Southampton 0-1 Aston Villa post match thread

[Allan C]

One thing I like is that even when we are not quite at our best, we always look as if we have a couple of goals in us. We didn't really get going in that first half but we could have gone in two goals up.

Yes totally agree with this.

[PeterWithe]

Playing Barkley and Bert in the same team leaves us a bit open and light defensively but the back 5 have coped with that brilliantly. We are fantastic to watch with the brave team selection and long may it continue, even if we get the occasionally weaker performance like yesterday.

[Villa Lew]

Yes we rode our luck at times, but it was good to see a Villa team hold on to a 1 nil half time lead, I haven't  said that too often in previous seasons. Well done to Mings, have been critical of him, but he was superb tonight as were Martinez, Targett, Konsa, Watkins and of course Jack.

Regarding Dean, when we were under the cosh in the last 20 minutes, why he didn't think a fresh pair of legs would help us, I simply don't know, Bert particularly comes to mind, he was contributing virtually nothing. He does seem to have a weakness, when it comes to subs, I believe he makes changes too late in games, I've noticed it's the opposition manager, who normally makes a tactical change first.

Moan over to be on 32 points at the half way point is a tremendous effort and full credit goes to Dean and the players for that.

[Monty]

The problem with making subs (though you can argue about Bert and AEG, for instance) at 1-0 is, if you concede immediately after bringing on Marvelous for McGinn (say), how do press for the win? 2-0 with 10 minutes to go would be different, and I think it will be different when Morgan's integrated, but last night I understood keeping the powder dry.

[garyellis]

The perfect away performance against a very capable team. Perhaps we need to consider that Dean wants to get a full 90 minutes or as near as into some of our players legs?
One thing in particular stood out for me in the post match analysis was both Carragher and Keane now recognise  the amount of rebuilding that had to be completed summer 2019 and overall what a great job has been done over the transfer windows to get us where we are now.

[Jon H]

Sorry if this has been asked & answered elsewhere but are yellow cards re-set now? If so then extra credit needs to go to JG & MT for maintaining their discipline with no drop-off in performance levels over the last few games.

[dave.woodhall]

Haven't we got more late goals than anyone else? That would seem to indicate that Smiffy's 'game management' works more often than not.

[cdbearsfan]

They're not "reset", but players won't be banned for accumulated bookings unless they get at least 10 by the time we have played 32 games (two match ban) or 15 by the end of the season (three match ban). McGinn's accumulated yellow cards still count towards a potential ban even though he has already served a game suspension.

[LeeB]

Haven't we got more late goals than anyone else? That would seem to indicate that Smiffy's 'game management' works more often than not.

And up until Man City I don't think we'd conceded a goal in the last 15 minutes.

[KevinGage]

The problem with making subs (though you can argue about Bert and AEG, for instance) at 1-0 is, if you concede immediately after bringing on Marvelous for McGinn (say), how do press for the win? 2-0 with 10 minutes to go would be different, and I think it will be different when Morgan's integrated, but last night I understood keeping the powder dry.

The other issue is for players coming on cold it can take them a period of time to get up to speed with the game and switch on tactically.

I'd have liked to see fresh legs come on from past the hour mark onwards. But if that was Marv and he starts giving the ball back to the opposition (as he's liable to do at times) or lets players run off him it's not much of a benefit.

As you say, with someone to come on like Sanson when he's fully integrated, that might be less of a concern.

[cdbearsfan]

https://www.soccerstats.com/table.asp?league=england&tid=j

Leicester, Liverpool, Man U, Newcastle and West Ham have scored more goals in the last ten minutes than we have. Nobody has conceded fewer.

[ChicagoLion]

It is extremely difficult to come into a game and have an impact, it’s a lot easier at half time than say 60 minutes. It can take some players 10 minutes to get their game head on. So I do understand the reluctance to use subs but it is something we need to get better at.

[brontebilly]

The problem with making subs (though you can argue about Bert and AEG, for instance) at 1-0 is, if you concede immediately after bringing on Marvelous for McGinn (say), how do press for the win? 2-0 with 10 minutes to go would be different, and I think it will be different when Morgan's integrated, but last night I understood keeping the powder dry.

The other issue is for players coming on cold it can take them a period of time to get up to speed with the game and switch on tactically.

I'd have liked to see fresh legs come on from past the hour mark onwards. But if that was Marv and he starts giving the ball back to the opposition (as he's liable to do at times) or lets players run off him it's not much of a benefit.

As you say, with someone to come on like Sanson when he's fully integrated, that might be less of a concern.

Trez for Traore was the obvious one. Nakamba for Barks and shove McGinn further forward (or take him off) another obvious change. 

Agree it wasn't the game to bring Sanson in but likes of AEG, Trez and Nakamba all should have seen decent game time.

[dave.woodhall]

I’m not sure about Traore, he seems like an icing on the cake player whereas we often need a player to help us grind out victories.

In games like last night, definitely.  But at times, especially when we have a decent chunk of possession, he looks like a massive threat, and is scoring goals.  I suspect if we'd started Trez for his higher work rate and protection for Cash we might have considered the set-up 'negative' as it's 'only Southampton'.

It is important that the first 11 don't start to believe they will start regardless of the level of performance, we want them absolutely convinced a drop-off in their levels will see a return to the bench - not sure we have that right now?

Definitely not. If Smith doesn't give the backup players minutes he will lose them eventually. No excuse for it last night. The selection against West Ham will be interesting.

You seem to be going out of your way to find excuses to moan. If he had brought subs on and we'd conceded a couple of goals, presumably you'd have been happy with his decision?

Didn't realise bringing subs on would have automatically led us to conceding a couple of goals ...
Is there any chance fresh legs might have helped us keep possession better or pressed Southampton harder in the last 20 mins?

They wouldn't have got us a better result, which is the only thing you can say for certain.

[Sexual Ealing]

Targett was never as bad as some people here were suggesting last season. Delighted for him that he's kicked on from there.