A big pull for a number of Aston Villa fans when it came to former Brentford gaffer Dean Smith was the style of play his former club took to the pitch with.
We saw it for ourselves the last few seasons where more often than not we were played off the park despite having supposed better players based on their names, although it’s easy enough to argue in football a name means very little if there’s no plan, effort or confidence.
Taking a gander through their social media feeds about his late switch last night, one thing did catch my eye though. Whilst some pointed out why wouldn’t he want to work with the likes of Jack Grealish and others and get his style of play over to them, others quibbled about whether or not Brentford’s style of play was down to him or their setup off the pitch.
That will be of interest as for a lot of fans the style of play we saw from Brentford was a huge pull to Smith in the first place, time will tell which standpoint is right but I think it can only be a positive – you just have to think of it in the right way.
Scenario 1 – Brentford’s style of play is 100% down to Dean Smith and the work he conducts out on the training pitch. He tells the players what he wants and they’ve adjusted to that and given him that, getting close to a few Play-Off battles in the last few seasons with that success.
Scenario 2 – Brentford’s style of play is ingrained and 100% not down to Smith and his ideas. He was just identified as a man capable of coaching to their requirements and he’s just done that, naturally putting a twang of his own flavour onto it that his bosses were happy with. That’s got them close to a few Play-Off battles in the last few seasons.
How can that be a negative from our point of view? It’s an either/or with the same outcome when it comes to style of play so I’m not seeing a difference.
It’s the kind of pointless argument you have over potato and tomato when you’re bored and drinking…or is that just me?
