Dean Smith - Confirmed

[aj2k77]

Dave you sound like Steve Bruce here, very very few have said sack the manager or ''off with his head''. He's simply been criticised for a perceived slowness in changing games when things aren't working and the regimental choice of formation no matter what.

[Risso]

He won't get us up. We got up but that was because of Grealish.

He won't keep us up. We stayed up but that was because of Grealish.

We'll struggle again. We haven't struggled but that's because of Grealish.

It's getting a bit monotonous now. We've had 2 1/2 years of almost unbroken progress yet every time we look poor in a couple of games it's sack the manager. 

Has anybody actually said "sack the manager"? I'd imagine that it would have to be a constant refrain for it to be monotonous, but haven't found a single post where anybody has said that.

[dave.woodhall]

He won't get us up. We got up but that was because of Grealish.

He won't keep us up. We stayed up but that was because of Grealish.

We'll struggle again. We haven't struggled but that's because of Grealish.

It's getting a bit monotonous now. We've had 2 1/2 years of almost unbroken progress yet every time we look poor in a couple of games it's sack the manager. 

Has anybody actually said "sack the manager"? I'd imagine that it would have to be a constant refrain for it to be monotonous, but haven't found a single post where anybody has said that.

It's hinted at often enough.

[Risso]

So none at all then, that's sort of what I thought.

[RamboandBruno]

We are still very much a team in the making and poor runs of form are quite often a sign of this. I have no doubts that the team will continue to move forward with a couple of positive purchases in the summer and we will steadily build over the next few years. Whilst it’s frustrating seeing performances like this, we are safely in mid-table and are likely to be up and down.  I am sure that Dean Smith sees exactly what we see and will improve talent in the squad going forward.

Sorry I don’t agree with any of that
We are not a team in the making we are a team that relies on Grealish

Without him we are a bottom half side
Maybe not bottom three but bottom six probably

Without Grealish we are no better than Newcastle

Some of you guys that think we are progressing in the right direction and Smith has it all under control are going to get a very big surprise if Grealish leaves
And let’s face it why should the best in England stay and play with Players who aren’t good enough to lace his boots

we are not progressing into a very good side we can look a very good side because we have one of the best players in the world
Yes we will get wins without him the same way as Sheffield United Newcastle and all the other teams in the bottom half get a few wins

But we are very ordinary bang average slow no creativity with literally zero ideas from management side
Yes I might get accused of overreacting and my post being embarrassing but what’s more embarrassing is that shower of shit that I saw last night trying to play football
Absolute garbage on and off the pitch

Sorry for the embarrassing post Dave but I don’t give a shit

Not sure your post is embarrassing, it’s not very accurate. We’ve got the third best defense in the league for a start from the shit show it was last year. Smith got those players in, every one of them. Grealish doesn’t effect the defence in any way. We’re going through a bad run, like before that we went through a good run and we may well have another good run before the seasons out. Despite some bang average/poor performances over the last 6 or 7 games, we’re still on for our best top flight season in over a decade. Some perspective is badly needed here.

Someone else said on the thread, it has been the worst performances they’d seen in years recently, really?? Memories are really really short.

Finally what are Spurs like without Kane, Man Utd without rashford or Fernandes, Leicester without Vardy, I could go on. Every team other than Man City, misses their singularly best player when their not in the team.

[dave.woodhall]

So none at all then, that's sort of what I thought.

Then there's  the ones who've said he should go in the summer, while the one who said that Leicester and Chelsea sacked their managers was hardly delivering a ringing endorsement.

[baddowvillans]

What team, anywhere bar perhaps Man City  wouldn't rely on Grealish?



I would also add, as good as Man City are, take KDB out of that team for a considerable period or completely and see how they get on?

Er Jack did and they kept on winning

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

Finally what are Spurs like without Kane, Man Utd without rashford or Fernandes, Leicester without Vardy, I could go on. Every team other than Man City, misses their singularly best player when their not in the team (RamboandBruno)

These were exactly my thoughts this morning.
It takes more than 2 years to undo 10 years of downward spiralling. With a solid back 5, Jack, Ollie and some of the other midfielders stepping up and being consistent we have the makings of a good team, which with supportive owners will only get better when we add to the squad.
We're going through a rough patch at the moment, that said we have only 2 less wins than chelski in 4th place and 3 less wins  than manure in 2nd and I'm sure we can all think of 2 or 3 games we should have won to equal those win stats. Man city aside we are not really that far off after two thirds of the season.

[Risso]

Finally what are Spurs like without Kane, Man Utd without rashford or Fernandes, Leicester without Vardy, I could go on. Every team other than Man City, misses their singularly best player when their not in the team (RamboandBruno)

These were exactly my thoughts this morning.
It takes more than 2 years to undo 10 years of downward spiralling. With a solid back 5, Jack, Ollie and some of the other midfielders stepping up and being consistent we have the makings of a good team, which with supportive owners will only get better when we add to the squad.
We're going through a rough patch at the moment, that said we have only 2 less wins than chelski in 4th place and 3 less wins  than manure in 2nd and I'm sure we can all think of 2 or 3 games we should have won to equal those win stats. Man city aside we are not really that far off after two thirds of the season.

That's all true, but it's the run we're in at the moment that's concerning. With the quality of teams we've got left (8 out of 11 in the top it's hard to see that this season isn't go to end in a quite a poor fashion results wise. Obviously staying up easily is great, as is the improved defence, it's just such a let down after the great start we had.

[Chris Smith]

Finally what are Spurs like without Kane, Man Utd without rashford or Fernandes, Leicester without Vardy, I could go on. Every team other than Man City, misses their singularly best player when their not in the team (RamboandBruno)

These were exactly my thoughts this morning.
It takes more than 2 years to undo 10 years of downward spiralling. With a solid back 5, Jack, Ollie and some of the other midfielders stepping up and being consistent we have the makings of a good team, which with supportive owners will only get better when we add to the squad.
We're going through a rough patch at the moment, that said we have only 2 less wins than chelski in 4th place and 3 less wins  than manure in 2nd and I'm sure we can all think of 2 or 3 games we should have won to equal those win stats. Man city aside we are not really that far off after two thirds of the season.

That's all true, but it's the run we're in at the moment that's concerning. With the quality of teams we've got left (8 out of 11 in the top it's hard to see that this season isn't go to end in a quite a poor fashion results wise. Obviously staying up easily is great, as is the improved defence, it's just such a let down after the great start we had.

It is disappointing but we probably over performed in the first half of the season and are under performing now, if we’d done it the other way round we’d all be much more enthused. We’ll likely finish in the middle third which is a reflection of our squad strength compared to those at the top. A few additions in the summer will hopefully help us take the next step.

[RamboandBruno]

Finally what are Spurs like without Kane, Man Utd without rashford or Fernandes, Leicester without Vardy, I could go on. Every team other than Man City, misses their singularly best player when their not in the team (RamboandBruno)

These were exactly my thoughts this morning.
It takes more than 2 years to undo 10 years of downward spiralling. With a solid back 5, Jack, Ollie and some of the other midfielders stepping up and being consistent we have the makings of a good team, which with supportive owners will only get better when we add to the squad.
We're going through a rough patch at the moment, that said we have only 2 less wins than chelski in 4th place and 3 less wins  than manure in 2nd and I'm sure we can all think of 2 or 3 games we should have won to equal those win stats. Man city aside we are not really that far off after two thirds of the season.

That's all true, but it's the run we're in at the moment that's concerning. With the quality of teams we've got left (8 out of 11 in the top it's hard to see that this season isn't go to end in a quite a poor fashion results wise. Obviously staying up easily is great, as is the improved defence, it's just such a let down after the great start we had.

I get this completely, and after watching us just about match a really shite Newcastle side, I felt really flat last night and this morning and your right we have got tough games to come. I just think football from kids football all the way through to the premier, is sometimes as much about confidence as tactics and anything else, and we have lost our mojo at the moment. Grealish and Cash coming back might feel like new signings though and as we found out in the promotion season, it’s things like that, that can tip the balance between poor and good performances.
I think there are a few players that aren’t good enough, despite periods in the season of playing well, Trez and El Ghazi stand out here, particular as wingers are so important in smiths tactics. But otherwise I believe we have the nucleus of a very good side with a good manager.

[Rudy65]

The other thing to say about perspective is that it’s changed

We were struggling at the bottom of the premiership then we went down and we wanted to get back and the perspective was if we can just get back to the premiership we can start to build slowly again

That perspective changed with the new owners
It’s a completely different scenario
Some of you guys think it’s still the same but it’s not a change that day

We are now the second richest premiership club
We are the biggest club in the Midlands
We still have one of the greatest players in the world in our team
Our perspective has changed

We need to start seeing ourselves as competing for a top six place
Set the bar higher not lower

Too bloody right John

[AV82EC]

Since we came back from the enforced Covid break in January we've W4 D3 L5, classic mid-table form. As others have pointed out, we're much more resilient as a team defensively but have utterly lost our attacking verve and progressive approach from earlier in the season.

Three contributing reasons for me:

1 - The Grealish factor - much as we don't like to admit it, he lifts this team from being a lower midtable team to potentially being a team that can challenge for the European spots. Also there was a detailed stats analysis done a few weeks back on us this season which only backed this up as nearly 70% of our attacking intent was in the attacking left third.

2 - Smith and his coaching team - as others have pointed out in view of the above what are they doing about it? Sticking with the 433 despite the lack of personnel for it to be effective, continually just rotating and perming 3 from 6 in the three central midfield positions, playing clearly out of form players.

3 - Players out of form - quite clearly McGinn, Luiz and Barkley are struggling badly at the moment though McGinn and Luiz are showing signs they are starting to get back to something like some level of effectiveness.

Smith is doing OK in my view with the tools at his disposal but until the transition to a top 6 team is made then questions are bound to be asked, it comes with the territory unfortunately. That squad quality desperately needs to be improved in the summer as we're finding out, and really only then can Smith have no excuses in terms of delivering some of the expectations, up to know he's ticked every box.





 

[Risso]

Since we came back from the enforced Covid break in January we've W4 D3 L5, classic mid-table form. As others have pointed out, we're much more resilient as a team defensively but have utterly lost our attacking verve and progressive approach from earlier in the season.

Three contributing reasons for me:

1 - The Grealish factor - much as we don't like to admit it, he lifts this team from being a lower midtable team to potentially being a team that can challenge for the European spots. Also there was a detailed stats analysis done a few weeks back on us this season which only backed this up as nearly 70% of our attacking intent was in the attacking left third.

2 - Smith and his coaching team - as others have pointed out in view of the above what are they doing about it? Sticking with the 433 despite the lack of personnel for it to be effective, continually just rotating and perming 3 from 6 in the three central midfield positions, playing clearly out of form players.

3 - Players out of form - quite clearly McGinn, Luiz and Barkley are struggling badly at the moment though McGinn and Luiz are showing signs they are starting to get back to something like some level of effectiveness.

Smith is doing OK in my view with the tools at his disposal but until the transition to a top 6 team is made then questions are bound to be asked, it comes with the territory unfortunately. That squad quality desperately needs to be improved in the summer as we're finding out, and really only then can Smith have no excuses in terms of delivering some of the expectations, up to know he's ticked every box.

Great post, and very much agree with your points. The world and his dog can see that our wide players at the moment aren't coming up with the goods, so why continue with two of them in a 4-3-3 that is making Watkins look really isolated due to their all round poor play?

[Ian.]

The other thing to say about perspective is that it’s changed

We were struggling at the bottom of the premiership then we went down and we wanted to get back and the perspective was if we can just get back to the premiership we can start to build slowly again

That perspective changed with the new owners
It’s a completely different scenario
Some of you guys think it’s still the same but it’s not a change that day

We are now the second richest premiership club
We are the biggest club in the Midlands
We still have one of the greatest players in the world in our team
Our perspective has changed

We need to start seeing ourselves as competing for a top six place
Set the bar higher not lower

Too bloody right John

But it does not give us a Devine right to change this one season after surviving relegation. FFP has also moved the goal posts. We did what we had to after promotion and we have stepped up again this season. I really do t understand this god given right we must already be challenging the top six now.

We’re making great progress and I’m sure our new ambitions and wealthy owners will see this and have far more patience than some of our fans.