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Author Topic: Dean Smith - Confirmed  (Read 1522408 times)

Offline OzVilla

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11115 on: February 04, 2021, 02:17:26 AM »
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.

I'm not sure he trusts his squad enough to rotate things.

Offline Luke8

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11116 on: February 04, 2021, 07:26:53 AM »
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.

I'm not sure he trusts his squad enough to rotate things.

Quite possibly. And, obviously, Dean see them more than us and is best placed to make that judgement. He is clearly doing what he thinks is the best thing to win games and, to be fair to him, he hasn’t got much wrong this season.

We will never know how much difference it would have made. You could make the argument either way - maybe we would have been a bit fresher  etc. or maybe it would have meant more disjointed/less quality performances.

What is clear, to me at least, is that I would trust Dean, and the rest of the club, to get that right eventually. We have seen a big jump in quality/performance/results from what you would call our first XI through the improvements they have made. I’d imagine Sanson is the first part of that next step in improving the overall quality of the whole squad.

Online Sexual Ealing

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11117 on: February 04, 2021, 07:34:24 AM »
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.

I'm not sure he trusts his squad enough to rotate things.

Quite possibly. And, obviously, Dean see them more than us and is best placed to make that judgement. He is clearly doing what he thinks is the best thing to win games and, to be fair to him, he hasn’t got much wrong this season.

We will never know how much difference it would have made. You could make the argument either way - maybe we would have been a bit fresher  etc. or maybe it would have meant more disjointed/less quality performances.

What is clear, to me at least, is that I would trust Dean, and the rest of the club, to get that right eventually. We have seen a big jump in quality/performance/results from what you would call our first XI through the improvements they have made. I’d imagine Sanson is the first part of that next step in improving the overall quality of the whole squad.

I agree with this assessment, and I love the man, but he needs to come up with a plan for how we can use Grealish when the opponents copy Wham's approach, because they will.

Offline Neil Hawkes

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11118 on: February 04, 2021, 07:43:31 AM »
With Morgan Sanson now getting some game time, I would like to see a reversion to a 4-3-3,
Jack, Ollie & a.n.other as part of the front three, Doug, John & Morgan as the midfield three.

Online PaulWinch again

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11119 on: February 04, 2021, 07:44:14 AM »
I think Dean, and his coaching staff, have done a great job in turning us into an exciting and threatening side. There’s two areas he needs to address -

- better use of the squad. I know there’s a drop off in quality in most positions, but if you make a couple of changes - particularly in midfield - the team should be able to absorb the drop off. It’s pointless just running you preferred 11 into the ground and I’m sure that was a factor in last night’s horror show.

- we need to be better at responding to adversity. When we go behind we lose and we’ve got to stronger at competing when that happens.

Offline Luke8

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11120 on: February 04, 2021, 08:00:39 AM »

- we need to be better at responding to adversity. When we go behind we lose and we’ve got to stronger at competing when that happens.

I’m not dismissing this, there is clearly a bit of an issue here, but I’m not sure it’s as bad as it seems (or the stat about points from losing positions would suggest)

We haven’t got many positive end results from those games, but it’s not like we have conceded and given up/capitulated in all our defeats. We equalised against Manchester United, Brighton, West Ham and our performances could have quite easily have led to us winning some of those games on another day.

Like in most areas, we have made significant progress, it’s now about tweaking a few issues/taking that next step to becoming a really good team.

Offline Risso

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11121 on: February 04, 2021, 09:03:56 AM »

- we need to be better at responding to adversity. When we go behind we lose and we’ve got to stronger at competing when that happens.

I’m not dismissing this, there is clearly a bit of an issue here, but I’m not sure it’s as bad as it seems (or the stat about points from losing positions would suggest)

We haven’t got many positive end results from those games, but it’s not like we have conceded and given up/capitulated in all our defeats. We equalised against Manchester United, Brighton, West Ham and our performances could have quite easily have led to us winning some of those games on another day.

Like in most areas, we have made significant progress, it’s now about tweaking a few issues/taking that next step to becoming a really good team.

I agree with Paul, when we lose, we tend to lose badly. We've conceded 3+ goals in 5 out of 8 defeats as I said before, and in those games we haven't been playing the top clubs.  Also worryingly, in the last two games we've gone back to conceding 20 shots a game. We got away with it, just, against Southampton but the chickens came home to roost last night.

Offline Villan82

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11122 on: February 04, 2021, 11:15:26 AM »
Brian Little, John Gregory, MON and Dean Smith are the managers of the past 25 years who have had the opportunity to push us on and really challenge the elite. With Dean, the opportunity is there but the project is still very much at the early days stage.

What held MON and, to a lesser extent, Gregory & Little back was a failure to use a squad in the way that our rivals could. I think Little was fairly content with the team he built in 1995-96 & when it came to adding players to it we stalled. Gregory had money to spend but for some reason we always seemed to have a smaller squad than the other top six clubs. MON's failure to utilise the squad is well documented.

I really hope we aren't seeing this play out again with Dean. The players look so tired and leggy. Now maybe we don't have the full story on our Covid outbreak but I am disappointed there hasn't been more rotation of the squad. For a start, we are now under pressure for our next game because we didn't make changes early enough last night. When i looked at these fixtures I thought we had a real opportunity to cement a top 10 finish but we have really fluffed it.
« Last Edit: February 04, 2021, 11:17:10 AM by Villan82 »

Offline danno

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11123 on: February 04, 2021, 11:43:22 AM »
We have one of the youngest sides in the league, with that you're going to have inconsistency. Some naivety at times and yes some blind panic when things don't go our way.

It's partly why Arsenal are having such an up and down season, and why Man United struggled for periods last year under Solksjaer straight after unbeaten runs.

I thought Targett should have had a shot last night, instead he tried a pass which got cut out and because we had so many forward we got caught out.

That's a young side pushing too hard to get back into the game, and making a mistake. I can live with that, because I'm so sure there's more to come from all of them.

Smith is going to make mistakes too, so getting out thought by a man who has been managing at this level for twenty years doesn't worry me either.

Offline Luke8

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11124 on: February 04, 2021, 11:46:13 AM »

I agree with Paul, when we lose, we tend to lose badly. We've conceded 3+ goals in 5 out of 8 defeats as I said before, and in those games we haven't been playing the top clubs.  Also worryingly, in the last two games we've gone back to conceding 20 shots a game. We got away with it, just, against Southampton but the chickens came home to roost last night.

It’s four game out of eight and I’d say that you could make a fairly convincing case that two of those, Burnley and Southampton, were almost anomalies in terms of the number of goals conceded. But I do take your point, and certainly the number of shots we have conceded in the last two games is a bit of a concern.

Mentioned it in another thread, but I just think we need to be a bit more pragmatic at times. We are a bit too ‘win or bust’. It’s led to some great performances, but it’s also contributed to some of our defeats with our decision making in regards to that mentality (last night, Brighton’s first goal, Burnley’s second equaliser for example).

The positive side is that Smith is clearly aware of this and has shown previously he can recognise our faults and improve them, both tactically and in recruitment. And the players will get there. We are a very young, only recently good team. We basically need to learn how to be a really good side - be a bit more streetwise, less naive, be able to control games more and develop a little bit more consistency. We shown those things in patches this season and I have very faith the coaches and players will get there eventually.

Offline ChicagoLion

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11125 on: February 04, 2021, 11:48:46 AM »
But sometimes the Manager has to help the team.

Offline Drummond

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11126 on: February 04, 2021, 12:14:12 PM »
We have one of the youngest sides in the league, with that you're going to have inconsistency. Some naivety at times and yes some blind panic when things don't go our way.

It's partly why Arsenal are having such an up and down season, and why Man United struggled for periods last year under Solksjaer straight after unbeaten runs.

I thought Targett should have had a shot last night, instead he tried a pass which got cut out and because we had so many forward we got caught out.

That's a young side pushing too hard to get back into the game, and making a mistake. I can live with that, because I'm so sure there's more to come from all of them.

Smith is going to make mistakes too, so getting out thought by a man who has been managing at this level for twenty years doesn't worry me either.

Yep agree with this.

I'd also like to add that when people say we've won 2 out of 7, out of the games we've lost, they inlcude Man C (with that well dodgy decision) Man U who put 9 past Soton and Liverpool with the kids.

Offline Russ aka Big Nose

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11127 on: February 04, 2021, 01:20:04 PM »
We are a work in progress - the players and coaches - and the progress has been remarkable.

It is inevitable in such circumstances that a below par performance can appear to reveal bigger issues than might actually be the case - largely because a relatively new team is less resilient by virtue of less playing time together, fewer challenging situations faced etc.

Much as I hated what happened last night (not least because of the idiot messages I got from a couple of mates that support them) it is part of a new team being formed.

As for 'the players look leggy', I might be wrong but I suspect that is a combination of their demeanour playing in a game when things are not going great and how fans see things in the context of the score/result. Their actuals stats might be on a par with other games.

It's highly likely that Ollie Watkins needlessly conceded possession when we thumped Red Scouse but those aren't the moments we remember. It's inevitable and not a criticism of anyone - players or fans offering that view. UTV

Offline SoccerHQ

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11128 on: February 04, 2021, 01:26:58 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.

I'm not sure he trusts his squad enough to rotate things.

The squaddies have done us proud this year though.

Trez excellent start of the season. Hourihane did well in the first 2-3 games although I fully understand why we moved him on. Ramsey did fine on his start at Wolves which was a really big win at the time and Kortney Hause adventures in the premier league this year......4 starts, 3 clean sheets, 1 goal, 8 points. Nakamba has done o.k when he's come in aswell.

Completely forgot AEG's purple patch in December aswell which won us a few points. I think that's the classic case of someone not good enough to start 30 league games in a season but he'll have periods when he's hot as he was in December.

It seems we're still stuck in 19/20 thinking any fringe player coming into the 11 is going to instantly make us play horribly whereas the opposite is true from the players above. Dosen't mean I want any of them starting all the games in the run in but they've shown they can come in for odd starts if an automatic pick needs a rest.

Only one I don't really get is what our plan is with Davis. 2 nil down and he's an unused sub. Seems we just kept him to just say we have a striker on the bench to cover things and so not bother getting in any striker so he's one squad player who hasn't been trusted and is now stagnating but the others have done fine.

Will be a very interesting selection v Arsenal.

Offline OCD

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Re: Dean Smith - Confirmed
« Reply #11129 on: February 04, 2021, 03:48:29 PM »
The team/squad may be on a learning curve and prone to occasional mistakes but it's the same with Smith. He's admitted to getting the tactics wrong last night but also there has to be a question as to whether the players would have been as tired if there had been a bit more use of substitutes when there was the chance to in previous games.

Two things though - 1) there's not as many mid-week games from this point on and 2) Smith has previously commented on expecting to have a lack of depth in the club's second season back in the Premier League and then acted on it by signing Sanson so I think we will build some depth over the coming windows. Hopefully he'll be able to do some rotation in future without there being a drop in quality or any loss of momentum.

 


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