Dean Smith New Interim Manager - Official

[Mickyblueeyes]

19 minutes ago, filbertway said:

We played a back 8 and Newcastle hit the woodwork 3 times and missed some very good chances. People confusing luck with a good performance I think.

 

This is why I hate seeing these tactics rewarded. Some weird people absolutely love rubbing one out over a team actively not playing football.

This. We survived yesterday, nothing else. Wilson missed a sitter after Iverson dropped. Isak had two really decent chances. That ****wit Faes nearly headed into his own. We had one shot. We didn’t “play” anything. 
 

Smith pretending like he had a game plan is ridiculous. What was the game plan Deano ? stand in front of the goal, lie cheat and steal and get some luck. It just wasn’t a performance and quite sad to watch it given where we were just 18 months ago. 
 

BUT when you hire Dean Smith, you are hiring him to shithouse you out of trouble. If he does that, thanks - no way he should even be on the list. When he tried to manage we went gung-ho and decided to play basketball. If he gets a win against West Ham and it keeps us up, that should not change things. 
 

the most laughable comment from him to date is complaining about playing last due to the Monday kick offs.  we went first against Fulham, what about that one ?
 

My problem is, this board are very easily impressed and do like to take the easier option.  If he becomes the boss, we’ll be looking again in a year (I would say six months but Top being Top will be crying into his pillow wondering what to do). 

[An Sionnach]

Never known a time, at least not recently , when we have played well but lost to a better team and people on here have been happy. Its always somebody's fault. People on here will rarely accept any sort of defeat. They have seriously overestimated our capabilities , we ain't that good you know , if Pep was in the dugout , we wouldn't do much better.

[StanSP]

1 hour ago, Bert said:

Or not missing a penalty kick to kill a game off which would’ve seen us be in pole position to stay up. But the amount of points we’ve thrown away this season is laughable and you’re right. Just off the top of my head: 

 

Brentford 2-2 

Villa 1-2 

Everton 2-2 

Brighton 2-2

Palace 1-2

Bournemouth 2-1 

Southampton 1-2 

 

 

We were leading 1-0 and drawing 2-2 against Brighton as well when they spanked us 5-2.

 

Same for the Spurs 6-2 game.

 

The Faes OG debacle vs Liverpool too. 

 

 

That Liverpool one rankles with me so much. 

[HankMarvin]

The Arsenal home defeat was pretty defensive in Feb, just one shot all game. It just wasn't 8 men In defence.

[Lambert09]

19 minutes ago, Mickyblueeyes said:

This. We survived yesterday, nothing else. Wilson missed a sitter after Iverson dropped. Isak had two really decent chances. That ****wit Faes nearly headed into his own. We had one shot. We didn’t “play” anything. 
 

Smith pretending like he had a game plan is ridiculous. What was the game plan Deano ? stand in front of the goal, lie cheat and steal and get some luck. It just wasn’t a performance and quite sad to watch it given where we were just 18 months ago. 
 

BUT when you hire Dean Smith, you are hiring him to shithouse you out of trouble. If he does that, thanks - no way he should even be on the list. When he tried to manage we went gung-ho and decided to play basketball. If he gets a win against West Ham and it keeps us up, that should not change things. 
 

the most laughable comment from him to date is complaining about playing last due to the Monday kick offs.  we went first against Fulham, what about that one ?
 

My problem is, this board are very easily impressed and do like to take the easier option.  If he becomes the boss, we’ll be looking again in a year (I would say six months but Top being Top will be crying into his pillow wondering what to do). 

I thought the game plan was very obvious. Defend for your lives, actually keep us in the game until the 60th minute then attempt to steal something. It almost came off. 

 

I understand the frustration, it was a painful  watch. But I think he actually might have got yesterday right. We wouldn’t have won a basketball game with them. We showed against liverpool that if we try to win we get undone too easily.  He adapted and realised that our best bet was being hard to beat and trusting our goal scorers to try and sneak something. I didn’t like it, but it almost came off perfectly. 

 

If castagne scored that, people would be lauding him for it. I think you have to put your hands up and accept that newcastle are a completely different level to us and we simply wouldn’t have won if we’d really pushed from the start. 

Edited 23 May 2023 by Lambert09

[Fox92]

35 minutes ago, Les-TA-Jon said:

Virtually any game vs the Big 6/7. 

 

Any of the most not lose games vs relegation rivals (that we did lose in the end...)

 

Any of the countless games in which we dropped stupid points. 

 

I'm not saying a carbon copy of last night - but setting us up to defend more solidly, have some grit and fight and to actually scrap for points. 

 

I'd argue last night is the only point of the entire season that was an 'ugly' point. All the rest of our points come from wins when we clicked/opposition had an off day, or in draws in which we dropped points. 

We're not good at defending though, which is my issue. We did play like that under Rodgers at home to Manchester City, and if it wasn't for a World Class KDB free kick we would have taken an "ugly" point.

 

I just feel like yesterday wasn't a case of us restricting them, it was more on how Newcastle didn't score. I mean, they hit the post three times. Though I do agree it is an "ugly" point.

 

The Leeds A and Everton H games were the big ones at this late stage. We needed more than 2 points from those.

[Babylon]

On 14/04/2023 at 18:18, filbertway said:

Babylon's opinion is basically the opposite of anybody elses unless there's conclusive proof. 

 

He asked me to prove my claims that we didn't have a specialist set piece coach last season. The fact that there was no evidence that one existed wasn't enough for him. I think I needed a signed note by Whelan and Rudkin stating "we have not hired a specialist set piece coach"

 

Weirdly, after announcing we had hired a set piece coach, if you look on the website now, it says we have a set piece coach  

 

 

The manager literally said we had brought one in, he didn’t say it was a permanent position. In fact, as I said at the time his wording made it sound more like consultant,  ie. Short term. 
 

The managers comments were the “proof” one existed, and that’s far more than you had wasn’t it. 

[Babylon]

On 14/04/2023 at 18:10, David Hankey said:

You obviously haven't read ALL of my posting so it's, perhaps, you who hasn't got a clue. 

 

The irony of this specialist position is that of all the great goalkeepers employed by Leicester City over the years we have to rely on a third rate ex-keeper to coach and assist the current ones.

 

Please don't try and browbeat me over this as you have your opinion and I have mine of which I am entitled to.

We didn’t HAVE to rely on him, some of the most successful managers Leicester City have ever employed saw it fit to keep him in that position. But no, I’m sure you winning the premier league with Walsall on football manager or something else equally as meaningless means you are far more qualified to comment on him.

 

Being a good player doesn’t make you a good coach, some of the most successful managers did NOTHING in football prior.

[Ric Flair]

On 23/05/2023 at 13:58, filbertway said:

We played a back 8 and Newcastle hit the woodwork 3 times and missed some very good chances. People confusing luck with a good performance I think.

 

This is why I hate seeing these tactics rewarded. Some weird people absolutely love rubbing one out over a team actively not playing football.

No team in a relegation battle is going to Newcastle and attacking them and getting a result, especially not us. In fact there's not a team in this division currently that if we played them home or away and tried to play football that we wouldn't concede at least once and be very lucky not to concede many more. At the same time the goals we score tend to come when chasing thr game and often when the game is already done.

 

Whether Mondays performance was tactical or not, you're living in a dream world if you think we can get results against the likes of Newcastle any other way. Luck is all we can hope for, we've had precious little of it, you by being brainless in our tactics. Many clubs around us, Forest being the biggest benefactors have shit housed some glorious results of late, usually courtesy of scuffers, deflections and the like.

 

Rewarding or not rewarding such football purely comes down to whether it pays off or not. If we were 3 nil down at half time then it's an abomination, but in the same vain are you willing to reward us if we play an attacking style of football, go 3 nil down to 3 chances and miss a bunch ourselves? 

 

This club has imploded, it's incapable of playing proper football and not leaving huge pockets of space for teams to comfortably get 3 points against. Our only hope vs West Ham is a culmination of them not wanting to be there with bigger adventures awaiting them against Fiorentina and us digging in and scrapping for everything. Get a goal to the good and I'd not be surprised to see West Ham want to let the game pass them by as long as there's no damage done to them. It won't be a pretty watch.

 

But we're far from pretty anymore, the club is a disgrace.

 

 

[filbertway]

49 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

No team in a relegation battle is going to Newcastle and attacking them and getting a result, especially not us. In fact there's not a team in this division currently that if we played them home or away and tried to play football that we wouldn't concede at least once and be very lucky not to concede many more. At the same time the goals we score tend to come when chasing thr game and often when the game is already done.

 

Whether Mondays performance was tactical or not, you're living in a dream world if you think we can get results against the likes of Newcastle any other way. Luck is all we can hope for, we've had precious little of it, you by being brainless in our tactics. Many clubs around us, Forest being the biggest benefactors have shit housed some glorious results of late, usually courtesy of scuffers, deflections and the like.

 

Rewarding or not rewarding such football purely comes down to whether it pays off or not. If we were 3 nil down at half time then it's an abomination, but in the same vain are you willing to reward us if we play an attacking style of football, go 3 nil down to 3 chances and miss a bunch ourselves? 

 

This club has imploded, it's incapable of playing proper football and not leaving huge pockets of space for teams to comfortably get 3 points against. Our only hope vs West Ham is a culmination of them not wanting to be there with bigger adventures awaiting them against Fiorentina and us digging in and scrapping for everything. Get a goal to the good and I'd not be surprised to see West Ham want to let the game pass them by as long as there's no damage done to them. It won't be a pretty watch.

 

But we're far from pretty anymore, the club is a disgrace.

 

 

Which is why I'm completely resigned to an accepted relegation. If were in a position where everyone feels we have to play that way, were not good enough for this level.

 

I stand by it though. Im not saying I need Bielsa style football, but I want to at least see some bravery when we do turn the ball over instead of just kicking at back to the opposition to go again.

 

Another day we leave St James park with less attacks then they've scored goals.

 

Im past disappointment and anger, I just find the position were in laughable at this point. Its quite a feat to have us here within 2 seasons of being genuine too 4 challengers

 

[ian__marshall]

If Smith and Co. were to stay I wouldn't be overly disappointed. Yes, I've disagreed with some of his decisions at times, e.g. the absence of Mendy being one of them, but lets be honest I can't imagine for one second that if he were to stay he'd be looking at this team and thinking I'm pretty happy with this lot, no need to change a thing. 

 

It's clear as day we're not physically fit enough to complete 90 minutes of football let alone play a high energy pressing game. That in itself would make a huge difference to this team, even with all of the out of contract players gone. 

 

Our current defence is built on sand. We lack a leader who can organise the backline in play, and very few of our so called defenders are actually any good at the basics of defending as Rodgers ideology of a good defender was someone comfortable playing sideways football irrespective of their ability to defend. Again, it's pretty easy to fix with the right recruitment, I.e. another solid CB to partner Souttar, and a couple of out and out FBs, not WBs. 

 

In terms of midfield I think had we had a water carrier we'd have dug ourselves out of the this mess under Smith. In fact, I would go as far as to say that should he stay on I thoroughly expect this type of player to be one of his first signings.

 

Ultimately I think it's a bit unfair to judge Smith on the 8 games he's had in charge. As mentioned he has made mistakes, no doubt, but what's he supposed to do when he hasn't been given enough time to improve the fitness of the squad, nor be able to bring in new players to address the imbalances within the squad especially given the contractual situation with certain key players. 

 

I just think if we stay up, with a pre-season to address the mess he'll have us as a lower mid table team. If we go down I think he'll have us competing to go back up. 

 

Admittedly in the ideal world he wouldn't be my first choice, but for the reasons stated above I think he could do a job and in reality there's far worse options out there. 

 

Edited 24 May 2023 by ian__marshall

[Tom12345]

On 20/05/2023 at 19:40, Corky said:

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

It may just be Faes?

[lifted*fox]

On 23/05/2023 at 14:31, An Sionnach said:

Never known a time, at least not recently , when we have played well but lost to a better team and people on here have been happy. Its always somebody's fault. People on here will rarely accept any sort of defeat. They have seriously overestimated our capabilities , we ain't that good you know , if Pep was in the dugout , we wouldn't do much better.

 

I've been saying this for ages. People think this squad with the right manager is top 6 challenging material and I honestly ascend to the heavens whenever I read it because I die inside so much. This squad is riddled with hot dog poo players, players that are past it, players that don't care, etc. Rodgers had his faults but so, so much of the blame lies with the players themselves and the people who've somehow allowed the squad to get this plop. 

[SafewayFox]

On 23/05/2023 at 14:06, sacreblueits442 said:

...unless they have had assurances from Potter, then they need to keep on looking!!!

That would imply the board are actually good at their job but shown very little signs of that recently mate.

[FoxyLeon]

Showing more fight on the touchline than our players have on the pitch for a long time. 

[HankMarvin]

1 hour ago, FoxyLeon said:

Showing more fight on the touchline than our players have on the pitch for a long time. 

Shame such pathetic results against Fulham Leeds’s and Everton 

[Tuna]

Thanks for the effort

[fox_up_north]

Can't put any blame on him really. 8 games to do the impossible. He's not at fault for Maddison's horrific penalty or for Kelechi's injury at Leeds. 

[Danizen]

4 minutes ago, HankMarvin said:

Shame such pathetic results against Fulham Leeds’s and Everton 

We can't blame Smith. He did wjat he could and the extra 2-3 games he should have had in charge probably would have got us over the line.

 

Rodgers spent the last 18 months ik self preservation mode. The rot had set in deep.

 

Top had chance after chance to put it right and he just ignored it.

 

We could see back in October that keeping Rodgers because of his compensation package was a false economy. 

[HankMarvin]

Arguably lucky to get four points from final 2 games. 
Too little to late, let’s get a new manager with new ideas and new hungry players 

[Bryn]

Not his fault but wouldn't have wanted him to stay whatever the outcome. Thanks and goodbye.

[KFS]

**** him off. Useless

[Eskay]

You could hear him screaming at the players to get stuck in. Its a real problem that the players just don't have the intensity. 

[Mark]

We don’t seem capable of thinking outside the box with managers so he'll probably end up staying. 

[HankMarvin]

2 minutes ago, Danizen said:

We can't blame Smith. He did wjat he could and the extra 2-3 games he should have had in charge probably would have got us over the line.

 

Rodgers spent the last 18 months ik self preservation mode. The rot had set in deep.

 

Top had chance after chance to put it right and he just ignored it.

 

We could see back in October that keeping Rodgers because of his compensation package was a false economy. 

2 wins from 8 

he was given a job to keep us up.

mission failed.

Regardless of what went on before him, when he got the job we wasn’t relegation favourites given the “easiest run in” 

Edited 28 May 2023 by HankMarvin