Brighton 0-0 Aston Villa post match thread

[paul_e]

Douglas Luiz could have had his 2 yellows for repeated fouls and thus sent off.

Don't be silly, he conceded 3 fouls, the same amount as Bissouma, McAllister and Veltman (none of whom were booked). The only other players with 3 fouls were Grealish and Watkins, 1 of whom was also booked. This is a big part of the inconsistency that pissed me off.

[PeterWithe]

For me we just lacked intensity, a result of tiredness. That should improve as we now don’t play so many games in quick succession

[Small Rodent]

Sort out your shonky wobbly-arsed controlling of the ball and passing you bunch of ******.

Then all will be beautiful again.

[Hampshire Villa]

Quite an unpleasant watch. Constantly giving the ball away. Hoofing, attempted Hollywood passes. We need to get back to our passing game.. teams have worked out Jack and out two on him. We should take advantage of that with other players stepping up. Still we got a difficult point away from home and another clean sheet..
We need to keep our feet on the ground. Have we improved over last year. ?...A very big yes. We are still early in the owners project. We probably need to keep our expectations under control.   

[robbo1874]

Only saw 2nd half. Brighton way the better team- think we created only a couple of half chances, whilst they were all over us. Defence looked pretty solid though, but a bit worrying Martinez had to make 9 saves. A couple could’ve gone in if we had a poorer GK.

I think Sanson should probably start ahead of Barkley and Trez for Traore if Cash is out. Didn’t even realise McGinn was playing until the camera focused on him late on. But then I’m watching on a phone and the players look like blurry dots most of the time!

Ah well, the recent cycle would’ve suggested a L today. So at least we broke that and came away with a point after not a very good performance.

[BC Villain]

No doubting our defensive play and resilience compared to last seasons horrors, but the Burnley game seems to have badly affected our confidence attacking wise.  Even the wins against Arsenal and Southampton were very fortunate as were largely outplayed in both.  I don't think- save for the first half against Burnley- we've played well since Boxing Day.  Bruce would have been ripped apart had tonight's performance happened on his watch.

[Legion]

No doubting our defensive play and resilience compared to last seasons horrors, but the Burnley game seems to have badly affected our confidence attacking wise.  Even the wins against Arsenal and Southampton were very fortunate as were largely outplayed in both.  I don't think- save for the first half against Burnley- we've played well since Boxing Day.  Bruce would have been ripped apart had tonight's performance happened on his watch.

Quite rightly as well, but a lot of performances like that happened in Bruce's tenure. Hardly comparable to Smith this season.

[paul_e]

Douglas Luiz could have had his 2 yellows for repeated fouls and thus sent off.

Don't be silly, he conceded 3 fouls, the same amount as Bissouma, McAllister and Veltman (none of whom were booked). The only other players with 3 fouls were Grealish and Watkins, 1 of whom was also booked. This is a big part of the inconsistency that pissed me off.

Its just how I saw it  I saw him give away fouls that were in dangerous positions and he was booked in part because of his previous fouls that to me were both caution worthy.

If you booked players for the first 2 games would regularly finish as 8 or 9 aside, 1 was him easing the player out and the one he got booked for was shoulder-to-shoulder having just watched one of their players do the same thing to Cash unpunished. If you honestly think he's lucky to not have had 2 yellow cards then I can only assume you've forgotten it's a contact sport. Oh and 3 fouls by Bissouma were all at least as bad, the one on Sanson was, in my opinion, the worst challenge in the game and the ref debated even giving us a free kick for it.

[Villafirst]

With Matty Cash likely to be out for a few games, daft to let Guilbert go out on loan!

[PaulWinch again]

Martinez 8.5 Man of The match
Cash 7
Konsa 5 5
Mings 7.5
Targett 6
Luiz 5
McGinn 5.5
Barkley 5.5
Grealish 5.5
Traore 5
Watkins 7

Subs
Elmore 6
Trezeguet 6
Sanson 6

6.5/10.Anyway put that behind us and bring on Leicester next week
 Can play and perform better
 As it was a weaker showing. One of those performances from last season though half mark extra for getting a point in a dull attacking effort

Haven't bothered to pen observations for marks on players today after having to suffer that match but Mings, excellent covering blocks and leading the defence to clean sheet. Cash solid till injury and mighty Emi wonderful keeping.  Won us the points.  Those 3 were our only decent performers tonight as was Watkins who was staved of service
Targett and Konsa showed last season form and thw other 3 had to help them out.
Any of the rest could have been subbed today without complaints including Jack who miscontrolled the ball several times ,and was booked. We had Barkley doing same. And the midfield loose on the ball but Traroe was the worst of the offenders.
Douglas Luiz could have had 2 yellows for repeated fouls and thus sent off.

Up the Villa

8.5 for Emi - what does he need to do for 9+!

[Sexual Ealing]

I hope we haven't got some stupid clause in the Barkley loan that means he has to play.

[SheffieldVillain]

With Matty Cash likely to be out for a few games, daft to let Guilbert go out on loan!

How did you expect them to predict that Matty Cash was going to be out for a few games two weeks later? It's not like we haven't any back-up. AEH is perfectly ok for a week or two if need be.

[Legion]

I hope we haven't got some stupid clause in the Barkley loan that means he has to play.

The Schmeichel factor?

[The Edge]

I think the turning point was West Ham at home. They came with a game plan to close out our midfield threat and take away the threat posed by Jack. They doubled up on him and niggled the life out of him and wore him down. Against Arsenal they didn't use such a plan as they rely on their own ability rather than concentrating on stopping their opponents but they weren't good enough on the day.So that's where we're at now. Top teams play us their own way lesser clubs like Brighton and West Ham plan to stop us and then pick us off. It's now over to our coaching staff to find ways to out manoeuvre our respective opponents.

[paul_e]

I think the turning point was West Ham at home. They came with a game plan to close out our midfield threat and take away the threat posed by Jack. They doubled up on him and niggled the life out of him and wore him down. Against Arsenal they didn't use such a plan as they rely on their own ability rather than concentrating on stopping their opponents but they weren't good enough on the day.So that's where we're at now. Top teams play us their own way lesser clubs like Brighton and West Ham plan to stop us and then pick us off. It's now over to our coaching staff to find ways to out manoeuvre our respective opponents.

This is where we need Barkley and Traore to step up. Neither of them got involved enough today when it was pretty clear that they had lined up to have 2-3 players around Jack whenever he got the ball. There should've bene planty of space but they just didn't do enough to find it.