Dean Smith - Confirmed

[Clampy]

I think the players aren't happy, did anyone see Guilbert kick the post in anger yesterday

I should hope they are not happy at losing.

[ChicagoLion]

Smith doesn't even appear to have a clue who his best midfield is.  These have been the central three for the last few games:

Southampton - Hourihane, Luiz, McGinn
Sheffield United - McGinn, Nakamba, Lansbury
Leicester - McGinn, Nakamba, Luiz
Chelsea - Hourihane, Nakamba, McGinn
Man U - McGinn, Luiz, Hourihane

Five games, five attempts at finding the right formula and failed in all of them except Man U.

I don’t see how a flat 3 works for these players.
The first requirement of the midfield  is to anchor the defense and enable fullbacks to push on.
We don’t provide any defensive cover at all and the goals and chances created against us tell you this.

[Drummond]

Sacking him is the easy thing to do and I haven't seen any credible options as who to replace him with yet. I'd stick with him but it needs to improve massively after yesterday.

Being true to form there Clampy.
Not having a a go at you, but you are being consistent in your defence of every single manager we have ended up sacking.

Every manager leaves every club.

Just because we're not doing very well at the moment doesn't mean he needs to go.

The manager, players, owners are all new. Surely they should have more than 18 matches in the top division of the hardest league in the world?

[ChicagoLion]

Sacking him is the easy thing to do and I haven't seen any credible options as who to replace him with yet. I'd stick with him but it needs to improve massively after yesterday.

Being true to form there Clampy.
Not having a a go at you, but you are being consistent in your defence of every single manager we have ended up sacking.

Every manager leaves every club.

Just because we're not doing very well at the moment doesn't mean he needs to go.

The manager, players, owners are all new. Surely they should have more than 18 matches in the top division of the hardest league in the world?

I guess it depends how long you want to stay in the hardest league in the world.

[The_ads]

This site is embarrassing at time’s. The exact same rhetoric was being banded about this time last year. We invested in Jan with some smart loans and we never looked back. Granted this time around we’ve just lost one of our two talismen for 3 months and we’re in a tougher league, but how about we give the manager some slack and allow him to try and get it right. There’s 20 games to go FFS and we are far from dead and buried. There are also no credible candidates for the job - it’ll just be given to John Terry.

[PaulWinch again]

I think criticism is perfectly warranted because Dean is showing nothing to suggest he can adapt his style. He really needs to and he also needs to learn, fast, how to react and change games. It’s not good enough.

[Monty]

This site is embarrassing at time’s. The exact same rhetoric was being banded about this time last year. We invested in Jan with some smart loans and we never looked back. Granted this time around we’ve just lost one of our two talismen for 3 months and we’re in a tougher league, but how about we give the manager some slack and allow him to try and get it right. There’s 20 games to go FFS and we are far from dead and buried. There are also no credible candidates for the job - it’ll just be given to John Terry.

Smith could at least claim a track record in that division. There's absolutely nothing to suggest he's got what it takes in the Premier League.

It's funny actually, because everyone these days thinks football is too trigger-happy with managers, but when it comes to making a move on people who clearly aren't going to cut it a weird lenience has broken out. With Solskjaer, Pellegrini (though he say least has a good record elsewhere at this level), it's really hard to see why the projects haven't been abandoned. With Smith, it's really sad to say this but I just don't think he's up to this particular task and it's now become very obvious, so why bother delaying the inevitable?

[Mister E]

The biggest concern for me was the clear lack of dynamism and energy in the team yesterday, and that was a big shock to me. It tells me that the management team are struggling to get inside the players' heads and support / motivate them.
The start of the second half was a disaster (as at SheffU), and I got no sense of leadership on the pitch.
If you add all of this to the lack of tactical variety and responsiveness to opposition tactics and play, you get relegation. Yesterday, we were a tied-on relegation team.

We've stuggled with fitness, ball retention and intensity all season; we should be seeing the lessons-learned from the early games being ironed out by now, and are not; our 'star' player looks isolated and lacks real impact (unless chances like yesterday's present themselves); the gambles in the transfer market are looking to be in deficit.

Once again, our owners have a challenging decision, which starts with "how long can we hold on to the current situation before we have to act?" The second question is: "who could come in and make an immediate impact?"

[Nii Lamptey]

This site is embarrassing at time’s. The exact same rhetoric was being banded about this time last year. We invested in Jan with some smart loans and we never looked back. Granted this time around we’ve just lost one of our two talismen for 3 months and we’re in a tougher league, but how about we give the manager some slack and allow him to try and get it right. There’s 20 games to go FFS and we are far from dead and buried. There are also no credible candidates for the job - it’ll just be given to John Terry.

That's my biggest fear. I have a feeling that if they do oust Smith, John Terry will just drop into his position. That is not the answer.

Based on what we've witnessed this season, I believe that Jack Grealish got us promotion last season, NOT Dean Smith.

At Championship level, Grealish was winning matches for us pretty much singlehandedly. At Premier League level, Jack needs help... and this is where Dean Smith and his coaching/tactics are being shown up for what they are - Not good enough.

Love the bloke, but he simply isn't cutting it at this level.  Even fans of previous clubs have warned us this is how it would pan out. It's not rocket science.

We need to say thanks but no thanks, and get a PL experienced manager in to sort them out. I'd wave as much money as necessary under the nose of Benitez, to prise him away from China before it's too late.

[pauliewalnuts]

It’s confusing. You hear him talk about the game and he’s all about “the overload” and “setting traps” and clever stuff but if you watch us play, we do stuff like play a stupid high line against a pacy attack like Leicester have and get picked off easily, and then next home game, he does exactly the same. Where is the tactical brain in that?

Then there’s watching matches run away from us and not making a substitution until it is too late. And even then it is almost always like for like and not accompanied by a change in formation.

[Toronto Villa]

Smith doesn't even appear to have a clue who his best midfield is.  These have been the central three for the last few games:

Southampton - Hourihane, Luiz, McGinn
Sheffield United - McGinn, Nakamba, Lansbury
Leicester - McGinn, Nakamba, Luiz
Chelsea - Hourihane, Nakamba, McGinn
Man U - McGinn, Luiz, Hourihane

Five games, five attempts at finding the right formula and failed in all of them except Man U.

I am going to hope the injury to SJM forces him to put Jack back in the middle because the out wide experiment is a failure. Put him behind Kodjia, stick Luiz, Hourihane and Nakamba behind him and let have the freedom that he once had. Either go two up front; Kodjia, AEG, or one up front and one winger.

[Luke8]

It’s confusing. You hear him talk about the game and he’s all about “the overload” and “setting traps” and clever stuff but if you watch us play, we do stuff like play a stupid high line against a pacy attack like Leicester have and get picked off easily, and then next home game, he does exactly the same. Where is the tactical brain in that?

Agree, it’s so frustrating. I think, if you look at the season as a whole, you can see what Dean is trying to do in terms of how he wants us to play. And I still think that long term if would be successful but at the moment is requires us to have pretty much everyone bang at it to get a result.

We do have good players and think it’s fine when we are playing with confidence, but we just seem to be doing nothing to help them out at the moment when so many are clearly struggling.

Playing too high a line and leaving the centres 1v1 too often with opposition attackers. Full backs and Marvelous are pushing too high up the pitch into midfield. Wesley too isolated so he gets minimal service and his pressing is largely a waste of time. Not really creating space for our CMs to attack any more.

Wouldn’t claim to be any kind of expert but all these seem to be fairly obvious factors that are making us so easy to play against at the moment. He needs to be doing more to help the players out at the moment.

[curiousorange]

It’s confusing. You hear him talk about the game and he’s all about “the overload” and “setting traps” and clever stuff but if you watch us play, we do stuff like play a stupid high line against a pacy attack like Leicester have and get picked off easily, and then next home game, he does exactly the same. Where is the tactical brain in that?

Then there’s watching matches run away from us and not making a substitution until it is too late. And even then it is almost always like for like and not accompanied by a change in formation.

This is what is frustrating about Smith. He's a great talker, and seems to be convincing in his ability to read the game and improve, but when it comes down to it he might not really be a very good coach.

[PaulWinch again]

It’s not good enough. We look utter dross, lacking in energy and without a clear plan. Dean needs to look at himself and reflect that what’s he’s doing at the moment will get us relegated. We need a real shake up in approach, and we must stop conceding so many goals.

[TonyD]

Smith doesn't even appear to have a clue who his best midfield is.  These have been the central three for the last few games:

Southampton - Hourihane, Luiz, McGinn
Sheffield United - McGinn, Nakamba, Lansbury
Leicester - McGinn, Nakamba, Luiz
Chelsea - Hourihane, Nakamba, McGinn
Man U - McGinn, Luiz, Hourihane

Five games, five attempts at finding the right formula and failed in all of them except Man U.

I am going to hope the injury to SJM forces him to put Jack back in the middle because the out wide experiment is a failure. Put him behind Kodjia, stick Luiz, Hourihane and Nakamba behind him and let have the freedom that he once had. Either go two up front; Kodjia, AEG, or one up front and one winger.

I’d go with that formation all day long.  Should have been implemented many games ago.