The Official Dean Smith Thread | Page 335 | Vital Football

The Official Dean Smith Thread

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A great, albeit surprising end to the last campaign, quality seemingly added to the squad to build on our survival, two games in, two consecutive wins at the start of the season for heaven knows how many years, no goals conceded, some decent football on show.....seemingly lots to be encouraged about, yet reading through the last few pages....mainly because we lost a cup match with a team that will bear no resemblance to the starting XI tonight...the knives are already being sharpened for the boss by one or two. He deserved much of the flak he got after Christmas but we survived and with the experience of last year you’d hope Deano will be a better manager for it. I’m sure there will be opportunity a plenty to berate and question his ability as the season goes on but no complaints from me when we’ve had such a promising start. So far so good in the games that matter with the players that matter.
 
"Merd" said:
Quality ldg, but a little harsh on Suso - he was only allowed to shop at the pound shop and some of them have begun to progress. 14 players for £140m at the top league in Europe - we didn't do so badly.

Here and now, we have started to shop at Sainsbury's, when we are shopping at Harrod's, we know we've arrived at final destination.
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Need to start shopping at Aldi then, the quality is excellent and you find loads of shit you don’t need on the middle aisle. We could get a few more defensive midfielders and another goalie for less than a tenner
 
Langoe66 said:
A great, albeit surprising end to the last campaign, quality seemingly added to the squad to build on our survival, two games in, two consecutive wins at the start of the season for heaven knows how many years, no goals conceded, some decent football on show.....seemingly lots to be encouraged about, yet reading through the last few pages....mainly because we lost a cup match with a team that will bear no resemblance to the starting XI tonight...the knives are already being sharpened for the boss by one or two. He deserved much of the flak he got after Christmas but we survived and with the experience of last year you’d hope Deano will be a better manager for it. I’m sure there will be opportunity a plenty to berate and question his ability as the season goes on but no complaints from me when we’ve had such a promising start. So far so good in the games that matter with the players that matter.
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Ah . The voice of reason.
 
sirdennis said:
Ah . The voice of reason.
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Well, the voice of someone's opinion that you agree with. To be fair, not sure those who aren't fans of this manager, or any other manager, are without reason themselves.

And for me, I keep my line in the sand, 10 games then we'll see how the season is shaping. Only fair now. I'd have been rid at the end of last season, but we have stuck with him so I wish him nothing but success. I would LOVE him to bring about whatever success is these days in this mad and greedy league. As said, 10-12 would give us a platform and would be good progress following the underachievement last season, according to their aims.
 
The Fear said:
Well, the voice of someone's opinion that you agree with. To be fair, not sure those who aren't fans of this manager, or any other manager, are without reason themselves.

And for me, I keep my line in the sand, 10 games then we'll see how the season is shaping. Only fair now. I'd have been rid at the end of last season, but we have stuck with him so I wish him nothing but success. I would LOVE him to bring about whatever success is these days in this mad and greedy league. As said, 10-12 would give us a platform and would be good progress following the underachievement last season, according to their aims.
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I want to see a better "style" of play by mid-season. Fluking 10th isn't progress IMO. It's not a guarantee of 10th next season (see Sheff Utd). We need to start PLAYING like a mid-table team. Then we attract better players.
 
Think we have been playing much better this season. So far. DS gets the credit for that. Just as he gets the flak for the flat performance against Stoke. Wonder which DS will win out.
 
McParlandTheGreat said:
Think we have been playing much better this season. So far. DS gets the credit for that. Just as he gets the flak for the flat performance against Stoke. Wonder which DS will win out.
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The centre halves look better coordinated but other than that it looks the same to me, as discussed before but I think Barkley could change everything ...
 
Gillette said:
I want to see a better "style" of play by mid-season. Fluking 10th isn't progress IMO. It's not a guarantee of 10th next season (see Sheff Utd). We need to start PLAYING like a mid-table team. Then we attract better players.
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Exactly my thoughts mate - individuals will gain/lose you points along the way but the overall *team* defines your final position in the table and the likelihood of you ending up in a similar/better position next time around.

I've got 10th or so as a hopeful/ceiling target in the absence of injuries which will likely ruin us as bad as they did last year.

The fact is though, you could put out the same team as last season and just add sensible game management and we'd probably have finished 12th.
 
Bonker said:
The centre halves look better coordinated but other than that it looks the same to me, as discussed before but I think Barkley could change everything ...
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The defence has remained as tight as it was in our last four matches last season, but I think we're moving the ball noticeably faster in attack.
 
McParlandTheGreat said:
The defence has remained as tight as it was in our last four matches last season, but I think we're moving the ball noticeably faster in attack.
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True enough based on who we've played so far - relative garbage - we all need another half a dozen games to weight it all up.
 
Yeah, judging after two games, or looking at the league, until at least 10 games are done (for me, the league is still a bit of nonsense until Dec/Jan) is mad.

We can still discuss though!!!!!
 
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