Dean Smith - Confirmed

[passport1]

That's the point though. We had the opportunity to put a decent balanced squad together . What we got is far from  decent or balanced.

[old man villa fan]

I think he’s doing ok too. Play off winners always struggle so this was sort of what I expected.

Play off winners dont spend 150m and be consistently shit most of the season. They can at least do a bit better on the road.

In my view smiths under achieving badly and invested very poorly.

What about all the established teams at this level who have spent 100m +? West Ham spend that and below us. Brighton spent a fair bit in the last 12 months on forward players alone.

Everton spent 500m + in last three years and are only now starting to pull clear into the top half.

Spending money is always just a part of it. We could've spent much less, picked up some steady eddie free transfers like Gary Cahill and I reckon we'd have 3-4 more points on the board but then you don't build as much for the long term.

Im not really concerned about west ham im concerned about us. Sheffield united spent peanuts and they are doing fantastic. We on the other hand look like a 40 minute team. When was the last time we dominated a whole game?

I cant think of many. I thjnk the mkmey was poorly invested as well. 22m on wes 12m on trez and el ghazi is so hit and cold.

I dont rate hause either think he is just a bumbling clumsy cb. God knows where jota is as well. Thats close to 50m wasted.

Sheffield Utd have been building slowly for a number of years.  Wilder has built a squad over this time that has consistency and belief in themselves.  He hasn't had to throw it together overnight.  Although not starting from so low, Sheffield remind me a bit of Watford all those years ago under Taylor but without the couple of players that became top stars.

As for wasting the best part of £50m (it's probably closer to £40m) on 5 players, it is easy with hindsight to say it was wasted but trying to buy players for an average of £8-10m and expecting them to be mid-table PL players is bloody difficult.  It looks as though we are being held back on spending by FFP and perhaps the extra £10m we had to spend on Mings held us back on other buys.

It is easy to be extremely critical when things are not going well.  We are all disappointed but people have to be realistic and take everything into account.  The players we have make us into a mid-table team at best.  Take out a couple of key players and we are a relegation fighting team.

[Ads]

No we didn't, we had to fill a chasm and sign 12 players. That's a ridiculous situation for any club. You don't develop a quality, balanced squad in an 8 week window.

[SheffieldVillain]

That's the point though. We had the opportunity to put a decent balanced squad together . What we got is far from  decent or balanced.

Yet are achieving as much or even slightly more than the playoff winners do every year. I'd argue that if we stay up of which there is still a fair chance, that is very much decent.

You are never going to do the amount of ins and outs we have especially under FFP restrictions like ours and have covered every want and need first season round.

[Luke8]

I do think he got the Trezeguet substitution wrong yesterday. Bournemouth were too deep by that stage for Trez to have much of an impact and it ended up forcing Jack too deep. Think Connor for Nakamba was the sub to make at that stage.

[old man villa fan]

That's the point though. We had the opportunity to put a decent balanced squad together . What we got is far from  decent or balanced.

I think it is balanced in how we have spent money.  We had to address goalkeeper, defence, midfield and forwards, which we did in tring to build a team.  It looks as though the money was spent too thin but that looks to be because of FFP, not because that is the limit of what we wanted to spend.  There have to be players out there to buy at the right price and I do not think there are.

[aj2k77]

We spent £120m+on 12 players and how many of them actually look good players? The vast majority have had more poor games than decent ones.

We've lost the second most games and conceded the most goals. We are soft and easy to beat and that is not a good return on a huge investment, whether we had a lot of work to do or not, we had the money to do it and actually look a poorer side now than the early part of the season.

[old man villa fan]

We spent £120m+on 12 players and how many of them actually look good players? The vast majority have had more poor games than decent ones.

We've lost the second most games and conceded the most goals. We are soft and easy to beat and that is not a good return on a huge investment, whether we had a lot of work to do or not, we had the money to do it and actually look a poorer side now than the early part of the season.

As I said above, an average of around £10m per player doesn't guarantee to buy you good, or even average, PL players.

[Toronto Villa]

But much of it is attitude. We didn't even have a go at Bournemouth. They were first to everything. Our tactic was long ball after long ball from the likes Kortney Hause who thought he was Inesta. That was completely wasteful and just kept giving the ball back to them. I get the consistency of playing staff and manager at Sheff Utd but they also have a defined approach. We should have goone into yesterday's game at minimum on an even footing mentally to Bournemouth. Given our recent win vs Leicester maybe even the more confident of the two sides. It never looked like that in the first half and only did so in the second late on after their red card. That's not just the players, it starts with the message from the manager on how to play.

[Big Ming]

I don't get the feeling that Deano is a brilliant "fight them on the beaches" type motivator.

[David_Nab]

I do think he got the Trezeguet substitution wrong yesterday. Bournemouth were too deep by that stage for Trez to have much of an impact and it ended up forcing Jack too deep. Think Connor for Nakamba was the sub to make at that stage.

Sub was a CB off , pointless leaving 3 cbs on against 10 men defending their lead sitting back.

[ChicagoLion]

I do think he got the Trezeguet substitution wrong yesterday. Bournemouth were too deep by that stage for Trez to have much of an impact and it ended up forcing Jack too deep. Think Connor for Nakamba was the sub to make at that stage.

Sub was a CB off , pointless leaving 3 cbs on against 10 men defending their lead sitting back.

Yep,
They had one up front.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

No we didn't, we had to fill a chasm and sign 12 players. That's a ridiculous situation for any club. You don't develop a quality, balanced squad in an 8 week window.

Indeed you don't but you'd hope even expect you'd teach them to pass the ball to each other in 7 months. We're really struggling with the basics. Any promoted team know that to survive the first season you need to build from the back with a strong, solid defence. Ours is currently the (joint) worst having already shipped 47 goals.

It's worth noting Sheff Utd have the second best defence in the league and to further prove the point, they've only won two more games than us. They're bloody hard to beat which is why they're currently sitting in 5th place. They're organised, we're not despite it being the area where we have plenty of options.

[David_Nab]

I do think he got the Trezeguet substitution wrong yesterday. Bournemouth were too deep by that stage for Trez to have much of an impact and it ended up forcing Jack too deep. Think Connor for Nakamba was the sub to make at that stage.

Sub was a CB off , pointless leaving 3 cbs on against 10 men defending their lead sitting back.

Yep,
They had one up front.

15 mins to go , needing a goal you have Conner on bench who for all his weakness's can get a goal for distance or a set piece and we carry on with the 3 cbs just ambling along trying to start attacks.With them all on we almost conceded a 3rd when Mings pushed up front and left space for the counter ..I give credit to Smith for the subs Tuesday , yesterday however the final sub effectively ended the game.

[Fulford]

I don't think Smith has the motivational skills to be a top manager in the PL.

In most games we start on the back foot and the players look tense as if they have no belief in their ability to beat the opposition.

Yesterday we saw Eddie Howe motivating his players from the sidelines when they were under the cosh whereas Smith stood silently on the touchline miserably looking at his watch.

He gets plenty of slack from the fans as he's one of us. Can you imagine any other manager getting away with the drivel we serve up week in week out.

If hopefully we manage to stay up I hope the club at least look around and make enquiries as to whether we can attract a top name to Villa Park.