The Official Dean Smith Thread | Page 313 | Vital Football

The Official Dean Smith Thread

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Wicked Messenger said:
We climbed 8 places this season from 5th in Championship to 17th in PL. If you look at it that way, job done. Those that come up through the play offs usually go straight down.
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Yes, true. Strange seeing how good Norwich were last year and how woeful this year. And then you have Sheff Utd doing unbelievably well.

We have a platform now, hope to goodness the club take it, and that Smith is capable of really pushing on, we don't want upheaval during the season in my humble.
 
Just hope Villa now get on with getting some quality players in , keep our better players for a change and move the players on who just take up space, we have to improve.

Smith also has to improve our style next season, far too much passing it around the back and the lack of pace in our attack is painful to watch.

Pre season shouldn’t be so much about fitness, only three week break but more on shooting and crosses into the box, basic football skills which these players get paid very highly to do.
 
Eddy1 said:
Smith also has to improve our style next season, far too much passing it around the back and the lack of pace in our attack is painful to watch.

Pre season shouldn’t be so much about fitness, only three week break but more on shooting and crosses into the box, basic football skills which these players get paid very highly to do.
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Our attack isn't fit for purpose. The basic football skills should have been worked on during the season. I reckon it's more important to get those right than having players kick the hell out of each other in following the "train as you play" mantra.
 
Eddy1 said:
Just hope Villa now get on with getting some quality players in , keep our better players for a change and move the players on who just take up space, we have to improve.

Smith also has to improve our style next season, far too much passing it around the back and the lack of pace in our attack is painful to watch.

Pre season shouldn’t be so much about fitness, only three week break but more on shooting and crosses into the box, basic football skills which these players get paid very highly to do.
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Tempo is the biggest problem.

Lack of it without the ball to press and get it back; lack of with the ball to get at teams when they are out of shape and vulnerable.
 
crimsondonkey said:
Tempo is the biggest problem.

Lack of it without the ball to press and get it back; lack of with the ball to get at teams when they are out of shape and vulnerable.
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Yes,lack of pace and physicality. Anwar,Trez, Drinkwater,Jota and Connor. All decent players but how many nice players does a team need?
 
crimsondonkey said:
Tempo is the biggest problem.

Lack of it without the ball to press and get it back; lack of with the ball to get at teams when they are out of shape and vulnerable.
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Which is the one thing I did think we'd get with a Dean Smith side, (and for clarity, that isn't knocking or bitching) as that is what many have said he produces. However, fine, early days, maybe that will develop. To be fair, Jack at times breaks quickly, but he also does have a tendency to slow things down quite a bit as well.
 
southend_villan said:
If my memory serves me correctly Bruce, Di Matteo and Garde all had Grealish at their disposal too
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The problem there though is, he wasn’t the player then that he is now, or have I missed something.
I’m only stating the obvs, if jacks return had been delayed any longer I think our finishing position would've have been different.

And at the end of the day, if we start with Dean Smith we finish with him, because I see no use in swapping managers mid season, some believe Dean is the right man and that’s fair do’s, I just think we should/could have better, saying that if Dean becomes our fergie than that’s great, I just don’t see it.
 
Wurzel said:
Two or three quality signings around Jack and we would come alive. We are not that far off being decent. We are just so impotent in the final third, we need a poacher and some pace.
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Crucial month mate, maybe all will click. Trouble is, I fear the building will become re-building with people poaching a few players. I am not that bothered by most, I think that is me being a bit long in the tooth, a bit grumpy with the brain aches and the fact I didn't see what a lot of you did this season effort wise. BUT as you say, a few quality signings, and then it can lift other players. It could also lift the manager, who it looks likely will be getting his chance.

If there are to be exits, I hope they are done swiftly so Smith and whoever comes in to help, gets the right replacements. If we are ambitious though, no exit should be happening, the owners, ceo and manager have to assure those who want out, they don't need to go anywhere, that will take some quality signings to build things.

Can Smith attract that quality?

Hope so.

Still a big job at hand, still fear too big a job, but I'm not going to knock my head against a brick wall through the rest of the summer over this. Hope the platform is now given very solid foundations. Over to the men in charge, all of them, no space for them to hide next season.
 
The Fear said:
Crucial month mate, maybe all will click. Trouble is, I fear the building will become re-building with people poaching a few players. I am not that bothered by most, I think that is me being a bit long in the tooth, a bit grumpy with the brain aches and the fact I didn't see what a lot of you did this season effort wise. BUT as you say, a few quality signings, and then it can lift other players. It could also lift the manager, who it looks likely will be getting his chance.

If there are to be exits, I hope they are done swiftly so Smith and whoever comes in to help, gets the right replacements. If we are ambitious though, no exit should be happening, the owners, ceo and manager have to assure those who want out, they don't need to go anywhere, that will take some quality signings to build things.

Can Smith attract that quality?

Hope so.

Still a big job at hand, still fear too big a job, but I'm not going to knock my head against a brick wall through the rest of the summer over this. Hope the platform is now given very solid foundations. Over to the men in charge, all of them, no space for them to hide next season.
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Top quality players usually don't need time to click. Look at that goofy guy at manure, he took them from also rans to 3rd in the prem with classy performances from day 1.
 
The Fear said:
Crucial month mate, maybe all will click. Trouble is, I fear the building will become re-building with people poaching a few players. I am not that bothered by most, I think that is me being a bit long in the tooth, a bit grumpy with the brain aches and the fact I didn't see what a lot of you did this season effort wise. BUT as you say, a few quality signings, and then it can lift other players. It could also lift the manager, who it looks likely will be getting his chance.

If there are to be exits, I hope they are done swiftly so Smith and whoever comes in to help, gets the right replacements. If we are ambitious though, no exit should be happening, the owners, ceo and manager have to assure those who want out, they don't need to go anywhere, that will take some quality signings to build things.

Can Smith attract that quality?

Hope so.

Still a big job at hand, still fear too big a job, but I'm not going to knock my head against a brick wall through the rest of the summer over this. Hope the platform is now given very solid foundations. Over to the men in charge, all of them, no space for them to hide next season.
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Yes it is a big summer, as I see it there are two ways of doing this, the Burnley way or the Man City way. The Burnley way is buying decent quality solid mid table players and drilling them into a robust hard to beat unit. The Man City way is to start tempting high class players with over inflated contracts and rewards to quickly move up the pecking order and reap the benefits of European football and cup wins.. It will be interesting to see which way our owners go. If we start getting surprise big names then we know they are going for it, if it is like last summer then it is going to be a long hard season. Which ever way they need to move fast we cannot afford to waste time.
 
Wurzel said:
Yes it is a big summer, as I see it there are two ways of doing this, the Burnley way or the Man City way. The Burnley way is buying decent quality solid mid table players and drilling them into a robust hard to beat unit. The Man City way is to start tempting high class players with over inflated contracts and rewards to quickly move up the pecking order and reap the benefits of European football and cup wins.. It will be interesting to see which way our owners go. If we start getting surprise big names then we know they are going for it, if it is like last summer then it is going to be a long hard season. Which ever way they need to move fast we cannot afford to waste time.
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I know which way I want to go and I don't want to be a Burnley.
 
I'd say it's pushing it to describe the likes of Westwood and Lowton as quality solid mid table players tbh - the difference is Burnley have a manager who gets more than the sum of the parts out of his team. I suppose though if we aspire to being the next Burnley there is one obvious move we could make.

As we keep saying though we haven't time to arse around - bit of quality and some pace and power
 
BringbakMON said:
I'd say it's pushing it to describe the likes of Westwood and Lowton as quality solid mid table players tbh - the difference is Burnley have a manager who gets more than the sum of the parts out of his team. I suppose though if we aspire to being the next Burnley there is one obvious move we could make.

As we keep saying though we haven't time to arse around - bit of quality and some pace and power
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It isn't as the evidence that they are in a solid mid-table team and have been for years proves.
 
and yet for years they were swirling around the plughole of relegation - so maybe the evidence suggests that they weren't when whisked off to Turf moor ?
 
eltoro said:
The problem there though is, he wasn’t the player then that he is now, or have I missed something.
I’m only stating the obvs, if jacks return had been delayed any longer I think our finishing position would've have been different.

And at the end of the day, if we start with Dean Smith we finish with him, because I see no use in swapping managers mid season, some believe Dean is the right man and that’s fair do’s, I just think we should/could have better, saying that if Dean becomes our fergie than that’s great, I just don’t see it.
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There was only a few days between Bruce's sacking and Smith's appointment, so Grealish was the same player
 
Wurzel said:
Yes it is a big summer, as I see it there are two ways of doing this, the Burnley way or the Man City way. The Burnley way is buying decent quality solid mid table players and drilling them into a robust hard to beat unit. The Man City way is to start tempting high class players with over inflated contracts and rewards to quickly move up the pecking order and reap the benefits of European football and cup wins.. It will be interesting to see which way our owners go. If we start getting surprise big names then we know they are going for it, if it is like last summer then it is going to be a long hard season. Which ever way they need to move fast we cannot afford to waste time.
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To be honest i'd be quite happy being a solid mid table Burnley next year as it would be a third season in a row of progress.
Im happy to wait to become Man City for a few years :throw:
 
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