The Official Dean Smith Thread | Page 298 | Vital Football

The Official Dean Smith Thread

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What seems to be forgotten about last season is that leading upto Jack's injury we had also been on a great run of form thrashing an in form Derby at their place the standout.Then obviously we got cheated at the Albion Jack got injured then everything went a bit flat we seemed to run out of steam.Now the start of the season under Bruce I remember Jack getting pelters for having no influence on the games whatsoever.Now I do believe Jack takes a few games to get up to speed some players are just like that I don't believe for one minute it's down to lack of training or professionalism at all.But being stuck out on the wing which was Bruce's master plan he was turning into a 1 in 3 player for me.So Bruce go's rightly so and the first thing Smith identifies is that Jack is totally wasted out on the wing and moves him inside next to Mcginn which although wasn't an immediate upturn in fortunes when it did fire it was spectacular and going into the Albion game I honestly thought if we won that we would win the league.However losing Jack had an adverse affect on Mcginn forcing him to have a burn out plus I think our hi octane game seemed to take it's toll on our ageing team and we really struggled for a while.Then Jacks back once again not an immediate effect if memory serves then that tremendous ten game run but was that really all down to Jack I seem to remember Mings being brilliant Hutton inspired Hourihane scoring some belters Elmo putting in some great performances and of course Tammy finally getting service on a plate.So even if it was because Jack was back surely Smith has to take some credit for getting the best out of him.Remember when Newcastle were 15 points clear and United won the league and Cantona and Schmicheal were fantastic that season would you say Ferguson got lucky.This season has been a struggle no doubt about that but there has been some decent ones but I do think they are over shadowed by the poor ones but also bad refereeing and shit VAR decisions have also played their part.Now I don't like to name drop but I have been told Smith only had control over Mings,Heaton and Konsa and he also wanted Maupay and Benerhama the rest were bought on stats so can he really be blamed for everything that has gone wrong personally I think if we stay up he's done an half decent job for me.
 
Melon Donkey said:
Just don't get this we were only good because player x, y or z was having a stormer.
Isn't that what happens in any successful team ever ?. Odd stick to beat a manager with in my humble.
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I think the point is, or at least from me, that we went on a great run, superb, got us to the play offs. We'd written the season off by then. But there was a big help from what Bruce brought in and off the work he'd put in steadying the ship. I don't think Smith had that much to do, to be hailed as the all-conquering hero, if we'd pushed on this season and not looked so gash, then I'd be thinking differently.
 
The Fear said:
We didn't win. And to get there, we played a joke Liverpool team and a vastly reduced Wolves. Nice though the run was, I'm not counting another cup loss in the woohoo, let's all celebrate.

What evidence. Ridiculous question really isn't it. There is no evidence anyone would be any good for any club, but the higher the pedigree of manager, player, or any staff, the more chance the odds will be stacked in your favour. It is called logically.
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Jonathan, a draw and a win against a useful Foxes team wasn't too shabby. A decent effort at Wembley versus a club who can, and do,spend more on defence than most nations. We are where we are because of years of mismanagement,both at board level and on the playing side. Promotion was,in football terms, miraculous. Deano inherited a team looking down to a possible deep decline.
The Fear said:
I think the point is, or at least from me, that we went on a great run, superb, got us to the play offs. We'd written the season off by then. But there was a big help from what Bruce brought in and off the work he'd put in steadying the ship. I don't think Smith had that much to do, to be hailed as the all-conquering hero, if we'd pushed on this season and not looked so gash, then I'd be thinking differently.
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We were in freefall under Bruce. Can't you Smith knockers give the man a teeney weeney morsel of credit. In case you've forgotten,he took a team which was nearing the relegation mix to Wembley and glory. I agree that tactically he's made clangers but recruitment has been poor. As others have said,if a Benitez or the like fancy the job,fine by me.
 
And can't the Bruce knockers give Bruce any credit?

Seems to me at the moment a fair few users are having to use silly phrases like Smith knockers, instead of just giving their opinions.

He's done fine, I don't mind being average as long as I'm not fed bullshit about ambition, of course he played a part in our promotion, he wasn't the be-all-and-end-all of it though, scraping survival will be ok and after a very poor season (not my fault if the CEO and manager spelt out far loftier expectations than just surviving) a huge relief IF we then push on, I believe that needs to be with a pedigree manager - first in years - if not, I wish Smith well and hope we see a massive upturn. I haven't seen enough to have belief that will happen, some of you have. That's football. I'm not a knocker, I just have a different view on the manager.

I'm more than aware of our journey to the Cup final, the Foxes game was a very (for me) unexpected boost .. the final (for me) was everything that is wrong with modern football and I can't really be bothered to go into it much further, other than if I was manager, I'd have got us to not try to match their play, but to try to totally fuck it up and harrass, not sit back and hope to win on the break. I'm not manager, we lost, chances whatever we did we would have lost, that is modern football and the inbalance for you.

:thumbup:
 
The Fear said:
My rubbish on that is that without Tammy being on a rampage, we'd not have gone on our run and Tammy was a Bruce signing. We didn't improve massively shape wise, but we were a bit more organised, which wasn't difficult as something had really gone wrong with Bruce having steadied an incredibly rocky ship. We had written the season off and then we went on a 10 game run. We don't know if that might have happened anyway. Possibly not, Bruce really should have had a couple of weeks off to rest after his parents deaths. The removal of Bruce did remove some of the toxicity, that helped.

As am aside, part of the 10 game run was without Jack which I always thought was positive because some seemed to think we couldn't win anything without him.
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I honestly think the beginning of the end for Bruce was the appointment of Calderwood. Then it all went horribly wrong once Wyness and Round were sacked and Bruce had nobody overseeing the transfers, hence the ludicrous situation of starting a season with one recognized centre-back.
And I'll say it until I'm blue in the face, Jed Steer was a massive part of the resurgence under Dean Smith.
 
Bruce had gone mentally. He was done for with us and if he'd stayed we'd have finished mid table in the championship. We wouldn't have brought back steer. Would we have signed Hause and Mings? He failed to get promoted with a better squad than the one that we actually got promoted with.
 
I’m a Bruce and a Smith knocker. Bruce steadied the ship and was quite rightly shown the door with the atrocious football he served up. Smith was lucky to be appointed and was also lucky to get promoted - inheriting Abraham that was on fire along with Grealish who was fresh from his injury break. Smith earned some of that luck and did actually play half decent football during the end of the season. This season has shown where he is at as a manager - bottom third at the very best with a poor, turgid style of football where up until the last game or so players clearly didn’t know their role in the team. Actually Smith could turn out to be a lucky manager - staying up on 34 points. One thing is clear if we stay up we better buy some better foreign players if that’s the market we are in.
 
tarzansbrother said:
I’m a Bruce and a Smith knocker. Bruce steadied the ship and was quite rightly shown the door with the atrocious football he served up. Smith was lucky to be appointed and was also lucky to get promoted - inheriting Abraham that was on fire along with Grealish who was fresh from his injury break. Smith earned some of that luck and did actually play half decent football during the end of the season. This season has shown where he is at as a manager - bottom third at the very best with a poor, turgid style of football where up until the last game or so players clearly didn’t know their role in the team. Actually Smith could turn out to be a lucky manager - staying up on 34 points. One thing is clear if we stay up we better buy some better foreign players if that’s the market we are in.
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To be fair there is no one you don't knock. :grinning:
 
Some of us have short memories but most of us, me included, have selective memories, it’s in our nature.
However, I can’t erase the memory of my enjoyment of the entertaining football in the championship under Smith. As different as chalk and cheese with the way Bruce wants to play as we saw again when he brought his team to Villa Park.
That memory has faded as this season has gone on, being replaced with doubts, no more than doubts, certainty in my mind that Dean had overreached his limit. I changed after the Man U defeat seeing something of the mettle of the man in his post match comments. He has been backed by the owners (against my strict advice) and I hope he still will be come what may. I see a chink of light on the horizon.
 
Bruce was a clown who failed to deliver. Smith has done a vastly better job.

Bruce's last days were unbelievably grim, the sight of him scratching his arse clueless on the touch line before throwing on all the strikers he had with 15 minutes to go in a desperate hope of getting something out of a game was just pathetic.
 
I wouldn't call Bruce a clown and he's gone on to prove that he can cut it in the prem.

Yes he lost the plot with us but he did steady the ship when we were looking like going into freefall.
 
Villatone said:
Didn't Grealish play in all 10 matches starting with the 4-0 win over Derby?
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Oh, maybe my memory is a bit ravaged... I know we won some games without him, which I found comforting - ie not being totally reliant on one player. Thought he'd missed some in the run, but maybe it was before or after.
 
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