Dean Smith - Confirmed

[PeterWithe]

The issue is that with a lot of teams playing with one up front, the non marking defenders have to push into midfield to prevent you being outnumbered there, our defenders, presumably through lack of experence or confidence, havent looked comfortable on the ball. I think its a pretty simple diagnosis, we just bought players who werent quite ready to play in the PL every week.

[DB]

He needs to do something as we look pretty shit. Even if he changes the system or approach, bottom line is the team is just not good enough. Someone said last year's team could beat this season's, I can see that. The money spent has hardly shown any difference in quality.

[chrisw1]

One thing I dont get is when we went to five at the back earlier in the season, we looked a bit a bit more solid and better going forward. It was soon ditched for some reason.

Didn't it get found out pretty quickly?

[chrisw1]

I dont think it was a bad move to appoint him at all, his Brentford teams played with aggressive purposeful tactics and were constantly on the front foot, thats why we went for him. When iterviewed and he talks about tactics there is clearly knowledge and method there. Its puzzling why this year we have been abandoned that for a dull defensive style that looks both alien to the players and is utterly ineffective.

To be fair I think we started the season trying to play the right way, it's just individual errors caught us out time and again.  With McGinns loss of form and then subsequent injury we just didn't have the personnel to carry it off.  As the season's gone on and the pressure has grown we've just moved to a safety first backs against the wall type of approach.  Unfortuanely we don't have the players to carry off that type of 'all hands to the pump' type performance.  We're too nice, not physically strong enough and just seem to lack the nouse and gyle to manage games like Watford do.

[Axl Rose]

Watching some interviews this morning with Dean stating that we played well.

The mind boggles.

It's so frustrating mate, especially as Dean Smith is not a moron. But there is clearly some sort of stubborn, shithouse psychology that infects every manager we've ever had when they get to the point where they are objectively failing at their jobs.

Invariably they will oversee a useless team performance like that one yesterday and still come out afterwards praising the team, defending the performance/tactics, essentially giving a completely different account of the game than what anyone else saw - or, indeed, what the facts suggest. =<26% possession at home against Chelsea is simply indefensible. I'd maybe expect that against the best teams in the world, but never Lampard's boys.

It's hard to know what's going through a manager's mind when he's intent on defending shite like that. To what end? What benefit is it to him to say things like "They've done everything I asked of them", "I thought we played really well" when that only further underlines a manager's incompetence? If we can all label those comments for what they are - problematic at best - I do not understand how an intelligent man like Smith thinks it's the best policy.

A manager who wanted to remain in the real world while retaining the fans' backing would surely say something along the lines of "We know we've let people down today, we need to put our best foot forward at this point, there are 8 games left so we still have time to right the wrongs we saw out there today. We need to be more positive and have more courage and we'll look to do that on Wednesday."

I said it about Jack's performance in his thread but I can echo the same thing about Dean here: you'd honestly never know, on the basis of the last two games, that he was a proud Villa man fighting for the club's survival. If anything - judging by his body language and his words - it seems as if he's just not that bothered. It's almost Brucian.

Well said mate, and spot on.

It's painful to watch, as it has been for what seems like most of the season.

Dean looks as if he's given up. But then again, with his arms folded and usual gormless expression, he may well have given up long ago.

[kippaxvilla2]

The problems are all over the pitch.

The goalkeeper situation has been a problem for years.  Nyland can be brilliant but can be calamatous.  Steer always injured. The answer, sign a 37 year old has been who has hardly played for Milan in God knows how long.  In my absent mindedness I forgot Heaton.  But again injury prone. 

Right back Elmo is okay when it is him.  Guilbert seems to me to be a typical injury prone sulk - although admittedly he has had his good games.

Left Back - Targett.  One paced, overweight as well as lightweight if that is possible.

Centre Backs - Mings, best one we have and a colossus on his day but prone to losses of concentration.
Konsa - he will get there I think, but too much of a gamble to bring him in as a regular PL starter.
Engels - started off brilliantly, then totally tailed off - and as for Spurs Jeez.

Midfield - Luiz - very good and getting better.  So there is a plus point.
Nakamba - prone to the gaffe and monumentally slow.
McGinn - obviously a plus point but hopelessly off the pace at the moment.
Trez - occasional important goal, but offers no pace whatsoever a real luxury we cannot afford.
Grealish - brilliant but almost half as effective when consistently played out of position.
Hourihane - love his attitude but he is a good championship player.

Forwards
Davis - Great target man, never a consistent goal scorer.
Samatta - Seems lost when playing on his own.  Just play the two of the together!
Wesley - wtf knows but he was largely shit before the injury.

[Axl Rose]

Basically our squad isn't very good.

[LeeB]

I dont think it was a bad move to appoint him at all, his Brentford teams played with aggressive purposeful tactics and were constantly on the front foot, thats why we went for him. When iterviewed and he talks about tactics there is clearly knowledge and method there. Its puzzling why this year we have been abandoned that for a dull defensive style that looks both alien to the players and is utterly ineffective.

To be fair I think we started the season trying to play the right way, it's just individual errors caught us out time and again.  With McGinns loss of form and then subsequent injury we just didn't have the personnel to carry it off.  As the season's gone on and the pressure has grown we've just moved to a safety first backs against the wall type of approach.  Unfortuanely we don't have the players to carry off that type of 'all hands to the pump' type performance.  We're too nice, not physically strong enough and just seem to lack the nouse and gyle to manage games like Watford do.

I agree with all of this, except I don't think we've consciously moved to the backs to the wall approach, it's just the result of poor play.

[Risso]

The problems are all over the pitch.

The goalkeeper situation has been a problem for years.  Nyland can be brilliant but can be calamatous.  Steer always injured. The answer, sign a 37 year old has been who has hardly played for Milan in God knows how long.  In my absent mindedness I forgot Heaton.  But again injury prone. 

Right back Elmo is okay when it is him.  Guilbert seems to me to be a typical injury prone sulk - although admittedly he has had his good games.

Left Back - Targett.  One paced, overweight as well as lightweight if that is possible.

Centre Backs - Mings, best one we have and a colossus on his day but prone to losses of concentration.
Konsa - he will get there I think, but too much of a gamble to bring him in as a regular PL starter.
Engels - started off brilliantly, then totally tailed off - and as for Spurs Jeez.

Midfield - Luiz - very good and getting better.  So there is a plus point.
Nakamba - prone to the gaffe and monumentally slow.
McGinn - obviously a plus point but hopelessly off the pace at the moment.
Trez - occasional important goal, but offers no pace whatsoever a real luxury we cannot afford.
Grealish - brilliant but almost half as effective when consistently played out of position.
Hourihane - love his attitude but he is a good championship player.

Forwards
Davis - Great target man, never a consistent goal scorer.
Samatta - Seems lost when playing on his own.  Just play the two of the together!
Wesley - wtf knows but he was largely shit before the injury.

Agree with that mate, but Davis isn't even an occasional goal scorer, let alone a consistent one!

[kippaxvilla2]

I was trying to be kind to him.

[cdbearsfan]

One thing I dont get is when we went to five at the back earlier in the season, we looked a bit a bit more solid and better going forward. It was soon ditched for some reason.

Because five at the back is terrible. Our problem is we don't have enough attacking options to scare the opposition so they can attack us at will. Bringing in another defender would make things even worse.

[Clampy]

One thing I dont get is when we went to five at the back earlier in the season, we looked a bit a bit more solid and better going forward. It was soon ditched for some reason.

Because five at the back is terrible. Our problem is we don't have enough attacking options to scare the opposition so they can attack us at will. Bringing in another defender would make things even worse.

We barely touched the ball in the first half hour yesterday so I don't think trying it again could be any worse, especially if it meant playing Jack in a free role behind the forward and a wing back to cross a ball in.

[Mister E]

To be fair I think we started the season trying to play the right way, it's just individual errors caught us out time and again.  With McGinns loss of form and then subsequent injury we just didn't have the personnel to carry it off.  As the season's gone on and the pressure has grown we've just moved to a safety first backs against the wall type of approach.  Unfortuanely we don't have the players to carry off that type of 'all hands to the pump' type performance.  We're too nice, not physically strong enough and just seem to lack the nouse and gyle to manage games like Watford do.

I'd add that we do not have the pace and resilience to use the ball when we do win it back in defence. We saw with Bruce and we're seeing it again: if the strategy is defend and hope for a break, we need players who can break quickly, decisively and with real menace.
We got c.20% possession yesterday because we do not have the players to make use of the ball when it is in our possession.

[cdbearsfan]

One thing I dont get is when we went to five at the back earlier in the season, we looked a bit a bit more solid and better going forward. It was soon ditched for some reason.

Because five at the back is terrible. Our problem is we don't have enough attacking options to scare the opposition so they can attack us at will. Bringing in another defender would make things even worse.

We barely touched the ball in the first half hour yesterday so I don't think trying it again could be any worse, especially if it meant playing Jack in a free role behind the forward and a wing back to cross a ball in.

No, no, no. Five at the back is hideously boring. It's the Muse of defensive formations. Just no.

4-2-2-2 is the way to go. Four at the back with wing backs bombing forwards (probably means Gilbo or Elmo in for Ezri Pound), two from SJM, Dougvaldo and Marvelous in the middle, Jack playing all over the place, El Ghazi alternating wings (we have loads of subs so no harm him running himself into the ground), and two up front.

[David_Nab]

You can't defend and sit on edge of your box to counter when you lack pace in side

It's Newcastle's current tactic but they have pace in Almiron and Sant-Max so they can get away with it ...we hit it to Davis long and no one can catch up to support.Whats annoying is we have one brief moment yesterday where we go the ball down and played and looked better , i think it ended with Jack messing up a pass but at least we tried.Rest of game was literally wack the ball away as hard as you can it was a shambles..at one point Nyland kicked it straight back to to their keeper with a long kick.

Chelsea are not even that good at the back either thats whats so annoying !

For Girouds goal we had 8 men plus the keeper in our own box , which ended up helping him as the shot for going to Nyland before the deflection from Conner.We had 9 inc Keeper in area to their 5 and they still scored ..so if Dean thinks thats good play ...he is beyond help