The Official Dean Smith Thread | Page 415 | Vital Football

The Official Dean Smith Thread

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I'd say Nuno has definitely found his level and we're aiming higher.

That’s interesting, I hate to admit it but I think he’s a level above Deano. They’re having a poor season having lost their main striker, and perhaps enthusiasm has gone. When I see the names of people in the market who might come here from looking the next manager odds of other clubs, he’d be somewhere towards the top of the list realistically. The talent he attracts too if we got that from our start point should see us pushing the top 5-6 if I simply extrapolate what he’s done to wolves, from where we are as a start point.
 
Have to say it’s hardly ‘bloody criminal’ not sacking Smith when we’ve improved our league position this season or if we go onto improve by the same margin again next year! Yes the results and performances since Christmas have been a concern and his weaknesses continue to frustrate even the most ardent of supporters but last season we were 17th, this year we’ll probably end up in 11th place. Current form a tipping point? Maybe if you only look at the half the season. But to judge him fairly, you surely have to look at the season as a whole. If current form continues into next season nobody could argue that he’s not had a chance to prove his doubters wrong. Such a prolonged dip in form will no doubt lead to him being replaced but to say it’s ‘criminal‘ not to sack him now when the facts are that our league position has improved seems harsh in the extreme. If we’d started the season poorly and finished like we started, would anyone be calling for him to be sacked for finishing 11th? I doubt it......the only difference is that the way this season has panned out, he’ll be under huge pressure to start the season pretty well. If current form continues, I’d wager that he’d be replaced before Christmas but with another season under our belt, another window to improve the squad and the return of crowds, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that we could improve our league position 4/5/6 places again. If that were the case, you could argue it would be ‘criminal’ not to keep the faith with Deano a bit longer. Time will tell but he’s done enough for me, despite his weaknesses, to deserve another crack next season. But next season will be pivotal for him, don’t think any of us would argue with that.
 
Looks like we're going to finish 11th. Think that's fair enough progress. Dean's job is only on the line when he has a poor season and we don't progress or we move backwards. So far that hasn't happened, even though almost from day 1 some have assumed he's hit his limit. I don't. We'll get more signings this summer and we should improve on this season.

Good managers are those who're clear in their minds about how they want the team to develop, and choose the team accordingly. There are reasons why they often don't do a Plan B, because Plan A is where they see the future, and a Plan B would divert focus from what they're concentrating on. Ferguson, Pep, Mourinho, Plopp don't do Plan Bs. DS doesn't either, for the same reason.

Dean wants positive attractive football. So do we; we wouldn't want Sam and we didn't really want Bruce. When things get tight in a match Dean would rather use attack to get us out of it than go defensive. Hence today he wouldn't use Nakamba; if Nakamba plays it's because Dean thinks it's worth starting him. Over the short term it may mean we don't get a result; over the longer term it's more likely to get us to where we want to be.

Dean's the only manager we've had over the last ten years who has had Villa playing the way we'd like Villa to play. It's worth while persevering with him because of that.
 
Makes me chuckle when there is talk that Smith is under scrutiny, on thin ice, will be on borrowed time if this form continues at the start of next season.
Comes across like some sort of revelation and special case for Smith . Don’t think so . Standard pressure for a modern manager . Modern football .
 
The one thing that has irked me recently is his insistence in interviews that his teams "always get better at the end of the season" or words to that effect. Yet, weren't his Brentford teams always pushing towards promotion but then failing to get over the line? I do agree that his first two years with us the teams have ended the season better, but I don't see any evidence before that.....
 
This backs up my assertion that something is not right with the team spirit. Teams that are united don't throw away that many leads....

I don't see that.

It's perfectly plausible when you consider what happened around the turn of our form - Covid, Barkley off the rails and then Jack.

Even prior to that when we were doing better, so many players with only 12 months experience in the top flight and so on, the individual errors and so on. You can be 100% united yet collectively crumble (as we've seen at points) when things go against you.
 
That’s interesting, I hate to admit it but I think he’s a level above Deano. They’re having a poor season having lost their main striker, and perhaps enthusiasm has gone. When I see the names of people in the market who might come here from looking the next manager odds of other clubs, he’d be somewhere towards the top of the list realistically. The talent he attracts too if we got that from our start point should see us pushing the top 5-6 if I simply extrapolate what he’s done to wolves, from where we are as a start point.

He's done well don't get me wrong, but I can't think of a 'manager' whose got a bigger leg up having not actually been that impressive during their career. Don't forget he's got fudge all to do with attracting talent, they are a Mendes whorehouse - I doubt he even has an involvement in transfers full stop.

Don't forget Wolves owners have a stake in Mendes' company - it's mutually beneficial whichever way you look at it, Nuno just trains the players and when the tap was turned down, they started struggling.
 
He's done well don't get me wrong, but I can't think of a 'manager' whose got a bigger leg up having not actually been that impressive during their career. Don't forget he's got fudge all to do with attracting talent, they are a Mendes whorehouse - I doubt he even has an involvement in transfers full stop.

Don't forget Wolves owners have a stake in Mendes' company - it's mutually beneficial whichever way you look at it, Nuno just trains the players and when the tap was turned down, they started struggling.

Our tap is well and truly on, so if he came here and do what he has done there from a new start point I’d be very happy!

Anyway, seems a bit disrespectful for me to talk about Nuno in the DS at this currrent time. He has my backing but I wish he’d read this forum and take our collective advice :grinning:
 
Our tap is well and truly on, so if he came here and do what he has done there from a new start point I’d be very happy!

Anyway, seems a bit disrespectful for me to talk about Nuno in the DS at this currrent time. He has my backing but I wish he’d read this forum and take our collective advice :grinning:
I really hope he doesn't, otherwise we'd be playing 4-4-2, have Davis up front and a central midfield of Nakamba and Konsa.
 
Our tap is well and truly on, so if he came here and do what he has done there from a new start point I’d be very happy!

Anyway, seems a bit disrespectful for me to talk about Nuno in the DS at this currrent time. He has my backing but I wish he’d read this forum and take our collective advice :grinning:

I wouldn't.

He bedded his team in at Champ level, momentum took them into the Prem, there's no long term thinking (if you think Nuno is involved in transfers), he fails to rotate unless forced, this season he's ended up dropping most of the players who got them where they were in favour of Mendes' new bunch who need to play who are overhyped and bloody awful. The Jimenez injury has been a good excuse.

Agree on the latter though! (with some caveats as per Platy's post lol)
 
I don't see that.

It's perfectly plausible when you consider what happened around the turn of our form - Covid, Barkley off the rails and then Jack.

Even prior to that when we were doing better, so many players with only 12 months experience in the top flight and so on, the individual errors and so on. You can be 100% united yet collectively crumble (as we've seen at points) when things go against you.
I'm speaking from a position of no actual knowledge of what is happening at Villa, so I accept it is speculation on my part, but from my own experiences in coaching. Teams that I had with enough ability but not enough team spirit were exactly like this Villa team. Start games well, more than likely get a goal or two then capitulate when the opposition went up a gear....
Every championship I won as a coach I can look at those teams and say they weren't the most talented, but had a collective spirit to drag themselves through games and hold on to leads when the odds were against them.
 
I would have taken a 12th placed finish at the start of the season, and even though a lot of people thought Europe was on the cards after a brilliant first half of the campaign I thought that was a little premature, but to chuck away a top ten finish when for most of the season it looked nailed on, allowing a poor Arsenal and newly promoted Leeds to leapfrog us is baffling. We have dropped far too many points against teams because of lack of tactical nous and the responsability lies with Dean.
I doubt this has gone unnoticed by the owners. He won't be given much time if he starts next season the way his team have finished this one.
If he's given money to burn in the summer....and Smith himself is suggesting he will be....then the owners will have to give it a few months to see how things are progressing. If we are bottom six by, say November then you would expect ambitious owners to act.
 
I'm speaking from a position of no actual knowledge of what is happening at Villa, so I accept it is speculation on my part, but from my own experiences in coaching. Teams that I had with enough ability but not enough team spirit were exactly like this Villa team. Start games well, more than likely get a goal or two then capitulate when the opposition went up a gear....
Every championship I won as a coach I can look at those teams and say they weren't the most talented, but had a collective spirit to drag themselves through games and hold on to leads when the odds were against them.
Palace had one central midfielder....mccarthy ...backed by two wingers in midfield. Yet they still outfought our central midfield.
 
I'm speaking from a position of no actual knowledge of what is happening at Villa, so I accept it is speculation on my part, but from my own experiences in coaching. Teams that I had with enough ability but not enough team spirit were exactly like this Villa team. Start games well, more than likely get a goal or two then capitulate when the opposition went up a gear....
Every championship I won as a coach I can look at those teams and say they weren't the most talented, but had a collective spirit to drag themselves through games and hold on to leads when the odds were against them.

That's very interesting. I think we can see that on the pitch.

My instinct is to blame Barkley but that's probably just because I don't like him.

We did seem to have a very good team spirit last season and at the start of this season. I wonder what changed?
 
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