Dean Smith - Confirmed

[eamonn]

Almost every team goes on bad runs. Liverpool's six home defeats in a row is arguably Bingo's most impressive achievement with them.

[Ketzster]

Yes well it was a pretty shocking run in the Championship. People say it will be fine with better players, but it wasn’t when we had better players than other teams in the Championship when Grealish was out. You can ignore that run in the Championship and stuff but just buying better players won’t solve Smiths tactical inflexibility and not knowing what to do if plan A isn’t working. We can’t keep having long spells like this when a player is missing. It’s not just 6 games. 15 in the Championship, more than 10 now etc

[Risso]

Almost every team goes on bad runs.

Usually ending when they play us!

[Steve67]

Almost every team goes on bad runs.

Usually ending when they play us!

So true and really pisses me off!

[eamonn]

Well we have Everton at Goodison soon and they never win there...

[Ad@m]

Yes well it was a pretty shocking run in the Championship. People say it will be fine with better players, but it wasn’t when we had better players than other teams in the Championship when Grealish was out. You can ignore that run in the Championship and stuff but just buying better players won’t solve Smiths tactical inflexibility and not knowing what to do if plan A isn’t working. We can’t keep having long spells like this when a player is missing. It’s not just 6 games. 15 in the Championship, more than 10 now etc

Grealish is our best player by a country mile.  Just like he'd be the best player in pretty much any other team in the world.  It's hardly surprising that we struggle when he's out.

Smith brought Barkley in to take some of the pressure off Jack but it's turned out he's crap!  Until we get better players we're always going to struggle without one of the best players in the world.

[Ketzster]

Yes well it was a pretty shocking run in the Championship. People say it will be fine with better players, but it wasn’t when we had better players than other teams in the Championship when Grealish was out. You can ignore that run in the Championship and stuff but just buying better players won’t solve Smiths tactical inflexibility and not knowing what to do if plan A isn’t working. We can’t keep having long spells like this when a player is missing. It’s not just 6 games. 15 in the Championship, more than 10 now etc

Grealish is our best player by a country mile.  Just like he'd be the best player in pretty much any other team in the world.  It's hardly surprising that we struggle when he's out.

Smith brought Barkley in to take some of the pressure off Jack but it's turned out he's crap!  Until we get better players we're always going to struggle without one of the best players in the world.

My point is though that we had better players than other teams in the Championship, and when Grealish was out Smith still couldn’t find an answer then either until Grealish came back. So I don’t think just having better players will solve the problem under Smith. We need investment in new players obviously, but we also need investment in a better manager

[paul_e]

The 'shocking' run in the championship is normally considered as being from the draw with the Baggies in December to the Stoke game in late February where we got 14 points in 14 games. No one would argue that we were great in that period but, as many people have said, all teams have runs of bad form but how you perform around them is the key to being able to challenge. If you win 4 in 5 before it and 10 in 10 afterwards like we did then I find it a bit weird that 2 years later people are still using the bad spell as an excuse to slag off the manager.

[PaulWinch again]

I think my biggest problem with Dean, when it comes to these runs of poor form, is that I get the impression he waits for things to improve rather than proactively seeking the answer to arresting the slump. Clearly trying to adjust doesn’t mean you’ll successfully arrest the dip in form, but I feel like we just wait and hope that the players come back into form.

[Ketzster]

The 'shocking' run in the championship is normally considered as being from the draw with the Baggies in December to the Stoke game in late February where we got 14 points in 14 games. No one would argue that we were great in that period but, as many people have said, all teams have runs of bad form but how you perform around them is the key to being able to challenge. If you win 4 in 5 before it and 10 in 10 afterwards like we did then I find it a bit weird that 2 years later people are still using the bad spell as an excuse to slag off the manager.

The run in the Championship is still relevant because the problems we saw then, are exactly the same as the ones now. If Smith really was learning and changing things, then you’d be correct and the Championship run could no longer be used

[Risso]

The 'shocking' run in the championship is normally considered as being from the draw with the Baggies in December to the Stoke game in late February where we got 14 points in 14 games. No one would argue that we were great in that period but, as many people have said, all teams have runs of bad form but how you perform around them is the key to being able to challenge. If you win 4 in 5 before it and 10 in 10 afterwards like we did then I find it a bit weird that 2 years later people are still using the bad spell as an excuse to slag off the manager.

The run in the Championship is still relevant because the problems we saw then, are exactly the same as the ones now. If Smith really was learning and changing things, then you’d be correct and the Championship run could no longer be used

They also show that he is completely and utterly reliant on Jack Grealish. Of course all teams would miss a player as good as he is, but Smith just seems totally bereft of any ideas without him. The main reason this season is that the other attacking support players (ie not Ollie) in Trez/El Ghazi/Traore/Barkley are piss poor, and the central midfielders haven't been playing any better.

[paul_e]

The 'shocking' run in the championship is normally considered as being from the draw with the Baggies in December to the Stoke game in late February where we got 14 points in 14 games. No one would argue that we were great in that period but, as many people have said, all teams have runs of bad form but how you perform around them is the key to being able to challenge. If you win 4 in 5 before it and 10 in 10 afterwards like we did then I find it a bit weird that 2 years later people are still using the bad spell as an excuse to slag off the manager.

The run in the Championship is still relevant because the problems we saw then, are exactly the same as the ones now. If Smith really was learning and changing things, then you’d be correct and the Championship run could no longer be used

They also show that he is completely and utterly reliant on Jack Grealish. Of course all teams would miss a player as good as he is, but Smith just seems totally bereft of any ideas without him. The main reason this season is that the other attacking support players (ie not Ollie) in Trez/El Ghazi/Traore/Barkley are piss poor, and the central midfielders haven't been playing any better.

Surely he's either bereft of ideas or all the other support players are piss poor. If they're as bad as you repeatedly state then what more could Smith do with such a bad squad?

[Risso]

The 'shocking' run in the championship is normally considered as being from the draw with the Baggies in December to the Stoke game in late February where we got 14 points in 14 games. No one would argue that we were great in that period but, as many people have said, all teams have runs of bad form but how you perform around them is the key to being able to challenge. If you win 4 in 5 before it and 10 in 10 afterwards like we did then I find it a bit weird that 2 years later people are still using the bad spell as an excuse to slag off the manager.

The run in the Championship is still relevant because the problems we saw then, are exactly the same as the ones now. If Smith really was learning and changing things, then you’d be correct and the Championship run could no longer be used

They also show that he is completely and utterly reliant on Jack Grealish. Of course all teams would miss a player as good as he is, but Smith just seems totally bereft of any ideas without him. The main reason this season is that the other attacking support players (ie not Ollie) in Trez/El Ghazi/Traore/Barkley are piss poor, and the central midfielders haven't been playing any better.

Surely he's either bereft of ideas or all the other support players are piss poor. If they're as bad as you repeatedly state then what more could Smith do with such a bad squad?

Tried different formations andd combinations of players. McGinn is shite as a defensive midfielder, so why not try him in a slightly wider attacking formation. He could have given Davis a go in a 4-4-2 before being forced into it.  Given 3-5-2 a go with Targett and Cash as wing backs. Lots of things.

[Ad@m]

How was he 'forced' into playing Davis?  His preferred formation is to have 1 up front but on Tuesday night he brought Davis on at half time alongside Ollie.

He also started McGinn as the most attacking midfielder.

[paul_e]

Tried different formations andd combinations of players. McGinn is shite as a defensive midfielder, so why not try him in a slightly wider attacking formation. He could have given Davis a go in a 4-4-2 before being forced into it.  Given 3-5-2 a go with Targett and Cash as wing backs. Lots of things.

but if the players are piss poor that's surely just shuffling the deckchairs. What you're describing sounds a lot like the inept floundering from Sherwood that setup what was probably our worst season ever in the top flight.

This isn't personal but I just find it funny that, if we're not doing well, whatever the manager is doing is absolutely 100% the wrong thing. Personally I don't think we're all that far away from being decent, we just need a bit of confidence and a bit of luck because right now there's a hint of reluctance in everything we're doing as if the players are expecting the worse and all the little things (slightly under hit passes, taking 1 more touch, giving up on a run too soon) are a result of that. I don't think we can address that by changing the formation or juggling the players around. That said I would like to see us have an extra man staying high up the pitch when we're defending to give us more of a chance of running in behind teams on the counter because I think that might be the best way to earn that bit of luck. Given how Watkins plays (he often comes deeper to press the defensive midfielder) right now we are left without an out ball more often than I'd like.