Brighton 0-0 Aston Villa post match thread

[tony scott]

Good point,poor attacking performance we won a lot of possession, but constantly gave it back with either poor control ,our lack of players in free space. Brighton pressed well and Veltman did a great job man marking Jack, our response to this was disappointing, I don’t think we moved the ball to The right enough to counter act this. overall getting points from this type of performance is very positive

[olaftab]

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

Score the winner up the other end in Footy-Vill's eyes.

[olaftab]

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.

Exactly my thoughts. Was thinking of posting something similar.

[ROBBO]

I like Barkley, the player who played brilliantly in his first three or four games, that player took the pressure off Grealish and was a standout. The player i am seeing now is a shadow of that and has been for many games, DS needs to bite the bullet and play him off the bench at best.
We have made the least changes to the starting eleven that any other club and it is starting to show, the attacking drive has faded, mainly i believe because the midfield performances have dropped away forcing the attack to drop deeper. Still time to get ti right again.

[Risso]

That's two poor performances in three games now, and we seem to be slipping back into last season's bad habit of letting teams have 20+ shots a game, which we can't keep doing. This season's bad habit is following up a good performance and a win with a below average one. Disappointing after a week's training with no midweek game.

[tomd2103]

I like Barkley, the player who played brilliantly in his first three or four games, that player took the pressure off Grealish and was a standout. The player i am seeing now is a shadow of that and has been for many games, DS needs to bite the bullet and play him off the bench at best.
We have made the least changes to the starting eleven that any other club and it is starting to show, the attacking drive has faded, mainly i believe because the midfield performances have dropped away forcing the attack to drop deeper. Still time to get ti right again.

Agree.  Thought we lacked energy tonight and looked tired.  Thought the midfield three were particularly poor, lacked sharpens and gave the ball away far too many times.  Even Grealish has looked jaded the last couple of games. 

Thought we defended pretty well tonight and Martinez was excellent.  Thought the starting full-backs did OK, but Elmohamady was woeful when he came on (in the week he was a pointless answer on Pointless as well!!).

[TonyD]

The ability to adapt quickly is “massive”- with a team with decent/good players - now what’s the PL is all about. It doesn’t stand still.  It’s now week to week.

The teams with 2 good/and 2/3 very good players will be top 8.

We have 2 good players/ 2 very good players and one world class player.

[TonyD]

That's two poor performances in three games now, and we seem to be slipping back into last season's bad habit of letting teams have 20+ shots a game, which we can't keep doing. This season's bad habit is following up a good performance and a win with a below average one. Disappointing after a week's training with no midweek game.

True Risso
But Dean’s teams tend to go on winning streaks about this time of this season.

“Which would be nice”

[Brend'Watkins]

We for the most part looked like the team that played midweek in the cup and got beat in the last minute. The lack of any energy and movement was startling. A lot of sloppiness too in midfield emphasised to a point in case you might not agree by that easy unchallenged pass Luiz made on the left which went out for a throw. It’s no surprise that Brighton dominated when you have two of ours who were more of a hindrance than anything else. Traore and Barkley should both be dropped for the next game. Ramsey and Sanson to start.
Our keeper won us a point aided by some good defending. So, something positive to take from the game. Hope we can get back firing next week.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

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.   

Agree with all except the last point. When you spend the kind of money we have, you are within your right to expect more. I'm delighted Dean thinks likewise. If we'd had the same opportunities Brighton had, I'd be gutted we hadn't scored 3 or 4.

I'm putting tonight down to we're still knackered but we were piss poor.

[CT Villan]

Emi is beginning to look world-class, hope we can keep him long-term, 9/10.

Thought Targett and Mings were decent (7/10), everyone else was a poor 5/10 except Barkley who is lucky to get -5/10.

[mr underhill]

hope we aren't going to regret letting Fred out on loan.

[andyh]

I thought Emi’s save at the end from Wellbeck was astonishing.
It was right in front of Emi, low down, and he was still able to react, get down and push it round the post.
Incredible.

[PaulTheVillan]

We’ve played better and got nothing in other games. A bonus clean sheet when we deserved next to nothing.
We struggled with the basics. Lack of movement. Struggled to string passes together. We really looked off the pace. Let’s hope it was a one off. Probably one of the worst games we’ve played in 12 months

[aev]

Barkley, Grealish and Traore all had quiet games.

If a team is going to double up on Grealish you need to have your other attacking players offering something and we didn’t. This was a bit like like season, stop Grealish and you stop any threat we have.