Dean Smith - Confirmed

[Three Spires Villa]

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.

Im not saying he has got magic dust, or anti shit dust, but what he does have is a squad of players, who he could in my humble use better than he has. Im not saying they are great. I am not a manager or a coach, and yes its easy in the stands (well its not actually!!) or in the pub, but try something else, maybe two up front? If we play that system, with the same players I really do not know when we will next win a game. WBA and the blues will easily beat us. Very disappointed with how this has turned out so far

[Brassneck]

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?

We're like Brentford?

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.

Forgive me - I must have missed the intricate passing, movement and pressing from our players.

Remember it is Smith who got Brentford to where they are and playing that way - As he did at Walsall.  Under Smith, Brentford punched massively above their weight, as do Bournmouth in the PL.  Smith hasn't suddenly become a bad coach.  It HAS to be the players at his disposal.  Brian Little had identical issues when he took over from BFR.

You're right though, this isn't Brentford so perhaps Smith can do better once he's been able to make changes to the squad in the summer?

[mr underhill]

 managers can only manage with what they have, granted, but as average as some are in the squad, Dean should be flexible enough to mix things up and get more than 2 wins in 2. Even Four in 12 would  have see us  in contention for a lay off place

[Brassneck]

managers can only manage with what they have, granted, but as average as some are in the squad, Dean should be flexible enough to mix things up and get more than 2 wins in 2. Even Four in 12 would  have see us  in contention for a lay off place

I accept this.  I am not saying that Smith is doing a great job.  I'm sure he knows that it hasn't gone as well as he would have hoped or his employers would have expected.

I don't buy into this "mixing things up" though?  I'm not sure exactly what he is supposed to do to change it.  It could be that he's looked at what he has and made the decision that the best policy is to  keep it as it is to a certain extent because to drastically change it at this stage could have even worse results.  Pound to a penny, the change will take place in the summer.

For me personally, Smith has a free pass at the moment.  I accept he isn't doing great but he's lost his star player and still has the side in a higher position than when he took over.  If by about this time next year, I see no improvement (as was the case with Bruce 2 years after his appointment), I will begin to question Smith.  However, I do not expect miracles between now and the end of the season.

[Ads]

I think it is the players, but Smith has to ackowldge that only a certain few can do what he wants and we should adapt accordingly.

442 last night we were no more open than we had been with 3. We pressed up for 5 minutes at the start of the half but soon retreated and lost teritory. Nothing changed until we altered shape.

Hourihane
Whelna
Jedinak
BB

All of them slow, poor on the ball, poor off it or a combination of them.

Above all else it's that midfield.

[Risso]

Four teams above us in the next five games, and two local derbies. I’d suggest that now would be a very good time for a dramatic improvement in form, or Smith might find things rather tricky for himself.

[aj2k77]

Smith wanted young, quick, energetic players to play his ''system''. How does this balance with playing Hause as a fullback seeing as quite frankly at the moment he looks a giant carthorse.

We seemed to have learnt nothing at all from summers of disjointed and plain dumb recruitment windows. We've ended up again signing a bunch of players who aren't fully fit either. Loan signings are meant to be impact signings, can anyone explain what the reasoning is behind getting them in for a few months, building up match fitness and then sending them back?

We desperately needed a mobile midfielder, desperately, we all knew that the current rabble are a much of a muchness and just swapping names on a team sheet, we ended up with a bloke who's spent a good part of this season injured, who surprisingly is injured already.

Who is making these decisions?

[aj2k77]

Oh and the football is diabolical, we haven't put in a shift for 2 months, again. For about the 6th time since we've been down in this shit hole we've gone missing for large chunks of a season.

[andyh]

I think we all agree that the majority of the players do not fit Smiths requirements.
But, the bar and expectations were set with the Middlesboro, Derby, WBA performances. Even Swansea in the league was better than the shite we are witnessing now.

Yes, I know Jack and Axel are missing now, but losing those 2 should not mean that the swing from very good to utter shite, should be so dramatic and so quick.

I can’t help wondering that the declaration that we do not ‘need’ to go up this year has had an impact on the mentality of the squad.

[Ketzster]

What happens if you give Smith the beginning of next season, and he loses say two players to injury? We know what happens now if that happens and you can’t afford for it to happen again. Smith has shown he is totally incapable of managing it. Surely if any other manager had been in the position where the team was playing like we have, certainly since Preston away, and certainly since the absolute disgrace at Wigan, they’d have changed the formation and tried something different? That’s why I don’t think Dean Smith is up to the job. He never uses substitutions to change formation, like the appalling triple substitution at Wigan, and it makes me think he is too inflexible to be a success. He literally has one way of playing and if it doesn’t work you’ve had it. If you were a player and you know it’s not working, you’d probably be thinking why does he keep persisting with this. For this reason  it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if he’s ‘lost the dressing room’. For all the stick the players get, Smith needs to take a fair amount too for the decisions he’s made. Not once has he tried 4-4-2 with Davis for example so the ball might stay up front longer etc. It doesn’t matter who we’ve played, home or away, against better teams or struggling, he sets us up the same. And the better managers don’t do that.

When we were getting battered in the relegation season at least we were playing Man Utd, Liverpool etc. Dean Smith has overseen us getting battered by Wigan, Hull for the first half at home, Swansea in the cup, Sheffield Utd at home for 82 mins. They were new low level showings and that’s in amongst the other dross that’s been served up in the other 9 or so games since the Albion

Yes some players need to go, or they will be out of contract in the summer, but the first thing I would do is change the manager

[steamer]

I was a bit underwhelmed with the appointment of Smith but had never wanted Bruce and if it had not been for the turmoil around Tony, he should have gone after the Fulham game.
Getting a proven Manager in Mid season was never going to happen, so I guess with Smith it was a case of, he is available, done a decent job with Brentford, he has potential.
But if we carry on for the rest of the season like the last 12 games, the owners have a big call to make.
He can not be immune from criticism for the dreadful performances we have seen, and yes I know Jack and Axel are missing,
New team in the summer, of his choice.
I honestly do not know, what I do know is that I am becoming more despondent and less optimistic of this  working.
Please prove me wrong and win some fucking games.   

[ASHTONVILLA]

Whatever the reasons he is doing a poor job at the moment.

Yes the squad is unbalanced, but what has he done to address it? He sticks to a formation that the players he has can't play, and is not the tactically clued up manager I though we were getting. Indeed he is just as inflexible as Bruce.

The transfer business in January was baffling. I know that is not all down to Smith, but we seem to have spent £5m too much for yet another below average keeper whilst loaning several unfit players that do not address the main problems preventing his system working (lack of pace in midfield, no decent defensive midfield, and better overlapping fullbacks).

I don't think the number of players that know they are out inn the summer helps matters, but there again why are we not giving more game time to younger players that will be still here. Green was not great last night, but he was still better then Al Ghazi so why not give him the game time and experience. Davis should be playing too.

He did for a few short weeks have us looking pretty good, but there again so did Sherwood. Lets hope Grealish and Axel come back soon and it clicks again like it did when he first arrived.

[Drummond]

From the post-match thread.

The team assembled by Dean Smith played the one he now manages off the park. It’s hardly stretching credulity to expect that when he has had time to implement his plans at Villa we will see similar performances.

Precisely.

He did almost say as much in the post-match interview but there's not much he can say to appease the fans is there?

I'm not sure why he should change the system to suit the players.

We HAVE to remember that we need to build for the future, not the present. He needs time to embed this system that he wants to play and whilst we have players who can't or won't, it's going to be ugly.

The players need practise to get better, and lets' face it for many of them it's yet another new style after their former clubs and/or our former managers. It takes time. I think the sooner we accept that this season is not one for achieving promotion the better, though I'm pissed off with that and am struggling to accept it.

Our owners and CEO have said promotion this season isn't essential, and I think that's because they understand it takes time. I hope they hold their nerve.

With peopel questioning Smith's ability and approach so soon into his tenure it seems that fans will start getting on his back soon and if that happens you can start preparing for Allardyce or similar and you can think about us getting new owners too.

We have to accept that our club has been rotten for years, trying to act all billy big bollocks buying all the talent and payign over the odds for it rather than developing a system, style and sustainable model. For examples of club's doing it see Brighton, Bournemouth, Huddersfield, Leicester, Wolves, Norwich, Watford and Burnley.

The advantage we have is that when we do it, and start improving, we have the advantage of our heritage, tradition and size to attract a better calibre of player to suit our system. See Man City for an example of buying the best to suit their system.

I dont' want Smith to abandon his principles and approach just because it's not working in the here and now. He's done it before, see Brentford as the key example. Players developed in a system, players brought in to replace them. When we lose Grealish, under a system we'd be able to replace him without huge disruption. Right now, because we're a shambles losing him will be dreadful (has been due to injury).

[Clark W Griswold]

I will admit that I'm having doubts but he has to have all of next season as a minimum. The board decided he was 'the man' so he needs time and the chance to live up to it.

[Brassneck]

What happens if you give Smith the beginning of next season, and he loses say two players to injury? We know what happens now if that happens and you can’t afford for it to happen again. Smith has shown he is totally incapable of managing it. Surely if any other manager had been in the position where the team was playing like we have, certainly since Preston away, and certainly since the absolute disgrace at Wigan, they’d have changed the formation and tried something different? That’s why I don’t think Dean Smith is up to the job. He never uses substitutions to change formation, like the appalling triple substitution at Wigan, and it makes me think he is too inflexible to be a success. He literally has one way of playing and if it doesn’t work you’ve had it. If you were a player and you know it’s not working, you’d probably be thinking why does he keep persisting with this. For this reason  it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if he’s ‘lost the dressing room’. For all the stick the players get, Smith needs to take a fair amount too for the decisions he’s made. Not once has he tried 4-4-2 with Davis for example so the ball might stay up front longer etc. It doesn’t matter who we’ve played, home or away, against better teams or struggling, he sets us up the same. And the better managers don’t do that.

When we were getting battered in the relegation season at least we were playing Man Utd, Liverpool etc. Dean Smith has overseen us getting battered by Wigan, Hull for the first half at home, Swansea in the cup, Sheffield Utd at home for 82 mins. They were new low level showings and that’s in amongst the other dross that’s been served up in the other 9 or so games since the Albion

Yes some players need to go, or they will be out of contract in the summer, but the first thing I would do is change the manager

You would change the manager after less than 4 months?

When Smith has his own players, losing 2 (only Grealish has changed anything) will not matter.

Losing Grealish is a massive loss to any Championship side.  It is noteworthy that last season, the team's performances only picked up once Grealish returned from injury.  It is not an exclusive problem to just Smith, Bruce was exactly the same.