Dean Smith - Confirmed

[Steve67]

Wonder if xG was a factor for El Ghazi’s miss of the season at Everton?

G is for Gash. 

Good interview but I wish some bugger would ask him about transfers.

[Risso]

Wonder if xG was a factor for El Ghazi’s miss of the season at Everton?

Hardly the miss of the season. See Sterling. Or did you mean for us? If so, the one by Davis was worse for me.

El Ghazi was about four foot from goal.  Much worse.

[Monty]

I think xG is basically the idea that 'stats work on their own' putting up the white flag and dying.

[Ads]

El Ghazi was off side wasnt he?

[SoccerHQ]

Big thing is needing to defend crosses better. It actually still wasn't great post lockdown when you think of Chelsea's two goals, man mountain Walcott ghosting in at the back post to head in and even in the Arsenal game that free header that hit the post from a corner late on.

We simply give away too many free headers in our box so interested to see what the DS solution is. Buy a new CB or tell Mings to man mark more than zonally or make sure we get enough behind the ball to stop crosses coming in the first place. The top teams are of course excellent at quick passing triangles to drag full backs infield as Chelsea did very well in the second half, Targett was practically a third CB when they were crossing.

[Toronto Villa]

Not once does he say he made any mistakes. I fully accept the players made them, but it would nice to have read that he acknowledges he made tactical errors, or picked the wrong players at times, or not made the right subs during the game. Maybe he keeps that to himself but then if he’s going to do that maybe he should keep how the players did to himself also. I’m delighted we stayed up up but if HE doesn’t improve or realize he needs to we won’t collectively and he’ll be out of a job. He won’t get anything like the same rope when the new season gets going again.

[Sexual Ealing]

That's the spirit!

[KevinGage]

Not once does he say he made any mistakes. I fully accept the players made them, but it would nice to have read that he acknowledges he made tactical errors, or picked the wrong players at times, or not made the right subs during the game. Maybe he keeps that to himself but then if he’s going to do that maybe he should keep how the players did to himself also. I’m delighted we stayed up up but if HE doesn’t improve or realize he needs to we won’t collectively and he’ll be out of a job. He won’t get anything like the same rope when the new season gets going again.

For me, the concerning thing is we all felt we were getting a young, vibrant tracksuit manager in October 2018. We had an OK start back then, gash New Year  > March period and then cleaned up when Jack returned. At its best, that side played attacking football on the front foot, for the most part. So you try to gloss over the negative.

Fast forward to to the start of the Prem and - after a ropey first two games - we beat Everton 2-0. On another night we could have lost that one 3-1 and had no complaints. The Bluescouse were anaemic in front of goal for all their possession so happy days.
 The concerning thing for me after that game is Smudger was asked what he did different after the first half and he said his instructions were to get the ball long to Wesley.  Fantastic. It's like we were never away.

I remember soon after Lansbury joined in 2007 and we played Brentford away. For the first 20 minutes he was spraying then ball around like Zidane and causing them all sorts of grief. Post game Smith said his Brentford lot pushed 10 yards higher and nullified him.  Simple but smart.

Has the Villa job neutered him and turned him into a Bruce/Gregory/O'Neill disciple.   Minimum risk, keep it tight and hope for the best. Tall centre backs at full back are all to familiar to us. Hopefully they were a means to an end post lockdown. And now, with the benefit security, we'll see a more progressive approach.  Billy McBingo's 'tactics' were get the ball to Walters, he goes down the wing and 'bingo.'   O'Neill's tactics towards the latter period were get the ball to Ashley Young and not much else.

I hope against hope that Deano isn't following a similar path and putting all our eggs in one basket re getting the ball to Grealish. Football has moved on.  So should we. 

[ChicagoLion]

Well, it seems to have worked.

You could argue that the break due to the Covid19 pandemic was the major factor.

Agree if the Chelsea result had happened in March I don’t think he would have got the chance to reorganise. However I am happy to give credit where it is due and he did keep us up.

[eamonn]

Good post Gagey. Time moves on quickly but the Villa's style not so much.
*The Lansbury Brentford game should probably read 2017.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

"We came up with a plan. I felt we had to be harder to beat rather than just going all out to win games."

It's a shame that plan wasn't implemented at the start of the season. Sheff Utd had that plan from the start, had the second best defence for most of the season, scored less goals than us but never looked in trouble. Promoted team use same tactics as in the Championship and are surprised they get ripped apart week in, week out in the PL with the second worst defensive record in the league.

Credit to Smith for changing his plan and finally getting it right (just) but his original plan was straight out of the text books of General Haig.

[Mister E]

"We came up with a plan. I felt we had to be harder to beat rather than just going all out to win games."

It's a shame that plan wasn't implemented at the start of the season. Sheff Utd had that plan from the start, had the second best defence for most of the season, scored less goals than us but never looked in trouble. Promoted team use same tactics as in the Championship and are surprised they get ripped apart week in, week out in the PL with the second worst defensive record in the league.

Credit to Smith for changing his plan and finally getting it right (just) but his original plan was straight out of the text books of General Haig.

You're right, Rudy, and I think Naaarwich went down the same route as us and got mullered (even by us!).

Re the xG thing, if it gave them all the focus that meant they were tighter defensively, I don;t really care that the stat is made of horseshit.
The question I'd be asking is: "what will galvanise and focus the guys for the upcoming season?"

[Chris Smith]

"We came up with a plan. I felt we had to be harder to beat rather than just going all out to win games."

It's a shame that plan wasn't implemented at the start of the season. Sheff Utd had that plan from the start, had the second best defence for most of the season, scored less goals than us but never looked in trouble. Promoted team use same tactics as in the Championship and are surprised they get ripped apart week in, week out in the PL with the second worst defensive record in the league.

Credit to Smith for changing his plan and finally getting it right (just) but his original plan was straight out of the text books of General Haig.

Huge difference though between us and Sheffield United, they could implement a plan immediately as it was largely the same group of players that had got promoted and did not have the added issue of the play offs to negotiate. We didn’t have that luxury so were trying to implement it with a load of recently signed players who were also new to English football. When we did get the chance  due to the season break we were able to improve sufficiently to keep us up.

[john e]

I was disappointed with Smith last season, I like him as a person and the fact he's a Vila fan but he wasn't getting much right for me or learning a great deal on the job either

but we did stay up and I was coming round to giving him the benefit of the doubt and believing we could push on next season but after reading that bullshit interview I'm not so sure anymore

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I fully recognise the difference and advantage Sheff Utd had in keeping the majority of their squad together but the point still stands, Chris, we had a choice of which plan to adapt, they played it safe and picked up the points, we went the complete opposite, failed and survived by "the skin of our teeth".