Well deserved! Personally I think Tommy has been overly criticised over the last year, which as been doubled due to the fact Chambers is playing out of position because of him.

He gives 110% every time he players, and scores a decent number of goals for a CB, I personally hope he continues at CB with Berra! COYB!

Congratulations Tommy. Excellent performance. However, for me Sears should have been in the team of the week as he was exceptional.

For balance I'd rather see a specialist right back.... Why else is Tommy Smith always being blamed when he tries so hard to cover for others and then gets the blame when he can't quite make it......

Very deserved to be defender of the week.....

Phil.... Is there anything else you can say about his perforce with hard facts to silence the haters.... Surely he didn't get in TOTW because of his goal but because of his defending?!

WHAT A SQUAD WE HAVE DEVELOPING..., WHAT A YEAR WE HAVE AHEAD

COYB

Well deserved Tommy, played well saturday

He definitely played well this week.

So it's football league team of the week now rather than championship ?? While he played well this week and got his goal I still feel we need a right footed player in that position but far more importantly a RB at RB. Chambers was horrible again in that position and got skinned regularly. Any opposition manager worth their salt will just attack him all day knowing Smith is wrong footed far too often when trying to cover. Smith will cost us more goals than he gets this season. Chambers will cost even more. RB has been an issue for 3 seasons and Smith takes the flack for it when it's not always his fault. He is however soooo one footed that he should not play RCB. Mick needs to get a natural RB before the end of the window or we will struggle against a good left winger all season long !!!
Great to see us playing with wingers. Stop taking them off Mick and defo stop playing 4 forwards when 1 goal UP in last 15 mins !!!
3 points v Burnley and we have a good start on our hands coz Preston away won't be easy Saturday.
COYB !!!

prebbs007 totally spot on with everything you say. I love both Smith and Chambers but making them play out of position like you say has been a problem for a long time now.
Im fed up of being called a hater just because i want the leak in our defence plugged. Chambers cant deal with tricky wingers and Smith is uncomfortable whenever the balls on his right foot.
Our best spell last season was when Parr played rightback with Chambers next to Berra.
Tommy may have been in the team of the week but that was purely down to the amount of clearances he made due to the fact that Sheffield Wednesday targeted that area so much.
Funny how people are happy to ignore the fact that we should have conceded 3 goals before half time after getting ripped to shreds down the right channel.
They scored one but only the post and a top top tackle from Skuse saved us on the other occasions.
This is not a hate campaign or moaning for the sake of it. Its about wanting our weakest part of the team made stronger. If you want promotion you will never do it playing half of your defence out of position.

I agree with thebeat and others defense should not have players playing out of position and not doing the job when others could i believe Clarke could do a better job so we loan him out ,we have cash to address the problem what is the matter with you Mick surly you are not that blinkered to see Chambo get skinned regularly but you look the other way i remember the phrase square pegs in round holes don't work EVER.

The thing is, most of us begged for wingers this season to play flowing attacking football... we have that... the down side of this is the defense is going to be challenged and punished more as a result. We will conceed more goals this season, im sure of it, however we will score more too. After being at the first 2 home games this year I feel its more a case of midfield and defence need to communicate and gel a little better- A key to this will be The Bish, Bru, Hyam being fit. Right now I am way under impressed with Coke- and our biggest issues surface when mick needs to rest the midfielders legs. If AMN, Frasier or Skuse got injured it would be a minor catastrophy

Prebbs007 really can't understand why MM got the job over you!!!
Perhaps the best thing for you is go support another team, Sunday league maybe more your level of knowledge.

gamezone you keep having a go at loads of people on this site for their OPINION on smith, its an OPINION they can have one, all your comments are always backing smith all the time. None of us are saying we hate smith we all love him and back him just as much as you do, people are just voicing their concerns that he has to play out of position every week which is hard on him because he also has to try and help chambo out because he dosent really want to be at RB either. Stop just reading everyone comments as haters towards smith because they are not, they like the man they just feel its unfair on him playing out of position

Dear TheBeat

I apologise for including you accidently by allowing you to feel my comment was aimed at you and others like you. Coauthor it wasn't.

I don't call those who disagree with me "haters".... It refers to those many in here who jump on the back of a players, ignore all the goals they save us, and say they are not good enough just because of one failure to cover a colleague!

That's like telling someone they don't deserve to be posting on TWTD because of missing one predictive text mistake.

I was really just asking Phil for some stats to back UP why Tomny had earned his place in TOTW because his headline and paragraph suggested it was for his "goal scoring performance" Your post is logical and thoughtful and you express your opinion well as ever and I value all opinion, much of which I'll agree with.

Tommy plays really well considering he is (1) in his wrong side and (2) covering for a colleague who is out of position (3) playing behind am increasingly attacking midfield

I personally think that if Berry is so good that He should be the one to play on the right and do all the extra covering while Tomny looks good on his natural left. Clearly Berry either refuses or isn't fast enough or good enough.

"haters " are those who just call for dropping without any attempt to content positively not think about what's actually the cause.
Hence a fuller artical justifying inclusion in TOTW would have helped on to us occasion.


That said, Phil, I read TWTD because it is great. THANK YOU

RaymondovicBlue

you say berra should play on the right, and he actually did at first, it only changed when smith was out of the team for a while then berra moved to the left side and stayed there. I dont know what changed but i personally think that berra is better with his right foot than tommy and think maybe the two should be swapped over

Thanks prebsa.

I'm not trying to pick the team.... I'm sure it is Tommy's extra pace that puts him as the "cover".... Didn't see Berra on the right. Was more a comment about those who ignore the fact Berra is in his comfortable position and Tommy does so will considering.

Is still like to see someone like George Burley playing right back.

In other news, or old Tyrone looked dejected on the AFCB bench, but flip they played their hearts out but lost to the officials

COYB

Raymondovicblue i wasnt really on about your comment to be honest. It just irks me when as a fan and someone who loves the club you make a constructive point about team selection and shape and you get called a hater and not a proper fan.
You dont have to agree with every decision the manager makes to be a "proper" fan.
I appreciate what Mick has done for the club. Those boys give everything theyve got every single game and its all down to him.
But hes also played a centre half at rightback for what will be 3 seasons now and theres no excuse for that.
This summer more than ever he should have got one in. Hes had £8million in his pocket but still refuses to buy an actual rightback. Does he not watch the games? Can he not see how many goals we concede due to Chambers and Smith not being comfortable in their positions?
I and many other fans just dont understand why he plays them both out of position costing us goals and points when all he has to do is buy a rightback. Its not rocket science.
Its not been nice on here and the likes of twitter lately among Town fans cus apparently ur a hater and not a fan if u want our weak point of the team sorted out. We only want to improve. I dont want Smith to go anywhere, he'd be great cover for Berra. Im just a little bit sick of the self appointed super fan brigade who think we should be happy with every single decision Mick makes. Thats just blind faith.

If we had played a lower table team or a newly promoted team, and Mick had started Emmanuel, i wouldve understood him being dropped for the slightly bigger game against Wednesday.

However he we didnt, we played Brentford, who finished higher than us last season. He played well, shakey start but ultimately a cracking debut.

Micks mantra is play well and youll keep your place, give me a headache for selecton etc. Now not saying that He's not gonna play for us this season again, but why not give it 2-3 gameswith the same back 4 to see how it works? If it doesnt its still early enough in the season to sort it out.

Im no expect but i can still see 'weak points', 'targeted areas', from the stands. So that means all of Micks staff can too! Like others have said, its not about hating the player, i feel sorry for them! playing out of postion and if/when something goes wrong they're the ones we hang out to dry!

Playing a balanced back 4 with players in the right positions can only benefit the players and the team!

Bit of a jumbled point with no real substance but thats my opinion........

I repeat my apology to all fans here for my careless use of the word "hater" . I hope my explanation works for those I didn't mean... And My initial comment works for those who I did!

I AGREE that we must be free to comment as we see fit and to be willing to engage in conversation.... That is the whole point of a fans forum!

And this is a darn good one!!

Thanks guys!

Sorry prebsa.... Didn't intend to down vote!!!