Dean Smith - Confirmed

[ChicagoLion]

He’s looks to me like a lower league manager grateful to be in a big job. Too naive, too nice, not a big enough character for this level.

Inflexible and indecisive.

[JD]

Give the Guy a fucking break. He is leading out his our our team at Wembley tomorrow. What a dream.
We are Aston Villa, the greatest team in the world and we will win. 

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

Precisely JD well said. UTV!

[Clampy]

Give the Guy a fucking break. He is leading out his our our team at Wembley tomorrow. What a dream.
We are Aston Villa, the greatest team in the world and we will win. 

Yep. Happy Cup Final Day everyone.

[ez]

To stop up from here Smith is going to have to do something radical. Carrying on as we are will be suicide.

[mr underhill]

Smith's last stand - get annihilated today and it will destroy any vestige of confidence we have. We must put on a performance and if we are to lose, let's do so with passion and pride.

[itbrvilla]

I’m sure he’ll make a difference, not sure Smith will though.

Not calling you out specifically; but for many Smith takes all the blame when we play badly but none of the credit when we do well?

We've barely played well.

[itbrvilla]

Anyway... Everyone have a great day out and fingers crossed. Hopefully we win a trophy and end this awful drought!

[Steve67]

Smith's last stand - get annihilated today and it will destroy any vestige of confidence we have. We must put on a performance and if we are to lose, let's do so with passion and pride.

If we lose today, and I sincerely hope that we pull of something really special, as it will completely restore faith and confidence that we can survive, it will be interesting to see what the reaction is. 

[Demitri_C]

I think it’s safe to save we need to revert back to back four with engles and mings at cb. Looked more solid than the 5 At the back.

Going with nakamba as protection of the back four. Once McGinns back him sitting there with age on the wing Andy grealish in the hole behind samatta

[john e]

got his team line up spot on yesterday imo

best players playing in their best positions with a few good options on the bench

add McGinn for Elmo when fit and that’s as strong as we can get to give it a go if staying up

[PeterWithe]

I like that Dean is developing and picking a team and formation based on circumstance, his early season ‘let them worry about us’ was fine for a while but we now need a more horses for courses method and I think we are seeing it. Just wish the horses were of better quality.

[Mister E]

I know we're short on squad depth, but bringing like-for-like subs on does my head in. Trez is not an option, quality-wise, and Davis and Samatta would have been definitely worth a shout for the final 15 minutes.
The interesting takeaway from yesterday is whether Smith can bottle the energy we showed for our remaining league games: we can score goals, and yesterday we showed we can defend. So, time to get it together!

[Mortimer's Bear]

For the first time in a long time I actually thought we defended well yesterday.

[mr underhill]

yet still conceeded too many goals to win. Mings especially is a very good player, but he's the beating heart of a porous defense that may well cost us our PL place.