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Author Topic: Dean Smith - Confirmed  (Read 1522949 times)

Offline Duncan Shaw

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11100 on: January 28, 2021, 12:09:00 PM »
I'm with Luke on this.  I thought we looked by far the better side last night.  Fair play to Burnley, a bit of luck went their way with their second goal; they capitalised on it and got a second whilst we still shellshocked; then defended like their lives depended on it.  It's something we need to take lessons from.

But given it's our second season in the PL after a too-long absence, it doesn't bother me overly.  We looked brilliant last night, even with the defeat.  Had even one of those shots gone in before half time, I'm convinced we'd have won by a cricket score.

Pretty much word for word my thoughts too!  Let's show we have learned on Saturday from what was another poor defeat earlier in the season and then we'll all be feeling rosy again!!

Offline Risso

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11101 on: January 28, 2021, 12:14:42 PM »
We looked very good first half, much less second half.  Yes, we're hugely improved on last season, but in a year when West Ham are 4th, and top 6 places are up for grabs, we can't afford the sheer complaceny we saw last night.  We absolutely threw it away, as we have in a few other games like Brighton and West Ham.

Offline SoccerHQ

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11102 on: January 28, 2021, 12:33:26 PM »
Poor game management last night, I thought he had got past this.

I’m not sure that particularly fair. Much more instances of getting it right this season than wrong.

Secondly, even though Burnley improved in the second half, they had had the grand total of two shots from the 46th minute up until the 75th. Then they scored with a freak cross. It’s not like we were losing control of the game.

Of course you can argue changes might have helped, but it’s seems more of a reaction to the end result than the performance at the time to me.

Issue for me was the five minutes between 2-2 and 3-2. We couldn't get into their half or even have control of the ball so it kept coming back at our backline.

No subs when Davis on and perhaps we could've held it up better once it was cleared. Or Trez on to help out Cash a bit more which was a big problem with the 3rd goal.

Just putting them all on straight after the winner was just too late.

Offline Luke8

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11103 on: January 28, 2021, 01:05:50 PM »
We looked very good first half, much less second half.  Yes, we're hugely improved on last season, but in a year when West Ham are 4th, and top 6 places are up for grabs, we can't afford the sheer complaceny we saw last night.  We absolutely threw it away, as we have in a few other games like Brighton and West Ham.

That’s the next step to being a property good team though isn’t it? We are clearly better than these teams in the games we have played but we lacked a bit of nous and the consistency to grind out a result when we are the superior team occasionally. It’ll come.

I get the frustration because, like you say, it feels like it is possible to achieve something nobody expected this season. But I think the important thing is, if you step back and look at the big picture, it’s just feels increasingly likely that it will be when we get there rather than if.

Offline Ian.

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11104 on: January 28, 2021, 01:09:17 PM »
I always thought Davis if anything has a great touch when he features. I know his finishing is very debatable but last night he looked very very sluggish and rusty. Not sure if it’s game time or confidence, but his touch was woeful.

I’d have been tempted with either Ramsey or Nakamba for Ross or Traore when it was 2-1. Hindsight is wonderful though in the aftermath.

Offline Luke8

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11105 on: January 28, 2021, 01:11:34 PM »
Poor game management last night, I thought he had got past this.

I’m not sure that particularly fair. Much more instances of getting it right this season than wrong.

Secondly, even though Burnley improved in the second half, they had had the grand total of two shots from the 46th minute up until the 75th. Then they scored with a freak cross. It’s not like we were losing control of the game.

Of course you can argue changes might have helped, but it’s seems more of a reaction to the end result than the performance at the time to me.

Issue for me was the five minutes between 2-2 and 3-2. We couldn't get into their half or even have control of the ball so it kept coming back at our backline.

No subs when Davis on and perhaps we could've held it up better once it was cleared. Or Trez on to help out Cash a bit more which was a big problem with the 3rd goal.

Just putting them all on straight after the winner was just too late.

Maybe. But it’s still feels that’s a little bit with the benefit of hindsight to me. There were only three minute between the goals. And we had dealt pretty well with the equalising the first time. Plus, we want to be a big team - you still want to go and look to win that game after it goes 2-2, not start worrying about shutting up shop against Burnley.

Like I said, they had one decent chance between the first equaliser and the fluke of a goal. It’s not like they were putting us under sustained pressure. Maybe a change would have helped, but it also might have made it less likely that we would go and win the game. We’ll never know obviously and it’s very fine margins at this level of football.

Offline Risso

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11106 on: January 28, 2021, 01:17:33 PM »
I always thought Davis if anything has a great touch when he features. I know his finishing is very debatable but last night he looked very very sluggish and rusty. Not sure if it’s game time or confidence, but his touch was woeful.

I’d have been tempted with either Ramsey or Nakamba for Ross or Traore when it was 2-1. Hindsight is wonderful though in the aftermath.

He was embarrassingly bad.  For the sake of his own career he needs to be on his way this January. He offers nothing to the squad, and his own development isn't being enhanced by playing 5 minutes once a month.  He's 23 in a couple of weeks, so I feel it's a bit of a crossroads for him.

Offline Ian.

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11107 on: January 28, 2021, 02:24:00 PM »
I always thought Davis if anything has a great touch when he features. I know his finishing is very debatable but last night he looked very very sluggish and rusty. Not sure if it’s game time or confidence, but his touch was woeful.

I’d have been tempted with either Ramsey or Nakamba for Ross or Traore when it was 2-1. Hindsight is wonderful though in the aftermath.

He was embarrassingly bad.  For the sake of his own career he needs to be on his way this January. He offers nothing to the squad, and his own development isn't being enhanced by playing 5 minutes once a month.  He's 23 in a couple of weeks, so I feel it's a bit of a crossroads for him.
I have to agree, it’s a shame as I did have high hopes for him. He’s been injured too often which has halted his progress. Unfortunately for him we’ve so far ahead in terms of quality now he isn’t ever going to cut it for where we want to be now. Our expectations have obviously risen as well as this season has unfolded. We really could do with a bit more quality in this department. I still can’t believe how awful he looked last night.

Offline Mister E

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11108 on: January 28, 2021, 02:28:16 PM »
I always thought Davis if anything has a great touch when he features. I know his finishing is very debatable but last night he looked very very sluggish and rusty. Not sure if it’s game time or confidence, but his touch was woeful.
I’d have been tempted with either Ramsey or Nakamba for Ross or Traore when it was 2-1. Hindsight is wonderful though in the aftermath.
He was embarrassingly bad.  For the sake of his own career he needs to be on his way this January. He offers nothing to the squad, and his own development isn't being enhanced by playing 5 minutes once a month.  He's 23 in a couple of weeks, so I feel it's a bit of a crossroads for him.
Sluggish and overweight (okay: not by my standards I admit; but he's supposed to be an in-prime athlete).

Offline OCD

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11109 on: January 31, 2021, 12:49:48 PM »
I think we would all like to see Deano use his substitutes a bit more. He seems to have been using his subs less and less on a game-by-game basis since we came back from Covid so it makes me wonder whether he's treating it like an exercise in getting their fitness levels up. You would normally do similar in pre-season, giving players longer and longer until they could comfortably handle the full 90 minutes. That would explain his reluctance to use subs. Hopefully once everyone's fitness levels are right, we can use the subs bench more from a tactical standpoint. That's got to be the next phase of our development, having the weapons on the bench that can change how games are going.

Offline Villan82

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11110 on: February 03, 2021, 11:03:03 PM »
Great season, obviously.

I do wish, however, he was more pro-active with his substitutions/using the squad.

Offline Risso

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11111 on: February 03, 2021, 11:12:02 PM »
We've been much, much better this season, that goes without saying, but just as he tightened up the defence last season, he now needs to improve on a few things again:

- getting the best out of the squad in terms of rotation and substitutions.
- turning things around from a losing position. At the moment when we concede the first goal they might as well blow the final whistle.
- allied to the second point, when we start to lose, the whole team seems to completely lose their minds. In the 8 defeats in the League, we've conceded at least 2 goals in all of them, and 3+ goals in 5 of the 8. Some mental toughness when we concede needs to be instilled somehow, plus some tactical flexibility from Smith.

Offline itbrvilla

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11112 on: February 03, 2021, 11:41:01 PM »
2 wins in 7. He needs to change it up a little. We look tired and stale at times as well as too many sloppy errors (still)

Offline Luke8

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11113 on: February 03, 2021, 11:46:36 PM »
2 wins in 7. He needs to change it up a little. We look tired and stale at times as well as too many sloppy errors (still)

Only really one poor performance in that time though. There is definitely an argument for one or two possible changes, but we aren’t in a position where we need to be too concerned yet.

Offline brontebilly

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11114 on: February 04, 2021, 12:08:26 AM »
The consequences of not using the squad properly in recent weeks were unfortunately exposed right from the off tonight. We looked flat all over the pitch. I just hope Smith doesn't use the performance of AEG to double down on sticking with the tried and trusted MON style from the off. Moyes was the one who was brave, changing formation to counteract Grealish successfully and bringing likes of Fredericks and Lingard in from the start.

There seemed to be somewhat of a heated debate between Shakespeare and Smith around the hour mark today. Hoddle in commentary was calling for the tactical change to shift Grealish inside from a long way out. Smith was far too slow to do it, left Barkley on far too long for me.

Hard to be too harsh but Id fear for a MON style collapse from us late in the season if we don't start using the squad and bench a lot more proactively.

 


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