Dean Smith New Interim Manager - Official

[wurmer]

Don’t care what the stats apparently say, they chucked the towel in when Liverpool’s first went in.

 

I know he can’t say that was the case as he needs to try and coax a performance out of this band of mercenaries, but I really don’t think he’s what the club needs going forwards.

 

It was an impossible job in many respects and I appreciate him coming in and giving it a go.

[Guest Col city fan]

1 hour ago, wurmer said:

Don’t care what the stats apparently say, they chucked the towel in when Liverpool’s first went in.

 

I know he can’t say that was the case as he needs to try and coax a performance out of this band of mercenaries, but I really don’t think he’s what the club needs going forwards.

 

It was an impossible job in many respects and I appreciate him coming in and giving it a go.

Yes I agree and think it was an impossible job for anyone really.

The rot had set in ages ago and had been allowed to become endemic. 
Smith could have possibly done better than he has done, but he just didn’t have long enough to turn this rotten squad around. Nor did he have any sort of transfer window to sell anyone or sign anyone.

Huge task for anyone to take on 

[copunk]

He was on a hiding to nothing lets be honest 

Not helped himself with constantly going for a midfield that has more holes then a hedgehogs condom though 

[cityfanlee23]

Maybe I'm reaching a bit here but I'm really not happy with Dean's pre-match press conference today. Specifically, his use of phrases like:
"One thing we do know is that we need at least a point from Newcastle at this present moment" Why the hell are we going into a game like this talking about needing at least a point? WE NEED ALL 3!?!? within 5 seconds of that admits it's not in our hands anymore, so why are you talking about a draw?
 

He then talked about changing his tactics based on results tonight/at the weekend:  "I don't like playing on the Mondays after games especially when there are only 2 games to go because we are preparing for Newcastle now, I don't want to suddenly have to change tactics of what we've been working on for 4-5 days" Dean, what possible reason could there be to change our tactics in a MUST WIN fixture based on the Newcastle result against Brighton? Our tactics should be based on beating them whether Newcastle win lose or draw that game, the outcome of the Brighton match does not affect us in the slightest. 

He also spoke about him having the stats to show that the players were trying, and mentioned that "we matched Liverpools running stats" I mean, maybe we did but to me, it looked like Liverpool were in 2nd gear all game. 

 

Mentioned setting up vs Newcastle to focus on being "hard to beat" which is literally what football is, but just screams more sitting back defensively, which is the very thing costing us. 

Again maybe I'm digging too deep on this, but this just sounded like such a passive approach to one of the biggest games in our history given the financial mess we are staring at if we go down, we NEED all 3 points. I thought Smith was a relatively safe option for us, and given the mess he inherited I was not expecting miracles tactically, but all I expected was 2 things, get the players playing with heart and passion, and get the basics right. We have failed on both of those counts, I genuinely have to wonder if Big Sam would have been a better option. 

Edit: Link - 

 

Edited 18 May 2023 by cityfanlee23

[sacreblueits442]

3 hours ago, ithuriel said:

From someone who was there abouts, not going to say more

...you can understand that he would not have been happy with the Liverpool players not picking up a booking!!!

It just seems that it keeps on happening with teams bringing players down and repetitive fouls by a player and no cards are issued. There was an early breakaway where we were attacking, one of our players was fouled, but the ref played on, then Maddison was fouled and he awarded the first foul, as opposed to the most recent one further up the pitch.

[Collymore]

There's no way Dean Smith can believe a word of what he said. Sounds to me he's trying to distance himself from the s**tshow with dropping in the classic "I haven't signed any of these players so don't blame me" line a few times there. Probably realises the Titanic is going down and is desperately trying to rescue any thing he can from his reputation cupboard. 

 

They deserve to be absolutely hung out to dry and I hope Smith secretly knows that. 

 

There'll be a nice lifeboat for you Dean, don't worry, get in it and get as far away from this mess as you can. 

 

 

 

 

Edited 18 May 2023 by Collymore

[Chelmofox]

Its amazing how quickly we have worn him down. Its really impressive work. All that positive energy is drained from him and i bet he can't wait to go on holiday on the 29th May.

 

Would love a proper inside scoop of whats going on the behind the scenes. They aren't playing for him in the slightest now and its clear they are mentally all over the place. I presume a collection of prima donnas and over inflated ego's (Vardy exluded) didn't fancy project Dean Smith after all.

 

No one would have saved this season.

 

[fox_favourite]

I wouldn't say they aren't playing for him. I think their confidence is completely shot. 1st 10-15 minutes against Liverpool, we didnt look too bad. At the end, from my view, it was more "what's the point,we've lost" body language. 1st goal killed the fragile confidence they had and that's been the case for a few games. Everton killed it as well. Wolves and Leeds would have given some belief. But that has gone now. 

 

Me, as a fan, are just left numb. I stayed to the end and didn't shout, didn't boo just sat in shock. 

 

The whole club needs a massive reset. Fans, manager, coaches, players, directors etc...it's just down a hole with no sign of life, or the fight to see this through. 

 

Makes you wonder if we did stay up, with no manager 7/8 players going,  the feeling as it is around the club, how we would cope for next season. I feel we would struggle again. 

[Chelmofox]

4 minutes ago, fox_favourite said:

I wouldn't say they aren't playing for him. I think their confidence is completely shot. 1st 10-15 minutes against Liverpool, we didnt look too bad. At the end, from my view, it was more "what's the point,we've lost" body language. 1st goal killed the fragile confidence they had and that's been the case for a few games. Everton killed it as well. Wolves and Leeds would have given some belief. But that has gone now. 

 

Me, as a fan, are just left numb. I stayed to the end and didn't shout, didn't boo just sat in shock. 

 

The whole club needs a massive reset. Fans, manager, coaches, players, directors etc...it's just down a hole with no sign of life, or the fight to see this through. 

 

Makes you wonder if we did stay up, with no manager 7/8 players going,  the feeling as it is around the club, how we would cope for next season. I feel we would struggle again. 

Nah - not having that. No way did that team buy into the setup and the approach for the Fulham and Liverpool games. Something went horribly wrong leading up to that Fulham game, and i would love to know what.  Maybe there was some fall out from the Everton game. Could be an issue around the penalty or some criticism from Smith around letting Everton boss the tactics? I'm making it up, but i think after Everton something went wrong in the dressing room.

 

Liverpool barely even broke a sweat in the first 15 minutes, and then quickly learned how to control us. Even though it didn't look like they were killing us, we were never in the game. I've rewatched extended highlights of Liverpool, and they were oddly kind to us - almost respectful. They could have really gone for it and murdered us if they wanted.

[jammie82uk]

1 hour ago, cityfanlee23 said:

"One thing we do know is that we need at least a point from Newcastle at this present moment" Why the hell are we going into a game like this talking about needing at least a point? WE NEED ALL 3!?!? within 5 seconds of that admits it's not in our hands anymore, so why are you talking about a draw?
 

Depending on other teams results to have a “positive” Worse case scenario we need at least a point from the Newcastle game 

 

1 hour ago, cityfanlee23 said:

Dean, what possible reason could there be to change our tactics in a MUST WIN fixture based on the Newcastle result against Brighton? Our tactics should be based on beating them whether Newcastle win lose or draw that game, the outcome of the Brighton match does not affect us in the slightest. 

It’s not the outcome of Newcastle v Brighton, it’s the outcome of the Everton and Leeds he’s referring to, tactics wise I suppose it will be how Gung-ho we need to be, if Everton and Leeds win then we need to throw everything and forget the consequences because we need the win, if Everton and Leeds lose or draw then we need to at least draw to take it to the last day 

[sacreblueits442]

8 minutes ago, Chelmofox said:

Nah - not having that. No way did that team buy into the setup and the approach for the Fulham and Liverpool games. Something went horribly wrong leading up to that Fulham game, and i would love to know what.  Maybe there was some fall out from the Everton game. Could be an issue around the penalty or some criticism from Smith around letting Everton boss the tactics? I'm making it up, but i think after Everton something went wrong in the dressing room.

 

...you just know something happened prior to the Fulham game!!!

Everything went off the deep end and we were so poor it was unreal. 

[sacreblueits442]

6 minutes ago, jammie82uk said:

Depending on other teams results to have a “positive” Worse case scenario we need at least a point from the Newcastle game 

 

It’s not the outcome of Newcastle v Brighton, it’s the outcome of the Everton and Leeds he’s referring to, tactics wise I suppose it will be how Gung-ho we need to be, if Everton and Leeds win then we need to throw everything and forget the consequences because we need the win, if Everton and Leeds lose or draw then we need to at least draw to take it to the last day 

...we do not need to change the way we approach the Newcastle game, depending on the Everton Or Leeds results!!!

The Newcastle game is a must not lose, we take a pragmatic approach irrespective of the points that we need to make up due to other results. You can see Smith going down the 4-2-3-1 route, it is all he seems to know and it does not work with our squad, the wrong people are in the most important places and we have no replacement that can come in. We just cannot keep Smith in place either way, just nowhere near good enough to be in charge.

[cityfanlee23]

13 minutes ago, jammie82uk said:

Depending on other teams results to have a “positive” Worse case scenario we need at least a point from the Newcastle game 

 

It’s not the outcome of Newcastle v Brighton, it’s the outcome of the Everton and Leeds he’s referring to, tactics wise I suppose it will be how Gung-ho we need to be, if Everton and Leeds win then we need to throw everything and forget the consequences because we need the win, if Everton and Leeds lose or draw then we need to at least draw to take it to the last day 

It’s absolute suicide for us to risk playing passive safe football to go for a point on the basis that Everton/Leeds don’t win their next fixture, only for us to get into the final game needing results to go our way. 
 

Newcastle is a win at all costs fixture, I know that we obviously aren’t going to throw 10 players upfront but we need to be on the front foot and play positively, at no point in this press conference did smith even imply we were going to be confident and play attacking football to try and win. The whole thing was about being hard to beat. Hard to beat and settling for a point will very likely send us down. 
 

[sacreblueits442]

7 minutes ago, cityfanlee23 said:

It’s absolute suicide for us to risk playing passive safe football to go for a point on the basis that Everton/Leeds don’t win their next fixture, only for us to get into the final game needing results to go our way. 
 

Newcastle is a win at all costs fixture, I know that we obviously aren’t going to throw 10 players upfront but we need to be on the front foot and play positively, at no point in this press conference did smith even imply we were going to be confident and play attacking football to try and win. The whole thing was about being hard to beat. Hard to beat and settling for a point will very likely send us down. 
 

....there are two ways we can go, to play this match!!!

We can play with a back 5 (my preference) and play them on the counter, with Barnes, Tete and Vardy looking to spring forward, or we go and press them and pick up a man for man where we attempt to pin them into their own half, better still, leaving them passing it around their back line just outside their own box. Assuming that they need the points and would have viewed this as an easy win, they will have to take chances or deviate from their normal game. If we do force them to go long, we could draw on this, the expectation is on them not us.

[foxes_rule1978]

Smith hasn’t been here long enough to be responsible for us going down, but I can tell you now at least he sounds sincere in his interviews, unlike Rodgers. We are down though beating Newcastle or even a point with the way we are playing is just not doable with the attitude of our players 

[sacreblueits442]

1 minute ago, foxes_rule1978 said:

Smith hasn’t been here long enough to be responsible for us going down, but I can tell you now at least he sounds sincere in his interviews, unlike Rodgers. We are down though beating Newcastle or even a point with the way we are playing is just not doable with the attitude of our players 

...are you hoping a new influx of players will allow him to form a team that is competitive from what I can see so far, he cannot be allowed to have the job for next season!!!

  This is not me blaming him for our demise, this is just examining what he brings and finding it to be zero return.

Not sure about the sincere type, you can tell he is holding back and choosing his words to fit the situation, it is what Managers do, Rodgers just used veiled comments to put down the club, players and furnishing his brand.

[foxes_rule1978]

3 minutes ago, sacreblueits442 said:

...are you hoping a new influx of players will allow him to form a team that is competitive from what I can see so far, he cannot be allowed to have the job for next season!!!

  This is not me blaming him for our demise, this is just examining what he brings and finding it to be zero return.

Not sure about the sincere type, you can tell he is holding back and choosing his words to fit the situation, it is what Managers do, Rodgers just used veiled comments to put down the club, players and furnishing his brand.

This is all true, it is just a breath of fresh air that we haven’t had for a long time, so anyone not talking themselves up and putting the team down, would be a positive in that sense 

Edited 18 May 2023 by foxes_rule1978

[john ridley]

Suppose he's on a hiding to nothing now knowing he's not going to be  kept on ,bet he can't wait for the season end.

[winteriscoming]

He’ll end up with 1 win out of 10. Having faced Wolves,  Everton, Leeds, Fulham - nothing to play for and most players out, and West Ham. I still believe a more tactically aware manager would of got at least another 2 wins and a draw out of those games. Which would of been enough. I’m not expecting another point out of these last 2 games. Hope I’m wrong. Don’t want him in charge next season. 

[Angus Scott]

1 win in 10? He will only have been in charge for 8 games

[winteriscoming]

53 minutes ago, Angus Scott said:

1 win in 10? He will only have been in charge for 8 games

Ok 1 win in 8. Still shit. Not tactically up to it. I gave him 2 extra games for a chance of winning another game. 😂

[FLAN]

Ignoring mendy has been criminal. And hearing him say he didn’t want us flying into challenges and picking up bookings was insane in our situation. He’s not instilled any fight which is amazing with Terry there

[splinterdream]

5 hours ago, cityfanlee23 said:

Maybe I'm reaching a bit here but I'm really not happy with Dean's pre-match press conference today. Specifically, his use of phrases like:
"One thing we do know is that we need at least a point from Newcastle at this present moment" Why the hell are we going into a game like this talking about needing at least a point? WE NEED ALL 3!?!? within 5 seconds of that admits it's not in our hands anymore, so why are you talking about a draw?
 

He then talked about changing his tactics based on results tonight/at the weekend:  "I don't like playing on the Mondays after games especially when there are only 2 games to go because we are preparing for Newcastle now, I don't want to suddenly have to change tactics of what we've been working on for 4-5 days" Dean, what possible reason could there be to change our tactics in a MUST WIN fixture based on the Newcastle result against Brighton? Our tactics should be based on beating them whether Newcastle win lose or draw that game, the outcome of the Brighton match does not affect us in the slightest. 

He also spoke about him having the stats to show that the players were trying, and mentioned that "we matched Liverpools running stats" I mean, maybe we did but to me, it looked like Liverpool were in 2nd gear all game. 

 

Mentioned setting up vs Newcastle to focus on being "hard to beat" which is literally what football is, but just screams more sitting back defensively, which is the very thing costing us. 

Again maybe I'm digging too deep on this, but this just sounded like such a passive approach to one of the biggest games in our history given the financial mess we are staring at if we go down, we NEED all 3 points. I thought Smith was a relatively safe option for us, and given the mess he inherited I was not expecting miracles tactically, but all I expected was 2 things, get the players playing with heart and passion, and get the basics right. We have failed on both of those counts, I genuinely have to wonder if Big Sam would have been a better option. 

Edit: Link - 

 

He's been really poor, just moaned and has failed to motivate players. Maybe Liverpools running stats were similar to ours, but probably because they hardly needed to move, they just passed it around statues

[Guy]

4 hours ago, cityfanlee23 said:

It’s absolute suicide for us to risk playing passive safe football to go for a point on the basis that Everton/Leeds don’t win their next fixture, only for us to get into the final game needing results to go our way. 
 

Newcastle is a win at all costs fixture, I know that we obviously aren’t going to throw 10 players upfront but we need to be on the front foot and play positively, at no point in this press conference did smith even imply we were going to be confident and play attacking football to try and win. The whole thing was about being hard to beat. Hard to beat and settling for a point will very likely send us down. 
 

We need to play how Southampton did at Arsenal last month and forge an unlikely lead and just try to hang on to it - something which Saints ultimately failed to do of course and ended up with a point when a win seemed a cert., which is why they're going down - and why we may well follow them if we do the same at St James Park - even though I don't think we'll ever be in the ascendency at any stage throughout the game to even be in a position to hold onto any sort of lead! 

[lee7]

7 hours ago, cityfanlee23 said:

Maybe I'm reaching a bit here but I'm really not happy with Dean's pre-match press conference today. Specifically, his use of phrases like:
"One thing we do know is that we need at least a point from Newcastle at this present moment" Why the hell are we going into a game like this talking about needing at least a point? WE NEED ALL 3!?!? within 5 seconds of that admits it's not in our hands anymore, so why are you talking about a draw?
 

He then talked about changing his tactics based on results tonight/at the weekend:  "I don't like playing on the Mondays after games especially when there are only 2 games to go because we are preparing for Newcastle now, I don't want to suddenly have to change tactics of what we've been working on for 4-5 days" Dean, what possible reason could there be to change our tactics in a MUST WIN fixture based on the Newcastle result against Brighton? Our tactics should be based on beating them whether Newcastle win lose or draw that game, the outcome of the Brighton match does not affect us in the slightest. 

He also spoke about him having the stats to show that the players were trying, and mentioned that "we matched Liverpools running stats" I mean, maybe we did but to me, it looked like Liverpool were in 2nd gear all game. 

 

Mentioned setting up vs Newcastle to focus on being "hard to beat" which is literally what football is, but just screams more sitting back defensively, which is the very thing costing us. 

Again maybe I'm digging too deep on this, but this just sounded like such a passive approach to one of the biggest games in our history given the financial mess we are staring at if we go down, we NEED all 3 points. I thought Smith was a relatively safe option for us, and given the mess he inherited I was not expecting miracles tactically, but all I expected was 2 things, get the players playing with heart and passion, and get the basics right. We have failed on both of those counts, I genuinely have to wonder if Big Sam would have been a better option. 

Edit: Link - 

 

You are absolutely spot on. All of those statements are major concerns. 

Just like when Maddison came out with 'if we keep playing like this we'll be absolutely fine' 

It is almost as though no one quite understands the seriousness of the situation we are in. 

 

We have two games remaining and we are second bottom. Six points is the only target we should be setting.