We lost a few big characters in the summer ( Hutton Whelan Jedi) clear out and replaced them with inexperience.I don’t think you can under estimate The value having blokes like this around even though they were physically not up to the Prem.
The 'solely down to Grealish' theory falls down by looking at the league table on tbe day Smith was appointed. Grealish certainly hadn't had much of an effect for Steve Bruce.
Quote from: ChicagoLion on December 31, 2019, 01:12:05 PMWe lost a few big characters in the summer ( Hutton Whelan Jedi) clear out and replaced them with inexperience.I don’t think you can under estimate The value having blokes like this around even though they were physically not up to the Prem.I remember hearing Jedinak was very vocal during training. He expected high standards, even if he wasn't 100% fit, or in the team.
It looks like everything is wrong with our set-up if you read all the threads.The owners haven't put enough in or lack backbone. The coaches are all out of their depth. The defence are shit (apart from Mings it seems, but even he gets a load) the midfield are crap apart from McGinn and as for the forwards.......Honestly, I know we're on a bad run but can those of you who think we're down, going down, or just the worst side ever, actually think of a positive? You'd think, if you were new here, that we were back in the O'Leary/Lambert/McLeish/Garde/Tactics Tim/Colcannon times.
Quote from: Toronto Villa on December 31, 2019, 05:58:40 AMWhile it's easy to hammer player recruitment in hindsight this group of players looked perfectly fine just a month or two ago and then almost beating Liverpool in what would have been a very deserved result. That we have a manager who throughout the season has been tactically naive late in games, immensely stubborn in his approach and has become increasingly defensive in his outlook and accusatory as results became poorer is for me the biggest issue we are facing. I am very much in the camp that Dean Smith must shoulder the majority of the blame for what has gone wrong so far. He gave us all the impression that he was an astute football manager who had a specific gameplan for each opponent and one that irrespective of the opponent would see us trying to win. The evidence is very much to the contrary. He has one plan and our possession stats of late suggest he is trying to avoid defeat rather than play to win. He hasn't sorted out our defensive issues. All too often we are overrun in midfield and our players still make stupid errors throughout the game. Those things should have been fixed by now. It's on the manager to do that with his staff, with his players; to send them out best prepared to get positive results. For me, there are no signs that is happening now, or more worryingly is about to change any time soon.You've contradicted yourself a few times here - you say the players are fine then point out the continued defensive issues, stupid errors and getting continuously over run in midfield.The players have never looked perfectly fine - Targett is a defensive liability, Nakamba/Luiz have been error prone since day 1. Trezeguet and Jota have never really contributed and El-Ghazi is probably a sub rather than regular starter.I agree that his tactical intransigence is a major issue (and that he has previous form in this regard) but you simply can't just blame Smith.On a positive note I don't think we are that far off having what's needed to scrape through - but money needs to be spent and the management team (ie not just Smith) need to have a plan B.
While it's easy to hammer player recruitment in hindsight this group of players looked perfectly fine just a month or two ago and then almost beating Liverpool in what would have been a very deserved result. That we have a manager who throughout the season has been tactically naive late in games, immensely stubborn in his approach and has become increasingly defensive in his outlook and accusatory as results became poorer is for me the biggest issue we are facing. I am very much in the camp that Dean Smith must shoulder the majority of the blame for what has gone wrong so far. He gave us all the impression that he was an astute football manager who had a specific gameplan for each opponent and one that irrespective of the opponent would see us trying to win. The evidence is very much to the contrary. He has one plan and our possession stats of late suggest he is trying to avoid defeat rather than play to win. He hasn't sorted out our defensive issues. All too often we are overrun in midfield and our players still make stupid errors throughout the game. Those things should have been fixed by now. It's on the manager to do that with his staff, with his players; to send them out best prepared to get positive results. For me, there are no signs that is happening now, or more worryingly is about to change any time soon.
Quote from: Drummond on December 31, 2019, 01:39:51 PMIt looks like everything is wrong with our set-up if you read all the threads.The owners haven't put enough in or lack backbone. The coaches are all out of their depth. The defence are shit (apart from Mings it seems, but even he gets a load) the midfield are crap apart from McGinn and as for the forwards.......Honestly, I know we're on a bad run but can those of you who think we're down, going down, or just the worst side ever, actually think of a positive? You'd think, if you were new here, that we were back in the O'Leary/Lambert/McLeish/Garde/Tactics Tim/Colcannon times.I think a lot of it is opinions about what has happened and why. Maybe we have had that sinking feeling too often because of some of those you mention.The positive is there are games left , a transfer window and we have some good players.Sadly I think these are outweighed by the negatives.
Quote from: oldhill_avfc on December 31, 2019, 09:38:16 AMQuote from: Toronto Villa on December 31, 2019, 05:58:40 AMWhile it's easy to hammer player recruitment in hindsight this group of players looked perfectly fine just a month or two ago and then almost beating Liverpool in what would have been a very deserved result. That we have a manager who throughout the season has been tactically naive late in games, immensely stubborn in his approach and has become increasingly defensive in his outlook and accusatory as results became poorer is for me the biggest issue we are facing. I am very much in the camp that Dean Smith must shoulder the majority of the blame for what has gone wrong so far. He gave us all the impression that he was an astute football manager who had a specific gameplan for each opponent and one that irrespective of the opponent would see us trying to win. The evidence is very much to the contrary. He has one plan and our possession stats of late suggest he is trying to avoid defeat rather than play to win. He hasn't sorted out our defensive issues. All too often we are overrun in midfield and our players still make stupid errors throughout the game. Those things should have been fixed by now. It's on the manager to do that with his staff, with his players; to send them out best prepared to get positive results. For me, there are no signs that is happening now, or more worryingly is about to change any time soon.You've contradicted yourself a few times here - you say the players are fine then point out the continued defensive issues, stupid errors and getting continuously over run in midfield.The players have never looked perfectly fine - Targett is a defensive liability, Nakamba/Luiz have been error prone since day 1. Trezeguet and Jota have never really contributed and El-Ghazi is probably a sub rather than regular starter.I agree that his tactical intransigence is a major issue (and that he has previous form in this regard) but you simply can't just blame Smith.On a positive note I don't think we are that far off having what's needed to scrape through - but money needs to be spent and the management team (ie not just Smith) need to have a plan B.It’s not a contradiction. We played really well in many of those games to get the lead. What we didn’t do late on is keep it because the manger didn’t change personnel. Tactics remained the same. Tactics we all like that were open and attacking. But it’s got to be a mix of approaches depending on the situation. We all watched as our players tired late on and the opponent manager made changes and freshened things up. Or just changed their approach. And we also watched teams scout ours as the season went on and identified our weaknesses. I’m not saying for a second the players haven’t made stupid errors. They have and it’s part of the learning process at this level. It’s ruthless. And we obviously didn’t buy top tier players because frankly as a promoted club we couldn’t. But many of our issues are self inflicted and has been down to the naive tactics employed. And as the season has gone on it has chipped away at player confidence and belief.
Aston Villa prepare for make-or-break month as they seek to avoid 'disastrous' relegation back to the ChampionshipJohn Percy 31 DECEMBER 2019 • 2:38PMAn hour after Aston Villa’s return to the Premier League was secured at Wembley, co-owner Nassef Sawiris made a rare appearance in front of the television cameras.As Villa's fans wildly celebrated promotion, Sawiris proudly insisted: "The sky is the limit. Our ambition was not just to get promoted but to do well in the Premier League.”After a spend of £127 million on 12 new players, optimism was sky-high in the summer and even manager Dean Smith was talking of ambitions far higher than mere survival. Seven months later, the mood has changed dramatically. Villa find themselves in the relegation zone after five defeats in six matches, with Smith under increasing pressure and a season in serious danger of unravelling.Smith is “one of their own”, a Villa supporter since the 1970s, but that will not spare him from scrutiny over the alarming run of form. Many Villa fans are in a strange place: criticising Smith over tactical naivety and team selection, while desperate for him to succeed.Relegation would be a disaster for many reasons. The financial ramifications of carrying an enormous wage bill back into the Championship would be immense, and Villa are certain to face scrutiny from the English Football League over whether spending under their former owner Dr Tony Xia broke their Profitability and Sustainability rules. Their talismanic captain Jack Grealish, John McGinn, Tyrone Mings and Tom Heaton, plus many others, will probably be sold.Jack Grealish - Aston Villa prepare for make-or-break month as they seek to avoid 'disastrous' relegation back to the Championship. It all piles pressure on Smith, who will know that a defeat to Burnley at Turf Moor on Wednesday, together with losses in the Carabao Cup semi-final to Leicester and the FA Cup to Fulham, could leave him vulnerable barely a month after signing a new contract. The manager said he hoped the 3-0 defeat to 10-man Watford last weekend would represent "a line in the sand for players to start stepping up” but he needs that response sooner rather than later.Villa are now working hard on January targets, which was not the plan a month ago. The club's hierarchy did not intend to make any major signings but the landscape has now shifted, particularly after the loss of McGinn for three months with a broken ankle. Midfielders are a priority in the transfer window, ideally with experience of playing in the top flight.In the summer, the strategy was clear: reduce the average age, reduce the average wage and increase the quality. All outfield players, preferably, had to be under the age of 25 and the recruitment drive was spearheaded by Jesús Vicente García, the club’s sporting director better known as Suso.It was Suso who pushed for signings such as joint-record buy Wesley, Douglas Luiz and Matt Targett. Smith agreed on all of them, with his own picks of Mings and Tom Heaton also arriving in the summer.Predictably, a gross spend of £127m led to accusations of “doing a Fulham”: promotion via the play-offs, followed by an expensive trolley-dash. In truth, Villa’s recruitment was cohesive and strategically planned, while every player was scouted extensively from last November onwards. That spend effectively worked out at £10m a player – relatively cheap in the modern era – and such a drastic rebuild was needed after 12 summer departures. But recent results suggest it has not worked. A lack of experience runs through the whole spine of the team.Much of the scrutiny has been on Wesley, the Brazilian striker signed from Club Brugge who has not scored in the league since Oct 5. It is understood the main sources of frustration within the coaching staff have been over the performances of the wingers, Anwar El Ghazi and Trezeguet.But there are also huge concerns over the defence, and even former England captain John Terry, one of Smith's assistants, is under scrutiny now. No team has let in more league goals from headers (9) or corners 8 than Villa this season.Smith is a fine coach, renowned for building teams at Walsall and Brentford, and will have learned more in the past five months than the nine years in management which preceded Villa’s return to the Premier League.
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Topic: Where Has It All Gone Wrong? (Read 16824 times)
