Where Has It All Gone Wrong?

[Kimaster1976]

Instead of signing Luiz & Nakamba just pay Leeds what they wanted for Phillips.

Instead of signing Trezeguet & Jota just pay Brentford what they wanted for Benrahma.

There was absolutely no justification however for going into the season without signing a proven striker. To be 100% reliant on a 21 year old Brazilian who had only ever played in Belgium wirh no viable alternative was a recipe for disaster.

Granted the Benteke gamble paid off when we did similiar a few years ago but if it hadnt we still had Bent & Gabby around to cover. The Wesley gamble has been a nightmare.

[cdbearsfan]

When we signed Benteke we already had Bent, our record signing, and Agbonlahor, who was still regarded as a vaguely reliable centre-forward at the time. So, at the time, we thought it would be fine even if it didn't work out.

Wesley was ALWAYS going to be a case of putting all our eggs in one basket. Even if he had adjusted to the Premier League straight away, and hit the ground running, we would still have been all kinds of fucked if he got injured.

Just as not bothering to sign a centre-half in the summer of 2018 was probably what finished Bruce's Villa career, not adding another forward this summer is looking like it could prove fatal for Smith's managerial prospects.

[Ketzster]

It was the Arsenal game for me. This first showed up Smiths indecisiveness, following failing to beat a poor 10 man West Ham team.
I was fuming for days and it must have had an impact on the players.

Yes the Arsenal game was really bad. But for me it was that triple like for like substitution at Wigan away. He then persisted with the 4-3-3 week after week after that, despite the performances being absolutely appalling.  Just like now, he refused to try anything different. The warning signs were there all along. He got unbelievably lucky that Grealish came back and earnt him a promotion on his cv, because the promotion really didn’t have much to do with anything Smith actually changed

[Richard E]

Not picking up a few draws is killing us. If we don’t win, we lose, generally.

[Jockey Randall]

We could definitely improve going forwards but purely on goals for and against our main issue is clearly conceding. We've scored the most goals bar Arsenal outside the top 8 and only Norwich and Southampton have conceded more. You could also make a good case for saying on chances conceded we've done well to concede only 36 so far.

For me it's a mixture of being poorly set up by being far too open (some of those 2v2 situations against Leicester were ridiculous) and some of the players simply aren't good enough at the moment. I think we need more experience at the back and a Glenn Whelan type in front of the back 4. If we can tighten up, we've definitely got enough goals in us to be able to grind out a few results.

[Davkaus]

Not picking up a few draws is killing us. If we don’t win, we lose, generally.

We just lose, generally.

[RichardBatchelor]

It was the Arsenal game for me. This first showed up Smiths indecisiveness, following failing to beat a poor 10 man West Ham team.
I was fuming for days and it must have had an impact on the players.

Yes the Arsenal game was really bad. But for me it was that triple like for like substitution at Wigan away. He then persisted with the 4-3-3 week after week after that, despite the performances being absolutely appalling.  Just like now, he refused to try anything different. The warning signs were there all along. He got unbelievably lucky that Grealish came back and earnt him a promotion on his cv, because the promotion really didn’t have much to do with anything Smith actually changed

With all due respect and politeness, in my opinion this is a bit revisionist. As much as Smith has been largely disappointing this season, he was still great last season.

[PaulTheVillan]

Transfers.

2 players from the Belgian league.
1 player from Southamptons reserves.
1 player from Wolves reserves.
1 player who nearly got relegated in the Turkish league.
2 player from mid table Championship sides.
1 player from mid table French league side.
1 player relegated in the Spanish league.
1 player relegated in the French league.

It's ok throwing a couple in together with more experienced, better pedigree signings but having a team full of them isn't working out.

Blimey - when analysed like that it's no wonder we're struggling.

It is - however if we take Sheffield Utds transfers :

Swansea striker
Bournemouth reserve
Preston, QPR and Forest players
3 free transfers and 2 loans

Then you'd be hard pressed to make a decent case for that. Some of our signings have played in the champions league for gods sake. If there's any telling theory to take from our signings I think its that you can't forge a team with so many signings at once. That and you need decent tactics.

Maybe their manager is picking & signing their players. So he knows exactly what will work.

[Ketzster]

It was the Arsenal game for me. This first showed up Smiths indecisiveness, following failing to beat a poor 10 man West Ham team.
I was fuming for days and it must have had an impact on the players.

Yes the Arsenal game was really bad. But for me it was that triple like for like substitution at Wigan away. He then persisted with the 4-3-3 week after week after that, despite the performances being absolutely appalling.  Just like now, he refused to try anything different. The warning signs were there all along. He got unbelievably lucky that Grealish came back and earnt him a promotion on his cv, because the promotion really didn’t have much to do with anything Smith actually changed

With all due respect and politeness, in my opinion this is a bit revisionist. As much as Smith has been largely disappointing this season, he was still great last season.

It’s not revisionist in the slightest, I thought the run from Leeds at home to Stoke away was some of the worst football I’d seen ever seen a Villa side play and said so at the time. I wanted Smith gone then and promotion didn’t change my mind because I couldn’t see what Smith had really done to change anything other than Grealish coming back. Wigan away, Reading away, Preston away, Swansea in the cup etc were shockingly awful and it went on for weeks and weeks. If he’d changed something before Grealish came back then fair enough, but there was nothing. So in reality Grealish was great for us last season

[Damo70]

You can integrate a lot of new signings if they are good enough. BFR brought in Bosnich, Sealey, Teale, Ugo, Kubicki, Staunton, Barrett, Richardson, Parker, Mortimer and Regis. All in the summer except for Parker and Kubicki who joined a few weeks into the season. A whole starting XI of players who all did a decent job with the exception of Mortimer, who he quickly shifted out.

[Ads]

It was the Arsenal game for me. This first showed up Smiths indecisiveness, following failing to beat a poor 10 man West Ham team.
I was fuming for days and it must have had an impact on the players.

Yes the Arsenal game was really bad. But for me it was that triple like for like substitution at Wigan away. He then persisted with the 4-3-3 week after week after that, despite the performances being absolutely appalling.  Just like now, he refused to try anything different. The warning signs were there all along. He got unbelievably lucky that Grealish came back and earnt him a promotion on his cv, because the promotion really didn’t have much to do with anything Smith actually changed

With all due respect and politeness, in my opinion this is a bit revisionist. As much as Smith has been largely disappointing this season, he was still great last season.

It’s not revisionist in the slightest, I thought the run from Leeds at home to Stoke away was some of the worst football I’d seen ever seen a Villa side play and said so at the time. I wanted Smith gone then and promotion didn’t change my mind because I couldn’t see what Smith had really done to change anything other than Grealish coming back. Wigan away, Reading away, Preston away, Swansea in the cup etc were shockingly awful and it went on for weeks and weeks. If he’d changed something before Grealish came back then fair enough, but there was nothing. So in reality Grealish was great for us last season

Rotherham away 2nd half, fantastic. Small Heath away, teehee! Forest away, brilliant. Derby at home, awesome, Boro at home, awesome. Fun this game.

[Rudy65]

It was the Arsenal game for me. This first showed up Smiths indecisiveness, following failing to beat a poor 10 man West Ham team.
I was fuming for days and it must have had an impact on the players.

Yes the Arsenal game was really bad. But for me it was that triple like for like substitution at Wigan away. He then persisted with the 4-3-3 week after week after that, despite the performances being absolutely appalling.  Just like now, he refused to try anything different. The warning signs were there all along. He got unbelievably lucky that Grealish came back and earnt him a promotion on his cv, because the promotion really didn’t have much to do with anything Smith actually changed

With all due respect and politeness, in my opinion this is a bit revisionist. As much as Smith has been largely disappointing this season, he was still great last season.

It’s not revisionist in the slightest, I thought the run from Leeds at home to Stoke away was some of the worst football I’d seen ever seen a Villa side play and said so at the time. I wanted Smith gone then and promotion didn’t change my mind because I couldn’t see what Smith had really done to change anything other than Grealish coming back. Wigan away, Reading away, Preston away, Swansea in the cup etc were shockingly awful and it went on for weeks and weeks. If he’d changed something before Grealish came back then fair enough, but there was nothing. So in reality Grealish was great for us last season

Tend to agree with this. We were awful in Dec, Jan and Feb last season. Jack was immense but the signing of Mings was also crucial so fair play to DS for that

[Ketzster]

It was the Arsenal game for me. This first showed up Smiths indecisiveness, following failing to beat a poor 10 man West Ham team.
I was fuming for days and it must have had an impact on the players.

Yes the Arsenal game was really bad. But for me it was that triple like for like substitution at Wigan away. He then persisted with the 4-3-3 week after week after that, despite the performances being absolutely appalling.  Just like now, he refused to try anything different. The warning signs were there all along. He got unbelievably lucky that Grealish came back and earnt him a promotion on his cv, because the promotion really didn’t have much to do with anything Smith actually changed

With all due respect and politeness, in my opinion this is a bit revisionist. As much as Smith has been largely disappointing this season, he was still great last season.

It’s not revisionist in the slightest, I thought the run from Leeds at home to Stoke away was some of the worst football I’d seen ever seen a Villa side play and said so at the time. I wanted Smith gone then and promotion didn’t change my mind because I couldn’t see what Smith had really done to change anything other than Grealish coming back. Wigan away, Reading away, Preston away, Swansea in the cup etc were shockingly awful and it went on for weeks and weeks. If he’d changed something before Grealish came back then fair enough, but there was nothing. So in reality Grealish was great for us last season

Rotherham away 2nd half, fantastic. Small Heath away, teehee! Forest away, brilliant. Derby at home, awesome, Boro at home, awesome. Fun this game.

All of those games you list came after Grealish came back. I haven’t disputed that Grealish got us promoted.

Other than Rotherham away when he was forced into bringing Kodjia on at half time, is there a time when Smith has made a formation change or a great tactical move that has meant we go on to win a game, or draw a game from a losing position. It’s very difficult to think of many, if any, last season or this season. The norm has been for him to do nothing, like Wigan away, Arsenal away etc. Yes we might well have gone on to lose at Arsenal for example anyway, but if you know you struggle to see out games without making changes, it’s negligent not to at least try something once.

[Ads]

We came back in a number of games. I seem to recall Smith making some good substitutions around the 65 minute mark in Morodor. It was absolute bedlam in the away as a result. You wouldn't have enjoyed it though.

[AVH87]

I agree with Ketzer to be honest, if Grealish's injury lasted 2 weeks longer last season, we don't go up. Smith managed 2 wins out of 13 prior to him returning.