The Official Dean Smith Thread | Page 29 | Vital Football

The Official Dean Smith Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
Fans are too used to the manager merry go round, there is no way he should be under any pressure after just 3 months when we were clearly in a mess before he came.

It is going to take time. No idea how far he can take us, all the way to the promised land (sic) and $ky Prem League.. and upward once in there, I hope.

He will be as frustrated with this lot as us, no doubt at all.
 
Last edited:
I disagree on one tiny point. If Smith is the fan he appears to be he'll actually be more fucked off than we are because he knows he can do something about it and he knows he can't do it overnight.
 
Smith can't really be judged until next season. Some managers have a gift of getting a tune out of a crap squad but I'm not sure that DS can with this rabble, shame really as it looked positive at one point in some respects , but right now this is the worst villa defence I can recall and that includes 2 relegations . What do they work on at BH all week ??
 
A fair point Silhil. Smith did get a bounce originally but he's not a motivational manager in my mind, he's a philosophy manager so to speak.

People would run through walls for MON but tactically it was naive.

Smith it seems struggles to motivate you could say, yet when he has 'his' players in place who understand what he wants and will naturally give it, they punch above their weight.
 
Meant to say, Smith has never really dealt with 'stars' who assume they'll outlast a manager. Smith is best with players who want to improve. We have too many in the former camp thinking about their wage only and it's been our problem since season 3 MON.

So I don't blame managers or owners here....in some ways.

We have to get back to players thinking Villa will be the best time in their career and giving everything, rather than them thinking the fans will love them.
 
mike_field said:
A fair point Silhil. Smith did get a bounce originally but he's not a motivational manager in my mind, he's a philosophy manager so to speak.

People would run through walls for MON but tactically it was naive.

Smith it seems struggles to motivate you could say, yet when he has 'his' players in place who understand what he wants and will naturally give it, they punch above their weight.
Click to expand...
DS strikes me more as a thinker/tactician than a shouter / hairdryer type manager .
 
Silhillvilla said:
The future has to be our U23 and academy plus astute buys from leagues below
Click to expand...

I have been critical of the give youth a chance, see how it goes mantra.

Half time today I would have quite happily swapped the u23's in there and then.

Cannot see us getting the play offs with this lot so as soon as we are mathematically safe from relegation it's time to bin the majority and put in the youngsters .
 
Doesn't matter - 3yrs and they are classed as homegrown mate for the squad regulations in the Prem and EFL.
 
Don't know where "Smith is not motivational" came from. Today he obviously got them going at half-time. He had them going out producing great stuff last year. We've hit a blip, and it can happen under any manager. Remember how MON's teams ground to a halt?

The problem he has is that the team is literally spineless. Nearest we have to a spine is Tammy up front, McGinn, and maybe to some extent Elphick. The rest tend to stay in their comfort zones. Jack when he plays supplies a whole line of vertebrae.

Unless he can get more class players in of the right type, that's where we are until the summer, so DS will just have to see what he gets out of them. Jack coming back will help, but I think we need more than that. And DS knows it. At the moment I think he's trying out players just to see if they have any future at the club.
 
Well next season when our finances are fucked we will have no other option but to utilise the academy and search for bargain buys.

To be honest I believe that process should have started as soon as we were relegated instead of all of those crazy signings in the first season
 
I don't want to appear like I'm bashing Smith OR want him out, because I want him (and therefore Villa) to win.... but I think a team with a lot of big egos (ie. the one he inherited) needs a personality with a good degree of arrogance managing them. On the surface, yes he did well with Walsall and Brentford, but at the same time Walsall is an "only way is up" type of club for someone with half a clue. He inherited from Warburton at Brentford who had done very well, yet failed miserably elsewhere, suggesting that Brentford's club philosophy was as much to do with the success there.
 
gmvillan said:
I don't want to appear like I'm bashing Smith OR want him out, because I want him (and therefore Villa) to win.... but I think a team with a lot of big egos (ie. the one he inherited) needs a personality with a good degree of arrogance managing them. On the surface, yes he did well with Walsall and Brentford, but at the same time Walsall is an "only way is up" type of club for someone with half a clue. He inherited from Warburton at Brentford who had done very well, yet failed miserably elsewhere, suggesting that Brentford's club philosophy was as much to do with the success there.
Click to expand...

What I want to know is how many of these players have earned the right to have a big ego? Who do we have in our team that can say they're some top player that has the right to be arrogant?

Pretty much all our squad are either players who failed in the Premier league after only a season or two or players where this is the highest level they've ever gotten to. Any arrogance or ego in this squad comes entirely from whatever ridiculous wage we're paying them rather than ability or achievement. If it's true that there's a group of big egos who don't want to listen to Smith then they're the problem not him. They need to be surgically removed from the club and not allowed to rule over it.

One of the worst mistakes we made in the Premier league was allowing the likes of Gabby, Dunne, Collins and warnock to think they were bigger than the club. After Mon left they didn't like Houllier so downed tools on various occasions yet they won the fight. I didn't like it when we had players who were actually premier league players so I'm not having it with this bunch of chancers.
 
You can’t polish a turd, he has to put XI players on the pitch unfortunately and as Deano said in the match thread something along the lines of if any of Taylor, Hutton, Barney, Whelan, Hourihane play we’ll lose.

One of DS’ attributes I think is that he takes no shit. In front of the cameras he’ll have to be the optimist, behind closed doors I’d hope he’s telling these players they’re on their last legs.

Easier said than done, but I don’t want washed up 30 year olds from Relegated premier league teams rocking up here anymore. I’d rather buy 7-8 younger players - granted not all will make it and what you lose in knowing a player will bring versus no idea is risky - buts it’s like an investment - the higher the risk the higher the potential reward.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.