Dean Smith - Confirmed

[villa `cross the mersey]

The most depressing aspect about a depressing day yesterday was Dean Smith's post match comments that players had failed to respond to his half time demands.  Even accepting modern conditions of the players being incredibly rich and insulated from reality by agents and handlers, the managers and coaches are powerless if players simply refuse to follow instructions.

Dean Smith must be allowed to buy the players he chooses.  They will be his players to play the way he wants them to play. No short term gap plugging with old, slow, stubborn journeymen players.  No building the future on the shifting sands of loan deals.  He must be given however long it takes to buy and have under long term control the players he identifies.  There is no quick, easy answer to our problems if we are to rise to become secure in the Premiership.

Spot on Brian ....how many other "industries" are there where the "workers"  pick up considerably more than their manager?
Smith needs time ....lots of it ,but will the fans be patient enough?
I am hearing that Purslow is being ruthless  in his approach to sorting the mess out - he seems to be reasonably content that we don't "need" promotion this year - we shall have to wait and see
But you know the world has gone mad when Bournemouth who can only accommodate a few thousand in their ground can go out and spend £19m on a player from Liverpool

[footyskillz]

The Smith signing was a settlement signing rather that a statement one.

The route taken can be dressed up as long term build which I hope occurs .

However there is a certain degree of just keeping things content and being a championship club for the foreseeable.

I'm concerned that Purslow hoodwinked us and marketing things as a long term vision when it's a dumbing down and will have to make do with smaller status .

Bringing in Smith appeased everyone no one gonna moan having him head coach .
Similarly having JT as a coach

That Purslow character saying promotion isn't necessary says it all as does taking a coach who worked with small budgets and developing players.

I again question JT role and the go between players and staff.
He's new to coaching and that inexperience seems to be showing.

It's also all a bit cheaper and it's showing .
Given time and whole new squad Smith may have a chance .
I starting to think with this squad and season 'success' won't happen as Smith needs to get his authority over to the players .

Really there is no way the squad should be performing like that if the coaching was being taken on board and Smith had the respect of an established career or coaching career.

I think some of the players aren't embracing his methods and I'm not saying as such Smith is small time or am I saying that the players are big time but there now seems a major issue in the squad playing the way Smith wants.

That's disappointing all round.

I just don't want us slipping down in status to being seen as a less desirable club .

Biggest in championship and have premier league competitive potential let's hope Smith can get the players performing sooner rather than later .
What will help is getting in his own players or ones who didn't play so much under old regime.

[Bad English]

What do you think we need footyskillz? A couple of big defenders, maybe? Two or three hard midfielders and a thrusting striker?

[Ads]

Purslow says promotion isn't necessary in the context of FFP.

[Nunkin1965]

This Thread still about Dean?

Or the Swansea  match ?

DS had little choices but ... imo.... mis-stepped in his selections v Swansea 

BOT

Dean - imo - is a man without Charisma / Personality or potential media  celebrity 

He's not the image we need to project,,, in fact he's like an
ANTI - MANAGER... like Allardyce / Warnock / Pullis ... the guys that play percentages with HOOFBALL

 Probably another toxic  post from me, BUT my honeymoon is over.....

A Man out of his depth  with the 2nd most expensive team in the Champiionship... what gives ?  ?? ??

Holy fuck.

Jesus

My opinion couldn’t be more opposite to this one.
Dean Smith needs time to sort out this mess.
We don’t need a media “face” we’re not playing in the Premier League now.
A succession of so called managers and owners have left Villa in an an absolute mess.
I’m hoping he gets time because I think he’ll bring  us success with his own team and some patience from us.

[footyskillz]

This Thread still about Dean?

Or the Swansea  match ?

DS had little choices but ... imo.... mis-stepped in his selections v Swansea 

BOT

Dean - imo - is a man without Charisma / Personality or potential media  celebrity 

He's not the image we need to project,,, in fact he's like an
ANTI - MANAGER... like Allardyce / Warnock / Pullis ... the guys that play percentages with HOOFBALL

 Probably another toxic  post from me, BUT my honeymoon is over.....

A Man out of his depth  with the 2nd most expensive team in the Champiionship... what gives ?  ?? ??

Holy fuck.

He's a calm character who is a villa man.

He's not established in the sense that as a player and coach so far he never been top level.

However he very genuine and focused in his coaching methods and that's a great thing

The issue could well be his understanding that players who are a step above what he previously worked with won't just simply do what he says because most of them are already established developed players.

Smithy is excellent at developing players and is clear in his he wants his team to play.

Authority wise with the current squad is the main concern more than any charismatic or personality in media .

I would think some players wonder why Bruce who is respected in the game replaced .

It's a new direction the club have taken but after initial honeymoon Smith is struggling to get his ideas across with this team .

I think once he builds he's own squad -villa and could progress massively.
He's in his element at villa and needs players who will play his way, for the club and move forward.

I think players who have been coached since they were 5 or 6 years old and now having to do as they are told in developing is a stark contrast to the Bruce methods as well as them all being made players

[Roysmert]

Some of the whinging about Smith is amazing. He's got one player that he has been involved in signing so far, got an awful injury crisis in that three or four really influential players are out and inherited one of the most ill balanced and lacking depth squads I can remember at Villa park. He's lost 2 of 12, one in the cup, and has all the Abraham crap to deal with on top. He needs years, not weeks to be judged on.

Totally agree jim. Dean Smith has inherited a disjointed beyond belief squad, a sub-standard u23 squad, a goalkeeper that is frightened of the ball, an attitude amongst the players that they have the control, a malaise that's dogged our club for a decade, and a set of fans that have become used to shit football and moaning about it. He ain't half got his hands full.

[footyskillz]

What do you think we need footyskillz? A couple of big defenders, maybe? Two or three hard midfielders and a thrusting striker?

Ball players quite simply.
As well as the energy and legs in the engine room and central defence players who will embrace Smith way .
JT hopefully has some agreement in centre half ideas both played as defenders but need dominant centre backs who can step into midfield

Flexible players who can play couple of positions .
Not trying out Jedinak late on in his career but a Eric Dier / Javier Mascherno who can play centre back or midfield.

Bruce signed McGinn for the energy level and getting some legs .
He signed attacking players too just so we both be entertained with potential for goals .

At least Smith has an idea on how to play but trouble is he needs the technicians and energy in midfield that currently missing .

He needs ball players and carriers both there and defence .

Moulding squad is difficult in some respects  for a variety of reasons .
The system he prefers doesn't totally suit players at disposal .
Other reason can be speculated or as I have alluded to previously as have others.

[curiousorange]

I don't think the Smith appointment was settling at all.

[footyskillz]

The three up front need to be interchangeable and it's interesting that Tammy Abraham said he prefers playing left than central

Do we have the players for the Smith type midfield then a front 3 in the Smith way with wide forwards not wingers  -no we don't.

We don't have a deep lying ball playing midfielder and our center backs aren't super comfortable on the ball.

It's not only a disjointed unbalanced squad in some respects who ever took over - top heavy with attackers . But it's s super disjointed squad to Smith style of play which is a cause for concern

[curiousorange]

I want us to be brilliant straight away, like everybody. But we seem to be damning the bloke based on his last half dozen games and ignoring his first half dozen. This is his first major crisis at a big club and he'll be anxious about it too, and keen to fix it. We need to see how he reacts before deciding he's failing.

How many false starts has that bloke at Norwich had? Or the chap that got Huddersfield into the Prem?

[Diablo]

If he keeps playing Whelan he will have supporters offside this is the one selection that has me baffled Whelan is the total opposite of the way I thought he would have Villa playing. Although his record is solid since he took over the squad this selection has me worried that the pressure is starting to get to him.

I think he decided Whelan needed to try to offer some protection to the defence as we had 3 right backs playing and an injured centre back and a poor goal keeper, the problem is whilst he does offer a degree of protection to the back 5 and he has played quite well in parts it throws the whole balance of the team - but I think it was more/is a case of needs must.

[pauliewalnuts]

I want us to be brilliant straight away, like everybody. But we seem to be damning the bloke based on his last half dozen games and ignoring his first half dozen. This is his first major crisis at a big club and he'll be anxious about it too, and keen to fix it. We need to see how he reacts before deciding he's failing.

How many false starts has that bloke at Norwich had? Or the chap that got Huddersfield into the Prem?

Yesterday was beyond dreadful, but I'd rather it happened in the cup than the league (yes, yes I know).

DS is not beyond criticism but drawing more from that than it being a bad day at this stage would be grotesquely unfair.

[pauliewalnuts]

Having said that, Hutton at centre half FFS?





;-)

[Clampy]

Having said that, Hutton at centre half FFS?





;-)

I found that interesting yesterday because I've always wondered if he could do a job at centre half. Personally, I'd have left him out, and played Bree there and Elmo right back.