Aston Villa - 1 Southampton - 0 Post match thread

[LeeB]

That Ings effort was shocking.

I was glad he took it on rather than run for the corner, but the execution was awful

[simboy]

What a terrible game of football. I think we’ve played two relegation contenders, Everton and Southampton, and just scraped past both. But as they say a wins a win.

Watkins my man of the match, worked hard with no support

A game summed up by the Ings effort on an empty net. One to forget.

[levico]

I’d rather watch a waste pipe on a Devon beach.

Agreed. We’re just going through the motions.

[nigel]

We won
We kept a clean sheet
We really weren’t as bad as some are making out.

If we’d played brilliantly and lost, the same people would have been moaning that we can’t win ugly.
What ever we do doesn’t seem good enough for some.

[Flamingo Lane]

Don’t worry, I’m sure it’ll be alright now Steevie has some extra time on the training pitch with his players…..

Indeed, and one thing you have to credit Gerrard for is his ability to keep players away from the distraction of international call ups.

[Legion]

I’d rather watch a waste pipe on a Devon beach.

Agreed. We’re just going through the motions.

Applauds.

[PeterWithesShin]

We were shit. Everyone is pleased we won, but it was shit. There's no point pretending otherwise, Southampton were very shit and we barely had an effort worthy of the name in the second half.

[Richard E]

It wasn’t sensational but I didn’t think it was as bad as people are making out. We were comfortably the better side. Southampton were really poor.

As for it being one of the worst top flight games ever, I can only assume people saying that never saw Wimbledon play, or Stoke under Pulis.

[rougegorge]

That was one of the poorest performances from a team I've seen in a long time, and it was just as well it was from Southampton, but I am happy we won.

A positive aspect was our defensive display, but then even that could be tempered by the ineptitude of the opposition on the night.

[maidstonevillain]

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/12699341/aston-villa-1-0-southampton-premier-league-highlights

Thought they made Villa look quite good. But they are only 2min36sec long.

[Keeno]

It's clear that Gerrard has made adjustments last few games to keep us as solid as possible - I'm happy with that because against the bottom half teams that will pick us up enough clean sheets and wins to be comfortable. We were never in any danger tonight. I want to see us control as many games as we can like that at home from now on. Mings and Konsa again really impressive. Ty won every aerial and ground duel tonight - back to his best.

What continues to be concerning however is the lack of any kind of attacking identity. I've not seen a sustained period of play at all this season where we have attacked a team in a coherent way, with a clear plan for exploiting their weaknesses and creating chances.

It seems like chance creation is purely random at the moment, relying on either a mistake by the opponent or a moment of individual quality from one of ours. That might get us to mid table, but as some of our previous managers know well, there's a ceiling on that kind of football.

I feel for Watkins, because while he worked hard again tonight off the ball, he's not being given any kind of consistent, predictable service and chances with which to actually score goals. Same with Coutinho - we're just handing him the ball, 40 yards from goal, and expecting some moment of magic to create a chance. It's not good enough, we've seen it before and it will put a limit on our progress.

Lets see how we look by the World Cup break - if there's still no identity by then, I think the board has a decision to make. Hope Bouba is alright too. 

[eamonn]

Went to see the enjoyable if overblown Moonage Daydream at the Imax. Only found out the result when I was having a slash in the jacks after. Sounds like the game was the opposite of overblown and enjoyable.

The queue to see the coffin is going all the way down Southbank where I'm texting this from.

[taylorsworkrate]

Fucking dreadful game of football between 2 poor teams

[taylorsworkrate]

It wasn’t sensational but I didn’t think it was as bad as people are making out. We were comfortably the better side. Southampton were really poor.

As for it being one of the worst top flight games ever, I can only assume people saying that never saw Wimbledon play, or Stoke under Pulis.

It was awful

[olaftab]

The silence stuff and national anthem thing was superb. Total class. After that total rubbish. No method, no rhyme, no rhythm no reason for our Steven to prolong his stay at B6.