Dean Smith - Confirmed

[Chris Smith]

We have players but we don’t have a team. It’s a product of years of mismanagement where the whole does not equal the sum of its parts. When Grealish was playing he was good enough to bring out the best in those around him, without him we are disjointed and inconsistent. I am offering no sort of judgement on Smith either for or against until he has the opportunity to put his stamp on the squad in the summer.

[KevinGage]

From the moment you step into just about any job you are judged.

Why should football management be any different.

Any failed manager (and I am by no means saying that applies to DS) can point to a myriad of excuses. Not signing the players you wanted or having a squad just to your liking usually feature high on that list.

But the better managers find a way.

They get results in trying circumstances and bring just enough success to give themselves that bit of security early on.

He has known since he took the job (and probably before it, with his Villa connections)  that this is a talented squad. One of the most talented in the division personnel-wise. But it is unbalanced. And we are ropey defensively. Mings apart, the incoming deals don't look like they have gone a huge way to addressing that.

[Sexual Ealing]

It’s been said before, but consider that we are without Grealish, Axel and been forced to play Chester half fit for two months. Couple that with the fact it wasn’t his team to start with.

Its his team as soon as he signed his contract at Villa Park and Smith's job is to get the best out of resources at his disposal

Sorry, Im not buying that argument at all nor did I when Bruce came in first

I actually agree with you on this point. What's uncertain us what 'the best' looks like with these players.

More broadly though, you strike me as a man that's never bought an argument in his life!

[Lastfootstamper]

It was talented, once upon a time. Now it's just old. Of the 18 last night, Hutton, Taylor, Elphick, Jedinak, Adomah, Whelan, Elmohamady and Bjarnason are all over 30. Kodjia gets there later this year. People eagerly anticipate the return of another in Chester. And we wonder why we couldn't maintain Smith's high tempo pressing game...

[Ads]

We have big support home and away. We have zero patience though and are probably amongst the quickest to turn in a game. That's a pressure maybe some of them steuggle with.

The issue with the squad is the deficiency in key areas that are critical to a fast paced, quick presing game. The full backs are desperate and the midfield is dire.

Grealish and McGinn are very good. Carroll may well prove to be the accurate string puller we need, but Hourihane cannt make a long pass, cannot track or tackle. Whelan and Jedinak are slower than tectonic plates, Landsbury is never fit and BB is just poor.

We're reaping the benefit of Bruce and RDM awful recruitment policy. We can see what Smith is trying to do and how we need to re-shape. But the form has dropped and we're only playing in fits and starts.

We demolished a side top of the league in 15 minutes. Just a pity they were 3 nil up at the time. To be able to do that and have the mental strength to do that does bode well.

But what we're doing selection wise isn't working.

[gpbarr]

From the moment you step into just about any job you are judged.

Why should football management be any different.

Any failed manager (and I am by no means saying that applies to DS) can point to a myriad of excuses. Not signing the players you wanted or having a squad just to your liking usually feature high on that list.

But the better managers find a way.

They get results in trying circumstances and bring just enough success to give themselves that bit of security early on.

He has known since he took the job (and probably before it, with his Villa connections)  that this is a talented squad. One of the most talented in the division personnel-wise. But it is unbalanced. And we are ropey defensively. Mings apart, the incoming deals don't look like they have gone a huge way to addressing that.

But it isn’t one of the most talented in the league - that’s been proven for three seasons now. It’s old, lazy, and selfish. As Chris said, judging any manager before he has had a chance to stamp his authority, get his coaching across, and upgrade talent is fools gold

[Neil Hawkes]

It’s been said before, but consider that we are without Grealish, Axel and been forced to play Chester half fit for two months. Couple that with the fact it wasn’t his team to start with.

Its his team as soon as he signed his contract at Villa Park and Smith's job is to get the best out of resources at his disposal

Sorry, Im not buying that argument at all nor did I when Bruce came in first

Surely you have just contradicted yourself - Bruce could not get a tune out of his team, when Jack & Axel were fit and playing - DS has not been able to get a consistent tune out of most of the Bruce team, when Jack & Axel were injured & Chester was playing with an injury.
Criticism is only constructive with an alternative proposal, otherwise it just comes across as "fix it, but I have no idea what with" attitude.
I'm waiting for the majority of the team to be his chosen players, before I cast judgement.

[KevinGage]

From the moment you step into just about any job you are judged.

Why should football management be any different.

Any failed manager (and I am by no means saying that applies to DS) can point to a myriad of excuses. Not signing the players you wanted or having a squad just to your liking usually feature high on that list.

But the better managers find a way.

They get results in trying circumstances and bring just enough success to give themselves that bit of security early on.

He has known since he took the job (and probably before it, with his Villa connections)  that this is a talented squad. One of the most talented in the division personnel-wise. But it is unbalanced. And we are ropey defensively. Mings apart, the incoming deals don't look like they have gone a huge way to addressing that.

But it isn’t one of the most talented in the league - that’s been proven for three seasons now. It’s old, lazy, and selfish. As Chris said, judging any manager before he has had a chance to stamp his authority, get his coaching across, and upgrade talent is fools gold

Sorry, but I didn't look at that Sheff Utd side (or the Wigan side or the Swansea side or any other side who've put three goals past us recently) and felt we'd be doing well to keep the score down.

If our squad isn't inferior to those sides (and it isn't) then the bloke charged with finding the right blend to beat them has to share some of the responsibility when we don't.

[sirlordbaltimore]

There have been a LOT of our supporters piping on about us having the best squad in the league for three seasons now. And to my mind it's been solely based on what we've spent not the actual players talent. We haven't had a decent team once in all that time to my eyes. We've had some great moments and it's been a weirdly enjoyable ride at times but we've never looked like a proper team consistently.

There will be VERY few clubs in this league casting an envious eye over the likes of Taylor, Hutton, Jedinak, Whelan, Hourihane, Kodjia, Elmo, Lansbury, Bjanason etc. They're all just very very bog standard footballers even at this level.

Last night on the way home from the match in a desperate search for some radio thoughts on the match we came across Talksport and the two Mikes or whatever it's called. By the time they eventually got around to taking some callers an absolute weapon (claiming to be a Villa supporter) came on and the first words out of his gob we're 'we're Aston Villa, we won the European Cup' for which he got thoroughly ridiculed and rightly so.

Unbelievable. We have too many of these supporters who just haven't moved on and realised it's no longer 1982. I'm of that vintage and i don't feel the need to keep banging on about it like it's somehow relevant at all in this day and age. It beggars belief people still bang on about it.

You can't compare now to then or expect it to mean anything to anyone outside of B6 under the age of 40.

The club you support is the one you watched last night. Deal with it and stop living on past glories. Nobody is interested.

[sickbeggar]

I'm in the "actually our squad is bobbins" group. We fell well short our first season down here, last season was due almost entirely to players not here anymore, injured or now well over the hill, so yeah we're about where our squad warrants atm with Grealish and Tuanzebe missing

[Chris Smith]

From the moment you step into just about any job you are judged.

Why should football management be any different.

Any failed manager (and I am by no means saying that applies to DS) can point to a myriad of excuses. Not signing the players you wanted or having a squad just to your liking usually feature high on that list.

But the better managers find a way.

They get results in trying circumstances and bring just enough success to give themselves that bit of security early on.

He has known since he took the job (and probably before it, with his Villa connections)  that this is a talented squad. One of the most talented in the division personnel-wise. But it is unbalanced. And we are ropey defensively. Mings apart, the incoming deals don't look like they have gone a huge way to addressing that.

But it isn’t one of the most talented in the league - that’s been proven for three seasons now. It’s old, lazy, and selfish. As Chris said, judging any manager before he has had a chance to stamp his authority, get his coaching across, and upgrade talent is fools gold

Sorry, but I didn't look at that Sheff Utd side (or the Wigan side or the Swansea side or any other side who've put three goals past us recently) and felt we'd be doing well to keep the score down.

If our squad isn't inferior to those sides (and it isn't) then the bloke charged with finding the right blend to beat them has to share some of the responsibility when we don't.

The squad is a collection of players rather than a coherent entity. That is why we see such marked inconsistency which last night encapsulated perfectly. Terrible for long periods but then irresistible for the final few minutes. This is a mess of years in the making and it is naive to imagine it can be fixed in a matter of months.

[luke95]

Last night on the way home from the match in a desperate search for some radio thoughts on the match we came across Talksport and the two Mikes or whatever it's called. By the time they eventually got around to taking some callers an absolute weapon (claiming to be a Villa supporter) came on and the first words out of his gob we're 'we're Aston Villa, we won the European Cup' for which he got thoroughly ridiculed and rightly so.

Unbelievable. We have too many of these supporters who just haven't moved on and realised it's no longer 1982. I'm of that vintage and i don't feel the need to keep banging on about it like it's somehow relevant at all in this day and age. It beggars belief people still bang on about it.

You can't compare now to then or expect it to mean anything to anyone outside of B6 under the age of 40.

The club you support is the one you watched last night. Deal with it and stop living on past glories. Nobody is interested.

I agree on this ,  Time a lot of our fan base realised we're no longer the club we once were & lowered their expectations

[Lastfootstamper]

From the moment you step into just about any job you are judged.

Why should football management be any different.

Any failed manager (and I am by no means saying that applies to DS) can point to a myriad of excuses. Not signing the players you wanted or having a squad just to your liking usually feature high on that list.

But the better managers find a way.

They get results in trying circumstances and bring just enough success to give themselves that bit of security early on.

He has known since he took the job (and probably before it, with his Villa connections)  that this is a talented squad. One of the most talented in the division personnel-wise. But it is unbalanced. And we are ropey defensively. Mings apart, the incoming deals don't look like they have gone a huge way to addressing that.

But it isn’t one of the most talented in the league - that’s been proven for three seasons now. It’s old, lazy, and selfish. As Chris said, judging any manager before he has had a chance to stamp his authority, get his coaching across, and upgrade talent is fools gold

Sorry, but I didn't look at that Sheff Utd side (or the Wigan side or the Swansea side or any other side who've put three goals past us recently) and felt we'd be doing well to keep the score down.

If our squad isn't inferior to those sides (and it isn't) then the bloke charged with finding the right blend to beat them has to share some of the responsibility when we don't.

But it is. They're showing week after week that they're incapable of playing a brand of football as it's now widely practiced, even in this division. Bobbins virtually to a man.

[dave.woodhall]

The individuals are good enough. The team isn't.

[jwarry]

I think it’s safe to say Dean knows where  the problems are and that the players are not good enough. He managed to get a keeper and CB but could t secure a LB. he knows midfield is a problem and tried to get two in in Carroll and Fer.  Yes he’s struggling to get a tune out of them now but let’s face it, we still have too many weak links so I don’t buy the squad is god enough argument