The Official Dean Smith Thread | Page 203 | Vital Football

The Official Dean Smith Thread

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In this break its time for NSWE to take stock. The questions I would be asking .

With our investment in the team why are we in the position we are. ?

Unlucky with injuries but that happens at many clubs, it goes back to poor recruiting, Suso and Deano must take responsibility for this.

Is there a Villa style of play and why are our players so inconsistent ?

Our style has been defend and build from the back , one in attack, this can work in some games. But we’ve been like this most of the season , Wesley and now Samatta have been very isolated.
As for the consistency this is very poor, when certain players , we know who they are so no need to name, play a good game one week you know they will hardly touch the ball next week or make errors, out the team for a few weeks, back in , good game , poor game repeat..... why haven’t our coaches and all the badges they have sorted this out.

Do we stick with Smith and co .

Think every Villa fan wants to see Smith succeed but we cannot have the level of performance‘s and results continue.
Do NSWE give Suso and Smith funds to correct ..... after this season that must be a no.
If season (when?) is over I would be thinking that NSWE need to look beyond Suso and Smith, if the right manager (no idea who) came in and we were able to keep our star players a few good additions and a harder working better coached team could see us become a far better team and make us live in a far better position in the EPL.

Oh for a crystal ball ..... over to you NSWE.
 
"Merd" said:
Before we judge Dean Smith write down how many schoolboy errors our team has made and how many points it has cost us.

Not trying to defend his mistakes (whatever we can actually pin on him personally), but no manager can mitigate howlers made by players. By my reckoning there are several points that rest squarely with individual players which would have taken us out of the relegation zone.

I just don't know whether another manager, with this group of players, would have got more or less points (and we can never know the answer). Luckily for me, that is the owners conundrum to solve.
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Even without the errors we have not been playing well enough to give us confidence in staying up and the other teams have missed many chances to score as well so even without the errors if they were to take those chances we would have been the same or worse.

Moreover, in the game vs Leicester even without the Reina error we still would have lost just like some other games where even without the errors we would have still lost. If Dean is given credit for the promotion which he does not deserve as we know it was due to Jack without whom or whose contribution we would still be in the championship, similarly, Dean should be criticised for the errors made by the team as he is in charge.

We cannot give him credit for the promotion and forgive him for the mistakes made by players if we end up getting relegated. Just don't think that is fair as in both cases he is the manager.
 
mike_field said:
People were having this conversation when we were in the realms of 15th, Smith just isn't a big enough name for some and we should apparently be top 10 by entitlement.


Irrelevant as it misses the point we had to replace half a squad that weren't good enough last year and few players settle in 12 months at new club/let alone new language/new country. Spend is irrelevant over the last two years - Smith has only only been in charge for 3 windows.

And these below-average players are the ones some decided should have us top ten.

Books are balanced on FFP, I've already given my thoughts that after January's dealings - given players naturally out of contract next summer - I don't believe we actually have to sell a single player to balance in first year back in the Champ...if that's actually what happens, as survival is still in our hands.


Fair question, but DS has always been attack first, defend last - and as we know, we've been one of the harder hit on the VAR front. We can improve clearly, but again how many of our current crop of defence (you'd have to say Targett only and he's always been more attack minded as well) have PL experience?

It doesn't come over night and no amount of Terry talk prepares you for that half a second difference.

If I was the owner I'd have been thrilled (all things considered) with survival by goal difference, rectifying the FFP problems and worst case, now having a core of players to take us forward who had experienced how tough the PL was, but got 12 months under their belts for us to take the Champ seriously instead of fluking it like we did last year.
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I rarely read or heard anyone saying that we should be in the top 10 and to expect anything more than staying up would be unrealistic considering our new squad playing in the toughest league in the world with maybe one or two players with barely any prem experience.

However, seeing how the team and individual players have been doing since the season started it is becoming obvious that we are regressing.

Dean smith is certainly attack minded but we have not seen any of that from us as a team under him. We are not up to scratch in any part of the team. As for how many of ours in defence have prem league experience, Sheff Utd play 3 in defence, out of which 2 have zero prem experience, and 1 has only a 2 game experience, if i am not wrong, yet they are at the right end of the table !

Lastly, even with our current set of players I am certain we will struggle in the championship despite their prem league and previous championship experience, because Jack our only creative player, who we have to thank for the last promotion, will have been gone and our team despite reaching the end of the prem league season and having Dean smith as " head coach" still cannot pass the ball to create, nor defend !
 
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mike_field said:
Post game interviews make me laugh - and I occasionally cover them.

There's no way X manager says in front of a camera what he said in the dressing room, but fans feel it's their right to judge him right/wrong based on what was said publicly.
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How else would you judge a manager who says we were defensively well organized in a 4 nil hammering which could have been worse !?
 
We’ve got progressively worse and I can’t see any excuse for that. I well remember us saying after the early round of matches of the season that we haven’t been outclassed by any team despite not getting our due return. Then we started to blame Wesley, then criticising SJM for being less effective in games. Then a merry go round of selection, Smith not knowing his best team. Culminating in defensive shambles from corners, apathetic displays from all bar Jack until the last match when even he hadn’t the heart for the fight.
Dean might be able to build a bit of belief for the first ten minutes of a game until we are either outclassed or outfought. If Dean now feels he should have had more interest or say in the incomings then too late, that moment has passed.
I loved his attacking philosophy and much prefer to see that than trying to play on the counter attack. But I’m afraid good players make good teams, quality or brave players, and you can count ours on the fingers of one hand, poor poor buying and his coaching hasn’t been able to counter that.
 
Eddy1 said:
In this break its time for NSWE to take stock. The questions I would be asking .

With our investment in the team why are we in the position we are. ?
...
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No need to read further. The investment, considering where we were coming from, was enough to give us a fighting chance of staying up, no more. Which is where we are.
 
Personally it's been a wonderful break so far, I dont need to try to find what side of the fence I sit on.
 
Bikini Inspector said:
Happy Birthday Dean, thanks to coronavirus you're going to keep your job.
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not sure the virus has much to do with him keeping his job and if i was in charge id have fucked him off months ago when we still had a chance of staying up i think we will go down and start next season with smith as manager but he will be sacked after the first 10 games when we are just as shit as we are now
we was very lucky to go up last season and we wont get as lucky next time as its a long tough season in that league and we dont have players up for the fight
 
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