Aston Villa v Brighton Post-Match Thread

[Bobby Boy]

Dreadful game. But as I surmised with a mate beforehand who thought an entertaining 3-2 would be the outcome I reckoned it would be a scruffy victory. It was that and fortunate too.
We weren’t terrible really but equally we weren’t great. We’re a team without our beat 3 players out to injury and it really shows.

Unless UE can weave some magic I think we’ll struggle.

Yes, I'd agree with all of this. Clearly, it is fantastic that we won and have moved further clear of the teams behind us but it was a wretched game.

We are missing key players as has been said but I'm not sure that this alone completely explains the slowness of our play, how we seem to be playing with increasing conservatism and caution. So many passes go backwards from positions on the pitch that really don't require them.

A case in point was when our kick off for the second half was played back to Martinez without Brighton touching it. We are playing with fear it seems to me.

I appreciate that we are not at our most confident but we allowed a much more out of sorts Brighton to grow into the game and take some degree of control in the second half.

We need to try to insert some tempo and speed into our play because we won't win many more games this season playing like that for sure.

[Witton Warrior]

Bloody amazing win! Well done with our midfield injuries. Proud of them all

[Meanwood Villa]

The duality of fandom in the two posts above!

[Meanwood Villa]

Personally I'm leaning more to being delighted with the win and glossing over the shite performance. I wasn't expecting us to play well and if we can get results when we're not then that is to be commended. Hopefully it gives the current team some confidence for the rest of the month and we can win and play well. Although if it comes to it, winning will do.

[AV82EC]

It’s going to take some time to get our fluency going with the changes in personnel and games like last night are a natural consequence of that.

[brontebilly]

What was up with the Villa Park pitch last night? Very sticky, usually it's in pristine nick

[luke95]

What was up with the Villa Park pitch last night? Very sticky, usually it's in pristine nick

I've thought the pitch has been playing slow the past couple of home games .

[Villa Lew]

A massive 3 points for us, nothing against Lamare he did his defensive duties well, but going forward Matty was missed badly last night he's being superb for us this season. As for the goal how dare they take it away from the mighty Tye.

[ROBBO]

Thought our defence looked shaky all game, Brighton going through a lean period were the better team. Had to stop watching ten minutes from the end (golf) and was joyously releived to be told by a Pool supporter that we had won. I think the players were feeling the pressure to win the game, the energy was there but little fluency, Tammy should start next game.

[LeeB]

Brighton may have been slightly the batter team 2nd half but they still did the best part of fuck all and didn't deserve to win either, games like this happen all the time and we've been on the end of them many times so they and their enthusiastic Geography teacher can get fucked.

[eamonn]

I'd say more PE and emergency Maths cover.

[RamboandBruno]

A number of different things at play. We’ve lost our main midfield. Its like Arsenal losing Rice, Odegaard and Zubimendi for 3 months , or Man City losing Rodri, Silva and some fella Ive never heard off that they’ve paid 70 million for.
Its massive, Tielemans, creates loads of our chances and him and Kamara dictate play, McGinn dictates tempo and drives the team on.

Onana is a good player, but when those three are fit he’s brought in as part of a really strong supporting cast. Now the expectation is he is the main man. Dougie has done better than I expected due to his lack of football, but its a massive ask to expect him to be Dougie circa Aug to December 2023 yet. So there is massive pressure on these two to step up till McGinn and Youri are back. There is no way we can be as good during this period, so we are going to have to grind through.

Then there is the way we play. I love Tyrone, club legend for me. But he absolutely slows down the way we get the ball into midfield. Not sure if Torres has a small injury or Mings has just been preferred for the last two games, but we have to get Torres back in the side to link up with Luiz and Rogers in particular in a much quicker way.

Watkins had no service last night, but there was also a lack of movement especially in the second half.

Despite their differing styles, Everton, Brentford, Brighton, all tried to contain before pushing on in small moments, teams are changing the way they play at Villa Park because of our form this season.

It could be a long couple of months, and we may need to grind a few more of these results out and be happy with it.

[aj2k77]

Well summed up. The fluency isn't going to be there now for the next 6 weeks and so we're going to have to do it the hard way. If we end March still in the top 4 we've done well.

[Halfway to Moseley]

Being there felt like a rerun of the Brentford game. A promising first 10 minutes before slowly fading, followed by an even worse second half of slow sideways and backwards passing where we looked to have completely run out of ideas, probably not helped by a subdued and nervous crowd.

Thank god we got the three points, what a relief.

Other than the win, Alysson was the big plus point for me. I don’t want to get too excited off the back of 20 minutes, but he looks like he’s got something.

[Mister E]

TBH I really thought we lacked Cash's emergy and ability to travel with the ball.  Bogarde did fine - but with him and Mings in the defense - whilst we look perfectly solid we lack lose something going forward.

I think the idea was that Maatsen would get further up the pitch; he did so but without creating much.