Dean Smith

[Adam2003]

2 minutes ago, useless said:

It's easy to look at our fixtures see we have to face some strong opposition and come to the conclusion that we won't get many points and as a consequence will be in the relegation zone in a month, but then you can look at the fixtures of most our rivals and come to the same conclusion. In February Watford play Brighton away, Liverpool at home and then United away, so it won't be easy for them to overtake us, West Ham play Man CIty and Liverpool away and Southampton at home, Bournemouth play Sheffield United and Burnley away, then Chelsea at home, and Liverpool away.

Exactly - by definition every team down at the bottom is struggling so you would predict them (including us) to lose almost any game considered in isolation. So to simply decide we won’t pick up points but everyone else will is just stupid. ‘I am worried we will be relegated this season’ is a valid statement. ‘I am worried we will be in the relegation zone in a month’ is fine. But if you’re certain that ‘we will be in the relegation zone’, as some are, I suggest you make a ton of money betting on all these games you can so easily predict.

The teams below us are not lining up to overtake us. They are struggling as well. A point per game is what usually keeps you up and we are just about managing it. I think we can keep it up until May even with some tough games. 

[Adam2003]

Just now, Enda said:

Alright, let's put a bet on it. I think Villa will drop into the bottom 3 at some point before the end of the season. If we don't, I'll give £20 to VT.

I'll even offer you odds of 2/1, so you only have to give £10 if it does happen.

Or were you being pedantic and complaining about "in a month" as well?

You can throw around words like ‘pedantic’ all you like, but you made a factual statement - ‘we will be in the relegation zone in a month’.You can see the difference between that and ‘we might be in the relegation zone at some point this season?’ can’t you? You understand that’s not pedantry, that’s two different positions?

I’ll happily bet you £20 we don’t go down. Or I’ll bet you we aren’t in the bottom three one month today. Your choice. But I’ve never implied for one second we might not be in the bottom three at some point between now and May, it’s likely we will be because, as per my last post, that’s how relegation battles work. 

You’re the one who can predict the future though so I guess I’m throwing my money away either way

[Enda]

3 minutes ago, Adam2003 said:

You understand that’s not pedantry, that’s two different positions?

The irony 

I should have predicted you wouldn't put your money where your mouth is. Good luck, Adam.

[Adam2003]

1 minute ago, Enda said:

The irony 

I should have predicted you wouldn't put your money where your mouth is. Good luck, Adam.

I literally offered to bet on your exact prediction. The exact words you wrote. A statement you made as fact. Jesus wept.

I’m not going to bet on an arbitrary position you assigned me. That’s like arguing logic with a five year old.

Not sure there is any value in us continuing the conversation - have a good weekend!

[nick76]

4 minutes ago, Enda said:

The irony 

I should have predicted you wouldn't put your money where your mouth is. Good luck, Adam.

Nice that you are betting that we’ll be in a worse position than today.....need more like you!

[M_Afro]

2 hours ago, nick76 said:

Are you kidding?  Absolutely not to getting rid of Smith....that’s a bizarre comment.

Why’s it bizarre? Genuine question 

[nick76]

6 minutes ago, M_Afro said:

Why’s it bizarre? Genuine question 

We got promoted from nowhere last season.

We lost most of our squad so had to have a complete new squad for the PL

We started ok, then had a major blip but have turned it around with something like 3 wins, 2 draws and a loss until another loss today.  We didn’t have a back up striker and we didn’t have a striker for a few games until Samatta came in which wasn’t Smiths fault but Suso from what we can gather.

We are in a cup final and not in the bottom three after two thirds of the season.  Our realistic target this season was to avoid relegation and we are on target for that after being the worst team promoted last season.

Smith is doing a fantastic job, yes still learning and making mistakes but to replace him just seems absurd after what we have achieved and are achieving over the last 12 months.

This is where we were this time last season

 

[M_Afro]

3 minutes ago, nick76 said:

We got promoted from nowhere last season.

We lost most of our squad so had to have a complete new squad for the PL

We started ok, then had a major blip but have turned it around with something like 3 wins, 2 draws and a loss until another loss today.  We didn’t have a back up striker and we didn’t have a striker for a few games until Samatta came in which wasn’t Smiths fault but Suso from what we can gather.

We are in a cup final and not in the bottom three after two thirds of the season.  Our realistic target this season was to avoid relegation and we are on target for that after being the worst team promoted last season.

Smith is doing a fantastic job, yes still learning and making mistakes but to replace him just seems absurd after what we have achieved and are achieving over the last 12 months.

This is where we were this time last season

 

Thanks for making the effort to expand on your comments. Of course I agree with a lot of what you have said.

I think the cup final is a bit of a red herring. The only real tie we have had was against Leicester and to be fair they were very unlucky to lose.
 

I also feel that he just seems to lack a plan. He has been in charge for a fair period of time now and his team lack identity. I also have been screaming for three transfer windows now for us to sign a physical presence in the centre of midfield and a pacy wide forward. It is so clearly a weakness but Dean does not seem to see it.

I do think we will go down this season and it is annoying. We have let so many opportunities slip by not being ruthless. That had to start with the manager in my view. He sets the vision and then puts a plan in place to deliver it.

I have stated before that I never wanted Dean. I really like him. He is a great bloke. He is not a top manager. It seems pointless to me to invest a load of money in a team and then not do the same with the manager. I would though only consider replacing him if we can find someone significantly better. If we can’t then we should stick.

[nick76]

5 minutes ago, M_Afro said:

Thanks for making the effort to expand on your comments. Of course I agree with a lot of what you have said.

I think the cup final is a bit of a red herring. The only real tie we have had was against Leicester and to be fair they were very unlucky to lose.
 

I also feel that he just seems to lack a plan. He has been in charge for a fair period of time now and his team lack identity. I also have been screaming for three transfer windows now for us to sign a physical presence in the centre of midfield and a pacy wide forward. It is so clearly a weakness but Dean does not seem to see it.

I do think we will go down this season and it is annoying. We have let so many opportunities slip by not being ruthless. That had to start with the manager in my view. He sets the vision and then puts a plan in place to deliver it.

I have stated before that I never wanted Dean. I really like him. He is a great bloke. He is not a top manager. It seems pointless to me to invest a load of money in a team and then not do the same with the manager. I would though only consider replacing him if we can find someone significantly better. If we can’t then we should stick.

Thanks for your response, obviously I don’t agree but differing opinions helps make football so great.

Who would be a great manager in you eyes?  I’m genuinely interested.

I look down the table at teams and I don’t envy managers we could get enough to want to replace Smith.  Around us are the likes of Moyes, Pearson, Farke, Howe, Potter and Dyche...none of them.  Further up the table, the likes of Hasenhuttel, Bruce and Hodgson....again no!  Newbies in terms of Arteta and Lampard...well Smith did better than Lampard last season and Arteta is an unknown and then you get to the big boys who would never look at us like Klopp, Pep and Mourinho.  You could then look at managers that were/are out of work like Poch or Ancelotti who wouldn’t come to us....so genuinely who are these managers out there? Please don’t say Big Sam.

[Stevo985]

1 hour ago, Enda said:

The irony 

I should have predicted you wouldn't put your money where your mouth is. Good luck, Adam.

Not being funny, but he offered you a bet on the exact thing you said. 

You’re the one who moved the goalposts

[Keyblade]

51 minutes ago, nick76 said:

We got promoted from nowhere last season.

We lost most of our squad so had to have a complete new squad for the PL

We started ok, then had a major blip but have turned it around with something like 3 wins, 2 draws and a loss until another loss today.  We didn’t have a back up striker and we didn’t have a striker for a few games until Samatta came in which wasn’t Smiths fault but Suso from what we can gather.

We are in a cup final and not in the bottom three after two thirds of the season.  Our realistic target this season was to avoid relegation and we are on target for that after being the worst team promoted last season.

Smith is doing a fantastic job, yes still learning and making mistakes but to replace him just seems absurd after what we have achieved and are achieving over the last 12 months.

This is where we were this time last season

 

It's actually incredible that we finished above Boro.

[MaVilla]

the worst thing for me if im honest, is i cant figure out whats going wrong exactly.

I mean, i can state it generally, but i cant understand "the why" of it.

Being completely honest, i do think the players we have are good enough to stay up (even though im not sure we will), i would even say we potentially have some really good players if they continue to develop.

What i dont get is sometimes we look good, sometimes we dont, sometimes we work hard, sometimes we dont, its like jekyll and hyde to the nth degree, and i cant attribute one specific reason (or even 2 or 3), for the swings in performance.

 

Is it that the players arent mentally up for it?

Is it that Deano isnt demanding enough?

Why arent they working themselves in to the ground for the club? (and themselves), hard work is a minimum expectation, and a few dont seem to manage it even semi regularly?

Is it that the training week in/week out isnt actually right? (ie: we arent doing the right drills/practice or whatever?)

Is it that they just havent played together enough?

is it a fitness problem?

Why are we so easy to play through?

Why are we so passive? (basics??, arent we training this???)

is it that we have a fairly small/weak midfield that is impacting the overall performance?

Is it that some of our forwards are lazy, not pressing etc which is inviting pressure on the rest of the team that could be avoided?

Why arent we aggressive enough?

Why do we show that we can be aggressive (Leicester semi final 2nd leg), but then do the opposite next match?

The pressing seems all wrong, we press solo a lot, which is pointless, why arent we pressing in packs?, is this not being worked on in training?, or are they just not getting it?

Why cant 3 defenders mark one forward? (numerous times 1 forward gets lost between our 3 defenders) - basic stuff?

We have players who i believe are capable of "playing the ball" in a calm/possession tactic (grealish, Luiz, Targett, Mings, Konsa), why cant we string 3 passes together a lot of the time? (mentality?/panic?/lack of proper training?/confidence?)

Is it Deano's fault?

Is it the players fault?

Is it a mix of both??

 

As i say, honestly on paper (which ofc isnt reality), the players we have i reckon are good enough for mid table or the higher end of the bottom half, whether that belief is my "supporter bias" or "reality", im not sure, but still, im reasonably sure its true.....

 

So what on earth is going wrong?, its possible bits of all of the above?, but the annoyance i cant put my finger on it....

Edited February 1, 2020 by MaVilla

[VillanousOne]

Only criticism is Dean struggles to get the starting eleven up for every game and get them closing teams down and putting in tackles, we've shown we can do it but we can't seem to do it every game.

I don't think you can blame him for the ineptitude of our midfield and wingers/wide players, none of them are consistent. Drinkwater would make sense as a loan signing but he's played so little football and has so little match fitness that risking games just to get him fit doesn't seem worth it.

Grealish is also not very good on set pieces, but it seems no one else is either, we offer virtually no threat at all. Only player who scores goals and offers threat in midfield is Connor but he does very little else and seems to be completely out of favour now. This is one area I can't believe Dean hasn't sorted out. We could take 100 corners and never score.

Our squad is poor and the players we have bought are still finding their feet and getting used to the Premiership and each other, whether they will gel and find enough form to keep us up I don't know. We looked tired today after our cup exploits and Dean should have made some changes to the starting eleven but if he did and we lost people would be screaming for his blood.
 

Edited February 1, 2020 by VillanousOne

[MapleVilla]

After today's game I don't think we move or pass the ball quickly enough. Far to static at times. I feel like we're sticking with this formation, which is fine. But today it might have been good to switch it up when they went down to 10 men. I feel like a lot of teams know how we play and just nullify us. We should have dominated that midfield once Lemar got sent off, tiring Bournemouth out. They pressed us a lot and eventually got deeper and deeper but we don't dictate games at all. 

[Enda]

1 hour ago, Stevo985 said:

Not being funny, but he offered you a bet on the exact thing you said. 

You’re the one who moved the goalposts

I was using short-hand when I said we'd be in the relegation zone in a month. As in literally the next sentence mentioned our next "ten or so matches" being a tough run. So, despite having clarified this was obvious short-hand, yer man there went back to the focus on exactly one month... not that he was being pedantic or anything 

 

[Jas10]

1 hour ago, MapleVilla said:

After today's game I don't think we move or pass the ball quickly enough. Far to static at times. I feel like we're sticking with this formation, which is fine. But today it might have been good to switch it up when they went down to 10 men. I feel like a lot of teams know how we play and just nullify us. We should have dominated that midfield once Lemar got sent off, tiring Bournemouth out. They pressed us a lot and eventually got deeper and deeper but we don't dictate games at all. 

I agree with that and think the players are far too reliant on Jack to do everything. He needs some help and/or should try to encourage other players to start a move or play an incisive pass themselves. We really miss McGinn in that sense and the link up between Jack & Targett (a la Leicester) just wasn’t quite there this time. He shouldn’t be wandering around the whole pitch and picking up the ball from all over, it’s a bit embarrassing really that the others look to him so much, even if he is by far our best player. 

Watching the game today, it was clear that too many were tentative & nervous in possession, displaying a lack of ideas or creativity but it’s strange how different the performance was compared to the last 2 games. At times, we looked quite dynamic against Leicester (especially when Jack & Targett kept linking together) I guess we’re just a different beast at home and struggle to maintain or repeat performances.

Have we had 2 or 3 consecutive poor performances & losses? It seems we have 1 good game but can’t sustain it for the next match & then “go again”.

 I just wish we could hold onto possession better instead of just, again, relying on Jack to do it. He can’t do it all on his own.

Maybe the players were fatigued but we didn’t help ourselves. Hause really concerns me (ok, he’s good in the air but so poor with the ball at his feet) and I think we need to reintegrate Engels. Whether that means sticking to 3 at the back or going back to a 4-3-3 or 4-3-2-1 (maybe Jack & El Ghazi can support the striker together).

At least Samatta showed signs (including a goal) that he can be a very good CF for us and Davis made an impact off the bench, he battles well and can hold onto the ball.

Edited February 2, 2020 by Jas10

[Adam2003]

1 hour ago, Enda said:

I was using short-hand when I said we'd be in the relegation zone in a month. As in literally the next sentence mentioned our next "ten or so matches" being a tough run. So, despite having clarified this was obvious short-hand, yer man there went back to the focus on exactly one month... not that he was being pedantic or anything 

 

If I was being pedantic I’d point out you don’t seem to know what the word ‘shorthand’ means any more than you know what the word ‘pedantic’ means  However, I think this is getting silly. I actually did think when you said ‘we will be in the relegation zone in a month’ you thought we would be in the relegation zone in a month, so apologies if I misinterpreted that and didn’t apply whatever nuance from elsewhere in your post. But leaving that aside... I only ever meant to make a (probably not funny) joke about being able to see the future and us making money from it. I didn’t realise it would result in so many replies or, now that I tried stepping away, in you posting about me to other people. I don’t really post on here to be confrontational so would appreciate if we could just leave it. It sounds like we both think we will be in the relegation zone at some point this season and ultimately stay up, so there isn’t really much to argue about. Have a good weekend! Apologies that my initial joke upset you and let’s all hope the next few games prove us both wrong and Villa climb the table and never go near the relegation zone!

Edited February 2, 2020 by Adam2003

[Bugzy1991]

I know most of our players are shit,. But for a manager who got praised for his nice attacking possession based football, we sure do look utterly useless with the ball. 

We must have been the team that's played against 10 men the most this season. Need to be better.

Edited February 2, 2020 by Bugzy1991

[danceoftheshamen]

They were slating Smith earlier on the radio saying how when he brought Trez on he moved Grealish back tto a position where he became ineffective just at the time we had scored and were pressing for a second. They reckoned it was an appalling error, anyone there agree?

 

[Laughable Chimp]

1 hour ago, danceoftheshamen said:

They were slating Smith earlier on the radio saying how when he brought Trez on he moved Grealish back tto a position where he became ineffective just at the time we had scored and were pressing for a second. They reckoned it was an appalling error, anyone there agree?

 

I did feel Grealish's presence less after we scored so basically, yeah. Not necessarily sure its an appaling error, as I know some on this site have been calling for Dean to put Grealish down the middle like that. But it does kind of stink of desperation more than anything. Like Smith is just throwing shit at the wall, hoping to find something that finally works. Honestly, I feel the 3 at the back was the end result of something like that too, we were experimenting with our formation slightly even before the Burnley game but none of them worked. Doesn't feel like it was a really planned change imo.

Edited February 2, 2020 by Laughable Chimp