Dean Smith - Confirmed

[pauliewalnuts]

Although i've though for a while this is how it's going to be this season, and that we are going to be inconsistent, I will admit, I am a little bit worried that we are finding a degree of consistency now - unfortunately, it is being consistently poor.

We were never going to get anything from last night, I can accept that, begrudgingly, but it's the other matches, from which we should get something but in which we look poor that worry me.

We are massively, massively reliant on Jack.

[Clampy]

That table is extremely worrying.
I do not think it is acceptable to be on that run of form and just put it down to Jack and the Covid break.
All the games between now and the end of the season except Palace are against teams that are likely to be competitive.
I don’t think Dean can allow this run of form to continue but I am not sure that he has any idea how to stop it other than the return of Grealish.

Extremely worrying is a tad over the top I think.

Well I’m worried about it, I don’t see how anyone can’t be?

I'm not worried about sitting just below mid-table. It could and probably should have been better and next season it will have to be.

[pauliewalnuts]

That table is extremely worrying.
I do not think it is acceptable to be on that run of form and just put it down to Jack and the Covid break.
All the games between now and the end of the season except Palace are against teams that are likely to be competitive.
I don’t think Dean can allow this run of form to continue but I am not sure that he has any idea how to stop it other than the return of Grealish.

Extremely worrying is a tad over the top I think.

Well I’m worried about it, I don’t see how anyone can’t be?

I'm not worried about sitting just below mid-table. It could and probably should have been better and next season it will have to be.

You're right about that, mid table is where we more or less could realistically hope to be. From that point of view, assuming we stay there, that's solid progress.

What worries me is that it's a points base built large on a relatively short period in which we went on a decent run and banked a load of points.

If you look at current form - 16 points from the last 16 games I read last night - then that paints a different picture.

I guess what I am saying is, the way the season has panned out thus far tells a different story.

Brentford fans said that Dean was a 'streaky' manager. I guess this is what they mean.

[steamer]

Without a crystal ball to see what can happen in the close season it is difficult to Imagine us starting next season with the verve we started this one with.
If we start off as we are ending then we are going to have a problem.
But lets see what additions come in, if we are struggling like we currently are by Christmas then Dean could have a problem

[aj2k77]

He has no idea how to arrest slumps, because he bangs on with the same approach. It will take Grealish to come back and do his job for him.

[Mister E]

I just posed the questions on the post-match thread: Is the team's apparent lethargy a result of Smith's management style? And, has this group of players accepted that we are a one-man team?
To have had such a dramatic swing in form seems weird. Has Smith peaked?

We need a really good summer of considered player-acquisition, to include, as a priority, a couple of players who can nail down our midfield and manage the ball-winning and possession way better than currently.

[Risso]

He just shows no sign of being able to turn this around.

Haven't we had that same conversation twice before though, in the Championship and then last season?  And he did turn it around, both times?

I dunno, he seems a bit of a streaky manager and I don't know why that's the case.  But I think this season, the COVID outbreak has absolutely nobbled us.  I know when I've had flu or whatever, I don't get back to anywhere near my same cycling ability for a week or so.  COVID seems like it might be something with more long-term effects than flu, so in that respect it's not overly surprising that some of our players look sluggish now.

That just stand up to any scrutiny. I can't find the quote now but in one interview Smith alluded to the fact that one first teamer had had symptoms. Certainly after the two week lay off, the starting team for the Burnley game was this:

Martinez
Cash
Konsa
Mings
Targett
McGinn
Luiz
Grealish
Traore
Barkley
Watkins

Trez, El Ghazi and Davis came on.

There's no way at all anybody suffering symptoms at the time would have been played, not with the amount of effort we put into the sports science side of the game and managing loads etc. We actually played really well in that game as well, with lots of energy and fizz, we were just undone by two really bad bits of defending.  So if they weren't suffering the effects then, then they certainly aren't now. The difference is almost entirely down to Jack. When he's at his best, he's unplayable, and then you can get away with the likes of Traore and Trez not exactly being world beaters. We're now in a usual Smith run of form where confidence is shot, he does the same old things and we can't buy a win.

[Villan82]

The form in this calendar year is dreadful and my worry is it will raise questions with our star players as to whether the team is going any where.

[Monty]

The form in this calendar year is dreadful and my worry is it will raise questions with our star players as to whether the team is going any where.

Let's see how he does with a few more star players then!

[brontebilly]

The form in this calendar year is dreadful and my worry is it will raise questions with our star players as to whether the team is going any where.

The scab 12 not getting their ESL money might help us in that regard. Attracting other top players wouldn't have been a problem in the first half of the season but the way things are going that could be a struggle this summer too.

[Drummond]

To be fair to Smith, he hasn't got any players who can put their foot on the ball and dictate play. Grealish is one of the very best at it, Barkley should have been but he's been pretty awful since his injury and that of course ties in with Grealish being out.

I was a little surprised we went with Davis so advanced as he's normally pretty good at retaining possession, though again some of the balls to him really didn't help him much at all last night.

[Three Spires Villa]

It is not the mid table position that is a worry, it is the recent lack of form and results that is the worry. 1 win 10 v Fulham. Same mistakes all the time. It needs to change or we go into season on a bum note.

[eamonn]

Aren't most managers "streaky" ones? You lose a game, you lose a little confidence; then you lose another and confidence wanes further. I would imagine that is far more common than a win followed by a defeat and then a draw and a win and another defeat etc.

The psychology of losing consecutively and playing within yourself, being less brave on the ball for fear of making a mistake...all of that rings true as clichéd truth so I don't think our bad runs are just the preserve of Dean. Most clubs outside of the "elite" (and even then, Liverpool aren't immune as their recent form shows) suffer from it at some stage of a season.

The same can be applied to winning regularly. There is a spring in your step, training is more fun, you take more attacking risks which come off etc. You win ten in a row and get to the Play-Off final seemingly from nowhere etc.

I do wonder if at this stage of professional football's evolution whether any club feel they've really nailed-it in terms of sports psychology and getting the best behavioural sports-scientists to make sure their players confidence is as primed as it can be? Or will it forever be the case that, being human, players will always be susceptible to self-doubt?
Playing behind closed doors in Pandemic Times at least gives a comparative/case study to see how much the players are affected both positively and negatively by the lack of crowds cheering/jeering them on.

[ez]

It's all about the midfield. We've got good defenders, a good goalkeeper and a good striker. The problem is we have a one man midfield and he's injured. We've got several other midfielders but they contribute very little. Traore and Sanson are no better than what we already have.

[Ad@m]

It's a tricky one - we're getting close to the point we were at with MON where we can buy players who are as good as the ones we've already got but we don't have the funds (due to FFP) or the Champions League allure to bring in players who will genuinely take us to the next step.

Selling Jack for a fortune would address the first point but make it less likely short-term that we'll make Europe.

MON just kept filling the squad with top 10 players who were never good enough for the top 4 and we all saw how that ended.

I think (hope) the strategy is to bring in young players with promise and develop them in to top 4 quality, but that doesn't happen overnight and we're going to have plenty of frustrating results and performances on the journey.  Lambert tried the same but wasn't good enough to develop the players.  Smith has at least shown he's capable of developing players so in that respect I'm minded to give him more time.

The other way of looking at it is to say which other manager (who's available) could get more out of this group of players?  I'm not sure there's anyone obvious.  The issue is the quality of the players, not the manager.