Aston Villa 2 Brighton 2 Post Match Thread.

[kippaxvilla2]

Defenders needed urgently. 

[Deano's Mullet]

4 wins in last 14 league games yet still only 3 points behind 5th place Newcastle. Very frustrating but still half a season to go.

[Ducksworthy]

Defenders needed urgently.

2-3!

[Somniloquism]

Defenders needed urgently.

2-3!

Martinez out for 2 months!

[TopDeck113]

Not good enough in too many departments.  Including, game management and substitutions by Emery.

[MillerBall]

Defending is indeed a big problem for us!!

[colin69]

Still all to play for but please buy a new right back asap and get Konsa and Mings back in the middle.

[pauliewalnuts]

We have a significant defensive problem but I am more and more starting to think Emery doesn’t know how to sort it out.

So wasteful in the later stages of games and it just goes on and on.

[Proposition Joe]

I know it's not the be-all and end-all, but does anyone know how we rank xG against vs actual goals against? I don't know what's happening but it seems Unai sets us up right, and our defenders are all objectively good, but somehow we concede more goals against than we should, through sloppiness, fuckupiness whatever.

[PhilVill]

At times we saw the best of us, sadly mixed in was the worst of us too. 7th - 12th beckons unless we tighten that defence up. Tileman's was dead on his feet after 60 mins so well done for the lack of changes.

[Astnor]

It snot just defence - the whole team falling apart, we should have controlled this game - we where not able to do that. There might be that some rethinking must be done from Emery and / or the leadership cause the signs not good at the moment.

[pelty]

We have a significant defensive problem but I am more and more starting to think Emery doesn’t know how to sort it out.

So wasteful in the later stages of games and it just goes on and on.

I agree. Emery has no clue what to do, but Konsa simply should not be the RB.

[Keeno]

4 wins in last 14 league games yet still only 3 points behind 5th place Newcastle. Very frustrating but still half a season to go.

Yeah, its a bizarre season in that respect. No one other than Liverpool and Forest is being consistent at all. So we can definitely go on a run from where we are in the second half of the year and get at least Europa League back.

This one, I hate to say, is on Emery. The game was clearly drifting between 60-80th minute and he had no problem in bringing on Onana or Barkley earlier in the year for late game control, so why not now? It desperately needed it.

The other thing that is so apparent in comparison to last year is HOW we defend space... we've dropped the high line, which was very succesful, and are asking all our midfielders and centre backs to defend man-for-man and it just creates 20-30 yards between the midfield and defence, such a transitional game. This happened all match tonight. Teams have exploited that all season and it hasn't changed. Why? I get the needed to evolve year-on-year but this evolution was not the one to make. We may get better at it, but we're halfway through the year and it's not really improved.

This is not a manager who doesn't know how to fix it in my view, because **we played very differently last season**. It is a conscious decision to play this way and it could be reversed. I guess my question is - when does it get too kamikaze for Emery and he changes back to what is more familiar to him? Because the two goals we scored tonight should have been enough to win the game. We ship 2 goals a game and it is NOT sustainable.

I also genuinely don't think this is a 'Konsa at RB' or 'no right back' or 'not enough signings' problem. It is WHAT and HOW the players are being told to do.

[ASHTONVILLA]

Disappointing, but overall the better team. If we had had the penalty, or scored from the couple of good chances missed it would have a comfortable victory.

Watkins, Rogers and Teilemans all did well. Bailey much improved.

Even having dropped the two points we are still only 2 points off 5th. This team are more than capable of going on a strong run in the new year.

[OzVilla]

Can’t hold a lead and can't put a game to bed when on top. Their subs, especially Mitoma, changed the game.