Even finishing top 8 this season will have teams in poor runs. Spurs have won same amount as we have since mid December I think and could still finish 5th.That 6th place finish under O'Leary in 03/04 we won 15 games in the season so only one off that currently, Newcastle somehow finished above us with just 13 wins.First MON 6th place season we won 16 games. We really aren't far away as long as we can get another 2-3 decent players in this summer.Disappointment this season is we were in a really good position going into March after winning at Leeds and completely messed up the games v Sheffield United and Newcastle simply because we didn't have much of an idea how to play without Grealish at that point, at least in last few weeks we've at least had some good halves but a little bit too late.
Does anyone despise Moyes?!
Quote from: Allan C on May 17, 2021, 09:22:54 PMQuote from: Steve67 on May 17, 2021, 07:35:16 PMEvery team suffered from Covid, to a more of lesser degree. The training complex was closed and we only carried on playing after every single player was fit again. It may have affected our momentum but not to the degree that we only win a handful of games over the rest of the season. Losing Jack also has nothing to do with Covid and seems to happen once a season. We have to sign other quality players and be better prepared for it. I would ask the question: is Dean getting enough out of the players?Regardless of any excuses offered, the second half of the season was nearly as bad as last season!I don’t think any of us would disagree that our form has been poor since Christmas. But the same manager had us playing the best football in years up to that point whilst bringing in new and exciting talent as the start of a much needed rebuild. Yet people overlook that point and suggest that very same manager is the cause of the poor form, despite the squad having a Covid outbreak, a generally weak squad depth and losing his best player for three months!! Maybe that’s the cause of poor end to the season? We strengthened the squad in January Allan, we bought the wrong type of player in Sanson when we needed a strong defensive midfielder. We can all see it yet Dean can’t? Same manager, same tactics. To be fair we also showed at times, against Southampton and Leeds how poor we can be even in the first half of the season. I appreciate that Rome wasn’t built in a day and we are still a side in assembly phase but having spent what we have, I’d expect 11th as the minimum. Would any other manager sustained the start that we made?
Quote from: Steve67 on May 17, 2021, 07:35:16 PMEvery team suffered from Covid, to a more of lesser degree. The training complex was closed and we only carried on playing after every single player was fit again. It may have affected our momentum but not to the degree that we only win a handful of games over the rest of the season. Losing Jack also has nothing to do with Covid and seems to happen once a season. We have to sign other quality players and be better prepared for it. I would ask the question: is Dean getting enough out of the players?Regardless of any excuses offered, the second half of the season was nearly as bad as last season!I don’t think any of us would disagree that our form has been poor since Christmas. But the same manager had us playing the best football in years up to that point whilst bringing in new and exciting talent as the start of a much needed rebuild. Yet people overlook that point and suggest that very same manager is the cause of the poor form, despite the squad having a Covid outbreak, a generally weak squad depth and losing his best player for three months!! Maybe that’s the cause of poor end to the season?
Every team suffered from Covid, to a more of lesser degree. The training complex was closed and we only carried on playing after every single player was fit again. It may have affected our momentum but not to the degree that we only win a handful of games over the rest of the season. Losing Jack also has nothing to do with Covid and seems to happen once a season. We have to sign other quality players and be better prepared for it. I would ask the question: is Dean getting enough out of the players?Regardless of any excuses offered, the second half of the season was nearly as bad as last season!
Smith played his first choice into the ground in the first half of the season. That's the primary reason for fatigue in Feb/March, despite Deano (in his best Mike Bassett impression) saying he didn't believe in player fatigue around that time. He failed to rotate, failed to even make subs a lot of the time and lost a couple of decent players to loan. Mitigating factors include Grealish's injury, Sanson injured/lack of impact but that only explains so much. One of his big signings, Barkley, was meant to share the attacking burden but has turned out to be an expensive flop. While all focus has been on the inability to mitigate the impact of Grealish being unavailable, the big change for me is that once opposition teams started pressing our midfield two, we had no answer tactically. It was the same in the second half v Palace. Forced to go direct, taking our two wingers out of the game and relying on Watkins ropey enough first touch. Smith has had no answer there. This was a problem before Grealish's injury, games like Southampton away he had little or no support and carried us on his back. That wasn't remotely sustainable.Irrespective of the final two games Smith will get a pass for this season and deservedly so. But he will be very much starting under pressure next season. If this current form were to continue into a slow start next season then I'd like to see a quick change made. In all honesty, succession planning should already be starting.
Quote from: brontebilly on May 18, 2021, 12:30:28 AMSmith played his first choice into the ground in the first half of the season. That's the primary reason for fatigue in Feb/March, despite Deano (in his best Mike Bassett impression) saying he didn't believe in player fatigue around that time. He failed to rotate, failed to even make subs a lot of the time and lost a couple of decent players to loan. Mitigating factors include Grealish's injury, Sanson injured/lack of impact but that only explains so much. One of his big signings, Barkley, was meant to share the attacking burden but has turned out to be an expensive flop. While all focus has been on the inability to mitigate the impact of Grealish being unavailable, the big change for me is that once opposition teams started pressing our midfield two, we had no answer tactically. It was the same in the second half v Palace. Forced to go direct, taking our two wingers out of the game and relying on Watkins ropey enough first touch. Smith has had no answer there. This was a problem before Grealish's injury, games like Southampton away he had little or no support and carried us on his back. That wasn't remotely sustainable.Irrespective of the final two games Smith will get a pass for this season and deservedly so. But he will be very much starting under pressure next season. If this current form were to continue into a slow start next season then I'd like to see a quick change made. In all honesty, succession planning should already be starting. Interesting analysis.On the CP post-match thread, I offered that we made the mistake of continuing to try and play wide even as Palace were overrunning us; and continued to do so even after the poor Traore went off. As things became more compressed, I think we should have made the game narrower by bringing in central midfielders on to replace the wide players, and use the fullbacks for the width we may have needed. My reasoning is that we play too open often, particularly when we're in the lead: it seems naive - perhaps laudable - but it has done for us in a number of games this season.
Please donate to help towards the costs of keeping this site going. Thank You.
Author
Topic: Dean Smith - Confirmed (Read 1542288 times)
