Dean Smith - Confirmed

[N'ZMAV]

The price rises to £17m with add-ons.

wouldn't worry about those

[Risso]

when was the last time we bought someone at, or close to, the height of their powers?

Lots of times, it's just that the height of their powers turned out not to be very high.

[john e]

And as for Targett being dreadful - given the players picked at LB in recent seasons, he is far from the worst we have had there.

Great, £14m and the best defence anybody can muster is that Targett isn't as bad as Tony Moon.

The price rises to £17m with add-ons.

Targets the least of our problems

in fact the back 4 of Guilbert Mings Engels Target when they are all fit and play together are as good a defence as we have had for a good few years imo

bigger problems for me are-

front 3 of Wesley Ghazi Trez all showing little and is very concerning I’ve said before if we go down they will be the main reason

Grealish playing wide is just ridiculous and doesn’t help Smiths case in any way

McGinn Grealish in centre mid is good when they don’t play or play elsewhere we struggle
all the calls to rest McGinn were fucking stupid imo,
 Watford is what you get without him and Grealish wide

so the only Prem players we have in my view are-

Heaton, Guilbert Mings Engels Grealish McGinn

Maybe Marvo and Luiz will get there I have hopes for them
that’s a good 6 out of 11 but obviously they get injured and we are weakened when we overload to many of the others in the team

there’s not a lot we can do about it only buy more prem quality players in the window
rebuilding is what we have been doing for a while and the wheels have come of a bit but when we get the injured back and a few new additions we can get rolling again

just hope it’s not to late by then

[Rudy Can't Fail]

The price rises to £17m with add-ons.

wouldn't worry about those

Yup, he'll be replaced in the summer.

[ChicagoLion]

I agree regarding the defense being ok but it is the midfield that is the biggest problem.
Jack and SJM wasted by playing too deep and SJM trying to do too much defensively and reducing his impact offensively.
There is not a combination of Marvelous Luiz Connor that provides any cover defensively.
The idea Of posting 2 of the forwards wide and then Wes through the middle is obviously not working.
So a combination of players not quite good enough compounded by poor deployment gets you 3rd bottom.

[Drummond]

Going down would clearly be a disaster and I find the attitude of rather go down and keep Dean than stay up without him utterly bizarre.

I'm not sure anyone has said that.

I cannot believe you lot are onto this thread.

I'd rather go down with Smith than sack him, to be honest - and I'm confident the club share that mentality.

If you've paid attention to any of Purslow's interviews, you'd know that we've begun a long-term project, with Smith at the heart of it.

We need some key additions in January and a plan B, not another several years of managerial roundabout.

Well said.

Agreed
I bought into the long term project idea because I was fed up of Aston Villa being on the bloody managerial merry go round for years on end.

There's three.

No. They say they'd rather go down with Smith than sack him. Not that they'd prefer that to staying up with another manager.

There's a big difference.

I wish our defence could move the goalposts as well as that...

Sorry you didn't understand the original argument, I thought it was pretty clear.

[Drummond]

And as for Targett being dreadful - given the players picked at LB in recent seasons, he is far from the worst we have had there.

Great, £14m and the best defence anybody can muster is that Targett isn't as bad as Tony Moon.

The price rises to £17m with add-ons.

all the calls to rest McGinn were fucking stupid imo,
 Watford is what you get without him and Grealish wide

He wasn't playing very well, had played a lot and needed a rest. Then we find out he was injured too.

I'm not sure why you think those calls were stupid.

Would you have just played him until he was run into the ground and/or badly injured?

[Risso]

Wouodnyiubhavebjustbokay3dnhim until he was run into the ground and/or badly injured?

You're starting to worry me now.

[Drummond]

Oh, too quick Riss.

[john e]

And as for Targett being dreadful - given the players picked at LB in recent seasons, he is far from the worst we have had there.

Great, £14m and the best defence anybody can muster is that Targett isn't as bad as Tony Moon.

The price rises to £17m with add-ons.

all the calls to rest McGinn were fucking stupid imo,
 Watford is what you get without him and Grealish wide

He wasn't playing very well, had played a lot and needed a rest. Then we find out he was injured too.

I'm not sure why you think those calls were stupid.

Would you have just played him until he was run into the ground and/or badly injured?

I didn’t think he was playing as badly as you seem to

he was still the second best midfielder we had in most games even when he wasn’t playing well as you say

we are in a relegation scrap
We need every one of our best players on the pitch every time we play if possible
loads of players carry knocks I remember Carragher saying he can’t ever remember playing without some sort of niggle

you start resting McGinn and you got no chance of staying up

Anyway you got your wish now he’ll be back raring to go hopefully
I’d still prefer him out there even if he wasn’t on top form to be honest

[ChicagoLion]

If you see what SJM has been doing and where he has been running you see he has been closing chasing and filling in defensively.
So I don’t subscribe to the idea he was playing badly but without doubt we are not getting the best out of him and again it’s back to the system and deployment.

[old man villa fan]

I’m on the fence with whether DS stays or goes as I can see it clearly from both angles. What I don’t get is what are these changes that they expect Dean to implement that will turn around performances and results on the pitch given that he has a clusterfuck of a squad to deal with whilst Mings and SJM are out injured?

I genuinely don’t see any combination of our current midfielders being competitive and our patched up inexperienced defensive lineup is still prone to mistakes (thank fuck for Heaton) and leaking goals...and the less said about our forward options the better given that they are Wes or JK.

I’ve said it before on other threads, but I just don’t think the recruitment has been good enough...Wes, Trez, AEG, Luiz, Marv, Jota and Targett simply aren’t good enough (or need too much time and coaching), and there are question marks over Engels and Konsa...plus the likes of Lansbury that shouldn’t be anywhere near a starting lineup in the PL.

We all sit here astonished by the latest starting XI and we can all criticise the formation, but what players in what formation would actually be capable of getting results at the moment?

I haven't seen any answers to the points you raise in your first and last paragraphs. It's easy to criticise without giving an alternative.

We have a very thin squad and with Mings and SJM out injured and Wesley not scoring/creating, there does not appear to be solutions in the squad. Even with the players we brought in, it only generally covered a 1st Team and when you get down to the likes of Lansbury, you are struggling.

The squad being thin, has resulted in us only being able to play one way, particularly after injuries started to hit.

The alternatives options open to the manager, I'm still waiting to read on this or other threads.

[Risso]

Lots of people have suggested different line ups and formations. No way of knowing if they’d make a difference of course.

[Clampy]

And as for Targett being dreadful - given the players picked at LB in recent seasons, he is far from the worst we have had there.

Great, £14m and the best defence anybody can muster is that Targett isn't as bad as Tony Moon.

The price rises to £17m with add-ons.

all the calls to rest McGinn were fucking stupid imo,
 Watford is what you get without him and Grealish wide

He wasn't playing very well, had played a lot and needed a rest. Then we find out he was injured too.

I'm not sure why you think those calls were stupid.

Would you have just played him until he was run into the ground and/or badly injured?

I didn’t think he was playing as badly as you seem to

he was still the second best midfielder we had in most games even when he wasn’t playing well as you say

we are in a relegation scrap
We need every one of our best players on the pitch every time we play if possible
loads of players carry knocks I remember Carragher saying he can’t ever remember playing without some sort of niggle

you start resting McGinn and you got no chance of staying up

Anyway you got your wish now he’ll be back raring to go hopefully
I’d still prefer him out there even if he wasn’t on top form to be honest

What do you mean Drummond got his wish? He wanted him to have a breather for a game or two (which may have done the injury he was carrying some good), not get injured for three months. What a silly comment.

[john e]

And as for Targett being dreadful - given the players picked at LB in recent seasons, he is far from the worst we have had there.

Great, £14m and the best defence anybody can muster is that Targett isn't as bad as Tony Moon.

The price rises to £17m with add-ons.

all the calls to rest McGinn were fucking stupid imo,
 Watford is what you get without him and Grealish wide

He wasn't playing very well, had played a lot and needed a rest. Then we find out he was injured too.

I'm not sure why you think those calls were stupid.

Would you have just played him until he was run into the ground and/or badly injured?

I didn’t think he was playing as badly as you seem to

he was still the second best midfielder we had in most games even when he wasn’t playing well as you say

we are in a relegation scrap
We need every one of our best players on the pitch every time we play if possible
loads of players carry knocks I remember Carragher saying he can’t ever remember playing without some sort of niggle

you start resting McGinn and you got no chance of staying up

Anyway you got your wish now he’ll be back raring to go hopefully
I’d still prefer him out there even if he wasn’t on top form to be honest

What do you mean Drummond got his wish? He wanted him to have a breather for a game or two (which may have done the injury he was carrying some good), not get injured for three months. What a silly comment.

you really do think your clever popping up all over the pace with your little shitty out downs
maybe it was silly but its nothing compared to the total bollocks you've been posting on here the last few years

night and day haranguing of anyone who didn't tow the party line, 100% blind allegiance to Bruceball and all his cohorts making yourself look a right twat day after day,
 only in the end to pretend you never said much when in reality you were living on here challenging anyone and everyone when they posted negative stuff on Bruce for the best part of 3 fucking years

putting people down constantly on the transfer thread for chatting about transfer rumours on a fucking a gossip & transfer speculation thread

your just a H+V troll, mopping around trying to look clever

at least i admit i can be a right twat on here, but if its a fall out you want i will give it to you i'm not one of the vulnerable posters i have seen you bully over the years, then rush over to GM to take the piss out of them or stick the knife


i'm sure you will come back with some clever dicky comments of sudo surprise but i don't give a fuck what you've got to say your posting history on here is all i need to see what you are

Happy New year