Dean Smith New Interim Manager - Official

[fuchsntf]

2 hours ago, sacreblueits442 said:

... let's just get this right, that did not cost them the trophy, he still had a 2 point lead going into the last 2 games being against Crystal Palace and Stoke!!!

3-0 up at Palace with 11 minutes to go and he draws the game 3-3, eventually finishing 2 points behind Man. City. He cannot handle pressure, he pushes it on to his team and we have seen a repeat of this, with our last day's failures to reach the top 4, when it was easier to have finished higher than 4th.

Wont argue with that,I just said it would have given another slant & perspective,

if that piece of sod held..

Then people just might write different future thoughts..

[Plastik Man]

11 hours ago, ParkerPen said:

great playing record, but not sure what he brought to the table as a coach.

He kept Brendan's pencil sharpened.

[An Sionnach]

You get the feeling that team Smith will not bore the players stupid with academic football tactics and will attempt to maximise motivation and I'm pretty sure Smith knows how to read the room and will not double down on a rigid game plan that is not working.

Edited 24 April 2023 by An Sionnach

[jerry]

4 minutes ago, An Sionnach said:

You get the feeling that team Smith will not bore the players stupid with academic football tactics and will attempt to maximise motivation and I'm pretty sure Smith knows how to read the room and will not double down on a rigid game plan that is not working.

Got away with one against Wolves. 3 strikers and surrendering midfield  in the first half with an under performing Tielemans , could have proven very costly.

[jim5000]

13 hours ago, An Sionnach said:

Smith, Terry and Shakespeare played over 1500 senior games between them and the players will respect that. Rodgers and Davies played none. If Rodgers had an experienced ex footballer as an assistant it would have been a better bridge to the players. He never has because it would highlight his own lack of experience. While Rodger's tactics were successful , this made little difference but when they began to fail , trust quickly began to break down. The only way to understand your players properly is if you have been there yourself.

Rodger’s was on the path to being a pro football player in his youth, but his career was cut short by injury around the age of 20.

 

He then went into coaching and management.

[An Sionnach]

1 hour ago, jerry said:

Got away with one against Wolves. 3 strikers and surrendering midfield  in the first half with an under performing Tielemans , could have proven very costly.

Risky yes, but it keeps the oppostion guessing and that is something that Rodgers didn't do.

[An Sionnach]

2 minutes ago, jim5000 said:

Rodger’s was on the path to being a pro football player in his youth, but his career was cut short by injury around the age of 20.

 

He then went into coaching and management.

I know but there is no substitute for playing ask Pep Guardiola. 

[Nicolo Barella]

19 hours ago, Mickyblueeyes said:

I agree with you that all teams need to evolve and rebuild. The obvious one is United under Ferguson (because of the time he spent there) but I’d also add Chelsea over the years. Their rebuilds haven’t been quite so obvious because it’s always been alongside a manager change!

 

The issue I have with our (apparent) plan this summer is we are intending to do so whilst losing our core. Take United and their most drastic switch up. 1995-1997. United had just finished second in the league and stalwarts like Bruce, Pallister, Parker, Schmeichel etc. were coming towards the end of their Man U careers. Certainly not there yet but forward planning indicated you’d need to move those players (alongside others) on in a few years. They undertook one of the most drastic rebuilds BUT over a two year period.

 

Year 1: 95-96 The class of 92 (Neville, Giggs (albeit already a regular), Beckham, Butt and Scholes) were all given more senior roles in the squad. They didn’t buy anyone of note that summer (a quick google search - 3 keepers and William Prunier on loan!). The club kept the core of Bruce, Pallister, Parker, Schmeichel, Keane, Cole, Cantona, Sharpe, Irwin, Mcclair and May all within the squad. They lost the opening game 3-1 to Villa but only started with the Neville’s, Scholes and Butt from the youth intake - the rest were very much the first team from the year before. Man U went on to win the title (and Fa Cup) and “new players” all contributed. In addition to the famous members of their youth team, the club also utilised John O’Kane, Ben Thornley, Chris Casper and Terry Cooke - unfortunately for them these guys were not as successful. 
 

Year 2: The actual rebuild (from a transfer perspective) - the club sold both Paul Parker and long serving captain, Steve Bruce in the summer. They were followed by Lee Sharpe and Tony Cotton (influential second choice keeper). Cantona got the captaincy. Neville, Butt, Beckham, Scholes and Giggs were now not just regulars but key players in the team. The club went on a spending spree snapping up Ronny Johnson, Karel Poborsky, Jordi Cruyff Ole Gunnar Solksjaer and Sherringham. Two of those were flops but the rest are assured of their place in Man U history. Despite these changes, the club still had Pallister, Schmeichel, Keane, Cantona, Cole, May and Irwin from previous season and essentially their core to enable the rebuild. They won the league that year too. A lot of this squad were part of their historic treble winning team. It was an exceptional rebuild done perfectly. The addition of Jaap Stam and Dwight Yorke a few years later made them a European super team. 

 

This was the most obvious example of what I would class as a drastic rebuild (which we will need to undertake) that I could think of. Of course our ambitions are no where near the Ferguson United dynasty era. However, one key aspect of a top division rebuild (at Man U or anywhere else) is that you do what you can to build around (not instead of) the core. Our fault here is that Kasper (last summer), Soyuncu (free), Fofana (not our fault), Evans (old age), Maddison, Tielemans, Vardy (old age) will be the players we are seeking to replace. The actual core of our team. Aside from Perreira (due to injuries) and Barnes (I’m hoping) we could go into next year with none on that list as genuine first team players or even at the club. Players who have been brought in are already part of a failing squad (Faes, Iverson, Souttar, khristiansen, Daka) none are experienced PL players as yet (for different reasons) and some (arguably, I’ll admit) have looked out of their depth in replacing the players before them. 
 

And this is what scares me as a fan. Very rarely does a large influx of players in and out (which I am expecting this summer) work. Recent examples, see Villa - season they went down, the season they came back up. Forest this year. Southampton. Chelsea. Spurs post Bale. However, where it has worked and successfully is where teams keep the core and build around (Man C Kompany, Fernandinho, Man U - example above, Chelsea Terry, Lampard). Even Arsenal went through a few years of pain struggling to adapt without Veira, Henry, Campbell and Keown. 
 

Now, can I criticise the club for this predicament ? Perhaps. Should we have “got rid” of one or two earlier - maybe. However, if I remember rightly only this summer, after rejecting the Newcastle bids, it was heavily reported by grade 1 ITKs that Maddison was going to sign a new contract. That hasn’t happened so how else can they plan. Criticism for below par signings of Vestegaard and Bertrand - of course but neither by any stretch of imagination was ever going to make up our core - rebuild or not. How about guys like Daka, Soumare (until Saturday!), Faes ? Absolutely not, they fit the bill of a Leicester signing - hopefully they work out but you’re going to get some wrong. Is Rodgers to blame - absolutely for the drop in standards this year (now dictates our market), the drop in performance of so many, the injuries of genuine sellable assets (Perreira, Justin) and the “risk” around the Bertrand, Vestegaard despite warnings. 

 

Having said all of that, I just think we are in a position clubs of our size find themselves where it’s difficult. As much as I hate saying it, I have to - it happens. I just think, if we do stay up this year, next year May just be harder than this regardless of who is in charge. 

I agree with you. Palace did it successfully a couple years back though.

[deep blue]

20 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

 

Soyuncu made 4 starts that season having previously been in the Bundesliga team of the season with Freiburg. He definitely needed time to adapt but he still badly under used him IMO. 

 

See I can blame Puel because if you're going to praise him for blooding Chilwell and persevering with him despite being very inconsistent in an attempt to develop on the job then in the same vein we signed 2 young CB's that summer and opted to loan one out who was exceptional for Celtic and then barely played the other who was coveted around Europe and had been in the Bundesliga team of the season. 

 

Don't forget as well that Maguire was mediocre in 2018/19 compared to 2017/18, Morgan was declining under Puel and Evans struggled initially.

 

Puel gets very little credit from me for anything. Dog muck.

It could be a false memory, but I thought that one of the reasons Soy was held back in his first year is that he had a lot of trouble adapting to the different culture in this country and in learning the language.

[Ric Flair]

4 hours ago, deep blue said:

It could be a false memory, but I thought that one of the reasons Soy was held back in his first year is that he had a lot of trouble adapting to the different culture in this country and in learning the language.

Yes, I think you're probably right.

[indierich06]

11 hours ago, jerry said:

Got away with one against Wolves. 3 strikers and surrendering midfield  in the first half with an under performing Tielemans , could have proven very costly.

He made an appropriate change at half time to address the situation, and we won the game. What exactly did he 'get away with'?

[ParkerPen]

13 minutes ago, indierich06 said:

He made an appropriate change at half time to address the situation, and we won the game. What exactly did he 'get away with'?

something we never saw from the previous administration !

[ian__marshall]

If you'd asked me a month ago whether I'd relish the prospect of Dean Smith taking over the reigns he certainly wouldn't have been top of my list, but I'm delighted with his appointment so far. 

 

That post match interview on Saturday was so refreshing. Absolutely called the game as I and many others saw it whilst making the real time changes in game to counter Wolves and swing it back in our favour. I'm not sure what went wrong at Norwich, but him and his backroom team are the perfect fit for this club and I can see them going on to achieve cult hero status with the majority of the fanbase if they are offered and accept the challenge longer term. 

[AjcW]

The key thing i'm taking away so far is how much more 'us' Dean Smith and team are...

 

We've done well with managers who want to prove themselves, who want to fight and go up the ranks themselves stature wise, alongside the club.

As much as Brendan brought us initial success, that was always his get out clause too, he always felt he was bigger than the club and always felt he'd be snatched at the first opportunity.

When that didn't come to fruition everything fell to pieces!

 

Whoever gets the job next, I hope it's someone more in line with the culture we have, someone who will give everything and WANTS to be here and wants to get recognition by achieving success with us, rather than seeing us as a temporary stop off before their next ego stroke. 

[Lionator]

29 minutes ago, AjcW said:

The key thing i'm taking away so far is how much more 'us' Dean Smith and team are...

 

We've done well with managers who want to prove themselves, who want to fight and go up the ranks themselves stature wise, alongside the club.

As much as Brendan brought us initial success, that was always his get out clause too, he always felt he was bigger than the club and always felt he'd be snatched at the first opportunity.

When that didn't come to fruition everything fell to pieces!

 

Whoever gets the job next, I hope it's someone more in line with the culture we have, someone who will give everything and WANTS to be here and wants to get recognition by achieving success with us, rather than seeing us as a temporary stop off before their next ego stroke. 

This is a good point. If you look back historically though, this is a Rodgers problem. Despite relative success, look how much more Klopp ‘gets’ the Liverpool ethos, Ange the Greek-Australian has a much better relationship with the fans than Irish-Catholic Rodgers. For whatever reason, he is always slightly fractured from the fan base. 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

34 minutes ago, AjcW said:

The key thing i'm taking away so far is how much more 'us' Dean Smith and team are...

 

We've done well with managers who want to prove themselves, who want to fight and go up the ranks themselves stature wise, alongside the club.

As much as Brendan brought us initial success, that was always his get out clause too, he always felt he was bigger than the club and always felt he'd be snatched at the first opportunity.

When that didn't come to fruition everything fell to pieces!

 

Whoever gets the job next, I hope it's someone more in line with the culture we have, someone who will give everything and WANTS to be here and wants to get recognition by achieving success with us, rather than seeing us as a temporary stop off before their next ego stroke. 

Aside from Claudio this theory is basically completely true since we went down to League 1. 

[deep blue]

35 minutes ago, AjcW said:

The key thing i'm taking away so far is how much more 'us' Dean Smith and team are...

 

We've done well with managers who want to prove themselves, who want to fight and go up the ranks themselves stature wise, alongside the club.

As much as Brendan brought us initial success, that was always his get out clause too, he always felt he was bigger than the club and always felt he'd be snatched at the first opportunity.

When that didn't come to fruition everything fell to pieces!

 

Whoever gets the job next, I hope it's someone more in line with the culture we have, someone who will give everything and WANTS to be here and wants to get recognition by achieving success with us, rather than seeing us as a temporary stop off before their next ego stroke. 

I think that the togetherness also goes for the management team.  It's easy to get the impression in retrospect that Brendan was the man and he dictated much of what went on with training and in other respects.

 

Our best management teams in the past have been a true team with the input from all 3 being valued (O'Neill- Robertson-Walford, Pearson-Shakey-Walsh, and even when Ranieri took over you felt that the other two still held great sway).  Now we have something very similar with the Smith-Shakey-Terry triumvirate.  It all seems so much more healthy as a decision-making group.

[st albans fox]

1 hour ago, indierich06 said:

He made an appropriate change at half time to address the situation, and we won the game. What exactly did he 'get away with'?

I think he did get away with it during the first half on Saturday  - we were v unbalanced and wolves midfield failed to take advantage of the extra space they had.  But perhaps the PL first half syndrome where coaches don’t tend to over commit on their tactics helped us out.  I can only assume that the tactic was to try and get the ball forward quickly because we didn’t have much on offer short. the surprise to me was that madders would have been playing in preparation and to bring daka, tete or kel in rather than praet was brave/foolhardy (depending on your viewpoint) 

[Jobyfox]

54 minutes ago, AjcW said:

The key thing i'm taking away so far is how much more 'us' Dean Smith and team are...

 

We've done well with managers who want to prove themselves, who want to fight and go up the ranks themselves stature wise, alongside the club.

As much as Brendan brought us initial success, that was always his get out clause too, he always felt he was bigger than the club and always felt he'd be snatched at the first opportunity.

When that didn't come to fruition everything fell to pieces!

 

Whoever gets the job next, I hope it's someone more in line with the culture we have, someone who will give everything and WANTS to be here and wants to get recognition by achieving success with us, rather than seeing us as a temporary stop off before their next ego stroke. 

This just over simplifies things. It always makes me smile when I see statements like “in line with our culture”. We’ll be talking about the “Leicester City way” next. 
 

Looking back at LCFC managers then the three that definitely hit the “big name” tag are: SGE, Ranieri and Rodgers. We won the Premier League and FA Cup with the latter two so that isn’t really a bad return. 
 

The reality is that football is a reactive environment and 99% of managerial appointments are (and sometimes should be) short term. It doesn’t matter whether the next appointment is a “name” or working his way up as long as they can drive us forward for the next two to three seasons. We shouldn’t be looking beyond that short timeframe.
 

 Far better to put effort into things you can control: investing in analytics, training ground, direction off the pitch, youth development etc. They are the only things you can control long term. 

 

Any manager we have will be short term. They will either be sacked or poached. We need to try and ensure that the club is in a good place structurally, off the pitch, when the inevitable happens so that we limit the boom and bust. 

[Nickoyb05]

2 hours ago, ian__marshall said:

If you'd asked me a month ago whether I'd relish the prospect of Dean Smith taking over the reigns he certainly wouldn't have been top of my list, but I'm delighted with his appointment so far. 

 

That post match interview on Saturday was so refreshing. Absolutely called the game as I and many others saw it whilst making the real time changes in game to counter Wolves and swing it back in our favour. I'm not sure what went wrong at Norwich, but him and his backroom team are the perfect fit for this club and I can see them going on to achieve cult hero status with the majority of the fanbase if they are offered and accept the challenge longer term. 

I don't think he failed at Norwich they were already as good as religated when they took over without Terry Then we're 5th in championship when they pulled the trigger. Norwich still no better under new management. 

[CosbehFox]

1 hour ago, AjcW said:

The key thing i'm taking away so far is how much more 'us' Dean Smith and team are...

 

We've done well with managers who want to prove themselves, who want to fight and go up the ranks themselves stature wise, alongside the club.

As much as Brendan brought us initial success, that was always his get out clause too, he always felt he was bigger than the club and always felt he'd be snatched at the first opportunity.

When that didn't come to fruition everything fell to pieces!

 

Whoever gets the job next, I hope it's someone more in line with the culture we have, someone who will give everything and WANTS to be here and wants to get recognition by achieving success with us, rather than seeing us as a temporary stop off before their next ego stroke. 

Bang on. 

 

He has something to prove too - his motivation is high. 

[jerry]

2 hours ago, indierich06 said:

He made an appropriate change at half time to address the situation, and we won the game. What exactly did he 'get away with'?

Being  two goals down at half time probably  🤔.

[AjcW]

1 hour ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Aside from Claudio this theory is basically completely true since we went down to League 1. 

Even he had a point to prove after the Greek disaster though?  

[Beachyboy]

2 hours ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Aside from Claudio this theory is basically completely true since we went down to League 1. 

Claudio had failed as Greece manager yes he was a top name but he did still have a point to prove, where as Rogers was coming from success at Celtic.

Edited 25 April 2023 by Beachyboy

[BKLFox]

5 hours ago, indierich06 said:

He made an appropriate change at half time to address the situation, and we won the game. What exactly did he 'get away with'?

He couldn't go like for like because they were all on to start with & the appropriate change was forced due to injury to Vardy wasn't it?
We don't know if he was going to change things at HT anyway but lets not put this change down to a master class in tactics & observation.

 

Not a knock at Smith