Dean Smith - Confirmed

[ez]

It's infuriating that he won't change anything  until we are losing.

[Villan82]

He has spent a lot of money now (and in a pandemic, let's not forget). Martinez, Watkins and Cash were three quality additions and Traore wasn't a bad signing either. He has been backed more than any villa manager since O'Neill.

Avoiding a relegation scrap is a big improvement but we need to start aiming higher than that at some point- Grealish, Martinez, Konsa, Mings, Watkins are very good players to build a team around.

[CT]

Time to go.  He never learns.  Thanks for the promotion Dean, but your out of your depth now

Same for Terry, O’Kelly and Shakespeare then? Always seems to be a team effort when we win and Smith alone when we lose. Where’s their fucking input?

[Steve67]

Our midfield is like Swiss cheese. He brings in Barkley/Sanson instead of the much needed proper defensive midfielder. We continue to give away more chances or shots per game than most. He’s done well to stabilise the club but loyalty is a commodity in short supply in football. 3 wins in 16 is bang relegation form, thank God we started well.

[Monty]

Maybe he needs another coach, or someone on the staff needs replacing, like how Ferguson would hire Queiroz and the like when he felt he was going stale. Someone to help tactical management. I mean, if it's good enough for Ferguson then it's good enough for Smith.

Ferguson for all his tea cup tossing bravado was also light years ahead of others in terms of what it took to run a massive club. That is coaching, analytics, squad management and the psychological warfare against all others in getting that edge. I don’t think Dean Smith is broad enough mentally to grasp all of that.

Bit of a daft comparison isn't it, Smith against the greatest ever. Its like thrashing the car sat in your drive because its not a Jaguar E Type.

Quite. I just meant that this one thing Ferguson did sometimes might be useful.

The interesting thing about Ferguson oddly was his humility, by which I mean his willingness to recognise when he was wrong and change things up, as opposed to the likes of MON who would sacrifice everything before their own ego. If delegating certain things to Queiroz was good enough for the greatest ever, then I don't see why Dean Smith shouldn't do something similar.

Surely he can see where the problem lies? You can't ask players to be honest with themselves and work on their weaknesses without doing the same yourself.

[Rudy65]

Time to go.  He never learns.  Thanks for the promotion Dean, but your out of your depth now

Same for Terry, O’Kelly and Shakespeare then? Always seems to be a team effort when we win and Smith alone when we lose. Where’s their fucking input?

Buck stops with the manager. End of

[Toronto Villa]

Maybe he needs another coach, or someone on the staff needs replacing, like how Ferguson would hire Queiroz and the like when he felt he was going stale. Someone to help tactical management. I mean, if it's good enough for Ferguson then it's good enough for Smith.

Ferguson for all his tea cup tossing bravado was also light years ahead of others in terms of what it took to run a massive club. That is coaching, analytics, squad management and the psychological warfare against all others in getting that edge. I don’t think Dean Smith is broad enough mentally to grasp all of that.

Bit of a daft comparison isn't it, Smith against the greatest ever. Its like thrashing the car sat in your drive because its not a Jaguar E Type.

Not really. I was responding to the point that Ferguson had other tactical coaches to advise him. Dean Smith’s tactical team is Richard O’Kelly, Craig Shakespeare, John Terry and the person he seems to listen to the most during a game, the GK coach Neil Cutler. Dean Smith has proven he either doesn’t have the required in game management skills poor the advise he does get isn’t very good. He was absolutely out coached by Hodgson today who changed something to turn Palace into world beaters n the second half.

[richtheholtender]

It's infuriating that he won't change anything  until we are losing.

Exactly and given the circumstances we’ve been in for a while. We have had a free hit for ages now and he’s done nothing!!  All we have done since we lost Jack is continue with this 4-3-3 which without him makes us just a weaker version of us. If with Jack we are at best in with a fighting chance in games why does he think without him we will be any better?

[Ads]

The problem lies with the squad. It's a midtable squad and it's delivering midtable form and results. There's plenty to work with, but if we want to compete in the top 8, we need 4 good quality players.

[Toronto Villa]

Maybe he needs another coach, or someone on the staff needs replacing, like how Ferguson would hire Queiroz and the like when he felt he was going stale. Someone to help tactical management. I mean, if it's good enough for Ferguson then it's good enough for Smith.

Ferguson for all his tea cup tossing bravado was also light years ahead of others in terms of what it took to run a massive club. That is coaching, analytics, squad management and the psychological warfare against all others in getting that edge. I don’t think Dean Smith is broad enough mentally to grasp all of that.

Bit of a daft comparison isn't it, Smith against the greatest ever. Its like thrashing the car sat in your drive because its not a Jaguar E Type.

Quite. I just meant that this one thing Ferguson did sometimes might be useful.

The interesting thing about Ferguson oddly was his humility, by which I mean his willingness to recognise when he was wrong and change things up, as opposed to the likes of MON who would sacrifice everything before their own ego. If delegating certain things to Queiroz was good enough for the greatest ever, then I don't see why Dean Smith shouldn't do something similar.

Surely he can see where the problem lies? You can't ask players to be honest with themselves and work on their weaknesses without doing the same yourself.

Can he though? I guarantee today he will blame the players after the game.

[Risso]

The problem lies with the squad. It's a midtable squad and it's delivering midtable form and results. There's plenty to work with, but if we want to compete in the top 8, we need 4 good quality players.

The form for the second half of the season isn't mid-table though, it's relegation battle form. Stick with Smith, and I think we'll be in for another mediocre season at best next year.

[Toronto Villa]

The problem lies with the squad. It's a midtable squad and it's delivering midtable form and results. There's plenty to work with, but if we want to compete in the top 8, we need 4 good quality players.

The Palace squad over the season has proven itself to be worse than us but you’d never know it today. How did they manage that? I don’t disagree with the broader point we need better players, but the drop in quality and performance should not be this steep. And not just today. Over the past 20 odd games, it’s not a small sample size.

[Smirker]

The problem lies with the squad. It's a midtable squad and it's delivering midtable form and results. There's plenty to work with, but if we want to compete in the top 8, we need 4 good quality players.

The form for the second half of the season isn't mid-table though, it's relegation battle form. Stick with Smith, and I think we'll be in for another mediocre season at best next year.

Who do you suggest we replace him with?

[Rudy65]

The buck stops with Smith but the players were awful SH. No leadership without Mings

[Toronto Villa]

The problem lies with the squad. It's a midtable squad and it's delivering midtable form and results. There's plenty to work with, but if we want to compete in the top 8, we need 4 good quality players.

The form for the second half of the season isn't mid-table though, it's relegation battle form. Stick with Smith, and I think we'll be in for another mediocre season at best next year.

Who do you suggest we replace him with?

Someone better unless you are suggesting there couldn’t possibly be anyone better out there.