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Author Topic: Dean Smith - Confirmed  (Read 1522047 times)

Offline SoccerHQ

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #9000 on: July 09, 2020, 01:53:21 PM »
It takes time, though. Look at Liverpool. When Klopp arrived, it was clear what he wanted the players to do, I remember him getting frustrated at them. He's been there 5 years, and he only got them fully firing last season. I know they're the extreme, and it's not necessary to reach their level to merely get by, but if you're starting with a base squad like ours, where we've many players 'made of fog', it's never going to be a quick process.

I think players need to take greater personal responsibility to work on it if they expect to play in the top division for any length of time. Look at lockdown. For weeks there was not a lot that players could work on other than fitness and stamina. How many of ours would you say did?

One way of looking at it is Liverpool stopped messing around buying very average players for inflated fees and instead went for proven quality in key positions. We saw how good Mane was at Southampton v us and he's now one of the top attackers in world football. Van Dijk also showed he was one of the better CBs around in the league and Salah and Allisson were proven in Italy.

I long for the day when we can sign some good players from major teams in other leagues but seems they'll always be an excuse even if we get reasonably good again.

Offline SoccerHQ

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #9001 on: July 09, 2020, 01:58:37 PM »
Dean quoted in the Daily Mail as saying we haven't been fit enough this season, I agree, the levels of fitness of nearly all the opposition seemed to have risen hugely in the three years we've been away.

Reminds me of Sherwood bleating about it in the October. Just what on earth do we do in pre season as we signed most of our signings reasonably early bar Luiz who was waiting for his work permit and training on Rio beach.

Said it the other day but when you watch Southampton press in midfield against the top teams like Man. City it is miles above what we do. And Southampton are a bog standard mid table team. It's understandable to be caught out of the pace and speed of the league after three years away in August and September but we've had over six months and another transfer window to improve on that.

Makes signing a crab like Drinkwater even more bizarre.

Offline tomd2103

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #9002 on: July 09, 2020, 02:18:27 PM »
Dyche would be great for us.  But it wouldn't take long for people to start bashing his playing style as he eeked out 1-0's away and had players who could defend robustly rather than playing it out from the back and losing it within ten seconds of gaining possession from the goalkeeper.  Those sorts of effective, stable, boring if you will types are never good enough for us.

To be honest, I think that is where there is a bit of a difference between the opinions you see on social media and the general feeling you get at matches.  Agbonlahor was a case in point - hammered on social media (rightly in my opinion) yet always seemed to get a decent reception from a large section of the support at games.

To be honest, I don't think there would be too many groans at games if Dyche had us in the position Burnley currently are and we looked like an organised and efficient side..

Online ChicagoLion

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #9003 on: July 09, 2020, 02:36:23 PM »
Drinkwater was reputed to have a good engine, obviously before he decided to pour lager into it.

Online kippaxvilla2

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #9004 on: July 09, 2020, 02:37:44 PM »
Are you sure?  I remember coming out of a game against Middlesbrough at home when Gregory was still in charge.  We won 1-0 and the howls of derision at the end at our ‘functional, boring’ play was very evident.  This was because the feeling was Gregory had abandoned his original swashbuckling approach to games in favour of just getting a result. 

Offline AsTallAsLions

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #9005 on: July 09, 2020, 02:38:45 PM »
Are you sure?  I remember coming out of a game against Middlesbrough at home when Gregory was still in charge.  We won 1-0 and the howls of derision at the end at our ‘functional, boring’ play was very evident.  This was because the feeling was Gregory had abandoned his original swashbuckling approach to games in favour of just getting a result. 

What might have been...........

Offline Lastfootstamper

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #9006 on: July 09, 2020, 03:09:04 PM »
If we appointed Dyche and by say New Year he'd got us solidly embedded in mid-table, but then we're out of the Cup before the end of January and there's little more evident than a push for the giddy heights of about 9th, then I think there'd be no shortage of dissenting voices.

Offline olaftab

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #9007 on: July 09, 2020, 03:17:15 PM »
Dean quoted in the Daily Mail as saying we haven't been fit enough this season, I agree, the levels of fitness of nearly all the opposition seemed to have risen hugely in the three years we've been away.
So what did Terry do about it? He’s very familiar with premier league.

Offline Marlon From Bearwood

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #9008 on: July 09, 2020, 05:05:13 PM »
If we appointed Dyche and by say New Year he'd got us solidly embedded in mid-table, but then we're out of the Cup before the end of January and there's little more evident than a push for the giddy heights of about 9th, then I think there'd be no shortage of dissenting voices.

Depends which division you’re referring to

Offline hilts_coolerking

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #9009 on: July 09, 2020, 05:11:02 PM »
I've said before that Dyche would be an upgrade on Smith but I'm getting the impression from some on here that to consider other candidates would be lunacy.  He's one among many we might consider.

Online Toronto Villa

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #9010 on: July 09, 2020, 05:11:26 PM »
If that’s his excuse then it’s a shit one. You need to be fit in the PL is as obvious a statement as Trump is a fucking racist. You don’t need to be genuine to work it out and you don’t hindsight to proclaim something that was staring you in the face all along.

Online algy

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #9011 on: July 09, 2020, 05:31:18 PM »
If that’s his excuse then it’s a shit one. You need to be fit in the PL is as obvious a statement as Trump is a fucking racist. You don’t need to be genuine to work it out and you don’t hindsight to proclaim something that was staring you in the face all along.
What about - the players we've signed from abroad basically aren't fit enough because the pace that they play the game at in the Belgian/Turkish/whatever league is miles behind the pace in the Premier League, and whilst a player with enough skill can adapt to. say. the Championship because they're miles better than anyone else so their (lack of) fitness is less of an issue ... in the Premier League, they don't get cut the same slack.  And because we've got a squad made up of almost entirely new signings, it's not as if we have 8 ready-to-goo players to cover the 3 ones who aren't up to speed yet.

I just think - this season - we've been caught out because we had to sign so many low budget players (OK, the overall spending was huge - but the amount per player is about £10m, which in Premier League terms gets you ... well, a Matt Targett quality player).

I just think - Dean's done alright all things considered.  I know the season's not gone the way anyone would've wanted so far, but we're still in with a fighting chance of staying up, and the circumstances are such that whoever took over was going to have a near impossible job on their hands.

I'd say that regardless of how this season pans out, I'd happily give DS a fair shot next season regardless of the division we're in.


As for Dyche - I'm a fan, but I'm not sure what he'd have done differently in the circumstances.  Fair enough, if we're going for a manager upgrade - great.  But it has to be an actual upgrade, not just a like-for-like swap which is - to me - what Dyche would be.  I'd be thinking more about a top, top manager.

Online LeeB

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #9012 on: July 09, 2020, 05:44:35 PM »
If that’s his excuse then it’s a shit one. You need to be fit in the PL is as obvious a statement as Trump is a fucking racist. You don’t need to be genuine to work it out and you don’t hindsight to proclaim something that was staring you in the face all along.
What about - the players we've signed from abroad basically aren't fit enough because the pace that they play the game at in the Belgian/Turkish/whatever league is miles behind the pace in the Premier League, and whilst a player with enough skill can adapt to. say. the Championship because they're miles better than anyone else so their (lack of) fitness is less of an issue ... in the Premier League, they don't get cut the same slack.  And because we've got a squad made up of almost entirely new signings, it's not as if we have 8 ready-to-goo players to cover the 3 ones who aren't up to speed yet.

I just think - this season - we've been caught out because we had to sign so many low budget players (OK, the overall spending was huge - but the amount per player is about £10m, which in Premier League terms gets you ... well, a Matt Targett quality player).

I just think - Dean's done alright all things considered.  I know the season's not gone the way anyone would've wanted so far, but we're still in with a fighting chance of staying up, and the circumstances are such that whoever took over was going to have a near impossible job on their hands.

I'd say that regardless of how this season pans out, I'd happily give DS a fair shot next season regardless of the division we're in.


As for Dyche - I'm a fan, but I'm not sure what he'd have done differently in the circumstances.  Fair enough, if we're going for a manager upgrade - great.  But it has to be an actual upgrade, not just a like-for-like swap which is - to me - what Dyche would be.  I'd be thinking more about a top, top manager.

This. I'd only make a change if it was worth making, if the equivalent today of a Graham Taylor fancied it.

Offline Steve67

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #9013 on: July 09, 2020, 06:45:29 PM »
So, to sum up, keep Dean Smith, unless we can appoint the next England Manager or someone ace?  Not even someone who is deemed as marginally better than Dean?

Online john e

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #9014 on: July 09, 2020, 07:02:51 PM »
So, to sum up, keep Dean Smith, unless we can appoint the next England Manager or someone ace?  Not even someone who is deemed as marginally better than Dean?

in fairness that’s a foolproof plan

 


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