Dean Smith - Confirmed

[sid1964]

The thing that disappointed me about Smith last night was the fact that he did not change the system / tactics during the game, if I remember rightly last season when he was Manager of Brentford and we played them at their place, after about 20 minutes of the game he changed tactics early in the game, which helped them beat us.

Maybe he thinks that he does not have the players to do this?

[mr underhill]

Smith is heading the same way as all previous managers in the last nine years.

[colin69]

The football under Dean at the moment is disappointing to say the least.

[Villa75]

I don't think we will have wingers next season. We will have 5 in midfield who will have better energy, pace and ball retention skills than any of these wankers we have now. What Smith is realizing very quickly is that most of these fuckers are worthless and the sooner they are of the books the better.

I agree with you 100% but how many years now have we been saying exactly the same thing?

I know. I suppose my naivety or faith is what I have seen Brentford do to us the last few years and most of tonight. That one day we can be like them...

Be like Brentford. Fuck me.

We're already like Brentford under Smith. What was his win rate there, with "his own players"? 33%? We can't be far off that already.

perhaps that's the peak of his ability, with a bit of fancy football now and again? This isn't Brentford though.

[mr underhill]

two wins in 12 games is shite .

[Three Spires Villa]

You can’t play that system without Jack, yet Dean continues to do so. Just bloody stop it now.

[andyh]

You can’t play that system without Jack, yet Dean continues to do so. Just bloody stop it now.

Well, to be honest, we may as well get used to it. I reckon we have another 10 games or so when Jack comes back and then sadly, we’ll be saying bye.

[Three Spires Villa]

You can’t play that system without Jack, yet Dean continues to do so. Just bloody stop it now.

Well, to be honest, we may as well get used to it. I reckon we have another 10 games or so when Jack comes back and then sadly, we’ll be saying bye.

Here’s a mad, crazy idea, why not try something different? Have a go in training, then try it in a game. I’m sure I saw somewhere something about formations, and playing a system to try and suit your squad, nope sorry, I must have dreamt it. Get a bloody grip Dean !!

[john e]

Maybe saying the players have given up is too blunt. Demotivated? Disenfranchised? Whatever it is it's what professional footballers can do. Look at Man U players during and after Mourinho.

I think Smith is keeping our younger players, Green, Davis, O'Hare out of it until next season, and there will be a massive rebuilding job.

if that’s the master plan he needs to leave right now

I’m all for playing younger players but now is the time to see how they get on

it’s no good experimenting at the start of next season and hoping for the best
start them all now and coach them the way you want them to play that way at least we will have a clue which ones we can go with

right now we haven’t got a lot to lose as we are as bad as at any time I can remember

[mr underhill]

exactly yet more nonsense - its probably because he's selecting players who know they won't be here next season. Smith's now into full on beleaguered manager excuse time.

[Nunkin1965]

The thing that disappointed me about Smith last night was the fact that he did not change the system / tactics during the game, if I remember rightly last season when he was Manager of Brentford and we played them at their place, after about 20 minutes of the game he changed tactics early in the game, which helped them beat us.

Maybe he thinks that he does not have the players to do this?

You could argue that he had coached players to adapt and change mid-game.
Something which seems a bit beyond this lot.

[brian green]

Agree with john e and Mr U.  Where we are now is becoming a Groundhog Eric Black Day.  Now is the time to start to prepare for August.  The starting team for the first game of next season must have NO clapped out old journeymen players running down their careers on big wages, or prima donnas who think they are too good for us or players being shoehorned into positions for which they are not suited or players in the team because they cost a lot of money or players who play to the crowd and have songs sung about them or players carrying injuries or players who claim to be carrying injuries or players with dysfunctional character defects of any kind.  Get a squad of young, keen  fit, healthy, sober, sane, athletic, ambitious players who can play as a team and get it together for the START of the season  not Christmas, not Easter not the season after next.

[AV82EC]

Is it any real surprise we're so shit given the squad Smith inherited from Bruce?! Someone posted something last week which was very true...a lot of ppl on here expect a new manager to come in, sprinkle some magic dust and expect him to turn a load of over paid and over rated shite players into league winner.

When he arrived, we had pretty much a fully fit squad and we certainly had a new manager bounce as Smith was praising the players for how quickly they were learning and adapting to the new style of play...this showed in both performances and results. What happened next has been a load of injuries to some of our best players...Grealish, Axel, Chester...the consequence has been those players have had to be replaced by others that are quite simply not good enough and performances have dropped off a cliff. Add in injuries to Adomah and BB who have come back as even worse versions than they were then it comes as no surprise.

Other than SJM, the best/only options available in midfield are Whelan (old, slow and shite), Hologram (lightweight and shite), Jedinak (old, slow, shite and can't pass), Adomah (never been that good), BB (always been shite), Kodjia (half the player since injured), El Ghazi (one game wonder) and Green (barely played but not shown us too much). These players are either past it, on the way out of the club or just not arsed so it's no wonder why we fail to create anything, we lose possession and it's back to the wall again with a creaking defence.

Speaking of which...Smith was left with one fit CB thanks to Bruce, and a whole host of useless shite as a supporting cast...step forward Hutton, Elmo and Taylor. When the best players in the back line are the recalled Elphick and a loanee from Bournemouth to lead the back line then you know you're in a whole world of shit. The less said about the clusterfuck collection of goalkeepers we have at the club the better.

It's hard to pin the drop in performances on losing Grealish and Axel, but there's no other explanation as to how things can turn to shit so quickly...it's more than just a coincidence that if you put shit players on the pitch to replace them then you end up with a shit team playing shit football. Dean Smith doesn't have any anti-shit magic dust.

Is the correct answer.

[andyh]

Not a single player has improved since Smith took over.
Not a single one.

[Deano's Mullet]

We could be as low as 14th on Saturday. Morale must be shot.