Dean Smith - Confirmed

[ChicagoLion]

Agree with all of that John E.

[260475]

Wonder if smiths tempted to make a move for Sturridge to end of season now he has terminated his contract

Whilst I was against signing him in the window, as I thought we could get better ( and hopefully we have), I think it’s a no brainier now as we have nothing to lose. Pay him a small wage with a “ prove yourself for 2 months” attitude. Even if we bring him off the bench in situations like yesterday ?

I frequently read that players 'need a pre-season' to get up to speed, (or if like DD half a season if they were signed in January?), so I doubt that a frequently injured  >30 yo who hasn't played since who knows when is going to do it. Unless of course you put them on for the 90-95 minute scrambles in the box that we might need to work.

[paul_e]

On the shots thing I think the big difference is that 10 of their chances were from the edge of the box or further and we blocked 8 of them. Even when they got shots away we put so much pressure on that they only hit the target 4 times, that's a massive improvement on the last couple of games.

[brontebilly]

the team did better yesterday because he picked our best players

we are second from bottom so we all know every player is capable of mistakes and they all make them
the reason a back 4 is better than a back 5 is because it uses our best two central defenders,
i'm sorry but Konsa and Hause arnt good enough footballers for the prem,

also its to defensive minded, and Smith is apparently all about taking it to the opposition,
difficult against Man City when you haven't got the ball much but in the final run in we need to be all about winning

Engels, Guilbert, Target, Nakamba, Luiz, Samata, Wesley, Davis our the future of the club whether we stay up or go down

6 of them new to this league,
they are all good players but do make mistakes and have bad games sometimes awful ones, never the less they will improve unlike their replacements Taylor, Lansbury, Drinkwater, Hourahane, Hause, Elmo who are back ups at best,
Conor Elmo and Hause decent enough back ups, but back ups none the less

that starting line up yesterday with Mcginn in for Elmo is the best we got imo and good enough if our attitude is right to give me hope of staying up
maybe juggling Ghazi, Trez and Davis around up front to see what works best is worth having a look at too

i'm not into this horses for courses thing because we haven't got the quality and strength running through the squad like many other prem teams
we need to play our best players in their best positions as often as possible from now till the end of the season
and try and get something like a settled team together and give ourselves a chance of survival

The back four exposes our full backs defensively though. Particularly Targett who was hopeless yesterday, in the first half particularly. AEG put in a bit more of a shift in the second half defensively that helped him. But this was a problem that was exposed by opponents earlier in the season hence the switch to a back five.

A harder working midfield would help but despite Elmo's best efforts yesterday that's not really a solution. McGinn coming back fully fit would hugely help.

[PeterWithe]

Dean can look at the score and think 'job done', we kept it respectable. Sammatta was incredibly isolated up front though, there was never anyone close to him to pick up anything he managed to hold up.

[Demitri_C]

Wonder if smiths tempted to make a move for Sturridge to end of season now he has terminated his contract

Whilst I was against signing him in the window, as I thought we could get better ( and hopefully we have), I think it’s a no brainier now as we have nothing to lose. Pay him a small wage with a “ prove yourself for 2 months” attitude. Even if we bring him off the bench in situations like yesterday ?

Apparently we cant sign him until summer even on a free as window is shut.

Strange for him to terminate the move if he cant sign for anyone

[Smithy]

On the shots thing I think the big difference is that 10 of their chances were from the edge of the box or further and we blocked 8 of them. Even when they got shots away we put so much pressure on that they only hit the target 4 times, that's a massive improvement on the last couple of games.

Indeed. If you look at City's stats for their games going back to their win at VP, they average over 20 shots a game (the lowest is 19). Hell, they had more shots in their draw against palace than in the win against us! Man City take a lot of shots, that's what they do.  So when people are complaining we "let them" get 20-odd shots at goal, like we normally do, I think it's a bit unfair.  The fact that Nyland didn't have to really make any big saves is telling.

[Clampy]

On the shots thing I think the big difference is that 10 of their chances were from the edge of the box or further and we blocked 8 of them. Even when they got shots away we put so much pressure on that they only hit the target 4 times, that's a massive improvement on the last couple of games.

Indeed. If you look at City's stats for their games going back to their win at VP, they average over 20 shots a game (the lowest is 19). Hell, they had more shots in their draw against palace than in the win against us! Man City take a lot of shots, that's what they do.  So when people are complaining we "let them" get 20-odd shots at goal, like we normally do, I think it's a bit unfair.  The fact that Nyland didn't have to really make any big saves is telling.

He made a decent one towards the end from an header which was going in..

[PeterWithe]

And the one with his feet from De Bruyne at the end

[paul_e]

Which is both shots on target they didn't score from.

Aside from those I can't think of any that went wide which were worrying or where you'd say they should've done better.

[Mister E]

For the first time in a long time I actually thought we defended well yesterday.

I think on a whole you are correct but we still conceeded 2 horrible goals.

The killer crossfield pass to Foden was successful for Citeh mainly because of Targett's ball-watching; a habit that also cost us in other games this season (Spuds, for one, IIRC?). Yesterday, our 2 fullbacks seemed to be almost too tucked-in, leaving Foden and Sterling loads of space.

[Drummond]

Targett had a tough time in the first half particularly but it appeared to me that he was asked to play quite narrow, as such it gave Foden more time to receive and play the ball.

[Risso]

I can't believe we actually paid what we did for Targett.  He's mostly fine, and an upgrade on Taylor, but as soon as he's up against any sort of pace or skill, he struggles badly.

[john e]

I can't believe we actually paid what we did for Targett.  He's mostly fine, and an upgrade on Taylor, but as soon as he's up against any sort of pace or skill, he struggles badly.

What did we pay for him ?

[Risso]

Reportedly, £14m plus a potential further £3m.