Aston Villa vs Brentford Post-Match Thread

[pelty]

We really need another right back, because I don't like Konsa there. He constantly loses track of his winger because he's too focused on what's going on to his left, i.e. the place he's more used to being.

100%. Been saying he has been rough there for months. Great CB, average RB.

[Cliftonville Villlain]

We've always had a glass spine. If Unai can remove that from our DNA he'll be our best manager since Ron Saunders.

[Nunkin1965]

Konsa was terrible second half, and it cost us big time. He’s experienced enough not to perform like that, but in his defence, if he’d been in his natural CB position, with Cash at RB, Brentford wouldn’t have got a sniff.

We live and learn. I disagree with some opinions that we should be grateful of where we are - No we shouldn’t. That’s the difference between winners and losers, and I’m sure the players will be as frustrated, if not more, than we are by how things are panning out recently.

We could have been top at Xmas but shit the bed against the league’s bottom side, and we had our strongest side out today against one of the league’s most out of form sides….  and ballsed it up again.

Hopefully the experiences of this season will put us in good stead for the future, but it does give off that feeling of ‘oh what could have been’.

I still think we’ll finish 4th. If it wasn’t Spurs chasing us, I’d maybe be a little more concerned…. But it’s Spurs.

Onto Lille and a result which will hopefully put us within reach of a European semi.

UTV

I completely agree with your sentiment. We might be ahead of schedule but you grasp the opportunities that present themselves. We’ve got ourselves into a fantastic position and to blow it would be a huge disappointment. Losers just accept the pat on the head. If people are happy enough with that, then that’s  their choice and is fair enough but I personally want more.

I think we'd have more if we hadn't had such crushing injuries.
We're ahead of schedule anyway as I think Europa League qualification would have been a significant success and progress on last season.

[VillaTim]

Brentford are like an irritating rash that just won't go away

They gave us a tough game in the states in the summer . Weren't we 2-0 up in that one too .

[tomd2103]

Just seen the MOTD highlights, so seen the goals again.  Digne poor for the first and Konsa poor for the 2nd and the 3rd for allowing crosses into the box when the attacker shouldn't have really got them in.  Carlos and Torres were all over the place in the middle when those balls came in though.

[ChicagoLion]

Just seen the MOTD highlights, so seen the goals again.  Digne poor for the first and Konsa poor for the 2nd and the 3rd for allowing crosses into the box when the attacker shouldn't have really got them in.  Carlos and Torres were all over the place in the middle when those balls came in though.

We are conceding over 2 goals a game currently.
Our defence buckled under the slightest pressure.
We really miss Kamara.

[VillaTim]

Mings return cannot come soon enough .

[Pat McMahon]

For me the thing that stands out is that the midfield seem scared to actually take a shot at goal from distance against a deep back 10….there were times McGinn / Douglas & Teilemans were all in shooting range and predictably tried another pass….Rogers was the only one shooting! 

I said this earlier at the game. The occasional shot from distance against a packed defence makes them think it can happen again the next time so one of the packed defence steps up to block, thus creating space where they would have been.

So much of our first half play was slow and in front of Brentford  that we needed to move them out of position. having said that, we scored 3 today and that should have been enough to win. The real issue was the poor defensive performance and a collective freezing when under moderate pressure

[coreyfeldman]

Our expected goals against since 1st Jan 2024 is 4th worst in the league, after being 4th best for the first half of the season.

The position of our centre halves at times today was criminal, Carlos especially is draw to the ball far, far too easily

[taylorsworkrate]

Our expected goals against since 1st Jan 2024 is 4th worst in the league, after being 4th best for the first half of the season.

The position of our centre halves at times today was criminal, Carlos especially is draw to the ball far, far too easily

As good as Torres has been at times, Mings and Konsa are still easily our 2 best CB's at actually defending. Could potentially see Mings, Konsa and Torres as a 3 next season

[SoccerHQ]

I’m in the Spurs will blow it camp and I think we’ll finish 4th still. But we definitely cannot be losing a 2 goal lead at home against a team like Brentford if we have ideas of competing in the elite euro competition. The teams above us don’t do it

The teams above us will all likely finish on 89-90 points and one of them will probably be in the CL final. The other could win three trophies.

Let's be clear that's a very very high standard to compare yourselves to and while we've been good for half the season most of our performances in 2024 really haven't been that good and that's about 15 games now.

It's a long old season and it's no good having pats on the back in the December period if we can't keep things together mentally in April/May as that's where nearly teams stay being nearly men which is what Ollie was alluding to.

That said as disappointing as today was it's within our capabilities to beat Chelsea and Bournemouth and get 4 points from Brighton and Palace. Do that and that gives Spurs a bit to do still as just beating Forest, Burnley and Sheffield in their run in only gets them to 66 points.

April remains a big month with the Lille games so that wretched ten minute period today is a big lesson in what can happen if we let our standards dramatically slip.

[ROBBO]

Before our second goal Brentford was playing to try and nick a goal after the second went in they went nothing to lose and really exposed our weaknesses at the back. Most top teams after going two up would consolidate at the back and play on the break, we didn't stengthen our back line we went after more goals which to me is asking for trouble. Thought Emery got  the tactics all wrong second half. Konsa needs to be with Pau in the centre of defence as others have said, our main problem is that we have run out of quality through injuries, it will be a struggle for us from now on I fear.

[CT Villan]

We should not be losing a 2-goal advantage against anyone at home, but especially Brentford. Sad to say that was Ezri's worst defensive performance in some time, as soon as Reguilon pushed forward he lost him every time contributing to 2 of their goals. Pau also looked rusty. I actually thought Diego did quite well and handled their physicality pretty well.

Special mention for Luiz's stupidity to get the suspending yellow.

Special special mention for the ref who only appeared to be calling things in favour of Brentford.

[CT Villan]

Brentford are like an irritating rash that just won't go away

They gave us a tough game in the states in the summer . Weren't we 2-0 up in that one too .

No, they were 2 up, then we roared into a 3-2 lead. They equalized after about an hour.

[PaulWinch again]

We should not be losing a 2-goal advantage against anyone at home, but especially Brentford. Sad to say that was Ezri's worst defensive performance in some time, as soon as Reguilon pushed forward he lost him every time contributing to 2 of their goals. Pau also looked rusty. I actually thought Diego did quite well and handled their physicality pretty well.

Special mention for Luiz's stupidity to get the suspending yellow.

Special special mention for the ref who only appeared to be calling things in favour of Brentford.

Weird that you say that about the ref, because I thought he gave us pretty much everything in the first half.