Dean Smith

[markavfc40]

4 hours ago, TRO said:

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....

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.

I am not being funny mate but is is hardly a shock is it that team struggling has deficiencies. You say you expected this season to be a struggle, it turns out to be a struggle and now you seem a little put out that we have certain problems in our game. You are right we concede too many as we struggle defensively and to retain possession. Watford don't score enough and I guess their supporters could give you reasons why. Likewise Bournemouth. Norwich don't score many and concede loads. West Ham like us always look good for a goal but concede too many. It is exactly what you'd expect from teams struggling they either concede too many, don't score many or both.

I am no more concerned now than I was at the start of the season. In fact I am thankful that as I had hoped we are making a real fist of staying up and 25 games in find ourselves it seems in with 5 other sides trying to keep ourselves above two of them and at the moment achieving it. I'd have taken that at the start of the season and obviously have expected that being in that position would mean we'd have struggled in certain parts of our game.

As for us going down if it happens I'll cross that bridge if we come to it but I already know we'll be in a stronger position financially than had we have stayed down and squad wise, despite obviously losing 3 or 4 of our best players, will still have solid foundations of a squad to build on to compete for promotion. That discussion is hopefully one we won't need to have though if we can maintain what we have done over the last 25 games.

Edited February 2, 2020 by markavfc40

[nick76]

5 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

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.

but we can score, out of the bottom 12 teams only Arsenal have scored as many goals as us in the league and that's with Wes as a striker who a large portion of fans on this website have not been fans of.  So now we have Samatta and Davis, and if we can create chances, this team can score goals, we just have to stop conceding them.

[terrytini]

58 minutes ago, TRO said:

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.

 

Where we maybe differ is I think we doing about Par, and don’t feel we are different to many others.

We may have different strengths, and different weaknesses, but overall, little difference, and considering where we came from that’s ok by me....(.I also happen to believe our emphasis on scoring goals will pay off). 

You know, had we been significantly better in the area we are discussing we might have had 2, maybe even 3 more Wins, or a Couple and a couple extra draws.

Thatd put us top half. I just don’t personally feel I’ve any right to expect top half from a Club that was mid table Championship a year ago.
Par for the course for me is a Point per game. That’s what I hoped for, it’s what I think we need, it’s what we’ve got.

So whilst I don’t disagree on the point - which would be rich of me anyway as I just raised it ! - it doesn’t lead me to the same fears and conclusions.

Lets hope my confidence is more justified than your fears !

[terrytini]

24 minutes ago, nick76 said:

but we can score, out of the bottom 12 teams only Arsenal have scored as many goals as us in the league and that's with Wes as a striker who a large portion of fans on this website have not been fans of.  So now we have Samatta and Davis, and if we can create chances, this team can score goals, we just have to stop conceding them.

For me this is the crux of it.

Were we poor in all areas we’d be rock bottom.
Were we much better defensively but just as good offensively we’d be top half ! Was never likely in my view.

[jacketspuds]

If we do get relegated I'd be much more confident in Smith getting us back up quickly. The squad is so much better than the one that went down last time. I don't see a point in swapping managers and I can't think of who we could / would go for.

Smith has done a very good job in the last 12 months and deserves to stay on.

[screwdriver]

In the press conferences after the games Smith was on the edge of a nervous breakdown when we lost against Watford. The latest defeats he's more nonchalant.

Purslow must have told him he's secure. I just hope purslow is as trustworthy as he looks.

 

 

[GingerCollins29]

I would happily keep deano if we go doen, which we won't, so deano will stay

[ThunderPower_14]

I'd prefer Smith to stay regardless. Staying in this league is incredibly difficult and we're showing some signs, we just need to continue to gel. The team will get better and better at defending as they get used to playing together. We'll keep bringing in good players. I'm not convinced we'll go down. We're not even currently in the bottom 3, and we've just brought in a genuine striker who looks like he'll make us much more potent going forward overall.

[screwdriver]

If we need a new manager bounce in April I wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger.

[Daweii]

5 minutes ago, screwdriver said:

If we need a new manager bounce in April I wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger.

I can't remember the last time Villa had a "new manager bounce" it largely seems to be a phenomena that happens to other teams.

I'm all for a change of personnel if it improves us, but a change of personnel in the hopes of a bounce that may or may not come? Massive, massive risk.   

[Tomaszk]

55 minutes ago, jacketspuds said:

If we do get relegated I'd be much more confident in Smith getting us back up quickly. The squad is so much better than the one that went down last time. I don't see a point in swapping managers and I can't think of who we could / would go for.

Smith has done a very good job in the last 12 months and deserves to stay on.

We won't be sacking him I don't think. It'd have to be a grim end to the season for them to now decide to twist having stuck through a right bad patch.

He needs to be more flexible to improve I think. Things could unravel incredibly quickly if we suddenly look lost because Jack Grealish isn't there to look after everyone.

[Kuwabatake Sanjuro]

46 minutes ago, Daweii said:

I can't remember the last time Villa had a "new manager bounce" it largely seems to be a phenomena that happens to other teams.

I'm all for a change of personnel if it improves us, but a change of personnel in the hopes of a bounce that may or may not come? Massive, massive risk.   

[Laughable Chimp]

1 hour ago, Daweii said:

I can't remember the last time Villa had a "new manager bounce" it largely seems to be a phenomena that happens to other teams.

I'm all for a change of personnel if it improves us, but a change of personnel in the hopes of a bounce that may or may not come? Massive, massive risk.   

I mean, depends on what do you define by new manager bounce. If you're looking at it whether the new manager improved compared to his predecessor for at least the season he came in, then obviously Smith improved over Bruce. Bruce improved over Di Matteo. Sherwood improved over Lambert(in fact it was purely the new manager bounce that kept us up that season). Garde was the only mid-season managerial change which I felt we didn't get better from.

 

Edited February 2, 2020 by Laughable Chimp

[KentVillan]

It is a complete myth that “Dean Smith’s teams have always leaked goals”. He improved Walsall’s defensive record when he arrived, and he improved Brentford’s defensive record when he arrived.

We are conceding a lot of goals this season because we are trying to go toe-to-toe with teams who are better than us. You can legitimately take issue with that if you think we’d be better off parking the bus more often, but the idea that Dean can’t coach a defence is nonsense.

[TRO]

2 hours ago, nick76 said:

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.

 

I agree with most of that nick.....but our offensive side is not good enough to out score teams.....good enough to win matches, because we score in most of our games.

thats why our defensive capability, is paramount.

I think we do have to have one eye on what happens after this season, in order to progress, we cannot keep courting relegation, like this.

[TRO]

1 hour ago, terrytini said:

Where we maybe differ is I think we doing about Par, and don’t feel we are different to many others.

We may have different strengths, and different weaknesses, but overall, little difference, and considering where we came from that’s ok by me....(.I also happen to believe our emphasis on scoring goals will pay off). 

You know, had we been significantly better in the area we are discussing we might have had 2, maybe even 3 more Wins, or a Couple and a couple extra draws.

Thatd put us top half. I just don’t personally feel I’ve any right to expect top half from a Club that was mid table Championship a year ago.
Par for the course for me is a Point per game. That’s what I hoped for, it’s what I think we need, it’s what we’ve got.

So whilst I don’t disagree on the point - which would be rich of me anyway as I just raised it ! - it doesn’t lead me to the same fears and conclusions.

Lets hope my confidence is more justified than your fears !

I agree with the last line.....but, if i am being brutally honest i was hoping we would prove to be harder to beat.....not top half like Sheff utd, that would be fanciful, but i thought we would hover around 14th/15th.

i also knew we would be inconsistent, but maybe less glaringly.

The Leicester games was a proper effort and to win over 2 legs against a 3 rd placed team was a real philip to the confidence......and then we go away full of confidence and are second to nearly every ball......thats the concern.

Without Jack, we would be below Norwich....thats the other worry.

[villalad21]

7 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

It is a complete myth that “Dean Smith’s teams have always leaked goals”. He improved Walsall’s defensive record when he arrived, and he improved Brentford’s defensive record when he arrived.

We are conceding a lot of goals this season because we are trying to go toe-to-toe with teams who are better than us. You can legitimately take issue with that if you think we’d be better off parking the bus more often, but the idea that Dean can’t coach a defence is nonsense.

It's not a myth.

He may have improved their record but they still conceded lots.

Defensively Brentford have improved a lot since he left. Only conceded 23 goals so far.

In Smith's last season with Brentford they conceded 52 which means they conceded over a goal a game.

[useless]

Our defence has been much improved of late, yesterday was the first time we'd conceded more than one goal since we conceded six to Man CIty, Man City and Fulham were the only teams in the whole of January to score more than one against us, and the Fulham game we were playing a second string side. Switching to three at the back has really helped us, I think yesterday was just one of those days.

[Laughable Chimp]

16 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

It is a complete myth that “Dean Smith’s teams have always leaked goals”. He improved Walsall’s defensive record when he arrived, and he improved Brentford’s defensive record when he arrived.

We are conceding a lot of goals this season because we are trying to go toe-to-toe with teams who are better than us. You can legitimately take issue with that if you think we’d be better off parking the bus more often, but the idea that Dean can’t coach a defence is nonsense.

This isn't true, for the Brentford part at least. 

Brentford conceded 59 goals in 46 games the season before he took charge at a rate of 1.3 goals conceded per game. The season he did take charge in, they conceded 24 goal in 17 games before he came in mid season. They would concede 41 goals in the remaining 29 games with Smith at the helm. Both come out to a rate of 1.4 goals conceded per game. 

None of it really matters tbh, but yeah I wouldn't really call that an improvement.

Edited February 2, 2020 by Laughable Chimp

[Adam2003]

2 minutes ago, TRO said:

I agree with the last line.....but, if i am being brutally honest i was hoping we would prove to be harder to beat.....not top half like Sheff utd, that would be fanciful, but i thought we would hover around 14th/15th.

i also knew we would be inconsistent, but maybe less glaringly.

The Leicester games was a proper effort and to win over 2 legs against a 3 rd placed team was a real philip to the confidence......and then we go away full of confidence and are second to nearly every ball......thats the concern.

Without Jack, we would be below Norwich....thats the other worry.

I hear you TRO but to be fair we are one point off 15th. It’s all very tight.

Agreed with the previous point that it’s odd that people (not you in particular) seem to have accepted we will struggle but also seem surprised and furious about weaknesses in our game. 

Your point about the difference between the Leicester game and being second to every ball against Bournemouth is totally fair and that is on Smith to manage - part of management is turning those peaks into sustained performance not falling off for a game or two after big moments.