Dean Smith New Interim Manager - Official

[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. 

 

 

[Leeds Fox]

35 minutes ago, lee7 said:

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. 

 

 

Agree on the basis that it’s ‘almost’ a fact. Anything less than a point won’t do. We have the quality to get a point if we’re set up right. Do we have the desire and the mental strength for it, I don’t know. 
 

Climbing out of this hole, would be a far bigger achievement than the great escape season.

 

It’s going to take some bottle, some hard work and the quality that we’ve seen before to tear its head again. 

[Dan LCFC]

Pretty clear he's in self-preservation mode as well. This club is just beyond toxic.

[shailen]

The running stats being an indicator of fight did irk me. 

 

Fight is also about tackling, scrapping and making it difficult for the opposition. Youri and Soumare have ducked tackles in recent weeks and that is not fight I'm afraid. 

[Tom12345]

11 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 - 

 

Someone should ask him about Mendy!

[Ian S]

10 hours ago, winteriscoming said:

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 have got at least another 2 wins and a draw out of those games. Which would have 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. 

So who would you have given the job to, don’t remember a very impressive queue of tactically aware managers.

[lcfcsnow]

Fed up of all these Villa rejects Rudkin seems to attract now.

[winteriscoming]

48 minutes ago, Ian S said:

So who would you have given the job to, don’t remember a very impressive queue of tactically aware managers.

We left it too late in getting rid of Rodgers. No one wanted to come till the end of the season. Rafa would of clearly been the better option. It wouldn’t of been great to watch but I think we’d of got a couple more wins and draw with him in charge which would of been enough. 

[VLC86]

He’s only come here for the Seagrave breakfasts hasnt he.

[foxfanazer]

I don't blame Deano at all but I certainly wouldn't be too excited going into next season with him in charge. We pretty much need a complete fresh start. Anybody tainted by this season need binning (except Vardy). Obviously we can't get rid of everyone but a new manager is needed for sure

[jmono84]

I think he’s changed very little from team selections and the style of play.

 

we still do the stupid passing around at the back almost as close to our own goal line when it will end up with a soft lofted pass to our full back out wide and then lose the ball high up in our own half.

 

I thought this guy was going to make us direct and a lot more solid defensively but what I’ve see so far we might have well just stuck with Bodgers.

Edited 19 May 2023 by jmono84

[foxfanazer]

Just now, jmono84 said:

I think he’s changed very little from team selections and the style of play.

 

we still do the stupid passing around at the back almost as close as our own goal line when it will end up with a soft lofted pass to our full back out wide and then lose the ball high up in our own half.

 

I thought this guy was going to make us direct and a lot more solid defensively but what I’ve see so far we might have well just stick with Bodgers.

I wish we had kept Rodgers now. He deserves to take the relegation. We should've sacked him earlier or not at all

[Dan LCFC]

4 hours ago, foxfanazer said:

I wish we had kept Rodgers now. He deserves to take the relegation. We should've sacked him earlier or not at all

Yep, he's ended up being the only beneficiary out of this.

 

I'm torn between thinking Smith was on a hiding to nothing and thinking he should've done better. The fact it's gone to self-preservation though. I can't take more of this. Please just end it on Monday. I can't take another week of this nonsense.

[Chelmofox]

2 minutes ago, Dan LCFC said:

Yep, he's ended up being the only beneficiary out of this.

 

I'm torn between thinking Smith was on a hiding to nothing and thinking he should've done better. The fact it's gone to self-preservation though. I can't take more of this. Please just end it on Monday. I can't take another week of this nonsense.

I've said many times that there must issues behind the scenes contributing to our demise. I don't know if its player power, cliques or meddling from senior members of staff but something is not right. How we went to Sadler pretty much operating as a Rodgers mini me, through to Smith who in a matter of games has lost all the positives he brought in with him. What happened between the Everton game and the Fulham game was no accident - there is something fundamentally wrong behind the scenes dragging everything down.

[MattFox]

4 minutes ago, Chelmofox said:

I've said many times that there must issues behind the scenes contributing to our demise. I don't know if its player power, cliques or meddling from senior members of staff but something is not right. How we went to Sadler pretty much operating as a Rodgers mini me, through to Smith who in a matter of games has lost all the positives he brought in with him. What happened between the Everton game and the Fulham game was no accident - there is something fundamentally wrong behind the scenes dragging everything down.

The Everton game would have been the same result as Fulham without heroics in goal though 

 

Likewise the first 30 odd minutes against Wolves were awful

 

Arguably our best performance under smith was the second half at the etihad

[Tuna]

I really thought he was going to keep us up before Fulham!

Edited 19 May 2023 by Tuna

[Dan LCFC]

7 minutes ago, Chelmofox said:

I've said many times that there must issues behind the scenes contributing to our demise. I don't know if its player power, cliques or meddling from senior members of staff but something is not right. How we went to Sadler pretty much operating as a Rodgers mini me, through to Smith who in a matter of games has lost all the positives he brought in with him. What happened between the Everton game and the Fulham game was no accident - there is something fundamentally wrong behind the scenes dragging everything down.

 

2 minutes ago, MattFox said:

The Everton game would have been the same result as Fulham without heroics in goal though 

 

Likewise the first 30 odd minutes against Wolves were awful

 

Arguably our best performance under smith was the second half at the etihad

Our best performance under Smith hands down was Wolves in the second half where we actually frequently created chances and prevented them from doing so, something we basically never do.

 

There is something toxic about us. We've had a few times where we've seemed quite convincing in the way we've won a game yet we only ever feel one or two bad games from what we're in now. It's like we have to revert to this no matter what. A proper black hole.

[Les-TA-Jon]

Whether or not it was the right decision to sack Rodgers, the club certainly sacked him at the wrong time. 

 

Sack him after failing to beat Brentford. Then whoever comes in gets the international break to bed in and 3 additional games. We're going to stay up by a point or GD, or most likely go down by 1-3 points. 

 

I find it hard to believe we'd have taken ZERO points from Palace, Villa and Bournemouth had we done the above. 

 

Also note, that when Smith et al were appointed we needed to win 3 games (probably?) to stay up. Given the fixture list, we only had the Wolves, Leeds, Everton, Fulham and West Ham games to realistically target. 

 

So Smith was essentially tasked with getting one of the worst teams in the division to win 3 out of 4/5 games. A tall order indeed...

[jim5000]

5 hours ago, Costock_Fox said:

He’s only come here for the Seagrave breakfasts hasnt he.

Spaghetti hoops on toast with Harvey Barnes 

[Chelmofox]

25 minutes ago, MattFox said:

The Everton game would have been the same result as Fulham without heroics in goal though 

 

Likewise the first 30 odd minutes against Wolves were awful

 

Arguably our best performance under smith was the second half at the etihad

No, we were still better against Everton, and should have been 3-1 up (and Vards hit the bar). Everton were able to flood our midfield but I still maintain we put a shift in, albeit we should have done better.

 

Fulham was a different story. We offered nothing and Fulham were just toying around with us. Something was seriously up for that game.

[BenTayfour]

Getting a little bit nostalgic here 😢😭.

 

It's crazy how big the difference in the mentality, fighting spirit and character between the Title/CL team and this lot.

I thought The managers trio will fire them up especially if you relate to Craig previous spell or Terry leadership and Dean's closeness to his players.

 

 

 

[Corky]

22 hours ago, Dan LCFC said:

 

Our best performance under Smith hands down was Wolves in the second half where we actually frequently created chances and prevented them from doing so, something we basically never do.

 

There is something toxic about us. We've had a few times where we've seemed quite convincing in the way we've won a game yet we only ever feel one or two bad games from what we're in now. It's like we have to revert to this no matter what. A proper black hole.

This is no band of brothers. Does not look a unified and harmonious club.

[iancognito]

13 minutes ago, Corky said:

This is no band of brothers. Does not look a unified and harmonious club.

Precisely why I'm not keen on keeping many of them next season. I don't want a spine of the team next season to be the spineless ones from this season. If they have value over £5m sell them. Anyone with a year left who isn't extending, sell them. Get a new guy announced early - if it's Smith (ugh) fine - but do it early. Give them the maximum amount of time to refresh and rebuild without any baggage. If it's not Smith get Rob Edwards, Darren Moore, Mickey Mouse and the rest interviewed within a week.

[Sir Shep]

2 wins deano, we need 2 wins son, that means you chose the right side and don't fanny about with players on reputation and pick on form (ha!) Keep us up and we will likely get Potter in,send us down and you will likely join the ranks of Taylor, and er Rogers, no pressure but at least show some balls and go get those points. 

[Chelmofox]

14 minutes ago, Sir Shep said:

2 wins deano, we need 2 wins son, that means you chose the right side and don't fanny about with players on reputation and pick on form (ha!) Keep us up and we will likely get Potter in,send us down and you will likely join the ranks of Taylor, and er Rogers, no pressure but at least show some balls and go get those points. 

Can we bin all the Potter talk! Rest i agree with.