Aston Villa 2 Brighton 2 Post Match Thread.

[aldridgeboy]

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

This

[VillaTim]

I dont get why he didnt start onana today. With our defence issues surely he should ahve gone onana an d kamara again?

This team has so many issues. We are conceding too much and missing too many chances.  We had none of these issues at this stage last season

I reckon Onana’s performance when he came on goes a long way in explaining why he didn’t start and secondly at this stage last season we were hardly pulling up any trees performance wise.

Onana was awful when he came on. Couldn't trap a wet bag of cement

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

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

They either can't follow instruction (quite worrying).

Or they are following instructions and this is the result (v worrying).

I wonder if we see a change in personal this summer as I believe it’s the players at his disposal who can’t play how he wants us to play.

That’s probably the case but in the meantime Emery could do with thinking up a plan that the players that are there at the moment can implement.

[john2710]

Whilst we seem to have lost the ability to keep a clean sheet & are too easy to score against. We had complete control of the game for 80 mins. It's our inability to capitalise when we are in control that's killing us. For all the good situations we had tonight their keeper never made a save other than the one from Tielemans. You put any other top 6 side with the opportunities we created & they scored 4 or 5.

We need to sort out the right side of the team with some real quality.

[Drummond]

Emery got the line up wrong (Konsa RB ? ) and got the subs wrong (too late) .
We are a mid table team again , it is what it is .
Don't disrespect the FA Cup Emery , it's all that's left now this season.

European Cup?

Come on , we have to be realistic , we aren't winning that .

Nope, not like we've got any history in that competition, and the manager certainly has no idea what he's doing in Europe.

[kippaxvilla2]

https://www.avfc.co.uk/news/2024/december/30/Emery-reflects-on-a-positive-2024/

[VillaTim]

Whilst we seem to have lost the ability to keep a clean sheet & are too easy to score against. We had complete control of the game for 80 mins. It's our inability to capitalise when we are in control that's killing us. For all the good situations we had tonight their keeper never made a save other than the one from Tielemans. You put any other top 6 side with the opportunities we created & they scored 4 or 5.

We need to sort out the right side of the team with some real quality.

We never had "complete control" for 80 mins ! We wine one down , first half was a basketball match . 2nd half we were dominant until 75 mins then it was all them

[PaulWinch again]

Whilst we seem to have lost the ability to keep a clean sheet & are too easy to score against. We had complete control of the game for 80 mins. It's our inability to capitalise when we are in control that's killing us. For all the good situations we had tonight their keeper never made a save other than the one from Tielemans. You put any other top 6 side with the opportunities we created & they scored 4 or 5.

We need to sort out the right side of the team with some
 real quality.

That is true to an extent - but when “killing the game” means scoring 3 or 4 most times you step on the field it’s completely unsustainable. We should not have conceded 2 tonight, both goals weren’t brilliant Brighton play (good finishes though) they were entirely our ongoing inability to defend as a team.

[RichardBatchelor]

Whilst we seem to have lost the ability to keep a clean sheet & are too easy to score against. We had complete control of the game for 80 mins. It's our inability to capitalise when we are in control that's killing us. For all the good situations we had tonight their keeper never made a save other than the one from Tielemans. You put any other top 6 side with the opportunities we created & they scored 4 or 5.

We need to sort out the right side of the team with some real quality.

This. Very impressive in patches all season and seem to concede inevitably in the 10/15 minute patches where we’re not so impressive.

[Percy McCarthy]

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.

Interesting - if I am reading this right - we’re under performing on both xGF and xGA. https://understat.com/league/EPL.  It looks like we should have score 7 more goals and concede 2-3 less.  Which is the reverse of what I was expecting (poor at both bit worse at defending)

Actually, that means we’re poor at taking chances, and our keeper is not quite performing as he should.

[Nii Lamptey]

Most of the team played quite well I thought, but I will single out Diego Carlos and Ezri Konsa for criticism. Our RB plight is really starting to affect Konsa’s form lately- neck and neck with Diego for worst player on the pitch. Since when does Ezri wait for the ball to bounce before clearing it?! Shocking performance tonight.

Also - the blanks fired up front…again!? With Jhon Duran playing tonight, we’d have won that game.

DESPERATELY NEED A TOP QUALITY RIGHT BACK ASAP. Fuck FFP too, the points gained would easily make up the shortfall.

Annoyed tonight as we should have won that at a canter.

[aj2k77]

The last back to back clean sheets we kept in the league was over 12 months ago now.

[Olof's Beard]

We have far too many problems to make the top 5 this season I suspect. Too much to sort out during a season.

Defensively we seem to be getting worse, conceding two goals per game and often without the opposition having to do much.

Added to that, we are wonderfully adept at both conceding early goals to put ourselves on the back foot and late goals to turn points into less points. I trusted the side to see out games a year ago, it is the opposite now.

Of the team that started today, only three players have scored in the league and one of them is Konsa is one goal. To be halfway through the season with so few having contributed is naff.

We were clinical last season, often emerging with points from games where we had the worst of the chances. This season, we spurn great positions through poor decision making and/or execution time and time again.

Bailey was much better tonight but we desperately missed his form of last winter and lack creative options. It had got to the point where Rogers has to play well for us to play well. The window wasn't good enough, the starting XI today were all here last season. You can't afford to stand still.

I still enjoy watching some of our attacking play but you just constantly feel like we're about to concede so it isn't exactly a relaxing experience. So, so frustrating.

[coreyfeldman]

Konsa at right back has become a hologram in defence and where the ball goes to die in attack. Maybe it works against teams who dominate possession against us but today showed exactly the sort of game where it doesn’t work.

Barkley should have been on straight after Tielemans lung busting run forward that finished him completely. We didn’t do enough in the final third to create chances and it always looked likely they’d get another once Mitoma came on to target our right side.

Maybe Tielemans needs to work on his stamina? Hardly broke sweat at Newcastle and blowing out his arse tonight in second half...

Don't think he has ever been described as having a decent engine.

Which is an issue, if we're intent on making him the fulcrum of the side (which Emery seems set on).

He has quality. But needs to be rested and rotated to a far greater extent than Douglas Luiz, for example.

He started the season very well but he has regressed rapidly to the show pony I feared he would be playing in that position. It's not as if Emery doesn't have other options, I was against Barkley resigning but if he can't be trusted at home to Brighton over Xmas then no point having him in the squad. Onana is our record signing and surely could have played tonight. That midfield picked tonight was unbalanced.

Show pony? You're talking directly out of your arse here. He's created one of the highest amounts of chances in the league this season and has been one of our most consistent and best performers. He looked leggy tonight and has played a lot of football recently owing to Onanas injury

[VillaTim]

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

This

Konsa / Mings CB pairing is the way to rebuild , hope Emery can see it finally