Dean Smith - Confirmed

[Demitri_C]

Thumped by liverpool 4-1 in a behind the scenes friendly too.

Very worrying signs for me

[Risso]

It's one thing to say that we're post-Grealish and adapting and all that, but aside from possibly some ball retention I don't quite see what his absence has to do with being 3-0 down to Watford. The back seven were all here last season. The problem was a setup that practically begged Watford to bully us in midfield and smack us in the transitions, as we had no way of bridging the huge gaps between the lines going backwards or forwards.

As other have said, Young in the left attacking spot and El Ghazi on the right was just about as bad an option as it was possible to get. Hope we won't be seeing much more of those two in attacking positions this season.

[Demitri_C]

We have to beat Newcastle on Saturday.

Any truth in the rumours that Dean was called into a meeting with Purslow yesterday?

Could be something as innocent as just discussing the restructing of the coaching staff. I assume we're interviewing people now to replace O'Kelly (assume this McPhee guy is the Terry replacement if he's supposed to be hot on set pieces).

If it happened at all of course.

The set pieces are more atrocious than ever. Mcphee has his work cut out

[Scott Nielsen]

Thumped by liverpool 4-1 in a behind the scenes friendly too.

What?

[Chris Smith]

Thumped by liverpool 4-1 in a behind the scenes friendly too.

What?

I think it was for the squad players who didn’t feature on Saturday so the result if of no consequence.

[Risso]

We have to beat Newcastle on Saturday.

Any truth in the rumours that Dean was called into a meeting with Purslow yesterday?

Could be something as innocent as just discussing the restructing of the coaching staff. I assume we're interviewing people now to replace O'Kelly (assume this McPhee guy is the Terry replacement if he's supposed to be hot on set pieces).

If it happened at all of course.

The set pieces are more atrocious than ever. Mcphee has his work cut out

Yep, they were horrible. Floaty Westwood-esque corners from Buendia and terrible free kicks from Cash that failed to even get over the wall.  He's going to have to have use more magic than Nanny Macphee.

[Demitri_C]

Thumped by liverpool 4-1 in a behind the scenes friendly too.

What?

I think it was for the squad players who didn’t feature on Saturday so the result if of no consequence.

Is that confirmed? Id be having the first teamers in as well as alot of them looked poor.

[Footy-Vill]

Dean Smith: "We were unrecognisable from what I've seen in pre-season in the first half and what I had seen last season. We lacked intensity and got done on the counter. We were better in the second half but were always going to leave ourselves a little open.

"I made no uncertain terms at half time that you can't come and expect to play casual. It was almost like it was an international friendly at times we've got new players who can play in a number of different positions. We were missing Ollie Watkins through injury.
 "Whether Jack [Grealish] is in or not, we can perform certainly a lot better than that. We had spells in the second half. There is always a bounce when you are newly promoted and their fans got behind them but I don't put the loss down to that. "We want them [new signings] to settle in quicker than that. We’ve got another game against Newcastle United next week.
Some of our play was ok in the second half but we didn’t play at the tempo I want from our team."

[PaulTheVillan]

Watkins left wing stuff amuses me

[Toronto Villa]

Thumped by liverpool 4-1 in a behind the scenes friendly too.

Very worrying signs for me

Hahaha what the fuck are you on about? You know it was a bunch of reserves and players who haven’t featured in our curtailed pre season. It was behind closed doors because IT WASN’T A REAL GAME

[PhilVill]

Let’s just see what happens at a packed Villa Park on Saturday against fairly average fare. A good win and we’re on our way, a dismal loss and Smith should rightly be under pressure as that will be far more unacceptable than Watford away.

[Demitri_C]

Thumped by liverpool 4-1 in a behind the scenes friendly too.

Very worrying signs for me

Hahaha what the fuck are you on about? You know it was a bunch of reserves and players who haven’t featured in our curtailed pre season. It was behind closed doors because IT WASN’T A REAL GAME

Who cares if it was a real game or not? In these two games we have conceded seven goals. Not ideal preparation for the start of the season.

You cabt pretend that eveything is ok but the rpe season preparation has been a complete shambles

[Risso]

Thumped by liverpool 4-1 in a behind the scenes friendly too.

Very worrying signs for me

Hahaha what the fuck are you on about? You know it was a bunch of reserves and players who haven’t featured in our curtailed pre season. It was behind closed doors because IT WASN’T A REAL GAME

Well the injury to Traore that’s now being widely reported is certainly a concern, seeing as he was one of our better players on Saturday.

[Steve67]

It wasn’t a real game for Liverpool either!

If Dean Smith is satisfied with his squad, I trust his word but still think we have a very soft underbelly and a huge gap in the centre of the park.

[dave.woodhall]

Thumped by liverpool 4-1 in a behind the scenes friendly too.

Very worrying signs for me

Hahaha what the fuck are you on about? You know it was a bunch of reserves and players who haven’t featured in our curtailed pre season. It was behind closed doors because IT WASN’T A REAL GAME

Who cares if it was a real game or not? In these two games we have conceded seven goals. Not ideal preparation for the start of the season.

You cabt pretend that eveything is ok but the rpe season preparation has been a complete shambles

We can't have conceded seven goals in two games if one of them wasn't a real game.