The Official Dean Smith Thread | Page 397 | Vital Football

The Official Dean Smith Thread

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It will be very interesting to see what happens when Grealish gets back. Will he play Barkley again because he'll think they'll link up?

I think he will and he should. That is the only idea left to try out to see if he is useful to us or not. However, when will Jack return for sure. And what if he returns for the last 2 games for example and Ross performs well, do we renew the loan deal or think of buying. That will be a dilemma !
 
The midfield has to be his focus, it is the key to everything.
Get that sorted and you are on your way. At the moment some of our games are like school kids attack and defence games in the playground.
Liverpool are no great shakes this season, but they walked through us time after time on Saturday, and we were, like we have been in so many games lately getting in last ditch headers and block tackles.
That is not a game plan. Our defensive midfield is non existent and equally going forward we have lost all the cohesion and fluidity we had early on in the season.
Cant think he really believes we have a good squad, he will have his concerns, that comment was just for the cameras.

Hope the last part is true or else....
 
I realise most on here will know I’m unhappy with Smith’s choices & style since the turn of the year, from the team’s lacklustre performances (right from the get go in some matches) and his inability to sort that out, his unbelievable substitutions which have left most on here pulling at their hair,
His constant face pulling when he’s talking to the other 3 (and even then fuck all changes) even when he does chance upon a decent setup he seems to forget about it the next game.

I’m also unsure what KD needs to do to get a chance, I’m not suggesting he is our saviour by any means but the lad deserves better than he’s been given, I also think that Martinez has kept Smith in his job, the only position that Smith can’t fuck up funnily enough.

The other thing I’d like to say is, most of my frustration is aimed at his inability to get the team playing decent entertaining football, I realise our most entertaining player is out, but even when SJ was in the squad things were poor, and if the end position/current position (for most on here it seems) is the be all and end all, then I see no reason to watch the games, you may as well tune in at the end of 9 months.

Of course this is all irrelevant because it’s our owner’s mindset that will in the end determine Smith’s future.

He has earned one more season to fix the midfield and get us playing entertaining football. Jack and Emi are our players of the season for me.
 
You could have made that same assessment two years ago when we won promotion though (and I am sure many of us did). They had every opportunity and excuse available to them to sack him last year in the name of not losing momentum and progress.
I have posted many times I am a Dean fan, but this time it feels different.
Make no mistake we were very fortunate to have had that lockdown break last season, we werein freefall, then find a bit of form when we started back.
I give Dean credit, he got them up for the scrap in that break and they came out playing for each other. He stopped his gung ho attacking and developed the defence, and it won us points.Thankfully, at the moment the defence and the keeper are holding up, and they are covering for a woeful midfield, that is walked through game after game.
It is that mentality which has gone. I see the defenders doing it for each other, I dont see the same attitude in the middle of the park.
We dont have any understanding in the middle, we are not a unit, Ollie is left isolated game after game, and it is crucial he brings in quality in the middle if we are to progress.
With regard to sacking him when promoted I think he was untried in the Prem and they thought they owed it to him, quite rightly, to give him his chance, and they were on record as saying Dean had got them up quicker than expected so they would stick with him.
If we spend in the close season, as I expect them to do, and we dont hit the ground running I think they will look elsewhere.
I am still in the Dean camp, but he wont get a free pass indefinatlely if we are not doing it.
 
I have posted many times I am a Dean fan, but this time it feels different.
Make no mistake we were very fortunate to have had that lockdown break last season, we werein freefall, then find a bit of form when we started back.
I give Dean credit, he got them up for the scrap in that break and they came out playing for each other. He stopped his gung ho attacking and developed the defence, and it won us points.Thankfully, at the moment the defence and the keeper are holding up, and they are covering for a woeful midfield, that is walked through game after game.
It is that mentality which has gone. I see the defenders doing it for each other, I dont see the same attitude in the middle of the park.
We dont have any understanding in the middle, we are not a unit, Ollie is left isolated game after game, and it is crucial he brings in quality in the middle if we are to progress.
With regard to sacking him when promoted I think he was untried in the Prem and they thought they owed it to him, quite rightly, to give him his chance, and they were on record as saying Dean had got them up quicker than expected so they would stick with him.
If we spend in the close season, as I expect them to do, and we dont hit the ground running I think they will look elsewhere.
I am still in the Dean camp, but he wont get a free pass indefinatlely if we are not doing it.

Under these owners, no manager is going to get a free pass indefinitely. That applies to Dean. But I don't think free pass applies at the moment.

Dean did get us up quicker than expected, as you said. He's also got the team higher up the table than expected this year. When the team were flying at the start of the season I still expected a tail off once things went against us; we simply don't have the squad depth. And things have gone against us, as in one way or other they were bound to. As it is, we're still not in a bad place.
 
Under these owners, no manager is going to get a free pass indefinitely. That applies to Dean. But I don't think free pass applies at the moment.

Dean did get us up quicker than expected, as you said. He's also got the team higher up the table than expected this year. When the team were flying at the start of the season I still expected a tail off once things went against us; we simply don't have the squad depth. And things have gone against us, as in one way or other they were bound to. As it is, we're still not in a bad place.
Agree with every word of that McParland, as I said I am a Dean fan, and he has far exceeded my expectations this season, but he has to hit the ground running next season, and I think he has to give a lot of thought to his matchday management of the game, because he seems to have very little to offer when the game is going away from us.
Poor squad depth to blame for some of the issues but not everything, substitutions and reluctance to change anything when we have problems during a game.
 
It will be very interesting to see what happens when Grealish gets back. Will he play Barkley again because he'll think they'll link up?

That's the only other point I would now even be tempted to give Ross a shot off the bench. Just see if that sparks him back somehow, but I doubt it.
 
That's the only other point I would now even be tempted to give Ross a shot off the bench. Just see if that sparks him back somehow, but I doubt it.
He cant continue with Barkley, not after that aweful couldnt give a shit performance at the weekend.
If he does he is handing a plateful of ammunition to his critics on here and elsewhere, and it will do nothing for team unity.
 
With regard to sacking him when promoted I think he was untried in the Prem and they thought they owed it to him, quite rightly, to give him his chance, and they were on record as saying Dean had got them up quicker than expected so they would stick with him.
If we spend in the close season, as I expect them to do, and we dont hit the ground running I think they will look elsewhere.
I am still in the Dean camp, but he wont get a free pass indefinatlely if we are not doing it.

I don't question your support its just my view. I just don't think there is anything sentimental to our senior management structure. I don't think last season had anything to do with sentiment. It was purely driven by their long term plan. The catch 22 of the situation last year for them was that even if we sacked him we could still go down. If we did go down then arguably he would have still been the best man for the job.

I think they're very pragmatic and unless there is a fundamental break in their strategic plan he'll still be here.

I do agree with you and McP that he has some fundamental problems he absolutely needs to fix. I fully believe he'll get all of next season unless the team relapses back to relegation fodder. I think he'll stay on longer if we challenge for Europe.

The is a strong possibility he gets the bullet if we sell Grealish because they might decide to just go for a completely different fork in the road.
 
No, I wouldn't. He got that decision entirely wrong, as I alluded to in the match thread. But that wasn't really the point of my post. I don't think anyone is saying Smith is perfect. But in the big scheme of things over a two-year period he has done a very decent job. Ron Saunders spent big money on Tommy Craig and made him captain, and he kept playing Gary Williams when many of the fans wanted Colin Gibson in the team. Does that mean Ron Saunders was out of his depth or a useless manager?

No Ron won things and I don't mean just promotion.
 
Yes but the Facebook Twitter idiots and blue noses, Leeds fans etc will vote
Not sure why we have a poll, the result comes in the way some want it and everything’s a ok, get a surprising result and it’s down to Leeds fans...I give up.
 
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