Dean Smith trending on Twitter

[king canary 7,654]

3 minutes ago, Branston Pickle said:

I posted about it at the time, so not even remotely guessing.  The list would include Rowe and Springett - but why shouldn’t it, as players who played in the PL season.  Imo Rowe would have been a first XI starter this season.

But add them to Sorensen, Sam and Dimi and that is 5 without even thinking. Add Idah, Sara and Hayden and that is 8 players out most of the season so far (or still out). With Byram that was 9.  We’re getting there pretty easily, aren’t we.

So we've got two youth players with one start between them and Sara who wasn't actually injured to get to 9.

It may be true that 10 players weren't available for a game but it is also fair to point out that maybe only two or three of them would be starters (Hayden, one of the left backs, maybe Sorenson).

[Clever Farke 65]

10 hours ago, littleyellowbirdie said:

 

 

l

Farke had a whole season before we started looking like winners. Was he pants?

Farke was pants in the premier league and there can be no denying it. Much as I love the guy for his charm and desire to play attractive football. 
 

[Branston Pickle 3,680]

23 minutes ago, king canary said:

So we've got two youth players with one start between them and Sara who wasn't actually injured to get to 9.

It may be true that 10 players weren't available for a game but it is also fair to point out that maybe only two or three of them would be starters (Hayden, one of the left backs, maybe Sorenson).

Not relevant - and imo not remotely correct either.  Sara, until very recently, was not fit to play, but was clearly bought as a starter. Rowe would be ahead of Onel in any list and for me was a first teamer this season.  And so on. The list isn’t even exhaustive.

The point is that with the constant weekend-midweek run of games, we will have wanted to be able to utilise the squad and haven’t been able to.

Apologies for actually being able to back what I’m saying up with facts, but it’s what I do. I’m not one for stating something if I can’t show it is right.

If you can’t see the injuries as being part of the issue, there’s not a lot of hope. I suppose it doesn’t conform to your view so you’ll just dismiss it.

Edited October 21, 2022 by Branston Pickle

[The Great Drinkell 50]

2 hours ago, Branston Pickle said:

Well, perhaps give him the chance with a side that is relatively injury free?  Sara and Hayden were our two biggest signings who we have barely been able to use, we’ve had 10-11 players missing in games already this season. I don’t know many organisations/teams who could perform at their best with so many people out.

Could this be the issue, if my memory serves me correctly weren't the Villa fans disappointed when he was sacked as they thought he'd do okay once he got his injured players back?

Maybe his training is causing some of the injuries? I'm not suggesting Sara or Hayden as they came with the injuries but others are struggling too coincidence?

[The Great Drinkell 50]

Just to add Dean Smith would of been my choice of manager before Farke came here. personally, I do think the link with Villa has changed him as a manager?

[astro 366]

Ah, the Militant Smith Collective is out in force again today. Just time to fire off a few salvoes of insults and derogatory comments towards those who don’t agree with them, before scuttling back behind their monitors should Sheffield whoop our bottoms. 

[Capt. Pants 4,275]

This might be the time for Webber to give us an update on how he sees things and whether he feels injuries are a valid reason?

Sara has been available for several weeks now as has Byram (who actually played at LB in the Premier League) so in my opinion they are not valid reasons.

Time for Webber to back him or sack him? I guess after the next 2 games all will become clearer.

[The Great Mass Debater 1,092]

12 hours ago, littleyellowbirdie said:

• a Norwich team that was never going to survive in a million years. 

Why did Farke have to go then?

[The Great Mass Debater 1,092]

11 hours ago, littleyellowbirdie said:

But it is fundamentally unreasonable. I agree with Branston that this season is being undermined by some fans determined to be toxic, but the fact is that Farke was given oodles of time to get everything to good liking within what we could afford and he developed something outstanding for the championship and dismal for the Premier League.

If we are to become a proper premier League team then we have to say to hell with prettiness, focus on promotion and then focus on survival by hook or by crook.

Nobody who hates Smith wants to know about stats or the nine-game unbeaten run, but the stats are good and we're in contention. Not simply getting behind him is perverse.

There was little expectancy from Farke. He himself was a punt, as were most of the initial signings. The promotion season was not expected at all. 

Having established a level of success at the club, (not just results on the pitch) the club decided to bin this off in favour of Smith. The bar therefore is exceptionally high for Smith, as his appointment needs to be justified every time we play due to the standard he is being held against. Had Smith come in instead of Farke 5 years ago attitudes would be very different

[Branston Pickle 3,680]

12 minutes ago, astro said:

Ah, the Militant Smith Collective is out in force again today. Just time to fire off a few salvoes of insults and derogatory comments towards those who don’t agree with them, before scuttling back behind their monitors should Sheffield whoop our bottoms. 

You aren’t very interested in debate/looking at the bigger picture, are you?  Is everything In your life just as black and white with nothing in between?  You must have a strange life, as literally everything is ‘shades’.

Edited October 21, 2022 by Branston Pickle

[shefcanary 2,444]

34 minutes ago, Capt. Pants said:

This might be the time for Webber to give us an update on how he sees things and whether he feels injuries are a valid reason?

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 When has Webber ever given a straight update to us, the fans? 

As for Smith, I'm undecided whether his perseverance with 4-3-3 is imposed or not, but why he can't see it is never going to work with the "weapons" he has at his disposal really troubles me. Sure, with the right players it can be exciting, but for our squad it means banging round pegs into square holes, whilst the players are trying to adapt all their flair is ground down. Let them play FFS and ignore Webber's dictat's - "man up" Smith and tell him where to get off or go back to Villa!

[please forgive my non-PC wording but I'm trying to be succinct!]

[astro 366]

1 hour ago, Branston Pickle said:

You aren’t very interested in debate/looking at the bigger picture, are you?  Is everything In your life just as black and white with nothing in between?  You must have a strange life, as literally everything is ‘shades’.

You are funny 😁 I would imagine it’s difficult to stand on feet with so many holes in them isn’t it? 

[Branston Pickle 3,680]

7 minutes ago, astro said:

You are funny 😁 I would imagine it’s difficult to stand on feet with so many holes in them isn’t it? 

Wow.  I think a village is missing an idiot - you’d better run along before they come looking….

[KeiranShikari 1,426]

Deluded Dean at it again. Really needs to **** off.

 

[littleyellowbirdie 2,586]

42 minutes ago, KeiranShikari said:

Deluded Dean at it again. Really needs to **** off.

 

There's nothing deluded about it. We have the second most shots of any team in the league. Statistically, we're good and in terms of points we're good, being only 3 points off the top of the league, with a positive goal difference.Can we be better? Yes. Is losing three on the spin crap? Of course. But once, again, we're still only three points off top because before that we took 23 points out of a possible 27. The season is a marathon, not a sprint, and over the long haul we're in the game and can reasonably be expected to be promoted this season, not even taking into account that we have the rest of the season for the play to evolve and for injured players to come into the mix. 

Edited October 21, 2022 by littleyellowbirdie

[Capt. Pants 4,275]

1 hour ago, shefcanary said:

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 When has Webber ever given a straight update to us, the fans? 

As for Smith, I'm undecided whether his perseverance with 4-3-3 is imposed or not, but why he can't see it is never going to work with the "weapons" he has at his disposal really troubles me. Sure, with the right players it can be exciting, but for our squad it means banging round pegs into square holes, whilst the players are trying to adapt all their flair is ground down. Let them play FFS and ignore Webber's dictat's - "man up" Smith and tell him where to get off or go back to Villa!

[please forgive my non-PC wording but I'm trying to be succinct!]

I can't believe for one moment Webber is dictating Smith has to play 4-3-3 every single game. Even moreso when our top scorer is played on the left wing.

[yellow_belly 226]

Can we pay Aston Villa to take Dean Smith? Whip-round anyone? 😂

[wheres my rebate gone? 85]

23 minutes ago, littleyellowbirdie said:

There's nothing deluded about it. We have the second most shots of any team in the league. Statistically, we're good and in terms of points we're good, being only 3 points off the top of the league, with a positive goal difference.Can we be better? Yes. Is losing three on the spin crap? Of course. But once, again, we're still only three points off top because before that we took 23 points out of a possible 27. The season is a marathon, not a sprint, and over the long haul we're in the game and can reasonably be expected to promoted this season, not even taking into account that we have the rest of the season for the play to evolve and for injured players to come into the mix. 

All very well, but now we have started to play teams who are in the top 10, as smith himself has said "the last 3 games we have played to the same standard as we did in the 6-game winning run".

Yes Dean but now we are playing better sides!

[kirku 1,338]

I'm not sure which is more boring; Dean Smith's football or the circular "arguments" of the Militant Smith Collective...

[littleyellowbirdie 2,586]

1 hour ago, kirku said:

I'm not sure which is more boring; Dean Smith's football or the circular "arguments" of the Militant Smith Collective...

Ah, I love being gaslighted in the afternoon! Just remember, the sack the manager brigade are the agitators who have been going on week after week, win or loss. Sorry if the fact some people have some sense of perspective is inconvenient.

[hogesar 9,724]

2 hours ago, wheres my rebate gone? said:

All very well, but now we have started to play teams who are in the top 10, as smith himself has said "the last 3 games we have played to the same standard as we did in the 6-game winning run".

Yes Dean but now we are playing better sides!

The problem for me is we've played demonstrably worse against these better teams, I wouldn't even say it's been the same standard. We should have beaten Preston, that was a calamity of individual errors and yet we still created enough to win the game. After that though we've looked pretty poor.

[Samwam27 532]

The only thing for me atm is we're 15 games in and still haven't had a chance to play our best 11. What that best 11 is, is up for debate.

But we bought Hayden & Sara as starters. We assumed Gian or Mcullam would be starters and no one would have predicted that we'd lose Gian, Mcullam & Jacob in space of 3 games. It's meant we've continued with a very weak midfield all season, which we've all known is a problem area

If we lose the next two, then I'd be with many others that would say Smith is in trouble, but then is he. We have a board mentality not to make quick decisions  and support managers for as long as possible.

5 defeats on the trot and it's a strong case for sacking. 2 good performances, or results, against Sheff U & Burnley, AND with Hayden, Sara & Gian back, and things could turn for the better very quickly, and start to gel properly

[GodlyOtsemobor 2,375]

3 minutes ago, Samwam27 said:

The only thing for me atm is we're 15 games in and still haven't had a chance to play our best 11. What that best 11 is, is up for debate.

But we bought Hayden & Sara as starters. We assumed Gian or Mcullam would be starters and no one would have predicted that we'd lose Gian, Mcullam & Jacob in space of 3 games. It's meant we've continued with a very weak midfield all season, which we've all known is a problem area

If we lose the next two, then I'd be with many others that would say Smith is in trouble, but then is he. We have a board mentality not to make quick decisions  and support managers for as long as possible.

5 defeats on the trot and it's a strong case for sacking. 2 good performances, or results, against Sheff U & Burnley, AND with Hayden, Sara & Gian back, and things could turn for the better very quickly, and start to gel properly

Playing sarge through the middle not stuck on the wing would be a start.

[Samwam27 532]

2 minutes ago, GodlyOtsemobor said:

Playing sarge through the middle not stuck on the wing would be a start.

Totally agree. Was a critic of Sarg last season, but his all round game has come on leaps and bounds. He has pace, runs at defenders, has better close control now, shoots from outside the area, and good in the air. 

Pukki still needs that great through ball. He makes great runs and all, but he doesn't have the same attributes as Sarg. He's lost a lot of his clinical finishing and I'm seeing him a bit like how I used to rate Andy Cole, in that he now needs about 5 great chances to score once!

For me Sarg should have central striking role, and either play Pukki as support, or another creative player in Pukki's place. Pukki could be a great impact sub against tiring legs

[repman 635]

5 hours ago, Capt. Pants said:

This might be the time for Webber to give us an update on how he sees things and whether he feels injuries are a valid reason?

Sara has been available for several weeks now as has Byram (who actually played at LB in the Premier League) so in my opinion they are not valid reasons.

Time for Webber to back him or sack him? I guess after the next 2 games all will become clearer.

I thought there was a possibility even before the downturn in form that we may look to replace Smith during the world cup. We have 6 games in 3 weeks before the break for the tournament, and it's only the last week before Middlesbrough at home where there's no midweek game. If we sacked him after the Burnley game, it'd be hard to imagine a manager being in place for the game the following Saturday, and if they were appointed they wouldn't have any time on the training ground. Throwing a new manager in at the deep end, with very little training ground time as the players would be busy recovering from the previous game, seems like a bad idea to me.

[kenfoggo 247]

All the toxic talk of sacking Dean Smith is completely inappropriate. He is a tactical genius, a marvellous motivator of men and we are lucky to have him at our little club. I particularly admire the way he engineered a relegation from the Premiership last season and am in awe at the way he masterminded home defeats against Wigan and Luton in the Championship this season. I am all agog to see how he will get every squad member to play out of position this season, Angus Gunn as a striker ? 

Edited October 21, 2022 by kenfoggo

[Petriix 2,852]

4 hours ago, KeiranShikari said:

Deluded Dean at it again. Really needs to **** off.

 

Ooh another one of Dean's Myths! 

[Creedence Clearwater Couto 1,297]

10 hours ago, NeymarSmith said:

What games you been watching though dude ? DS has sucked the enjoyment out of going to CR.  

No, he hasn’t. That’s not fair. 

A mixture of poor signings, demotivated players with too much baggage, and an entitled and over expectant fan base not able to let go of Farke, have sucked the life out of CR.

Fingers should be firmly pointed at Webber, whilst the owner of said fingers, probably ought to look in the mirror too, before any blame is laid at Smiths door.

Look, I’m not convinced by Smith and starting to have serious doubts. But there’s no denying, he’s bought a ticket to an absolute sh!+ show.

[SwearyCanary 1,179]

9 hours ago, TheGunnShow said:

Sure, but here's the thing, Smith's not even got his best weapons on the pitch yet - or at least the ones he's wanted. He's clearly wanted Sara and Hayden, but due to injury neither are up to speed yet. He didn't have any new personnel in the first window so it's not a case of building a style at that point. His first chance to build something from scratch came with this pre-season.

We already know the rough template of what he wants from his Brentford and Villa days - a purely destructive midfielder is sorely needed and the full backs will push on far more. He's not got that yet (or a fit attacking left back, for that matter), so our full backs are hemmed in more to compensate. As they're hemmed in, our more creative players have less space to be dangerous, hence some of the turgid stuff we're watching now.

What you're essentially seeing is an improvised Plan B. I'd agree that there's concern that this is a bit undercooked, but criticising him for not having a plan is harsh when he hasn't been able to use many of the players he's wanted - and especially when the players he's wanted appear to be the cornerstones of how he wants to play.

I take your point in this and Sara I do feel is a good acquisition potentially. Hayden should be, but relying on both is an incredibly fragile existence with how relentless this season can be 

[wheres my rebate gone? 85]

3 hours ago, hogesar said:

The problem for me is we've played demonstrably worse against these better teams, I wouldn't even say it's been the same standard. We should have beaten Preston, that was a calamity of individual errors and yet we still created enough to win the game. After that though we've looked pretty poor.

Not my words, Dean Smith himself said that, I think we’ve been pretty much the same all season to be fair to him but unfortunately that is not good enough especially against the better sides!