The Official Dean Smith Thread | Page 512 | Vital Football

The Official Dean Smith Thread

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Not sure why we have these assistant coaches, does he even listen or work with them anyway, makes me wonder.
 
Not sure who we can get in that can actually coach this load of tripe. How professional footballers can fail to make sure simple 5 yard passes or make at least one decent delivery into the box is beyond me. Smith's replacement has a massive rebuild on his hands. The best part of £300m has been royally spanked on absolute mediocrity so far.
 
Usually in these scenarios my heart says sack the manager but my brain says stick with them to avoid any knee-jerk reaction, but this time it's the other way around. I really like Dean, he's been tremendous for us but looking at the recent performances it just doesn't look like the players nor the manager look comfortable with what they are trying to achieve on the pitch. Unfortunate with injuries yes, and a turbulent summer, but looking at where we are from here I am not sure if Dean knows his best team, his best formation or how to get the best out of the players he has at his disposal, and his decision making is becoming erratic as he is starting to chase results.

I don't get the sense that he knows how to turn it around - I hope I am wrong but every decision seems to have backfired or has failed to improve things (formation changes, line up changes, substitutions). Even if players return (Ings, Traore, Sanson) I only see it as compounding the issue of not knowing who to play or how to fit them together.

I think the loss of Grealish is not just damaging to the team but also damaging to Dean himself as he's spent years building up the team around him, and now he's scrambling around for answers without him. A new manager simply wouldn't have the burden of having to cope with losing Grealish as they would never have had him in the first place and would be better able to come in with a fresh set of eyes to work things out.

I wanted us to win tonight and to begin the turnaround under Smith. Unfortunately the first half was just abysmal and more of the same from the last 3 or 4 weeks. We've sleep walked into this crisis by previously persevering with the wrong tactics until all confidence has drained out. The second half was better but it wasn't enough, we still ultimately lost, failed to score and really didn't look like scoring either. It's completely different chasing a game from behind with nothing to lose anyway. If the owners keep Smith on for another couple of games, he'll have my support, but if he gets the sack over the international break then I don't think there will be any complaints from the majority of fans.
 
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I'm still on the fence to be honest. I'm just not sure. One thing I do know I don't want some jump start foreign manager that has never managed in the premier League before.
If he does get sacked my money would be on Gerrard from the purslow connection.
Not saying that's who I want. I don't know what I want. We seem a tad lost.
 
Bottom line; we need a better manager, one who can coach teams to compete in the top half of the PL. On that same bottom line; the squad as a whole is not good enough. There are plenty in there who maybe we thought would be OK going forwards, but they've reached their limit.

So, we need a new manager now, and the funds need to be there to start replacing players in January and continue it in the summer, in line with what the manager needs. Funds shouldn't be too much of a problem as we have the Jack money, but it will still have to be spent carefully. There is a way out of this.
 
"I got in to my players at half-time a little bit, because it wasn't the fact they were giving the ball away, it was just their body language and reaction to it.

"I felt the first-half was a very scrappy affair. Two teams who are struggling for a run of results at the moment, who are giving the ball away cheaply. In the second-half, I thought we dominated the ball, dominated the game and fully deserved our equaliser and probably should have gone on to have won the game."

The above was Dean Smith's comments after our 1 -1 draw at Stoke in Feb 2019, which was a massive turning point. Something happened at half-time, and the game changed, and of course Villa stormed onwards after that game to go on a long winning run, ending in promotion.

Bar the goal we probably deserved, the comments could be the same today. So surely now all the signs are we are on the edge of turning things round again, and going on a winning run. Or does the Premier League not work quite like that?
 
If Purslow and the owners haven't got people in mind to replace Smith, then they are not doing their job.

Purslow couldn't even deliver on the undertaking not to release players - zero confidence there's a coherent plan at all.
Whole lot needs looking at - recruitment, medical, discipline and coaching
dog shit the lot of it
 
Let's assume that Smith keeps his job after the international break, with the majority of fans now seemingly wanting a change, what would Smith need to do in order to change your mind that we should stick with him?
 
Let's assume that Smith keeps his job after the international break, with the majority of fans now seemingly wanting a change, what would Smith need to do in order to change your mind that we should stick with him?
Win v Brighton. But that like the Man U win might be papering over the cracks. He just hasnt known what formation to play. The Watkins /Ings problem plus players like Mcginn Targett and the newbies
not showing any form have screwed him.
 
Let's assume that Smith keeps his job after the international break, with the majority of fans now seemingly wanting a change, what would Smith need to do in order to change your mind that we should stick with him?
Tell us the club are thinking about giving Remi Garde another shot at it. I’m actually dreading the thought of the change manager circus. I haven’t trusted Purslow‘s judgement since he said he never thought someone would pay £100m for Grealish. If anybody is tailor made for our current predicament it’s Sam Allardyce (maybe it’s my Garde trauma still persisting). A bitter pill to swallow. I hope I’m wrong and there are some better options out there.
 
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