING HARD AND TRYING?

Sorry but for me that a minimum expectation, since when do we pat players on the back for just grafting and working hard??????

The fact is we aren't doing even that more than half the time, just not acceptable.

I think he is getting the best out of the players. Grealish doing well, Mings doing well. Etc. The problem is the players are not too good, but they might improve.

Edited January 18, 2020 by Danishlad

[Tomaszk]

We're absolutely going down.

Dean has made many selection errors and doesn't know what he's doing with anything apart from 433 IMO. He's learning this system himself right now. Brighton today were his wet dream, that's what he wants to build.

The players given to him, Christ some are just honking. Wes, Trez, Nakamba, Konsa and Targett for around £65m. There's your problem.

Big Sam keep us up? You're having a laugh. Klopp with Pep as assistant wouldn't keep this lot up. They would however probably set everything up around Grealish to give him a chance to save us. What's the point of having him stood out on the wing? 

[AV82]

49 minutes ago, M_Afro said:

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?

I understand but we're six months into a season where the majority of our players are new, look like they haven't quite settled in yet and are struggling to find a pass. Of the 11 that started today only 4 were with us last year, 1 of whom was out of position (El Ghazi) and the other (Hause) brought in as backup. Yes we do look very poor at times but we're still in the mix, missing two of our best players and are adjusting to a new formation.

Edited January 18, 2020 by AV82

[foreveryoung]

6 minutes ago, Danishlad said:

I think he is getting the best out of the players. Grealish doing well, Mings doing well. Etc. The problem is the players are not too good, but they might improve.

Disagree! Most of the time they have no idea what they are supposed to be doing.  First half was terrible, all this Smith got it right second half, i'm very much doubting. Brighton stood off us and were happy with the 1-0, they let us play our game, whatever that is. 

Lets just say, if it wasn't for Grealish!

[Danishlad]

2 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Disagree! Most of the time they have no idea what they are supposed to be doing.  First half was terrible, all this Smith got it right second half, i'm very much doubting. Brighton stood off us and were happy with the 1-0, they let us play our game, whatever that is. 

Lets just say, if it wasn't for Grealish!

So your saying, First  half we were poor cause of Smith, but second half we did well but that had nothing to do with Smith. That dont make sense. In my opinion, the players are generally not Premier league quality. But we were decent today.

[DCJonah]

By all accounts, the pressing of Vassilev made a difference today  

Get in a decent striker who can do it at a much better level and let's see. 

I think Samatta will make a huge difference to our game. We've been held back far too often by Wes and now by not having a forward. 

I'm actually pretty confident Samatta makes a big difference to us

[Pimlico_Villa]

Not sure if this is the right thread, but who is responsible for the strength and conditioning work for the players? So many of the players we brought in lack physicality and that desperately needs to be improved.
 

Targett, for example, is overweight. We only have Mings and Grealish with PL level physiques. 

[TRO]

1 hour ago, HKP90 said:

Yes it was a joke. 

 

 

 

 

 

Apologies.

[rodders0223]

1 hour ago, Tomaszk said:

We're absolutely going down.

Dean has made many selection errors and doesn't know what he's doing with anything apart from 433 IMO. He's learning this system himself right now. Brighton today were his wet dream, that's what he wants to build.

The players given to him, Christ some are just honking. Wes, Trez, Nakamba, Konsa and Targett for around £65m. There's your problem.

Big Sam keep us up? You're having a laugh. Klopp with Pep as assistant wouldn't keep this lot up. They would however probably set everything up around Grealish to give him a chance to save us. What's the point of having him stood out on the wing? 

Sorry but he doesn't have a clue. Watford will be another pick and mix midfield. Probably Luiz back in. Probably Drinkwater back out. Probably Trez back out and God knows what.

He has managed this squad abysmally. Doesn't know if he is coming or going.

[TRO]

37 minutes ago, rodders0223 said:

Sorry but he doesn't have a clue. Watford will be another pick and mix midfield. Probably Luiz back in. Probably Drinkwater back out. Probably Trez back out and God knows what.

He has managed this squad abysmally. Doesn't know if he is coming or going.

Coming is much more fun, than going.

[markavfc40]

2 hours 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.

Smith sees exactly what we see. We know this as every time you see his after game press conference he describes the same game 99% of us have seen and picks out the same issues we all do. Him and his staff are obviously therefore working on these issues in training.

I'd agree that performances have arguably gotten worse as the season has gone on. This was my fear when we were playing well but not getting the results our performances deserved as that meant we were slipping down the league and as the season went on the pressure would mount. I do think with a squad with players with a lot of potential but lacking top flight experience with the pressure on they are struggling at times to do the basics and carry out what they are asked to do and I sense that Smith is as frustrated as we are by this. I also think we have lost important players which with the squad we have has impacted us more than it would others. McGinn, Mings, Heaton, Grealish and now Wesley have all missed a number of games.

@OutByEaster? also made a great point in the Brighton rating and reaction thread when he said the players we have are good enough to keep us up it's the players we haven't got who leave a big hole that may well take us down. We are 2 or 3 players short at the moment and I think if we can bring those players in, and that isn't on Smith, then we can survive this season. If we do that I'd be very hopeful we'd see a lot of these players, with this year behind them, really kick on.

Edited January 18, 2020 by markavfc40

[terrytini]

Agree as ever @markavfc40, except - a very small, and statistically insignificant point, but true nevertheless - is that although in some games since December our performances have been significantly worse since the start of the Season it is interesting that in the last 3 Away games (where we’ve played our best available side ( ie not Fulham)) we’ve beaten Burnley, and Drawn with Leicester and Brighton.

Prior to that wed only managed a Draw and 5 defeats in 6 games. So in that sense it could be said we’ve actually improved, Away from Home. It would certainly be significant if it stays that way with almost all our rivals still to come Away.