The Official Dean Smith Thread | Page 427 | Vital Football

The Official Dean Smith Thread

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20pt increase last season and we were all a bit “meh” at the end. If he improves another 20pts then he can keep his job :wahey:.

Likes last season - competed with and took points off the big 6 regularly
Dislikes (and must improve) - burying teams like Burnley, Palace etc.

In all seriousness we should have had at least 10 more points than we got. Don’t think Dean is under any illusions as to the expectations upon him, but he must feel like a kid in Hamley‘s at Christmas. Good luck to him.
 
Even without Jack we should've had at least 10 more from my memory but we spent too long carrying Barkley and Traore really (although we didn't know about his injury back then).

Going to be a very interesting year methinks as Buendia and Young suggest to me DS wants to go more attacking again.
 
We've got some frightening talent up front. Jack, Ollie, Buendia, Bert. And Bailey if he comes. With that lot we should start getting the results against the lower teams we weren't.
 
If the Bailey transfer came off (also rumblings about Raphinha Alcântara from PSG) we'd have Jack, Emi2, Bert, Bailey, Chukwuemeka fighting for that 3 behind Ollie.

That's 3 right footers, one of whom is excellent with their left (Emi2) and 2 left footers, and all of them comfortable playing anywhere across that 3. We talked with England and Southgate making the system king and picking the right players to play it, and you can see Deano is being absolutely single-minded in doing the same. Hopefully with much more exciting results!
 
Dean and the gang have brought in a set piece specialist coach. Lowkey could be one of our most important moves as defending and attacking of set pieces has been poor for a while.

This guy has good experience too. If anyone’s interested:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.scotsman.com/sport/football/hearts/latest-hearts-news/alan-pattullo-hearts-reliance-austin-macphees-set-piece-playbook-1419889?amp

I don't have the full league stats but we were actually pretty good defensively. The problem for us offensively is our conversion vs. the volume of corners/FKs we won. Delivery as we all know was shocking 99% of the time.

https://zicoball.com/an-analysis-of-set-pieces-in-the-premier-league/
 
First post on here, although I’ve been reading for years.

When Dean Smith first joined I was pleased by his appointment for the level we were at, always loved the fact he was a fan and had a decent record in management. To be honest though, I thought he probably had a level, and couldn’t imagine him ever being world class. Obviously, he isn’t that (world class) yet, but his passion for the club, open approach, intelligent speech, and seeming ability to learn / continually improve are signs that that maybe, just maybe, he could be. Aston Villa’s Alex Ferguson? A long way to go, who knows what will happen, but there is cause for optimism as far as I am concerned.

Beyond this, having watched that interview, and in particular the bit where he talked about the fans (his hair standing on the back of his neck etc.) I genuinely got the feeling “here is a guy who is Villa through and through.” A genuine fan that I believe, will stick with us for better or for worse, as long as we will have him.

In my opinion, a teams manager and the management team around him are more important than its captain or any player.
 
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First post on here, although I’ve been reading for years.

When Dean Smith first joined I was pleased by his appointment for the level we were at, always loved the fact he was a fan and had a decent record in management. To be honest though, I thought he probably had a level, and couldn’t imagine him ever being world class. Obviously, he isn’t that (world class) yet, but his passion for the club, open approach, intelligent speech, and seeming ability to learn / continually improve are signs that that maybe, just maybe, he could be. Aston Villa’s Alex Ferguson? A long way to go, who knows what will happen, but there is cause for optimism as far as I am concerned.

Beyond this, having watched that interview, and in particular the bit where he talked about the fans (his hair standing on the back of his neck etc.) I genuinely got the feeling “here is a guy who is Villa through and through.” A genuine fan that I believe, will stick with us for good. IMHO, a teams manager is more important than its captain or any player.
Welcome Dan, welcome into the light 😁, glad to see your stalking days are over. Can’t agree with you more about the importance of the manager and management of the club. Deano’s just a better person than Sir Chewalot period and we’re lucky to have him.
 
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