Dean Smith

[M_Afro]

3 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Still can't get my head around us being joint worst defensive side in the league.

47 goals conceded. Same amount as Norwich. It's frightening.

This was always my worry with Smith looking at his previous defensive records.

Even with 5 at the back we are still conceding goals. Even if we somehow manage to stay up Smith has to go in the summer imo.

 

Can’t believe I am about to say this but.................I agree (subject to us finding somebody better to take over)!

I need a lie down!!!!!!!!!!

[mikeyp102]

16 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Still can't get my head around us being joint worst defensive side in the league.

This was always my worry with Smith looking at his previous defensive records.

So you always worried about our defence, but now that it has lived up to your expectations you can’t get your head around it? I can’t get my head around that 

[Kingman]

No team has scored more than us outside of the top 8 and only 3 teams have scored more than us outside of the top 4. 

Swap Hause for Engels in the middle with Konsa and Mings either side, then go 2 up top with Samatta and Davis with Jack floating in a free role behind. 

Fixed. 

[TRO]

15 hours ago, nick76 said:

Do people realise we aren’t in the bottom three?

Who knows what happens in the future but we aren’t in the bottom three with two thirds of the season gone...that’s great news.  We all said that avoiding relegation was our target, we are currently on target for that because we aren’t in the bottom three.

Yes we have hard games coming up, we had a poor day together but it’s still in our hands.  Some people have given up already when we are not even in the bottom three.  
 

Heads up, bad day at the office.....plenty of time left!

Positive post nick, nothing wrong with that......but the reality is if we go down, it will set us back years....and lose our best players.....personally, i don't see us bouncing straight back up.

It wasn't a bad day at the office, it was typical of so many of our away games, we are simply too slow to the ball, just one of our shortfalls, amongst many.

I am happy to share all the positive posts, but the reality lies in our play.

Defensively, we will find it very difficult to stay in this league.

Edited February 2, 2020 by TRO

[Delphinho123]

14 minutes ago, Kingman said:

No team has scored more than us outside of the top 8 and only 3 teams have scored more than us outside of the top 4. 

Swap Hause for Engels in the middle with Konsa and Mings either side, then go 2 up top with Samatta and Davis with Jack floating in a free role behind. 

Fixed. 

Whilst I think this is perhaps too attacking and ambitious, I don’t rate El Ghazi or Trezeguet at all and think we need to accommodate Davis. 

Personally, for all the pretty football Smith likes playing, there is an argument we need to be more direct. Get it up to Davis quick and build from there. We’re not good enough in central midfield to dictate the play so may be best to just bypass them! 

[markavfc40]

14 hours ago, Enda said:

Fair, but we'll be in the relegation zone in a month. The next ten or so matches is very difficult. Today was massive.

I expect we'll dip in and hopefully out of the relegation places a number of times over the next 3 months just as we have all season. It is what I and I think a lot of us expected to happen this season. We have though spent way more time out of the bottom 3 than in it and have kept ourselves above or in touch with another 5 sides and two thirds of the way through the season have still given ourselves a decent chance of staying up.

It looks like being 3 from 6 to go down or if you consider Norwich have probably gone 2 from 5 and we are one of those 5 not one of the 2 as things stand. I'd have taken that at the start of the season and then like now I'd bite your hand off for 17th.

[Graham t]

27 minutes ago, Kingman said:

No team has scored more than us outside of the top 8 and only 3 teams have scored more than us outside of the top 4. 

Swap Hause for Engels in the middle with Konsa and Mings either side, then go 2 up top with Samatta and Davis with Jack floating in a free role behind. 

Fixed. 

Agree with this wholeheartedly but Smith won't do this. He never see's the obvious.....

[terrytini]

I remain of the view that many of the issues people raise in criticism of the Coach are applicable, at different times, to half the sides in the League.

Whilst that doesn’t mean they don’t matter, I can’t get overly agitated about them.

I do feel, however, that our too frequent lack of combativeness ( slow starts to games/halves, not making the midfield a tough battleground for opponents, winning second balls) has to be down to the Coach to correct.

Its disappointing, to say the least, that he doesn’t appear to be able to do this with any consistency.

 

[supermon]

I know it's been raised before but the amount of shots on goal we concede each game is alarming. Suggests we always are under pressure. Our midfield is our weak point, just don't think we've got a good DM in the team. Need some defensively sound but also has the ability to play forward, make good passes. Nakamba and Luiz just aren't those players.

[bobzy]

25 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Whilst I think this is perhaps too attacking and ambitious, I don’t rate El Ghazi or Trezeguet at all and think we need to accommodate Davis. 

Personally, for all the pretty football Smith likes playing, there is an argument we need to be more direct. Get it up to Davis quick and build from there. We’re not good enough in central midfield to dictate the play so may be best to just bypass them! 

2 up top works for me.  Grealish can be the more attacking of a midfield three - at the moment, Luiz, Nakamba and Grealish.  Maintain the 3 centre backs and 2 wing backs.  I have nothing against El Ghazi or Trezeguet as I don't think they're bad players, but they don't offer enough for an entire game and having Grealish wide is, for me, a little bit of a waste (even though he's good enough).

[nick76]

36 minutes ago, TRO said:

Positive post nick, nothing wrong with that......but the reality is if we go down, it will set us back years....and lose our best players.....personally, i don't see us bouncing straight back up.

It wasn't a bad day at the office, it was typical of so many of our away games, we are simply too slow to the ball, just one of our shortfalls, amongst many.

I am happy to share all the positive posts, but the reality lies in our play.

Defensively, we will find it very difficult to stay in this league.

Again we are not in the bottom three though after all you have said.  After all that we are still better than three other teams after 25 games, does that not mean anything.  The players who started the season now have half a season more experience and we’ve just had some half decent results.  
 

We have a hard run coming up but so do our competitors, look at West Hams next two months....they have Man City and Liverpool next up for starters.  I agree with a lot of what you have said but the teams around us are saying the same thing about their own teams.

Who knows!  I’m still on the positive side despite our problems as I think our competitors just have more problems.

[Brentfordnylons]

13 hours 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

 

Christ don’t get me excited we have 5 more points after 30 games 

[TRO]

5 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Again we are not in the bottom three though after all you have said.  After all that we are still better than three other teams after 25 games, does that not mean anything.  The players who started the season now have half a season more experience and we’ve just had some half decent results.  
 

We have a hard run coming up but so do our competitors, look at West Hams next two months....they have Man City and Liverpool next up for starters.  I agree with a lot of what you have said but the teams around us are saying the same thing about their own teams.

Who knows!  I’m still on the positive side despite our problems as I think our competitors just have more problems.

If the league finished yesterday, I would agree, but it doesn't....and the consequences of going down is far reaching.

Right back to the very first game of the season, I had reservations about our defensive capability, offensively, I was not so concerned, we manage to score in most games, we struggle to keep out the opposition, that is not just the back line, its the whole team.

Despite signing many players, I don't see it changing......I hear the arguments of time and gelling.....I simply don't see it.

I hope you are right the others have more problems, but I am not convinced, even if we stay up, that we will be free of the relegation zone, next season.

you simply cannot play as open and naively as we do and expect to stay in this league.

[Dave-R]

We really need a win now, it's still tight but there is now a sign that the gap is going to start getting bigger. Twelfth down at the moment and relegation is on still that's like eight teams in it, can't remember the last time a season was like this, it's a tough season and were involved in this season's tough league.

Somehow our lads have to muster the extra in them to help bring the team back on top at the end of games. We can survive and we can do this. If Smith could solve some of the defensive problems then it would solve some of our losses.

 

I still say Smith needs to drop the wingers, it's not happening and it's causing us more damage than harm. If we dropped the wingers where we can't seem to cross and score from anyway then we'd have extra men in the middle, we are so light down the middle that pulling an extra two men back into the middle could be all we need to secure victory on nights where we are leaking goals. A 4-5-1 or 3-5-2 I'd like to see us play, but still reckon 4-3-2-1 Is the way to go, we need to be tighter more compact in the center. Our defenders need to stop putting so much work on the keeper and just go get the ball instead of not taking on the man and backing off inside the box, they need to force that back out to the midfield, we give the opposition way to much space.

[TRO]

56 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

I expect we'll dip in and hopefully out of the relegation places a number of times over the next 3 months just as we have all season. It is what I and I think a lot of us expected to happen this season. We have though spent way more time out of the bottom 3 than in it and have kept ourselves above or in touch with another 5 sides and two thirds of the way through the season have still given ourselves a decent chance of staying up.

It looks like being 3 from 6 to go down or if you consider Norwich have probably gone 2 from 5 and we are one of those 5 not one of the 2 as things stand. I'd have taken that at the start of the season and then like now I'd bite your hand off for 17th.

I think we would all bite your hand off for 17th, right now.

I had reservations right from day one, about our defensive capability and I am talking about the whole team, not just the back line and after 25 games, i still see the same issues in many games, mainly, away from Home.

our goals against and our away record, would render anyone being grateful for 17th

The fact remains Mark, we have a massive challenge with those stats, that we belong in this league.

The cup final is very noble and a great day out for our fan base, but we have serious fundamental issues in our play, for a plethora of reasons and as a result of those issues, it wil be touch and go, whether we stay up.

we undoubtedly have highs and lows, but for me the lows are too low.

I hope we find a way of staying  in this league, because the alternatives don't bare thinking about......some may think its ok to go down......I don't.

[TRO]

9 minutes ago, Dave-R said:

We really need a win now, it's still tight but there is now a sign that the gap is going to start getting bigger. Twelfth down at the moment and relegation is on still that's like eight teams in it, can't remember the last time a season was like this, it's a tough season and were involved in this season's tough league.

Somehow our lads have to muster the extra in them to help bring the team back on top at the end of games. We can survive and we can do this. If Smith could solve some of the defensive problems then it would solve some of our losses.

 

I still say Smith needs to drop the wingers, it's not happening and it's causing us more damage than harm. If we dropped the wingers where we can't seem to cross and score from anyway then we'd have extra men in the middle, we are so light down the middle that pulling an extra two men back into the middle could be all we need to secure victory on nights where we are leaking goals. A 4-5-1 or 3-5-2 I'd like to see us play, but still reckon 4-3-2-1 Is the way to go, we need to be tighter more compact in the center. Our defenders need to stop putting so much work on the keeper and just go get the ball instead of not taking on the man and backing off inside the box, they need to force that back out to the midfield, we give the opposition way to much space.

I think you are very close to the problem...

I knew this season would be tough, but I don't think it had to be quite this tough.

[TRO]

56 minutes ago, terrytini said:

I remain of the view that many of the issues people raise in criticism of the Coach are applicable, at different times, to half the sides in the League.

Whilst that doesn’t mean they don’t matter, I can’t get overly agitated about them.

I do feel, however, that our too frequent lack of combativeness ( slow starts to games/halves, not making the midfield a tough battleground for opponents, winning second balls) has to be down to the Coach to correct.

Its disappointing, to say the least, that he doesn’t appear to be able to do this with any consistency.

 

The thing is Terry, those issues are Paramount.

After 25 games, I am not sure, it will change......I thought we had these issues in the championship at times and I thought he would address them a bit better than we have.

We are also so slow to second balls and our ability to concede easily is worrying.

 I am not convinced it will change soon, I just hope we secure, enough points to avoid the abyss.

but I am convinced, if we don!t find a cohesive plan for making ourselves difficult to beat, we won't progress.If the view that we can out shoot our opponents, is  the alternative, I think we are done.

 

[GodsBarkeep]

Would love to see an eye roll reaction emoji added to the options 

Edited February 2, 2020 by GodsBarkeep

[villalad21]

35 minutes ago, TRO said:

After 25 games, I am not sure, it will change

No it won't change.

Dean's teams have always leaked goals. Main concern yesterday is apart from some half chances we didn't look like scoring.

Can't remember their keeper having to make a lot of saves.

[nick76]

47 minutes ago, TRO said:

If the league finished yesterday, I would agree, but it doesn't....and the consequences of going down is far reaching.

Right back to the very first game of the season, I had reservations about our defensive capability, offensively, I was not so concerned, we manage to score in most games, we struggle to keep out the opposition, that is not just the back line, its the whole team.

Despite signing many players, I don't see it changing......I hear the arguments of time and gelling.....I simply don't see it.

I hope you are right the others have more problems, but I am not convinced, even if we stay up, that we will be free of the relegation zone, next season.

you simply cannot play as open and naively as we do and expect to stay in this league.

Next season is next season, who knows what will happen in the summer regarding signings.  We'll have more of a platform to acquire better players if we choose to, we may even lose one or two.

Our ability to concede goals is shocking this season.  I'm still not totally convinced about Hause and Konsa, they are young and have potential but are making some big blunders.  I really thought Ming's and Engels formed a good partnership for a few games then that stopped happening.  Our ability to concede headed goals is bizarre given some big dudes in there.  Our midfield hasnt helped either in the defensive side, just seems that the opposition walk through and our defence is left exposed.  So I see all our faults, I really do.

I hope our ability to score, the great talent that Jack is and hopefully McGinn will be back by the beginning of April, which will feel like a new signing.  He was struggling with form just before his injury, then his injury has been a blow but maybe we'll see the old McGinn back that we saw at the start of the season to help us with the run in where we will have Palace, West Ham and Everton that are winnable games.  I'm impressed so far with Samatta.....everybody knows I'm not a big fan of Davis but maybe him and Samatta up front maybe something and looked good partnership when he came on yesterday.  Having two strikers, now three to choose from is a big lift rather than just relying on Wes.

Whatever it's going to be tight until the end of the season.  Villa always surprise me, from looking like losing to Watford yet winning, beating Leicester over two legs and then an easy loss to Bournemouth.