Dean Smith - Confirmed

[hilts_coolerking]

I don't mind Treseguet starting. He was unlucky not to score the other night although that's the only thing he did.

You don't mind that a player had one shot and contributed absolutely nothing else for 90 minutes?

Some posts don't age well.

And if anyone's going to drag them up, it'll be you.

And if anyone's going to defend it.... Etc etc.

He's not been brilliant for us, if only he'd nailed that chance the other night. But this is at least a step in the right direction.

I'm not defending it etc.  We've all posted stuff on here that later turned out to be foolish.  I certainly have, you have, Clampy has.  Do we really want to go down that route?

[AsTallAsLions]

One-upmanship is nothing new on here.

[dave.woodhall]

One-upmanship is nothing new on here.

if you don't like it nobody's making you stay.

[PaulWinch again]

Well I’ve cited Dean being a streak manager as being negative, let’s hope he goes on a 4 match winning streak now!

[AsTallAsLions]

One-upmanship is nothing new on here.

if you don't like it nobody's making you stay.

But it would be such a shame to miss out on your classic rejoinders, Dave

[Drummond]

I'm not defending it etc.  We've all posted stuff on here that later turned out to be foolish.  I certainly have, you have, Clampy has.  Do we really want to go down that route?

We all say stuff in the heat of the moment. Of course I've got things wrong. I defend managers longer than most on here, with some, I'm sure I've been wrong, others I'm not so sure.

What I do know is that we need some stability, we need to see a project through. We were always likely to be hovering around the lower reaches of the table this season, and our manager was bound to make mistakes, as were the players. Unfortunately, the players have made errors at crucial times and cost us a lot of points. I happen to think that Smith shouldn't lose his job over it.

We've been in a situation with a lot of inexperience at the same time and that doesn't help. I really thought we'd have done better than we have coming back in this scenario, but it hasn't worked out like that.

In my view, even if we go down, I think Smith should stay; there are too many mitigating circumstances to make him lose his job.

[Risso]

I'm not defending it etc.  We've all posted stuff on here that later turned out to be foolish.  I certainly have, you have, Clampy has.  Do we really want to go down that route?

We all say stuff in the heat of the moment. Of course I've got things wrong. I defend managers longer than most on here, with some, I'm sure I've been wrong, others I'm not so sure.

What I do know is that we need some stability, we need to see a project through. We were always likely to be hovering around the lower reaches of the table this season, and our manager was bound to make mistakes, as were the players. Unfortunately, the players have made errors at crucial times and cost us a lot of points. I happen to think that Smith shouldn't lose his job over it.

We've been in a situation with a lot of inexperience at the same time and that doesn't help. I really thought we'd have done better than we have coming back in this scenario, but it hasn't worked out like that.

In my view, even if we go down, I think Smith should stay; there are too many mitigating circumstances to make him lose his job.

Some fair points there.  For me Suso at the very least needs to go, as I think we're mostly agreed that the recruitment has just not been up to scratch, and the Smith/Suso combination just hasn't worked. I'm still very much in the 'Smith Out' camp, because I just haven't seen anything like enough in the training, the improvement of players or the motivation stakes.  But stay up, and if his staying is combined with a real in depth review of what went wrong, with lessons learned, then I wouldn't be too displeased with him staying.  Go down fighting, and there's case to be made either way for him staying or going.  Revert to type against Everton and Arsenal etc, and it's the curly finger in my opinion.

[Mister E]

Admittedly against a very mediocre Palace side, we got lucky with the Hause injury (no slur on Hause here).
We also seemed to profit from both Hourihane and Grealish being deployed further up the pitch. Was this Smith responding to the opposition or him stumbling across a winning strategy?
When we win so many free kicks, why have we not found a way to play Hourihane more regularly, since he seems head and shoulders above anyone else in delivering the ball into dangerous places?
Nakamba looked better when he came into a winning team yesterday .... playing on the front foot seems to suit everyone!

I put these up as examples of either Smith getting tactically sharper (eventually) or a series of serendipitous events that conspired to make us look good!

Would the real Dean Smith please stand up?!

[cdward]

One-upmanship is nothing new on here.

Oh yes it is..

[Villan82]

Slim Shady in

[paul_e]

I've gone back and forth on Smith over the last 6months but as I said the other day the way we gave up once Man U got their penalty was the tipping point for me. I saw nothing from Smith to show he had any idea how to handle that and I just don't think we can carry that inexperience any more. If we were a slightly older team of people who'd been around this league for a few years we could ride it out and let him take some time to learn from his mistakes but as is the management and players are feeding each other and dragging us below the standard I think this squad is capable of.  Replacing the manager is cheaper, quicker and easier than the alternative so for me he goes after the west ham game regardless of what league we're in at that point.

[Virgil Caine]

Good points made there Mister E. I would only add that Douglas Luis allowed Hourihane to have less focus on the defensive side of his game which we all know is hardly his strong point. A big up to Tres as well- he is a limited player but he does defend and hassle when he does not have the ball. His work rate was excellent yesterday.

[Chris Smith]

Admittedly against a very mediocre Palace side, we got lucky with the Hause injury (no slur on Hause here).
We also seemed to profit from both Hourihane and Grealish being deployed further up the pitch. Was this Smith responding to the opposition or him stumbling across a winning strategy?
When we win so many free kicks, why have we not found a way to play Hourihane more regularly, since he seems head and shoulders above anyone else in delivering the ball into dangerous places?
Nakamba looked better when he came into a winning team yesterday .... playing on the front foot seems to suit everyone!

I put these up as examples of either Smith getting tactically sharper (eventually) or a series of serendipitous events that conspired to make us look good!

Would the real Dean Smith please stand up?!

I think we a similar display against Man U up until we conceded and then, not for the first time, the confidence just drained from the players. Maybe if their ‘goal’ hadn’t been overturned by VAR then we might have seen similar yesterday. It suggests that we have a team capable of performing at a higher level than the league position reflects but that confidence is fragile. This could be down to the manager or the players or most likely a combination of both due to the experiences of the season.

Whatever happens this a couple of characters who will drag the team through tough spells would make a huge difference for the next campaign.

[KevinGage]

I've gone back and forth on Smith over the last 6months but as I said the other day the way we gave up once Man U got their penalty was the tipping point for me. I saw nothing from Smith to show he had any idea how to handle that and I just don't think we can carry that inexperience any more. If we were a slightly older team of people who'd been around this league for a few years we could ride it out and let him take some time to learn from his mistakes but as is the management and players are feeding each other and dragging us below the standard I think this squad is capable of.  Replacing the manager is cheaper, quicker and easier than the alternative so for me he goes after the west ham game regardless of what league we're in at that point.

Same as that.

It's not that you'd expect to turn over Manchester United, Tottingham etc but teams around and at different points below us have all had the ability to win games they weren't expected to -  Bournemouth as recently as yesterday.  Or eek out valuable points at least. We've either been too passive in similar games (v Chelsea, Wolves and Man U since the restart) or sunk our own boat from positions of promise.

I hope this is dreadfully premature and we get 4-6 points of Everton and Arsenal next up, obv.

[ChicagoLion]

Agree Chris, the fact that we have been ahead in so many games against top teams shows that the team is more capable than the league position indicates. My view is that this has been significantly down to the manager, 87 minutes 1.0 at home to Liverpool was a case in point look at the subs, Arsenal away again. We have lost more games from winning positions than anyone.
This is why he deserves to go.