Dean Smith - Confirmed

[Clive W]

Didn’t watch the game but followed it on the match thread here.

We were obviously rubbish, no better off than a couple of seasons ago and DS should be sacked tomorrow.

Then I looked at the match summaries on BBC and Daily Telegraph websites. They were all complimentary about us; an entertaining match that could have gone either way.

So now I’m confused

[London Villan]

We currently have a top 6 defence, but without Jack a bottom 3 attack - Watkins is feeding on scraps and still managing to score.

Today would have been a great opportunity to try something different, nothing to lose. We don't change anything and we lose anyway.

We'll be lucky to get 50 points - which is a shame, based on where we were at Christmas. £100 in the summer should buy us some more firepower.

[Lastfootstamper]

We haven't been abysmal for 4 months. We weren't abysmal today.

Absymal is probably a little strong a word as defensively we've been excellent.... but we should be winning way more games than we have been. Way too many missed opportunities through lack of flexibility in tactics/formation/personel.

'Blunt' is probably more apt a word.

I'd certainly agree with 'blunt'. For all their possession and efforts, we had some glaring opportunities to score perhaps three that they would have put away with their better players in the first half today. Some weak efforts from us.

[paul_e]

He’s spent nearly 200 million in 2 years and we still look like relegation fodder without grealish.

Played 25
Won 4
Drawn 9
Lost 12
For 26
Against 39.
Points 21

I don't really see the point of this, ignoring that you picking stats spread over 3 seasons in completely different circumstances it's just a pointless thing to do. All it shows is that Grealish is a bit good, it hardly makes you Sherlock Holmes to point that out.

Liverpool have struggled without VVD, does that make the rest of their squad shit? Does it make Klopp shit?
Man City started the season badly with KDB out and trying to find his fitness, again does that mean everything else there is shit?

I pick those clubs as examples because whilst they were doing better without a key player than we have they still dropped points, even with league winning squads.

I think COVID has had an impact on us as much as anything.

I agree completely with this, the difference in how we play before and after covid is the key split this season. Jack getting injured has just added to an already poor spell. We got 10 points from 7 in the spell between the quarantine and Jack getting injured, and 8 in 8 since. Before that we'd got 26 in 15. On top of that we were averaging 2 goals a game before and we've averaged less than 1 a game since. I posted somewhere earlier I reckon covid will have cost us about 8-10 points by the time the season finishes.

[OCD]

Didn’t watch the game but followed it on the match thread here.

We were obviously rubbish, no better off than a couple of seasons ago and DS should be sacked tomorrow.

Then I looked at the match summaries on BBC and Daily Telegraph websites. They were all complimentary about us; an entertaining match that could have gone either way.

So now I’m confused

Easy one. Don't use the match thread to get a sense of what happened. We're all Villa through to the bone and take each defeat to heart.

[Clive W]

Didn’t watch the game but followed it on the match thread here.

We were obviously rubbish, no better off than a couple of seasons ago and DS should be sacked tomorrow.

Then I looked at the match summaries on BBC and Daily Telegraph websites. They were all complimentary about us; an entertaining match that could have gone either way.

So now I’m confused

Easy one. Don't use the match thread to get a sense of what happened. We're all Villa through to the bone and take each defeat to heart.

I know mate. I’ve been following us for 60 years so I’ve seen enough defeats to wonder how I’ve got any heart left!!

However, a bit of objectivity here wouldn’t go amiss.

[Nunkin1965]

If some supporters are becoming critical of the manager maybe some of that criticism should be directed at the owners?
After all if what Smith is overseeing is so bad why haven't they removed him?
Ridiculous right?
They are clearly comfortable at the overall progress being made otherwise a decision would have been made by now.
There will clearly be an injection of quality in the summer and of course the manager, or any manager is under more pressure to get results.

[LukeJames]

He’s spent nearly 200 million in 2 years and we still look like relegation fodder without grealish.

Played 25
Won 4
Drawn 9
Lost 12
For 26
Against 39.
Points 21

I don't really see the point of this, ignoring that you picking stats spread over 3 seasons in completely different circumstances it's just a pointless thing to do. All it shows is that Grealish is a bit good, it hardly makes you Sherlock Holmes to point that out.

I'm not picking pointless stats, im stating our record under Smith without Grealish, which is related to the point I quoted.

[richtheholtender]

My only negative towards smith is his reluctance to change. We are still playing the same formation than the day he walked in. Playing that formation without Jack just means we’re just a weaker version of us so we may as well have taken the opportunity to change it. The only time I really recall him doing it was Fulham last week when we went two up top and look how that worked out.

[Brazilian Villain]

He’s spent nearly 200 million in 2 years and we still look like relegation fodder without grealish.

Seeing someone use the phrase 'relegation fodder' after the progress we've made in the last 2 years certainly gives me food for thought.

[LukeJames]

Rotherham was the obvious one for me, granted they are nowhere near our level but he changed our whole shape with 10 men to change the game round. I thought we had a fluid progressive manager so its slightly dissapointing that he's now so set on one formation and style with no sign of change no matter what the circumstances.

[paul_e]

He’s spent nearly 200 million in 2 years and we still look like relegation fodder without grealish.

Played 25
Won 4
Drawn 9
Lost 12
For 26
Against 39.
Points 21

I don't really see the point of this, ignoring that you picking stats spread over 3 seasons in completely different circumstances it's just a pointless thing to do. All it shows is that Grealish is a bit good, it hardly makes you Sherlock Holmes to point that out.

I'm not picking pointless stats, im stating our record under Smith without Grealish, which is related to the point I quoted.

I know what you're stating, doesn't make it valuable though because you can't use them to offer any meaningful insights, it's just a stick to beat the manager with. In the bit you've cut away I gave some stats just for this season which show pretty clearly that the covid quarantine had a much bigger impact than losing Jack. The majority of the other games in your stats were in the championship and everything about the league and squad at that time was so different that there's just no comparison to offer.

Where we have missed Jack in this run is that him not being double or triple marked has meant there hasn't been so many gaps elsewhere and that has made us easier to defend against because we aren't moving players around as much. I don't think that's something that we can easily fix by changing to a 442 or by dropping every player that has a bad game.

I'm not saying Smith hasn't made mistakes, I'm just saying that there are loads of people on here, with no pressure on them to get things right; no way on knowing how their ideas would've changed things and a huge dollop of hindsight, that are trying really hard to convince everyone that Smith is useless and cherry picking stats to fit that whilst ignoring the fact that he has never failed to meet a goal he's been set since he joined. Every time we have a few bad performances the same people make the same arguments and forget that they've been proven wrong repeatedly. How long will it be before Smith can have a run of poor performances without it happening because it's 3 1/2 years now and it's got really fucking repetitive.

[AV82EC]

Its not impossible to hold the position that Smith has done a very good job overall for the past 2.5 years but some of his week to week decisions are fucking infuriating. As others have said the middle of next season is the time to judge his overall ability to drive the owners/our ambitions for the longer term particularly if the money is forthcoming this summer again. There comes a point when the owners will want to see a level of consistency in performance where extended runs of poor form just aren't acceptable and lead to one outcome. However, we're miles away from that. I'd add to that Smith is learning and hopefully the team he's got around him can help him build the flexibility in approach he needs to really succeed at the next level up. ( A big part of that to be fair is having quality footballers across his squad to deliver his plan something he hasn't currently got)

As people keep banging on about the with/without Grealish issue.

The first time he was out in late 18-early 19 he missed 13 games our record: W2 D7 L4, not great but hardly the disaster it was made out to be and all those draws kept us in touch with the play off chasers so that 4 wins on the bounce had us back in the top 6.

he only missed 2 or 3 games last season which you'd expect anyway in a normal season.

This season he's been out for 8 games and the record is W2 D2 L4 without him so again its lower mid table form but hardly wrist splitting stuff.

I'm still a big Smith fan but he doesn't half infuriate me at times. The time to judge is when he's had another big summer of signings and can he mould a consistent top 6 team.

[LukeJames]

He’s spent nearly 200 million in 2 years and we still look like relegation fodder without grealish.

Played 25
Won 4
Drawn 9
Lost 12
For 26
Against 39.
Points 21

I don't really see the point of this, ignoring that you picking stats spread over 3 seasons in completely different circumstances it's just a pointless thing to do. All it shows is that Grealish is a bit good, it hardly makes you Sherlock Holmes to point that out.

I'm not picking pointless stats, im stating our record under Smith without Grealish, which is related to the point I quoted.

I know what you're stating, doesn't make it valuable though

Well it does because Ive just given a quick copy and paste based on facts. You've stated 3 paragraphs based purely on an opinion.

[ChicagoLion]

Not sure he will get that long, much depends on how this season pans out and that is when a judgement should be made.