Dean Smith - Confirmed

[JuanMartinez]

You would also hope by now we could take a corner or free kick that provides some danger to the opposition defence.

I will never, ever understand that.  Bodymoor Heath has got a replica pitch of Villa Park.  Identical dimensions.  If I was paid to play football and was told I'd be on corner duty, the absolute bear-minimum I'd do would be to practice taking them such that I don't hit the first defender every, fcuking time!!!!

Do your due diligence, we clear the first defender more often than not.

[PeterWithe]

And there is nowt wrong with having a style and sticking to it, Ajax play 4-3-3 all through their teams, all across the world.

I remember reading Pep saying he trains his players to play in a system, he’s not going to abandon  all that and knock it to a big lump in the last 10 mins. It just causes confusion

[ChicagoLion]

The problem is that we often look worse after the substitutions.

[PeterWithe]

You can change a game keeping the same formation, invert the wingers, keep them higher and wider than we do, be braver pushing defenders into MF when in possession. All of which is easier than changing formation in a game

But we don’t do any of that.

Yes we do. Wingers swapped sides in Wolves, Sheffield and Leeds games, if we did tonight I didn’t notice.

[Ketzster]

You can change a game keeping the same formation, invert the wingers, keep them higher and wider than we do, be braver pushing defenders into MF when in possession. All of which is easier than changing formation in a game

Yes that’s fine if you have the personnel available to do that. But if Grealish is out and the options are change formation or play Trezeguet, I think changing the formation might be the better option. If the players available aren’t up the standard required then you need to try something different

[Ads]

You can change a game keeping the same formation, invert the wingers, keep them higher and wider than we do, be braver pushing defenders into MF when in possession. All of which is easier than changing formation in a game

Yes that’s fine if you have the personnel available to do that. But if Grealish is out and the options are change formation or play Trezeguet, I think changing the formation might be the better option. If the players available aren’t up the standard required then you need to try something different

But if the players aren't up to standard...?

[Risso]

You can change a game keeping the same formation, invert the wingers, keep them higher and wider than we do, be braver pushing defenders into MF when in possession. All of which is easier than changing formation in a game

Yes that’s fine if you have the personnel available to do that. But if Grealish is out and the options are change formation or play Trezeguet, I think changing the formation might be the better option. If the players available aren’t up the standard required then you need to try something different

But if the players aren't up to standard...?

Well then you have to look at who's to blame there. Lots of people have said for two years running that going into the season with the limited striking options we had was a bad idea, and two years running have been proved right.

[PeterWithe]

You can change a game keeping the same formation, invert the wingers, keep them higher and wider than we do, be braver pushing defenders into MF when in possession. All of which is easier than changing formation in a game

Yes that’s fine if you have the personnel available to do that. But if Grealish is out and the options are change formation or play Trezeguet, I think changing the formation might be the better option. If the players available aren’t up the standard required then you need to try something different

He’s bought the players to fit in his 4-3-3 system

[PeterWithe]

Other than Trez, who I have never quite warmed to, who else has looked consistently out of place?

Most have been in and out of form. A stronger squad will allow for that

[Ketzster]

You can change a game keeping the same formation, invert the wingers, keep them higher and wider than we do, be braver pushing defenders into MF when in possession. All of which is easier than changing formation in a game

Yes that’s fine if you have the personnel available to do that. But if Grealish is out and the options are change formation or play Trezeguet, I think changing the formation might be the better option. If the players available aren’t up the standard required then you need to try something different

But if the players aren't up to standard...?

Yes, Trezeguet for example isn’t good enough. He tries hard but he’s got no pace and is a very limited footballer, which if you’re playing on the wing isn’t a great combination. So why persist with wingers if your options are players who you know will be ineffective while Grealish is out?

Under Smith, without Grealish we have literally no idea whether another formation would work because Smith has never tried doing anything different. It might work, it might not, but what we do know is that if Grealish is out for any length of time the 4-3-3 almost certainly doesn’t seem to work

[JuanMartinez]

It’s a 4-3–3 not a 4-4-2

[SoccerHQ]

If we are going to have Davis in the squad then use him from the start. I would put Watkins wide left and Davis in the middle. Or play the two of them together. Because this “tactic” of brining on Keinan Davis late on when we NEED a goal is utterly fucking stupid. Give him a chance to play himself into a game and help create chances. He’s never, ever going to be that player who changes a game with 15 min to go.

It would be good to have an international standard striker in the squad who can come on and do that and rescue us some points from games we're losing.

Kienan did well in his cameo and set up our best chance with the Barkley shot but the harsh reality is he hasn't scored a league goal since 2017.

We need to find striker like Giroud who's scores and holds it up no problem and contributes greatly to clubs he plays for winning stuff, would make so much difference.

Would've taken Milik who went to Marseille and scored 3 in his first 6 there, 28 year old international striker used to scoring in major leagues.

Baffles me us letting countless transfer windows passing and us not signing one. We signed John Carew and within a year were finishing 6th.

I like Ollie and he's had a good season but he's still 1 in 3 and I don't see him developing enough to be 1 in 2 like Benteke was (shame the rest of the team was rubbish in those days). As we've seen in the past it's difficult to finish that high up the league if you don't have one striker who gets close to 20 goals.

[Toronto Villa]

I actually think Ollie can be a more productive forward if he’s not asked to run 20 miles per game. And that we have a legitimate alternative in the squad to share time with as you’re suggesting.

It’s just foolish yet again to have him on his own all game and not having signed another forward to help him. We loaned out Samatta and have a broken Wesley and a striker in Davis who has been essentially neutered.

[aj2k77]

Are his eyes painted on at the moment? Wake the fuck up and change something other than shuffling around El Ghazi and Trezeguet each week.

[aj2k77]

6 goals in 10 or 12 in the last 15. Wake up Deano. It's gone stale, you're letting it drift.