It's crunch time for Dean

[dave.woodhall]

Richard Keeling chips in with a new season preview.

https://www.heroesandvillains.info/forumv3/index.php?topic=62309.msg4020994#msg4020994

[Toronto Villa]

This is a critical year for him. The owners have save the club from going out of business and lashes out hundreds of millions to get us to a mid table PL side in three years. That won’t be good enough Jack or no Jack. And Dean Smith’s record without Jack Grealish is frankly abysmal. There was no room for sentiment when one Brummie left the club. There will no room for sentiment if the other famous Villa loving Brummie, our manager comes up short. We all love that he’s our manager and one of us. And we all want him to succeed. But nobody will be happy if we are lying 15th in November. He’ll be out of a job come December.

[Risso]

This is a critical year for him. The owners have save the club from going out of business and lashes out hundreds of millions to get us to a mid table PL side in three years. That won’t be good enough Jack or no Jack. And Dean Smith’s record without Jack Grealish is frankly abysmal. There was no room for sentiment when one Brummie left the club. There will no room for sentiment if the other famous Villa loving Brummie, our manager comes up short. We all love that he’s our manager and one of us. And we all want him to succeed. But nobody will be happy if we are lying 15th in November. He’ll be out of a job come December.

Agree with all that. Top 6, or a decent stab at it, is the minimum acceptable result this year.

[eamonn]

Or 12th and a cup.

[Risso]

Or 12th and a cup.

Or top 6 and a cup.

[Drummond]

This is a critical year for him. The owners have save the club from going out of business and lashes out hundreds of millions to get us to a mid table PL side in three years. That won’t be good enough Jack or no Jack. And Dean Smith’s record without Jack Grealish is frankly abysmal. There was no room for sentiment when one Brummie left the club. There will no room for sentiment if the other famous Villa loving Brummie, our manager comes up short. We all love that he’s our manager and one of us. And we all want him to succeed. But nobody will be happy if we are lying 15th in November. He’ll be out of a job come December.

Agree with all that. Top 6, or a decent stab at it, is the minimum acceptable result this year.

I think Top 10 is acceptable. Top 8 should be achievable and Top 6 would be very well done, Top 4 would require a pretty monumental effort and obviously we should be aiming to win it.

Or stay up and win the Cup. But he'd be gone if that's how the season were panning out.

[Holy Trinity]

I think Dean is a clown tactically a d I didn't think Terry offered much either other than being a decent influence on the squad BUT... I massively respect Shakespeare and this he fills the tactical gap left by Smith. I do like Dean's way of playing and his ethos is how I want us to play as others have said without Jack we have been abysmal but I think that boils down to plan a was give it to Jack and plan B was hope someone else steps up all Bruce ball. I think that now with the current squad it will be plan a to give it buendia and plan b will be work the wings. Already that's an improvement because the squad won't be instinctively looking for Jack at every available second.
I really hope Shakespeare is rubbing off on Dean and we will be more fluid tactically because i think we have a front 4 any team in the world would fear deep down. But none of this waiting to the 84th min when playing against 10 men to sub on a striker who has a similar strike rate to Paul Robinson lol.

Positive tactical changes when needed and more clinical from set plays. But I agree if we are near the bottom half in December and he will be gone

[LeeB]

A clown? A bit harsh, no? Tactical changes are required, yes, but it helps if you have some quality in reserve to achieve them.

[Sexual Ealing]

A lot harsh.

[Toronto Villa]

We beat Liverpool, Arsenal twice, Tottenham, Everton, Leeds, Chelsea. Not one of those victories was lucky. He’s not a clown at all. Yes he struggled after Jack was out and that’s the challenge he now has. But to call Dean Smith a clown tactically is absolute nonsense

[Holy Trinity]

A clown tactically...

Tactically nieve. Cant change a game on the fly.

Not a bad manager and I said that in the rest of my post. But how often do we beat 10 men? How often do we change a game when needed.

I think Jose is a clown in the media.
I think Neymar is a diving clown

Neither statement mean I think that are bad in any way shape or form

[Clark W Griswold]

He's done very well so far but the owners will want us to be at leat Champions League contenders at some point quite soon and if he doesn't deliver they'll make a change. Very hard to say whether he's capable of achieving that but lets hope so. I would have thought top 8 this season and a good run in one of the cups would be about right, as long as we don't have major injury problems. If we step it up again next summer with a few really big signings then we've got to be looking to at least challenge for the top 4 at that point.

[Damo70]

Didn't we beat the team that became the Champions League winners in our last competitive game?

[brian green]

Dean gets called a clown while the likes of Lambert, Sherwood, Garde, KMac and Black are loose in the football firmament safe with their excused notes in their bulging pockets.

[mr underhill]

not to mention Brucie who is still trousering wads of cash and is as suspect as any on your list Brian. lovely to hear from you BTW.