We did when we had Buendia and Cantwell. I don’t remember any nice football in Farkes first 10 games this season.
Sorry, but I totally disagree. IMO, Smith could never in a million years have done what Farke did in 18/19 and repeated in 20/21 - his pragmatism is essentially a lack of vision. And in the close season we will build a team around his style of playing - or absence of style - when we go down. I'll be very surprised if this time next season we are anywhere above mid-table in the Championship.
The highlight of the day for me - Jonathan Rowe. He's had a few opportunities in recent weeks, and I like what I see from him We will ultimately get what we deserve - relegation, sometime before the start of May
What is doubly frustrating is that other games have gone well for us today. Burnley thrashed at home, Leeds losing. If we had won that game, we would have been right back in the mix. And I'm sorry if I'm negative about Smith, but I really think he is mediocre, and I wish Villa had sacked him a few weeks later so that we didn't employ him.
Agreed, I was pleased with the appointment but if we all cast our minds back it was very strange to sack Farke just after he’d won a match and as we were entering a string of easier fixtures. Smith then got a couple of results but it’s very difficult to identify now, looking back, what the real difference was. Style wise, I see the exact some defensive vulnerabilities and yet much more static, predictable and slow going forward. We actually appear to be worse as a team to me.
Your last sentence is definitely true - the Farke games this season were just as dire as today's monstrosity. I think that was because Farke was trying to do something he didn't really believe in - we saw in the two promotions that he had a real vision of how he wanted his side to play and he never really bought into the idea that this wouldn't work in the Prem. He was very talented, but he could only set up his teams one way, so when he moved away from his vision, the result was a mess - neither fish nor fowl. But I don't see how Smith's teams are looking any better; they're just as clueless, only uglier.
Well we did have 15 shots, 7 of which were on target plus Rashica's excellent goal disallowed by a hairline VAR decision, so yes, we did play some decent stuff. By comparison, Brentford had 10 shots, 6 of which were on target (2 being the penalties). It was the defence that let us down today. Overall, I do think we've been better defensively under Smith both in open play and against set pieces where we've returned to man to man marking. I'll reserve judgement on Smith until he can get the players he needs for his style of play.
The main difference is that we now face a campaign without a manager who has twice ripped that league to shreds. To me it's looking like a mistake. Not Smith's fault, he has done his best. We just shot ourselves in the foot.
See I actually disagree with the idea Farke’s performances were atrocious. We had a brutal blow in losing pre-season, followed by having to play Liverpool and Man City. We followed that up with one of the best performances we saw from Farke’s Norwich in smashing Bournemouth 6-0. We then suffered a cruel blow against Leicester when we really should have scored the equaliser, but for some reason Cantwell was ruled interfering offside despite not even blocking the keeper’s sight line and nowhere near the ball. We played quite nicely against Everton and should really have nicked a draw, but got stung as we attacked and the result was comfortable. The Watford match was of course appalling, but there were three debutants as we had only just managed to finish Summer transfer business. We followed it up with a gritty performance against Arsenal, but not bad. We then ground out some ugly draws against ugly teams, before the horror show against Chelsea which, frankly, was just so unlucky. The Leeds match of course came at the wrong time after that, before Farke ended on a high with an excellent win at Brentford. So all in all it was just two truly bad performances with bad results - Leeds and Watford. The other spankings were actually expected, and not really any worse than we have experienced under Smith.
So many Delia out fans at the game today. Infuriates me. We would be nothing without her. Why is this Delia's fault?
Smith isn't the issue. Our squad is poor. Webber stuffed us. I said it elsewhere, but Webber spunked our budget on Sargent and Tzolis! Brentford had Ajer playing defence today. We could have got him for £13m, but instead dribbled near £20m on Sargent and Tzolis, and £16m on Gibson and Giannoulis. What we REALLY needed was a powerhouse centre mid, with presence, who could win the battle in the middle, a CB (not Gibson) and a striker. What we got was a stick thin chap from France and the smallest centre mid in the world lol. Normann is ok, but he cant do it all alone. Rashica is the only permanent signing who is any good. Of our squad few are PL quality. GK- Krul (maybe Gunn) Def- Williams, maybe Aarons, Byram and imo Hanley (although he has made some mistakes). Mid- Rashica, Normann, (maybe Sørensen, though the short time he played mid, he was poor) Fwd- Pukki (and Idah looks promising). That's 9 from our whole squad and a couple are only just! All the others are top Championship at best. Farke is not to blame. Smith is not to blame. Webber messed up. He got lucky with Pukki and Buendia. He got lucky that Aarons and Lewis graduated from the academy. Many of his signings have been awful. Yes, money is hard to come by, but we spent near £40m on nothing this year. Tzolis £11m, doesn't play. Sargent £8m+, dreadful in possession. Giannoulis £8m, doesn't play. Gibson £8m, not good enough.
Twice nailed the Championship but both times failed to turn us into a competitive PL outfit. If Farke got us a 3rd Champ promotion would anyone really expect our PL prospects to be any different?
I admire Farke and Webber's vision of Farkeball, which is essentially based on playing like ManCity or Liverpool, playing out from the back with slick passing and exploiting opposition weaknesses to score goals. The problem is that we need the level of players that those elite teams have to make it work. As one pundit said, we're the ManCity of the Championship, but the, well, Norwich City of the PL. We can't afford those players as a self-funding club. Webber tries to make up for that by developing young players who can become PL level players. He's succeeded in that, but by the time they learn from their mistakes they move on to PL teams who develop them further. This will be the case with Idah and Omobamidele as well and now Rowe has made the step up as well. The money from their sales will continue to keep us going as a yo-yo team, but it's not enough to make us a PL team. Webber's recruits have been hit and miss. Pukki, Buendia and Krul have been successes and Rashica is now looking to be that calibre as well, but there are many misses as well. I'm reserving judgement on young players like Dowell, Sargent, Tzolis and Placheta who will probably do well in the Championship and may yet develop into PL players. We'll likely lose Normann and Kabak once we're relegated and others may leave as well, but we do have the makings of a decent Championship team and have a management team to make it work, given a few new additions. We have to hope so anyway.
