Ratings & Reactions: Watford v Villa

[VillaFaninLondon]

7 minutes ago, skell said:

What makes you think he squandered the money!  I suspect Smith bought Konsa. Mings. El Ghazi and Suso definitely initiated wesley, marvelous, Luiz and Engels. 

Smith also wanted maupay and benrahema. If all the above is true why blame Smith?

I don't know who wanted who, I blame Suso too, but Smith was singing Suso's praises in pre-season. It's not just Smith, it's the whole coaching staff who are failing because our team doesn't look fit enough, strong enough defensively, technical etc. But Smith is organising the team on matchday and responsible for the tactics, which are quite frankly awful every game. So even if you excuse him for the signings, and we don't know who to blame for which ones, you still cannot defend him for the performances of the team on matchday.

 

 

[Blasterpocket68]

40 minutes ago, Graham t said:

You are wrong. Another couple of performances like recent ones at Villa Park and he will get 'murdered 'by the crowd. He will walk away if he has any pride at all ( and fearing his own personal safety ), very sad as he is a decent man way out of his depth. Fat Sam please, you don't have to like him but he is our only hope to stay up.

This has been coming for weeks , it wont be long before the crowd start calling for his head unfortunately .

[ozvillain]

1 hour ago, Paul33 said:

Oh wow ..... what have I just watched ? The most pathetic and inept performance of the decade just before it finishes ?

I have a good mate who is a Blades fan and he keeps telling me their manager wouldn't touch more than 2 or 3 of the Villa squad ....... equally, he doubts Smith would touch more than 2 or 3 of their squad but look at the league table and the respective league positions !

I don't think Smith is a bad manager - inexperienced yes - but the mistake he and his management team have made is to load Villa with inexperienced, lightweight players with little or no experience at this level. I think he knows it and desperate moves like playing Lansbury who was crap even in the Championship suggests he knows we go nowhere with lightweight flare players who don't like it up 'em !

My fear in January is that his team will bring in yet more overseas players with decent CVs but with no experience in this league and who will need 4-6 weeks minimum just to adjust to it ..... by which time we'll be truly adrift. What we need in an ideal world is 5-6 proven Brits from either the Premier League or Championship. Players with talent but players who will graft, players who will track back, players who can handle the pace, players who can bounce off the knocks without rolling around like girls and, above all else, players who will play for the badge on the front of the shirt ..... not the name on the back.

I could moan about the ludicrously crass decision to play our lynch-pin playmaker on the left touchline for sixty minutes but, whatever the formation, turds do not polish well and our current squad is littered with more of the brown stuff than my local park.

We are in big trouble now and January's signings have to be as 100% right as they were 100% wrong in the summer ...... I'm rapidly losing confidence !
 

My biggest concern in the summer was the lack of PL experience and it is showing, a couple of experienced heads could have made all the difference. I know he left on awful terms but how much did Everton pay for Delph? I would have taken him in a heartbeat...We should have pushed more to keep Tuanzabe and actually signed a striker. I love Smith and it's sad but he's not turning this around. This league is brutal and it destroys promising managers who can't cope with the pressure when things get tough and I am afraid that is what is happening to Smith. We can't afford to let the club go down with him....once that pressure really kicks in, there's a one in a million manager who can get his players to turn it round. We talk about the players having no fight, and no cohesion but don't underestimate how much that has to do with psychology, intense pressure week in week out, if you've never experienced things going horribly wrong, you don't know how you will cope with it and a lot of players will crumble, not want to play, start to hate the game...it doesn't matter how much you are paid players will never perform well if that mindset kicks in. And that is why PL experience for both players and manager  is so valuable. It's not just the physical side of it it's the mental pressure of being in a losing side when you are physically under the kosh being able to cope with it and fight....and bizarrely out of all our players, given his background, I would have thought Wesley would have been the one most able to deal with it, but then maybe he is simply not good enough.

 

Edited December 28, 2019 by ozvillain

[skell]

16 minutes ago, TRO said:

who paid 14 mill for targett?

Targets not a bad player. Not great but not bad. Buying unproven players from foreign leagues seems to be the problem 

[TRO]

I wanted it to work for Dean and still do.....Do I think it will, No?.....I would imagine the whispers at B6 is the confidence in him is evaporating , not just the results, the performances too.

My wife who is a season ticket holder too, kept saying to me but what has he done at Brentford, have they ever finished in the top 6 ....Brentford are just Moneyball, who develop players to sell, you can't get a blend of complete team doing that... like Bob Lord did at Burnley all those years ago....until they changed it.

To finish in the top 6 of any league, you have to have attacking and defending prowess one is no good without the other....Liverpool for all their eye candy have great defensive skills all through the team.

Dean has never convinced me, he has a full handle on the defensive side of the game and wants to attack at all costs, very noble if you have aspirations for mid table of the championship, where there is no pressure.

I have watched all the games under him and while it has been a delight at times......the dark underlying ability to grind a result out is missing, he doesn't sign the players who can do it....if we do sign one it's begrudging.

It doesn't end with just Dean.....The captain of the world club championship team, has trouble playing for his national team......some managers just can't get the balance right....Wenger was the same flawed in his defensive views and forsaked it in pursuit of expansive football.

They all laughed initially at Ron Saunders with his 110% workrate,all the purists sooned changed tune.... much like Wilder does it today......I know how crucial workrate, desire and aggression is.......we are seeing the worst examples of it now.

 

Edited December 28, 2019 by TRO

[Vive_La_Villa]

That was really bad. Don’t really get why Grealish got motm considering how many times he gave the ball away. 

[skell]

13 minutes ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

I don't know who wanted who, I blame Suso too, but Smith was singing Suso's praises in pre-season. It's not just Smith, it's the whole coaching staff who are failing because our team doesn't look fit enough, strong enough defensively, technical etc. But Smith is organising the team on matchday and responsible for the tactics, which are quite frankly awful every game. So even if you excuse him for the signings, and we don't know who to blame for which ones, you still cannot defend him for the performances of the team on matchday.

 

 

I get the point you are making but delph instead of nakamba, Cahill for Engels, anyone for wesley and it would have been so so different. The point you make about not being strong enough or technical enough is down to the signings not the coaching.

I completely accept that performances haven't been good enough and Smith of course bears responsibility but the question is could another.manger do better.  For me I would stick with Smith this season and next regardless. 

[Spoony]

2 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

That was really bad. Don’t really get why Grealish got motm considering how many times he gave the ball away. 

I think other players brought Grealish down to their level today. He really tried, but then became frustrated and lost his shit. He’s far too good for this shit heap of a club. 

[onmeedson]

The Wesley situation says it all for me, Why would any other player put a shift in when a stand out problem is not addressed, if your not dropped when you are failing why bother. Ron Saunders was all about discipline, he even kept on his key players backs to let them know who was boss. Watford had pearson we had smith no contest.

[Vive_La_Villa]

5 minutes ago, Spoony said:

I think other players brought Grealish down to their level today. He really tried, but then became frustrated and lost his shit. He’s far too good for this shit heap of a club. 

He may well be but that’s bullshit. He cost us today. 

[ozvillain]

1 minute ago, onmeedson said:

The Wesley situation says it all for me, Why would any other player put a shift in when a stand out problem is not addressed, if your not dropped when you are failing why bother. Ron Saunders was all about discipline, he even kept on his key players backs to let them know who was boss. Watford had pearson we had smith no contest.

yep, players talk to each other, they see JK on the bench...

[maqroll]

I don't want to go through another slog in the Championship.

Relegation form and getting worse with half the season gone.

A loss next time out and he needs to be replaced. Sad, as I really thought Smith was the right guy.

[Robbie09]

Just back from yet another gutless away performance.

Time to be ruthless, Smith is way out of his depth.

Smith out

[Robbie09]

2 hours ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

Poor stuff. 

But think it's time to get in reinforcements and just work work work. Talking about a new manager now is just silly.  Deano needs time. 

 

He doesn’t. He needs his P45

[peterms]

1 hour ago, HanoiVillan said:

Think Dignitas would be more appropriate.

But Jolyon Maugham in his wife's kimono, with his baseball bat, would be more spectacular.

[TRO]

17 minutes ago, maqroll said:

I don't want to go through another slog in the Championship.

Relegation form and getting worse with half the season gone.

A loss next time out and he needs to be replaced. Sad, as I really thought Smith was the right guy.

didn't most of us.

[tinker]

31 minutes ago, skell said:

Targets not a bad player. Not great but not bad. Buying unproven players from foreign leagues seems to be the problem 

In isolation they could be good players and will leave us and probable flourish, the Premier league and Europe is littered with ex villa rejects who have turned out to be not so bad after all. But when they were all stuck in at the deep end under the pressure a club of villa's stature brings it normally end In poor performances. 

Douglas, Wes and Trez have promise but the Premier League is no place for promise, its either hard work and a strong heart or pure talent. How many of our players have any experience of Premier league football? 2

[pacbuddies]

I want to wake up in the morning to the news that Smith has been sacked. Another relegation is more than I can cope with!

[Darth Villa]

Smith was known for going on a series of winning or losing runs at Brentford and for conceding a lot of goals. 

That trend has followed him to Villa Park.  Watford showed fight and desire as did Southampton. Troy Deeney knew he could be pivatol today because he simply wanted it more.

Since we lost to Leicester our head's drop too easily and something feel's wrong. Smith either gets us on winning run now or he has to go. It's not rocket science, neither is it an overreaction, it's just what needs to happen.

[Tom13]

Heaton 21 votes for MOTM? He had a shocker on that first goal.