rock bus

To be fair he has brought it on himself to a degree... he seems to have made it quite clear that he wasnt prepared to play for us in the Championship or even put any sort of effort in. I'd maybe accept that attitude if he had been a star player last season and tore the premier league up. But the reality is that he struggled and if anything only looked championship quakity. Ironically a year in the championship building his confidence and getting use to the style of play may have made him closer to being the premier league standard player he seems to think he is. Doesnt matter how good you think you are, if your attitude stinks you will have a problem.

Seems a totally crass thing to say. What was he thinking! May be the pressure of it all is actually getting to him

That’s a worrying comment and real shame after the performance today. I don’t think him and Webber see eye to eye but I’d love us to be able to agree a new contract with him

Well I for one totally agree with this. It was ridiculous against Burnley how Aaron’s was tucking so far in and leaving the wide player totally unmarked. Happened again and again! Can’t believe Smith had told him to do this or if he did why after 10 mins of seeing how stupid it was he didn’t stop him.

Very good point, I wish someone would specifically ask him about this. He’s made lots of bad decisions but continually doing this when everyone can see it doesn’t suit the player or the team is bordering on madness!!

Brilliant article. Would be good if this could be presented to the club as perfectly explains how I believe most fans feel

I really don’t rate or particularly like smith and believe we should change manager now. BUT the quotes from press conference today are the first where he’s shown at least a bit of spirit and fight. Let’s hope he can actually convey that to the players and they show some fight on Saturday. Whilst I can’t see myself ever loving smith I want my team to play good football and do well. In fact I don’t care about any of the back office stuff if I have a team I can be proud of, players who care and the one player in the team that can be our hero eg holt, huckerby, Maddison, Wes, Pukki etc then that’ll do for me.

I like this and much better than anything Smith has picked since he’s been here!! Hopefully one of the players reads this and suggest this style given it appears smith can’t even be bothered deciding how we play 🙄

It genuinely does look like Smith has sent them out with absolutely no game plan at all….utterly hopeless. Only positive is Tomkinson has been ok. Really don’t know what has happened to Aarons his positioning is appalling and constantly leaving man unmarked. I honestly don’t think smith cares….needs to go tonight regardless of result.

I doubt he regrets leaving Norwich but pretty sure he regrets going to Villa. Is he still featuring in the Argentina squad? If not,he may also regret fact he has missed out on a World Cup place….might be an argument he might have had better chance if he was outstanding player with us and guiding us back to the premier league rather than bench warming at Villa?

I said the same to my son...but with the caveat that just showed how useless the others were playing!

I agree, this argument that by Giannoulis and Hayden coming back into the team we will all suddenly see that Smith is a great manager with a clear plan for how he wants us to play. Let's not forget he wasn't that keen on playing Giannoulis last season and didn't seem to rate him at all. Also most championship managers would snap our hands off for the chance to have a player of Byrams quality at LB. I agree that Hayden has been a big loss but Smith presumably had a big say on bringing an already injured player in so the fault lies with him (and same argument applies to Sara where unless Webber did this all on his own he has some part to blame in bringing another player who isn't yet equipped to play English football). He has now had 12 months with the team and a full preseason with the chance to make new signings and we've just got even worse in terms of quality and are totally boring to watch. How we can still be in a position where he doesn't know his best starting line up or best formation is a mystery to me. Let alone why he persists in plying Sargent out wide and an out of his depth Ramsey (other than to improve him for the boyhood clun he loves!) Our current predicament is summed up by the fact that he is playing players like Sinani, Cantwell and Hernandez who 12 months ago weren't considered good enough to even be in the squad (that IS his fault as he has had the chance now to bring new players in or better coach the ones that are here). I think Sargent is literally the only player who has benefited at all from his and Shakespeare's coaching and even he is no longer reaching his potential due to their inept tactical ability and ridiculous formations.

Whilst accepting that there is generally a decline with connection between club and fans I don't think that is the reason we are in this position. whatever his faults were as a premier league manager the one thing Farke did brilliantly was to bring a sense of connection back between the fans, the players and the club. Always easy to do when winning but even when it started to go wrong you still had the sense we were all in it together. Sadly now I dont sense the current manager or many of the players could give a stuff about the club or the fans.

Russell martin doing well at Swansea again…….take him over smith and I’m not even joking.

Honestly it’s just embarrassing to watch. Walked through the defence with ease. We can’t carry in like this, wished Webber would have the balls to get rid of Smith now!

To be fair so is the game!

Yep, I’ve got same problem!

Why he is with us he should be treated like any other player and picked on merit. But that means it would’ve been extremely harsh to drop him purely due to his performance at Reading. Whilst he may have been poor in that game it was widely acknowledged he had been one of the best performers in the previous couple of games. To instantly drop him after one poor game would have a considerable impact on a young players confidence and his willingness to take chances in future games (which is the type of player I think he is and actually what we really need!). I wouldn’t expect Smith to do that to a young ‘one of our own’ players and nor would it have been right to do it to Ramsey. Havimg now had two poorer performances, higher quality opposition AND with the return of Cantwell it is probably more reasonable to give him a rest against Watford

I know I’ll get abuse for it but maybe it’s time to bring Gibson back. I know he is equally liable to a mistake but he is experienced and it feels like Omobamidele could do with a break.

Very disappointed not to see Todd in the squad, surely he offers more than Dowell?

Very disappointed not to see Todd in the squad, surely he offers more than Dowell?

Should’ve taken a picture and sent to club. Would be interesting to know how they would respond. Sadly a typical example of the attitude of over privileged footballers

I dont rate McLean at all but must begrudgingly admit he was one of the better players last night (despite a couple of really stupid balls). That, however, says more about how poor we were as a team. I am really concerned that Sara still isnt getting a chance... if by now he isnt good enough to take a chance on instead of McLean (especially given how good Gibbs and Nunez are alongside him) then it looks like Webber has once again pd a load of money against the wall!

I definitely think there is something in this and some good points made. I'm a big fan of Byram but thought he was very poor last night. Unfortunately I think that Aarons is continuing to go backwards (both in terms of his performance levels and actually literally!). He is being exposed defensively, especially by bigger and stronger players, and not offering the same sort of threat going forward. I am sure this is at least partly due to Smiths tactics to keep things tighter. But that probably means that Aarons isnt the type of full back we need. We miss Dimi's left foot so when he is fit I'd be tempted to move Byram to the right and drop Aarons. Also agree that it is a waste having Sargent on right - doesnt suit him and means we are missing an outlet to attack teams and move the ball forward. Smith needs to be brave and alternate between Sargent or Pukki or find a way of playing both centrally (I'd give a go of having Pukkis as no10 behind Sargent)

Totally agree, I've been saying for about last 18 months that Southgate should be building his team around Foden. He is a great talent and Southgate with his negative/conservative tactics is just stifling him at an international level