Aston Villa - 1 Southampton - 0 Post match thread

[caster troy]

Mings was outstanding. Konsa much better, more like his old self. Coutinho was up for it and tried to make things happen.

You can say ‘a win is a win’ but Southampton were beyond awful and it’s worrying we barely troubled them going forward. I have no idea what we are trying to do to score, apart from hope for set pieces. The only consistent patterns of play were hoofing it for Bailey to try to flick on for Watkins, or having four players near the touchline play tippy tappy football trying to force an overlap. We honestly looked better with El Ghazi and Trezeguet either side of Watkins, they may have been average but at least they did ‘something.’ We could have had Haaland up front and it wouldn’t have made any difference.

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

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

I take it you’ve noticed we get worse every time that happens.

Indeed, sarcasm doesn’t translate well across the internet.

[Lsvilla]

It obviously wasn't great but I don't get that it was that bad. Quotes about worst ever TV match etc - have they watched 10 years of Stoke under Pulis ? Or us under Lambert / McLeish / Garde ?
We stopped a team that's already beaten two of last years top six from having a single shot on target. And could / should have had a second from Jacob in the second half in which case we stroll to the win.
Still lots for Steven Me to do but he's made us tighter and the team are playing for him. It's not his fault Bailey gives the ball away 23 times in an hour or Watkins can't trap a bag of cement. With Kamara injured we basically have the team that finished 14th. Not sure what everyone expects.

[Bobby Boy]

If ever there was a game where the result was more important than the performance then that was it.

I would imagine that Gerrard knows full well how precarious his position is and has decided upon a safety first, pragmatic approach to make us hard to beat.

And this has worked. It was really noticeable how often the instinct of our players was to play it backwards often when in space and having time on the ball.

I guess this comes with a lack of confidence too. Hopefully if we can pick up a couple of decent results at Leeds and Forest we might see things opening up a bit.

For the short term at least though I guess we're going to have to grind our teeth and accept that we aren't going to be playing the kind of football that we want to see.

As for the actual match Mings was superb and Coutinho showed some positive signs.

Next!

[ChicagoLion]

It obviously wasn't great but I don't get that it was that bad. Quotes about worst ever TV match etc - have they watched 10 years of Stoke under Pulis ? Or us under Lambert / McLeish / Garde ?
We stopped a team that's already beaten two of last years top six from having a single shot on target. And could / should have had a second from Jacob in the second half in which case we stroll to the win.
Still lots for Steven Me to do but he's made us tighter and the team are playing for him. It's not his fault Bailey gives the ball away 23 times in an hour or Watkins can't trap a bag of cement. With Kamara injured we basically have the team that finished 14th. Not sure what everyone expects.

we saw one of the best performances under him last week , this was built on a midfield platform of Kamara and Luiz.
So you would expect him to build on that.
But no, he went back to the system and players that have been failing under for months now.

[N'ZMAV]

Mings, Coutinho and Young were good last night

[Paul.S]

Not the best performance but on the plus side we won and winning when you’re not at it shows that the effort and will to win is there. I suppose it kicks into touch the theory that Gerrard has “lost the dressing room.” Saying that, we’ve got to be much better and still haven’t addressed our passing which at times is woeful. Defensively much better and going forward I still can’t fathom why Buendia isn’t a starter. A very long way to go until we can challenge 6th/7th but let’s hope the last 2 games are a start of a good run.

[Lsvilla]

It obviously wasn't great but I don't get that it was that bad. Quotes about worst ever TV match etc - have they watched 10 years of Stoke under Pulis ? Or us under Lambert / McLeish / Garde ?
We stopped a team that's already beaten two of last years top six from having a single shot on target. And could / should have had a second from Jacob in the second half in which case we stroll to the win.
Still lots for Steven Me to do but he's made us tighter and the team are playing for him. It's not his fault Bailey gives the ball away 23 times in an hour or Watkins can't trap a bag of cement. With Kamara injured we basically have the team that finished 14th. Not sure what everyone expects.

we saw one of the best performances under him last week , this was built on a midfield platform of Kamara and Luiz.
So you would expect him to build on that.
But no, he went back to the system and players that have been failing under for months now.

Agree about the last performance. But Luiz is leaving - possibly in 10 games time - so I can see why he's not first pick.

[ChicagoLion]

It obviously wasn't great but I don't get that it was that bad. Quotes about worst ever TV match etc - have they watched 10 years of Stoke under Pulis ? Or us under Lambert / McLeish / Garde ?
We stopped a team that's already beaten two of last years top six from having a single shot on target. And could / should have had a second from Jacob in the second half in which case we stroll to the win.
Still lots for Steven Me to do but he's made us tighter and the team are playing for him. It's not his fault Bailey gives the ball away 23 times in an hour or Watkins can't trap a bag of cement. With Kamara injured we basically have the team that finished 14th. Not sure what everyone expects.

we saw one of the best performances under him last week , this was built on a midfield platform of Kamara and Luiz.
So you would expect him to build on that.
But no, he went back to the system and players that have been failing under for months now.

Agree about the last performance. But Luiz is leaving - possibly in 10 games time - so I can see why he's not first pick.

He was last week, so what has changed in a week?

[Lsvilla]

It obviously wasn't great but I don't get that it was that bad. Quotes about worst ever TV match etc - have they watched 10 years of Stoke under Pulis ? Or us under Lambert / McLeish / Garde ?
We stopped a team that's already beaten two of last years top six from having a single shot on target. And could / should have had a second from Jacob in the second half in which case we stroll to the win.
Still lots for Steven Me to do but he's made us tighter and the team are playing for him. It's not his fault Bailey gives the ball away 23 times in an hour or Watkins can't trap a bag of cement. With Kamara injured we basically have the team that finished 14th. Not sure what everyone expects.

we saw one of the best performances under him last week , this was built on a midfield platform of Kamara and Luiz.
So you would expect him to build on that.
But no, he went back to the system and players that have been failing under for months now.

Agree about the last performance. But Luiz is leaving - possibly in 10 games time - so I can see why he's not first pick.

He was last week, so what has changed in a week?

Who knows. Maybe the reports from around 10 September that he's told friends he wants to go to Arsenal ?

[Rory]

I don’t mind grinding out a few wins as long as it’s interspersed with some decent football in between
But when grinding football is all you’ve got it gets a bit depressing

This. And we needed to grind it out to reach the giddy heights of averaging 1PPG.

A very welcome three points but no corners have yet been turned, for me.

[ChicagoLion]

It obviously wasn't great but I don't get that it was that bad. Quotes about worst ever TV match etc - have they watched 10 years of Stoke under Pulis ? Or us under Lambert / McLeish / Garde ?
We stopped a team that's already beaten two of last years top six from having a single shot on target. And could / should have had a second from Jacob in the second half in which case we stroll to the win.
Still lots for Steven Me to do but he's made us tighter and the team are playing for him. It's not his fault Bailey gives the ball away 23 times in an hour or Watkins can't trap a bag of cement. With Kamara injured we basically have the team that finished 14th. Not sure what everyone expects.

we saw one of the best performances under him last week , this was built on a midfield platform of Kamara and Luiz.
So you would expect him to build on that.
But no, he went back to the system and players that have been failing under for months now.

Agree about the last performance. But Luiz is leaving - possibly in 10 games time - so I can see why he's not first pick.

He was last week, so what has changed in a week?

Who knows. Maybe the reports from around 10 September that he's told friends he wants to go to Arsenal ?

But every body agreed he played really well against Citeh.
But I already knew the answer, Gerrard is a fkin idiot.

[Risso]

We need better players. Shortly after coming on Buendia played a superb pass through to Watkins, who controlled it with all his customary grace and precision, and it bounced off his foot like a ping pong ball being dropped onto a pile of bricks.

[Chris Smith]

The better team in a very scrappy game and the defence hardly put a foot wrong all night. A few decent individual performances but it all seemed to be in isolation and lacking any clear pattern.

Obviously the result was all important but it doesn’t answer any of the underlying questions around the manager.

[Ian.]

We need better players. Shortly after coming on Buendia played a superb pass through to Watkins, who controlled it with all his customary grace and precision, and it bounced off his foot like a ping pong ball being dropped onto a pile of bricks.

Those passes from Buendia should be a centre forwards dream. I love the way he plays them so effortlessly and over the last twelve months we should have scored more goals from them.

He’s a joy to watch at times and we need to make the most of him and Coutinho for that matter.