Brighton 1-2 Aston Villa post match thread

[Paul.S]

We still have the ability to give a goal away out of nothing but the players definitely seem to be enjoying playing for Emery. Defensively we need to buy but I’ve got to give them some credit yesterday. The usual capitulation away from home stopped, the players dug in and turned it round and we actually developed a backbone and got stuck in.
The football will improve but we couldn’t have dreamt we’d come away with 6 points from the last 2 games. A massive relief.

[Tayls_7]

Coming from a goal behind to win away is very un-Villa. I felt we were much the more dangerous side and you can see the belief starting to resonate in the squad. Sometimes you don't always fix things by declaring players are shit all the time "Bailey is shit, Young is shit"". Mostly you need good management. 

[Smithy]

I find it hard to enjoy shithousing. I know some fans revel in it when we're holding on to a lead, but I always feel a little cringe when I see it being taken to extremes (like big Emi throwing the ball out after a regulation save). I'm all for being slow at set pieces, not rushing, but it does feel like we've taken it a bit too far.  I get it, and I'll happily take the three points it can secure every day of the week, but it does take a tiny bit of the shine off when we do it.  I always want Villa to be "better" than other teams.  But I'll definitely take winning with shithousing over impeccable behaviour and losing.

[eamonn]

Agreed. I want us to outfootball teams. Short-term shithousery ok, but only til Emery has coached them to pass and move with purpose.

[VILLA MOLE]

I find it hard to enjoy shithousing. I know some fans revel in it when we're holding on to a lead, but I always feel a little cringe when I see it being taken to extremes (like big Emi throwing the ball out after a regulation save). I'm all for being slow at set pieces, not rushing, but it does feel like we've taken it a bit too far.  I get it, and I'll happily take the three points it can secure every day of the week, but it does take a tiny bit of the shine off when we do it.  I always want Villa to be "better" than other teams.  But I'll definitely take winning with shithousing over impeccable behaviour and losing.

Yes I get what your saying .  I am hoping as we improve as a team we can dictate a game with possession 

[LeeB]

No, I love it. I enjoyed that more than the Man Utd game yesterday.

It's been a major bugbear of mine for years that if always feels like we're the stooges, playing by the book whilst everyone else mugs us off. Not anymore.

[Drummond]

I see both sides. I think when you're at the match, especially away from home, it's fabulous to revel in it.. A bit like the Ole chant when your team is passing it about.

[Smoke]

Once Man Utd went ahead on Thursday they slowed down, had "injuries" and took forever when making subs etc but wasn't mentioned, just accepted. Yet amazingly given that game had (at that point) 5! Goals in the second half, countless injuries, about 4 or 5 sub breaks there was only 4 minutes added on.

8 minutes yesterday though. Go figure.

If every other fucker is benefitting from it I sure as hell want us benefitting from it.

[VILLA MOLE]

yep 8 minutes of injury time will probably stop teams being so blatant if that is consistent 

[Bully2345]

If you want to win a lot, you can't always do it being nice guys with free flowing football. Killing the game with time wasting is fine by me. Annoying when it happens to us but until the rule makers change the game to stop it, we might as well join in. The only solution I've seen that might stop it is half hour halves with a stopping clock when the ball is dead but that made people angry when they suggested it so it won't happen.

We showed good character, played well after the shocking first ten minutes and then killed the game. Rode our luck a bit (it should have been a penalty and they had the free header) but I was chuffed with what I saw. Was a great Sunday

[PaulWinch again]

yep 8 minutes of injury time will probably stop teams being so blatant if that is consistent 

Yes - and my one grumble yesterday was not so much we did it, but we made it so obvious.

[The Edge]

On the Digne penalty shout, people are forgetting the “clear and obvious” element of VAR. They will have spoken to the ref, but if the ref tells them “there was contact, but I saw the defender play the ball first” then VAR will not recommend a review.  Because that’s what actually happened, Digne kicked him, but after kicking the ball first.

If you show all the video angles to 100 refs I bet 90 would give a penalty, but it’s not VAR’s job to award penalties, it’s their job to correct ref mistakes - mainly with things they’ve missed. But if the ref saw what actually happened, didn’t miss anything, and chose NOT to award a pen, then the on field decision stands.

I can remember a time when an indirect free kick would be given. This would have been based on the fact that there was no intent to foul. I recall Bruce Rioch scoring from of these at the Holte.

In terms of today's rules, it was likely a penalty.

I know what you mean, but again it's a VAR issue. It is applied with such little consistency that nobody knows what they're actually looking for.

"There was contact..." Well yes, but that isn't automatically a penalty, something commentators and pundits often forget.

I'm no referee, so anybody with more knowledge, of course feel free to correct me, but for me there are a few questions:

Was the Brighton player in control of the ball? No.

Was it intentional? No.

Was it dangerous play? No.

Was there a realistic way for Digne to avoid the contact? For me, no. He was in the middle of trying to clear the ball when the Brighton player threw himself in there, failed to win the ball and caught a piece of the movement that Digne had already biomechanically initiated and committed to.

It was a coming-together (Kenneth Williams meme), nothing more.

Biomechanically initiated!! Oooooohhh someone's swallowed a dictionary 

[The Edge]

Chelsea turned "gamesmanship" into an artform on their way to becoming a top club. Man Utd and Liverpool have been masters of the dark arts for more years than I can remember and now Man City are using every trick in the book because they know they can get away with it. The romantic in me likes to think "we're Aston Villa, we're better than that" but the realist in me knows the truth which is we have to use every trick in the book to gain an advantage. That's just the way it is. We may as well get used to it.

[LeeB]

Once we've shithoused our way to dominating the English game and winning back to back European competitions, I'll be happy to campaign to end this cynical blight on the game, as it will be tiresome watching teams come and put 10 men behind the ball and play for a point.

Until then though, they can all piss off.

[rob_bridge]

Hey, where’s @Flin5tone?

I don't know but I bet he's "fuming"!

Still no sign of him?