Dean Smith - Confirmed

[chrisw1]

The trouble is how often have we said "if we play like that all season we'll be fine" to then not go and play anywhere near as well in the next game.

How many times have we heard that over the years? “This is the standard, this is our benchmark” and then play nowhere near that standard.

Yep. Perfect example last season, stuff Liverpool at home and then deservedly beat Leicester away, to ship 7 goals in losing to Leeds and Southampton at home.  Beat Leeds away, then lost at home to Sheffield United. I guess that's football to an extent, but Smith's teams always seem to struggle with consistency.

Except when Grealish is injured, then we tend to be very consistent.

Don't know why I'm swiping, I'm Smith in!

[Smithy]

The trouble is how often have we said "if we play like that all season we'll be fine" to then not go and play anywhere near as well in the next game.

How many times have we heard that over the years? “This is the standard, this is our benchmark” and then play nowhere near that standard.

Yep. Perfect example last season, stuff Liverpool at home and then deservedly beat Leicester away, to ship 7 goals in losing to Leeds and Southampton at home.  Beat Leeds away, then lost at home to Sheffield United. I guess that's football to an extent, but Smith's teams always seem to struggle with consistency.

I think consistency is something you don't see much of in the Premier League outside the top 4. Leicester, who only missed out on the Top 4 on the last day lost back-to-back games four times last season, and only won one of their last 5 games.

I'd love us to be consistent, week in, week out, but the reality is we're going to have bad games, games where we're simply outplayed, and games where we give the opposition the result rather than them 'earning' it like we did against Chelsea.

For me, this season has to be about avoiding long runs of bad results, which has been fairly typical when we've been without Grealish in the past.  Let's see if we can avoid going three or four games without a win. Let's try and make back-to-back wins a more regular occurrence (we only did it once in the whole of the second half of last season).  If we do that, we'll match last season and maybe even better it.

[sirlordbaltimore]

Smith retains my full support until we start to go backwards.

I'll happily judge that come May 2022.

[Risso]

The trouble is how often have we said "if we play like that all season we'll be fine" to then not go and play anywhere near as well in the next game.

How many times have we heard that over the years? “This is the standard, this is our benchmark” and then play nowhere near that standard.

Yep. Perfect example last season, stuff Liverpool at home and then deservedly beat Leicester away, to ship 7 goals in losing to Leeds and Southampton at home.  Beat Leeds away, then lost at home to Sheffield United. I guess that's football to an extent, but Smith's teams always seem to struggle with consistency.

I think consistency is something you don't see much of in the Premier League outside the top 4. Leicester, who only missed out on the Top 4 on the last day lost back-to-back games four times last season, and only won one of their last 5 games.

I'd love us to be consistent, week in, week out, but the reality is we're going to have bad games, games where we're simply outplayed, and games where we give the opposition the result rather than them 'earning' it like we did against Chelsea.

For me, this season has to be about avoiding long runs of bad results, which has been fairly typical when we've been without Grealish in the past.  Let's see if we can avoid going three or four games without a win. Let's try and make back-to-back wins a more regular occurrence (we only did it once in the whole of the second half of last season).  If we do that, we'll match last season and maybe even better it.

It’s just a worry that if you take the second half of last season into account, we’re still bumbling along at just over a point a game, which given the money spent is a bit crap.

[Sexual Ealing]

At the risk of using the phrase 'false narrative', I think the 'money spent' argument is a distorted chronicle. We had to spend half the money to even be in with a shout of standing still. Then a big chunk of it came from the sale of a Man City player who had been pretty integral to what we were. Obviously, it could go tits-up, but we haven't really had a chance to see where we can go with these new lads.

[Ozzjim]

The trouble is how often have we said "if we play like that all season we'll be fine" to then not go and play anywhere near as well in the next game.

How many times have we heard that over the years? “This is the standard, this is our benchmark” and then play nowhere near that standard.

Yep. Perfect example last season, stuff Liverpool at home and then deservedly beat Leicester away, to ship 7 goals in losing to Leeds and Southampton at home.  Beat Leeds away, then lost at home to Sheffield United. I guess that's football to an extent, but Smith's teams always seem to struggle with consistency.

I think consistency is something you don't see much of in the Premier League outside the top 4. Leicester, who only missed out on the Top 4 on the last day lost back-to-back games four times last season, and only won one of their last 5 games.

I'd love us to be consistent, week in, week out, but the reality is we're going to have bad games, games where we're simply outplayed, and games where we give the opposition the result rather than them 'earning' it like we did against Chelsea.

For me, this season has to be about avoiding long runs of bad results, which has been fairly typical when we've been without Grealish in the past.  Let's see if we can avoid going three or four games without a win. Let's try and make back-to-back wins a more regular occurrence (we only did it once in the whole of the second half of last season).  If we do that, we'll match last season and maybe even better it.

It’s just a worry that if you take the second half of last season into account, we’re still bumbling along at just over a point a game, which given the money spent is a bit crap.

I think it is about 27 points from the last 23 games. Around 45 is points in the season, so around 14th-15th ish. I think this weekend is quite a big game for us, as is the Spurs game. Both are games that we have the talent in the squad to win, we won at Spurs last season, and should be backing ourselves to do it again. 

[Clampy]

At the risk of using the phrase 'false narrative', I think the 'money spent' argument is a distorted chronicle. We had to spend half the money to even be in with a shout of standing still. Then a big chunk of it came from the sale of a Man City player who had been pretty integral to what we were. Obviously, it could go tits-up, but we haven't really had a chance to see where we can go with these new lads.

Totally agree. I think once again, a little patience is needed.

[SoccerHQ]

In October we play Spurs, Wolves, Arsenal and West Ham.

I think that's the time to judge DS.

Three of those four finished above us last season but we also took 13 points out of 24 against them (and got totally robbed at West Ham).

By then DS would've had this squad for two months, we aren't playing europe and injuries would have cleared up.

If we play like we did v Chelsea we can beat two of them and get a draw and that would get us nicely comfortable in mid table with a good run of fixtures in winter to come.

Hardly win a game and it really dosen't say much for our prospects as a couple of those teams will struggle to finish much above 8th.

That's the period where Dean needs to come up with settled team and decide on who's the regular starters in the final third so he has a few more games to test things out.

[Smithy]

The trouble is how often have we said "if we play like that all season we'll be fine" to then not go and play anywhere near as well in the next game.

How many times have we heard that over the years? “This is the standard, this is our benchmark” and then play nowhere near that standard.

Yep. Perfect example last season, stuff Liverpool at home and then deservedly beat Leicester away, to ship 7 goals in losing to Leeds and Southampton at home.  Beat Leeds away, then lost at home to Sheffield United. I guess that's football to an extent, but Smith's teams always seem to struggle with consistency.

I think consistency is something you don't see much of in the Premier League outside the top 4. Leicester, who only missed out on the Top 4 on the last day lost back-to-back games four times last season, and only won one of their last 5 games.

I'd love us to be consistent, week in, week out, but the reality is we're going to have bad games, games where we're simply outplayed, and games where we give the opposition the result rather than them 'earning' it like we did against Chelsea.

For me, this season has to be about avoiding long runs of bad results, which has been fairly typical when we've been without Grealish in the past.  Let's see if we can avoid going three or four games without a win. Let's try and make back-to-back wins a more regular occurrence (we only did it once in the whole of the second half of last season).  If we do that, we'll match last season and maybe even better it.

It’s just a worry that if you take the second half of last season into account, we’re still bumbling along at just over a point a game, which given the money spent is a bit crap.

I agree, in that the form without Grealish wasn't very good at all last season.  But that was a team built around him, and from which he was removed for a good chunk of the season.  THIS team was built without him.  This team without Grealish is definitely better than last season's team without Grealish.  The real question though, is whether it's better than last season's team WITH Grealish.  I'm hopeful it will be, but it might take until everyone is fully fit and available to see it.

I genuinely can't wait to see us when we have a mixture of Watkins, Ings, Bailey, Buendia, and Trarore all fully fit and available (they won't all start, obv, but what great options from the bench we'll have). That's when I think we can judge if we're better than last year.

Our start has been distinctly average, absolutely, but I don't think we've yet put out what you might call our new first choice 11?

[villa for life]

Won’t it be just a case of who’s out there to replace him? If there’s someone much better, his position may be under threat, in the same way as a player’s is.

Heaton was good. We went and got Martinez.
Watkins is good. We went and got Ings.

[cdbearsfan]

That isn't really how it works with managers, though.

[villa for life]

I think it does nowadays.

Lampard - Tuchel

Etc

[john e]

McGinn Luiz Ramsey Looked really good on Saturday all of them positive ball players going forward when possible
I hope they can carry that on against Everton because that is what we need a proper midfield

Fella on Twitter made a good point about Ramsay
Hypothetically saying if we’d have signed a midfield player for 25/30 mil in the window and he played the same as Ramsay has done so far this season we would all be delighted Saying we’ve got a future star on our hands

[villa for life]

Wrong thread?

[cdbearsfan]

I think it does nowadays.

Lampard - Tuchel

Etc

Lampard was got rid of because he was underperforming, not because Tuchel was suddenly available. A manager of Tuchel's class is nearly always going to be available to Chelsea given the salary, transfer budget, location and so on.

It maybe happens to an extent at basket case clubs (thinking of Watford) who seem to hire and fire managers depending on the owner's horoscope on any given day.