Brighton 0-0 Aston Villa post match thread

[Bad English]

A good point; shit viewing, apart from our keeper.

[AV82EC]

On reflection I now know how Burnley felt after they left Villa Park earlier in the season.

[Baldy]

On numerous occasions our forward press was pathetic.

Grealish, Traore, Watkins and Barkley got in a position to press Brighton's defenders but apart from Watkins never actually put a challenge in. Too many token gestures and not enough fight.

As a result, one or two simple Brighton passes and our top four was bypassed and our midfield exposed. Contrast that to the Brighton forwards, they were at our heels all match and worked ten times harder.

Our forwards backtracking also leaves a lot to be desired.

No wonder it was a 'backs to the wall' performance and we have our defenders and keeper to thank for a lucky point. 

[RamboandBruno]

On numerous occasions our forward press was pathetic.

Grealish, Traore, Watkins and Barkley got in a position to press Brighton's defenders but apart from Watkins never actually put a challenge in. Too many token gestures and not enough fight.

As a result, one or two simple Brighton passes and our top four was bypassed and our midfield exposed. Contrast that to the Brighton forwards, they were at our heels all match and worked ten times harder.

Our forwards backtracking also leaves a lot to be desired.

No wonder it was a 'backs to the wall' performance and we have our defenders and keeper to thank for a lucky point. 

This is a good point. Watkins as always ran his socks of, but the other 3 were lacklustre, even in the first half, the amount of times Grealish was walking around and Barclay and Traore but real lame efforts in to challenge for the ball, was very frustrating.
I don’t think Smith will make wholesale changes to the team for the Leicester game, and I don’t think we have the squad to make 3 or 4 changes, especially against one of the best teams in the league.
Saying that, Trez whilst not having a lot of quality just did the basics like run around and put the Brighton defence and midfield under a bit of pressure and Sanson did the same. They have to both come in for me for Traore and Barclay, for next week at least.

[Ads]

Better to sleep on it than comment in the moment, as I find watching it on the TV so much more frustrating than being at the game.

Positives

Back 5 solid. Brighton never really looked like scoring beyond the MacAllister header. Martinez made some good stops, but nothing a top 3 keeper shouldn't be making.

Mings was a constant organising presence and played well.

Sansom looked bright when he came on. Good touch and energy, thought he got really hacked down by a very physical and snide opposition. He'd be starting for me against Leicester.

Negatives

Position of the midfield. I've started with this as there are a few interlinked issues, but the first is Luiz and McGinn are way too deep. There's huge gaps to transition out wide and to Watkins, it causes us to go long and we are not a big side.

Ball retention, that's linked to the above, but last night was just wow. I thought Luiz summed it up late on by knocking a ball out of play under no pressure, 10 yards from Targett. But then Konsa booted a free kick straight to them.

McGinn was perhaps the most guilty; 3 clearances in a matter of minutes straight to them. Barkely was atrocious and seemed to forget the colours we play in.

Isolating Jack. Teams are going to try and stop us and we need to say OK, double up with your clogging wing backs, we're going to push Jack into a false 9 and let him float. You chase him round the pitch and let McGinn pull wider to cover space.

The lack of ball retention and deep midfield saw us denied any territory and the full backs suffered by not getting forward, negating one of our outlets.

Cash being injured is a huge blow as my God, Elmo is nowhere near Premier League level, never mind top 8.

A wretched performance, the worst of the season, but we got a point. If you're not going to win, don't lose. We were fortunate to play such a poor side, as quite frankly Brighton are utterly woeful in the final 3rd, otherwise we'd be hammered by anybody half way decent last night.

I would go back to the drawing board slightly against Leicester and tweak that midfield. McGinn and Barkely should 100% not start. Dougie did enough off the ball to retain his place and he has a week to recalibrate his radar.

Leicester looked very poor at full back yesterday, the right back in particular. Sansom and Ramsey to come in as 8s in front of Dougie sitting to actually press and put some time into them. Think Leicester will go with a diamond and with Jack floating more inside, I think we ought to be more competitive.

[Allan C]

Really awful performance, one of the worst in ages with the exception of the keeper. What is pleasing though is the habit of playing like that and not losing. Going the right way still and we’ll keep improving

[kippaxvilla2]

I’m sorry to say it but we haven’t been as good since Barkley was bought straight back into the team.  But what we also seem incapable of working out is that when Jack is marked by two players it should create space for the likes of Barkley and McGinn.  However we are still lumping it to Jack in the hope something will happen.

I also think Nakamba is very unlucky.  It does seem some players are undroppable.

[Ian.]

Really awful performance, one of the worst in ages with the exception of the keeper. What is pleasing though is the habit of playing like that and not losing. Going the right way still and we’ll keep improving

You can include Mings, Konsa, Targett and Cash with Martinez. We have to take some of the positives.

[aj2k77]

We've been poor for 5 games by and large but still taken 7 points, which is a positive. Ads pointed out about the long ball, their centre backs won 11 headers against Watkins 4. Our centre backs won 2 headers and their forwards 0. 15 ariel duels in their final third compared to 2 in ours. We should not be playing the high ball 7 times more often than Brighton with a smaller side. Very poor.

[Risso]

Thw two worst performances of the season have come in the last three games. If we don't improve against Leicester they'll bury us. I don't think Vardy will fail to score if we give up 20 odd chances to them.

[nick harper]

Isolating Jack. Teams are going to try and stop us and we need to say OK, double up with your clogging wing backs, we're going to push Jack into a false 9 and let him float. You chase him round the pitch and let McGinn pull wider to cover space.

This is where Smith really frustrates me. It was clear after an hour that it was not working and we needed to make a change. We were more likely to lose the game than win it and better sides make changes to influence the game.

Any change to get Jack more central and closer to Watkins would have made us more of a threat and helped us keep the ball better.

[Mister E]

Better to sleep on it than comment in the moment, as I find watching it on the TV so much more frustrating than being at the game.

.... we ought to be more competitive.

I too decided not to comment on here last night.
I pretty much agree with everything you've said (apart from the spelling of Sanson). I particularly thought that the whole defensive set-up was too deep - Luiz and McGinn needed to come forward 10-12 meters. Furthermore, JG needs to offer a moving target for opponents: if they are doubling up on him on the left, take a more floating role and push the starting no.10 wider to maintain the width.

I thought we'd draw before the match, so I'm okay with the result; but it was a painful viewing.

[robbo1874]

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.

only saw half of this match, but pretty much agree on what you’ve said

[robbo1874]

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.

completely agree with that Andyh- that looked nailed on to go in. Goalmouth flurry and you’re thinking ‘oh fk’ but he kept it out with his knee I think. Any other keeper and we’d have lost, maybe 2 or 3 nil from what I saw.

[AV82EC]

Agree with everything Ads said. The root of all our problems lies in that midfield, the shape and balance isn’t right and it’s easily nullified. The management brains trust needs to work it out. That said the levels of effort from Grealish, Barkley and Traore were woeful.