Aston Villa v Southampton Post Match Thread

[Bad English]

An unlucky loss would be acceptable. However, we were fucking battered to death. At one point they flashed up that Southampton had run 5km more than us. At home. We are in the shit.

[KRS]

We’ve gone from plucky losers to deserved losers in a short space of time. It was looking like we could hold our own in this league and be safe this season, but the very same new players are now looking bang average/poor signings, and we are genuine relegation fodder as it stands. Unfortunately it’s looking like the signings weren’t good enough and the end result is we simply have too many poor players all over pitch...and I hate to say it, but it’s looking increasingly like DS doesn’t know how to change or fix it.

[Fin Feds Dad]

I can take losing when beaten by better sides.

What I can’t take is being outworked and outbattled.

Woeful all over the pitch - and from the sidelines.

We are bang in trouble

[mallo]

I’ve seen this too many times - we’re broken. No movement, desire - all of the plughole circling Villa. Do we get a gilet part timer, a french never could timer or roger the sausage to stop the rot? For me - belief is the key - certainty that killing yourself will get results - it’s a big one. I didn’t see any belief at all. The next question is - stay in the premiership at all costs or go down and be interesting - seems the laws might make it a very precarious place for us to be. I’ll say it - we are the perfect storm of a yo-yo club at the moment. 6 from the next 6 would be great but I think we’ll fall short with this crew.

[pooligan]

As the weeks and games go by it sadly appears that Smith and his assistants are out of their depth at this level.Game after game we make the same mistakes and they carry on changing nothing .We have now conceded 9 headed goals in the Premier the highest by any side We have also conceded 8 goals from corners also the most by any Premier side.Despite this we still see no defenders on the sticks .I would bet we probably have conceded the most goals in the first five minutes of the second half as well. Not sure if this is true but have read somewhere we are the only Premier side not to score a headed goal .All very depressing and to be honest Smith seems to be very  stubborn i can not see it changing

[Des Little]

Game over with 40 minutes left to play made for an exceptionally bad day at the office. The teams failings seem to have been well covered here but I just want to add that Anwar El Ghazi’s showing today was as bad as anything I’ve seen from a Villa player in years. A pox on his useless fcuking house.

Keep the faith.

[Nastylee]

Lazy, disinterested and fucked. 

[ROBBO]

The crowd started to turn for the first time today, it would be a pity if he ended his time at villa by having supporters openly calling for his sacking.

[danno]

Game over with 40 minutes left to play made for an exceptionally bad day at the office. The teams failings seem to have been well covered here but I just want to add that Anwar El Ghazi’s showing today was as bad as anything I’ve seen from a Villa player in years. A pox on his useless fcuking house.

Keep the faith.

Yes. He really was dreadful. At least two of the goals we shipped came from Guilbert getting no protection from him at all.

[danno]

The only (only!) crumb of comfort I got from today was that Southampton themselves looked dead and buried a few weeks ago when they lost 8-0 to Leicester. Just shows how quickly things can turnaround.

[OzVilla]

They’ve shown they’ve got players with a bit of heart though and, most importantly, a goal scorer.

We, on the other hand, fold like a cheap tent and have a forward line with all the cutting edge of a wet hanky.

[Goldie.7]

The only (only!) crumb of comfort I got from today was that Southampton themselves looked dead and buried a few weeks ago when they lost 8-0 0-9 to Leicester. Just shows how quickly things can turnaround.

That happened almost 2 months ago. Since then we've played 9 league games and won once, they've won 3. When exactly will our "turnaround" start to actually happen?

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

F-cking livid about yesterday's game. Our 433 has been well and truly found out. We have 2 attacking full backs who want to bomb forward almost at the same time without anybody covering them (ridiculous really when the ball can only be either on one side or the other). The result is that when the ball inevitably breaks down we are suspect to the quick breakaway with 2 slow centre backs covering 4 defensive positions. If they are to continue playing that way without cover, then we need to play with 3 cbs!
What role was Luiz playing yesterday especially after McGinn went off? He was not in the game at all along with El Ghazi making our right side ineffective. I expected both of these players to be subbed at half time, yet one of them someone made it to the end of the game.
With the best will in the world Wesley is not a target man! Their defenders who started off nervously visibly grew in confidence because they had nothing to contend with.
Why after Kodj and Trez came on did Jack continue to play on the left and Luiz drop back to play alongside Nakamba as 2 dcms leaving a huge gap between defence and attack?
I like Dean Smith but after yesterday he needs to pull his f-cking finger out! That performance was a f-cking shambles from start to finish!

[lukey27]

Yeah that was pretty much as I saw it. The full-backs go bombing on, drifting inside and when we lose the ball it's two defenders to cover those four positions. Add to this, no positional help the other way from the wide players, means that we are so open and easy to create chances against.

The players go chasing the ball and there is so much naivety at the moment.

I had huge doubts about our coaching setup after the Albion game last year and everyone responded. What has Neil Cutler done for example to justify such a prominent coaching role.

Football is an unforgiving game and moves on so quickly, they need to find an answer otherwise there will be changes.

[mr underhill]

as shambolic as anything from the ignominy of 2015/16. Big week or so ahead for the owners .