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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Quote from: Toronto Villa on July 09, 2020, 05:11:26 PMIf 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.
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?