Regarding the question still remaining, I agree it remains to be seen whether the current progress will be sustained with Smith. However, I completely disagree that Farke would get us promoted with this squad. His track record in this league is very questionable without Buendia, in the season prior to the first promotion we finished 14th and started the next season poorly until Buendia came in. We only got 1 win after Buendia arrived without him in the team in 15 attempts, drawing 8 and losing 6. I would say that is a large enough sample size to suggest it wasn't just Farke's management that lead to 2 titles, and exceptional talent we had in Buendia and his link up Pukki - which was nurtured by Farke. With the current squad I am not so sure he would achieve the title but I do believe he would achieve top 6. Farke is rightly given leeway in our thinking because of those 2 great promotions, so we obviously have a lot of happy memories to fall back on when things weren't going well. Smith unfortunately doesn't have that as he picked us up as a struggling team in the PL, now is his chance to prove whether he is the right manager for us by picking up those regular wins and building his own set of happy memories for the fans, but he needs to be given the chance to do so.
The 2017-18 squad was full of free transfers and kids you can't seriously compare that to the squad we have now where nearly every player is an international. Yes Buendia was a major factor in Farke's success but it's not very fair to attribute all the credit to one player . He's not exactly bossing the Premier league at Villa , or perhaps it's Gerrard's fault ? Farke had to sell his best player Maddison to balance the books and with a fraction of the money Webber bought an entire squad of German 2nd division misfits for next to nothing as well as throwing in academy boys . He managed to get promoted with one of the weakest squads . We are currently the Man City of the Championship and I'm pretty sure every other manager would swap squads with ours . Smith is expected to get promoted with this embarrassment of riches ,both of Farke's titles were against all odds with very average players.
So how come we were so abysmal in the EPL with Emi in the lineup? Emi was great for us but DF set the team up to play his way. He is hardly pulling up trees at Villa as his managers are not getting the best from him.
Farke's first game as a professional first team coach 1-1 away against Fulham. Oliviera was upset he didn't start so when he came on to grab an equaliser he ran over to Farke ripped off his shirt and screamed at him for leaving him out . This probably shaped Farke's attitude towards players that think they are bigger than the team and the boss .
Farke's signings cost virtually nothing compared to the 22/23 squad . Especially as we sold Maddison, Howson and Pritchard. .
Buendia cost £1.5m and we signed Krul and Pukki on free transfers in the summer of 2018 . Both Murphys were sold for a combined £23 m. Looking back Farke was an absolute miracle worker taking a terrible side with huge financial problems after Neil ,(Naismith) selling his best players and rebuilding with bargain basement German 2nd division nobody's and academy kids . It's like comparing apples and oranges to Smith's task .
Have we improved this season? Granted, the results are better, but that seems more a reflection of the teams we are playing against compared with last season. It's possible that we'll up our game when we meet Sheff Utd, Burnley, Watford etc. It's also possible that reality will kick in at that point.
The record without Buendia speaks for itself, he was central to the way Farke set the team up to his benefit and detriment. You're argument for Buendia's record at Villa is a fair one, Gerrard doesn't seem to favour him so he sites no the bench but the Villa fanbase are desperate for him to play. Villa aren't exactly doing great without him though are they, perhaps if they played him they would start getting results Interestingly on SofaScore he is their highest rated player this season, but he hasn't completed a full 90mins, and scored in their only win of the season Are we now seriously suggesting that Buendia wasn't a crucial player for us? The guy that got 15 goals and 15 assists last time we were in the championship - who in the current squad will put up those kinds of numbers and contribute to the level that he did? There is no argument that this team cost more, that doesn't necessarily make it better. I would agree the squad depth is far better but we will have to see about the starting 11. Just because a squad cost more it doesn't automatically make it better, by that way of thinking Hugill is a better striker than Pukki. The first promotion was against the odds, the second was not. Very average players like Krul (still here), Aarons (still here), Hanley (still here), Godfrey (£20m player), Lewis (£15m player), Mclean (still here), Skipp (PL player), Cantwell (still here), Dowell, (still here), Buendia (£38m player), Pukki (still here)? We haven't signed a single player for more than the value of the one they are replacing but have instead invested in building a deeper squad with better players able to come off the bench. Is the starting 11 therefore weaker now?
So if we bought Josh and Jacob for £11.5m each they would be an embarrassment of riches compared to those cheap very average players like Buendia, Krul and Pukki? No it was just good recruitment
No I wouldn't say we have 100% improved, but we are still getting over the hump of depression from being relegated from the PL, it takes a while to regain confidence. We are looking to dominate games and look to have improved the footballing style in my opinion, granted the last couple of games have been a grind. But it is also a good sign that we managed to battle back after falling behind. The team is starting the regain character. You are absolutely correct to point out that we haven't faced any of the likely promotion rivals as yet and that will be a true test of where we are.
That is a fair question, was Buendia so good because Farke was brilliant at extracting the most from him. Or is it that at Norwich he was treated as a big fish in a small pond, whereas now he is just treated like all the other fish - that could be down to Buendia's personality and/or Farke's management of him. This analogy will probably get laughed at but i'll attempt it anyway - if you took Messi out of Pep's Barcelona team they would be worse for it and wouldn't achieve as much as they did, that doesn't mean Pep is a bad manager but when a player is that central to a team they are obviously worse without them - that is how I view the Buendia and Farke situation, I may be wrong. Let me make it clear...Farke was brilliant for this club
Sargent hasn't been transformed by Smith. All that happened was Smith was forced to play Sargent in his natural position because of an injury to Pukki. Sargent took his chance, whilst Pukki has still failed to score. A large part of the issue with Sargent was that both Farke & Smith wanted to play him, but weren't willing to drop Pukki, so they ended up playing him in a position that wasn't best for his skill set.
I don't know what you are getting at , we sold them after they came through the academy to keep the club afloat. Farke barely had a transfer kitty let alone £23m . They were 2 of our best players at the time .
Absolutely. This was not some master-stroke on the part of Smith. Sargent was moved to his current position because it was the only option available. If it was a master-stroke, why didn't Smith do it in any of the other 30 games he was in charge of our club? He got lucky. This often happens in football: a manager finding his best line-up through desperation. Where I will credit Smith is he recognised what had happened and didn't just revert to the old format once Pukki was fit again.
Dunc if you want proof of my earlier point please see above negative comments despite results, nothing anti Farke there. What would have been attributed as good management by Farke is pure luck for Smith? Was it luck that he chose to play Sargent up top over Hugill? Arguably it was more risky as Hugill was the one most fans wanted and had done well in pre season and had already played at this level. Let’s hope it is the same kind of luck that “forced” Farke to play Pukki as a striker over Rhodes, because when he first started playing he was at number 10 or on the wing.
You’ve claimed several times that Smith has an embarrassment of riches based on transfer values. So does that mean that the Murphy’s were better players than Buendia, Krul and Pukki because they cost less
No I'm quite clearly comparing Farke's initial squad where he finished 14th with Smith's initial squad which is packed with Internationals and the most expensive in the League. You were downplaying Farke's first season finish . If you believe the squads Farke built on peanuts and forced to sell his best players , were stronger than present then we will have to disagree.
A slightly suspicious choice of three players there… The only other players who are in the first team squad true* from both PL seasons are Max Aarons (surprised you excluded), Kenny McClean and Grant Hanley. Is this entire post just meant to be a continuation of your obsessive digs at our Scottish players? Because you’ve already effectively proven yourself wildly wrong about him (though I appreciate you won’t admit it) and Kenny McClean is too often one of the first names on the team sheet to really deride, even if he is chronically maligned by certain sections of the fan base. *the others are McGovern, Idah, Cantwell and Josh Martin - I am not really sure we can say they count as part of “reliant on a core” relating to them, for obvious reasons, though Cantwell perhaps comes closest
I agree with Dunc here. It’s like we are now not allowed to criticise Smith for a team performance, just because we won. And that if we do criticise him, that must mean we are harking after Farke. That’s rubbish. Legitimate criticism is legitimate, it doesn’t matter whether we win or not. The fact is our of the four wins two have been convincing and, frankly, two have not - we got lucky in a number of ways. Given our squad, we should be doing better, both in the earlier results and performances in the wins which were not convincing. So Smith’s earned a reprieve and fairly, but we won’t be able to ride our luck all season. As for Farke, I thought the timing of the sacking was poor, but agreed it was always on the cards that we would need to move on unless he turned things around incredibly quickly from there. And once it had been done, I was one of the biggest cheerleaders for Smith coming in, I was really pleased. But it’s fair to compare him to Farke because ultimately, that is the recent standard. And Farke had us playing good football, which is important to a club like ours which realistically is never going to be competing even for the European spots in the Premier League because it’s a total fix. So Smith is going to be compared to Farke, sorry. I’m supportive of Smith (and particularly his steadfast support for his players and man management) because he’s now getting results. But I also need to see performances and enjoy watching the football. That’s not unreasonable; it’s an entertainment business.
