So refreshing to see a second half tactical change

[Hardhouse44 261]

It was so refreshing to see the side come out second half with a different approach and tactics. A change of personnel where it wasn’t working as well. 
 

Don’t think that would have happened under Farke.

[yellowrider120 761]

32 minutes ago, Hardhouse44 said:

It was so refreshing to see the side come out second half with a different approach and tactics. A change of personnel where it wasn’t working as well. 
 

Don’t think that would have happened under Farke.

Totally right. Farke would have sat on his hands and kept everything the same as the score were level!

Yesterday showed exactly why we were right to dismiss Farke. Pity so many fans still can't comprehend life without him. Even posters on this board have been moaning since Brentford that...............'who on earth will take the job' and garbage like that!.  

[TIL 1010 4,722]

The crowd reacted positively to the changes at half time and it had a different feel to the atmosphere in the second half as at long last we went on the front foot and stepped up a gear.

[cambridgeshire canary 6,680]

Very much so as we all kow that's something Farke could never do. If we went behind you never really got the feeling that Farke knew what to do to change things

[astro 358]

I don’t think Farke would’ve put that first half side out, so it’s hardly a fair comparison. The game was a ‘free hit’ for Smith. He used it to get a look at certain things, found out he didn’t like them and changed it. It could quite easily have backfired and we would have been three or four down at halftime - luckily, we weren’t. Any manager would have made changes after those 45 mins. 

[ROBFLECK 132]

Completely agree with OP! I was hesitant when we appointed DS...it's only one game etc... but he's shown me he can adapt and is tactically much more flexible which I think is crucial

[PurpleCanary 5,554]

I don't entirely disagree but to play devil's advocate, choosing Cantwell - and Gilmour to a lesser extent - had the look of a new head coach making a bit of a public clean-slate point.

And that despite Cantwell probably not being fully match-fit (Farke had said he needed two weeks of proper training, if I remember rightly), as apparently became obvious in the match. You can argue that taking Cantwell off at half-time was a tacit acknowledgement of an initial mistake.

Reading the views of Villa fans, including one on a podcast with Freezer, their main complaint was that Smith, like Farke, tended to leave substitutions and tactical changes too late.

[Yellow Wal 314]

Not only have we got Dean Smith we also have Craig Shakespeare and the two seem to work very closely, certainly much closer on match days than Daniel Farke and Eddie Riemer seemed to. 

Both are very experienced and I am sure the partnership will benefit us greatly.

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

I was quite happy that we played an almost 4-4-2 for much of the 2nd half. We have to score more goals to stay in this division. We will not stay up defending.

Sargent coming on had a two fold effect. More attacking intent and another target as well as cutting out the long crossfield balls the Saints were hurting us with.

[pearsos 56]

Only criticism I have of yesterday is why Smith started Cantwell in the first place, when it was obvious he wasn’t anywhere near ready for a first team return but credit to him for changing it at half time.

[Mengo 822]

On 21/11/2021 at 08:38, cambridgeshire canary said:

Very much so as we all kow that's something Farke could never do. If we went behind you never really got the feeling that Farke knew what to do to change things

Very true. PL is a different animal and the SAS team is certainly 👌 a different animal. 

[Nora's Ghost 157]

On 21/11/2021 at 10:51, Hardhouse44 said:

It was so refreshing to see the side come out second half with a different approach and tactics. A change of personnel where it wasn’t working as well. 
 

Don’t think that would have happened under Farke.

They were scared stiff to play any different in the first half and a bit of an assurance from Smith at half time worked wonders.

 

Under Farke they were technical drones. Hopefully under Smith they will be free thinkers enjoying themselves,

[It's Character Forming 1,160]

I'm sure Dean was aware of the Cantwell & Gilmour out-of-the-team situations and so entirely reasonable for him to bring them in to make it clear they do have a clean slate and a chance to re-establish themselves.  People need to remember that Cantwell did well in the Prem last time and scored some good goals, and people around this league notice this sort of thing and would be puzzled as to the fact that we were leaving him out despite doing badly.

 

And the change at half-time was refreshing.  I was/am a bit fan of Farke in many ways, but he wasn't good at varying our tactics/formation to counter what the other side were doing or how the game was going, and as a result we often felt we were struggling to respond, so the complete change around in how the game went after half time was brilliant to see.