Aston Villa v Brighton Post-Match Thread

[olaftab]

Crucial three points but absolute blose, deserved to lose. Can see us being outside the top five by the time Tielemans and McGinn are back in April. Rudderless without them.

Deserved  to lose ...NO. Can see us outside the top 5 by the time T and M return....NO.

I just have high standards with Unai. Felt like I was watching a Lambert game from 12 year ago, flashbacks were horrid. All our possession between goalie and defenders. No clear chances from open play. Shite atmos.

True. There was a time when we played like man city at their best, knocked the ball around and inevitably it ended up in the net but we are a bit disrupted now so as long as we keep picking up points I can live with lower standard.

[TheToffnar]

Wins like that when you're out of form and have crucial injuries are what separates good sides from great ones. You find ways to win or you drop like a stone.

Proud of the lads for seeing it out and keeping a clean sheet.

[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.

The other aspect to Bogarde's play last night was that he was playing against an out-and-out winger in Mitoma: I'm sure UE will have urged him to be cautious in moving too far up the pitch.

[Baldy]

In light of our midfield dilemma, we tried to change things around last night but it didn't work.

Normally, our defence can play the ball through the lines or on the rare occasion, Big Emi can go long. Last night, our defence passed it around a bit, drew the opposition in and then went long.

Problem was the lack of accuracy in the long passing. If Unai chooses to play this way again we need Pau Torres pulling the strings. We gave the ball away far too often.

Back to the drawing board for Unai. We won't get three points playing like that very often.

[VILLA MOLE]

I actually think we missed Bogarde in Midfield because he tackles and breaks things up more.  Tempted to get Barkley in to get the ball forward quicker

[DB]

Having Mings in does slow us down when we play from the back, he holds on to the ball too long trying to draw the defenders in. With Torres it seems to be much quicker / slicker.

[Chris Smith]

Started and finished well but struggled for a lot of the rest of the game. I thought it was a good idea from Unai to play with two Morgan Rogers for the last 20 minutes, the new one looked confident and full of energy.

[LeeB]

Started and finished well but struggled for a lot of the rest of the game. I thought it was a good idea from Unai to play with two Morgan Rogers for the last 20 minutes, the new one looked confident and full of energy.

The scouting brief must have been "Find me someone who looks and moves just like Morgan and I'll take it from there"

[simon ward 50]

Dire to watch, but at least we got a win!

[PeterWithesShin]

The goal from pitch side

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1540678550351547

[martin o`who??]

A predictable struggle in view of the calibre of players we were missing. Tielemans is a massive loss as the one who gets it forward quickly through the lines, without him we are just playing in front of teams all the time. Their press was very effective I thought but they were helped by a ref who let them get away with some rough stuff at times. It was a welcome three points but we are clinging on by a thread now with all the injuries.

[paul_e]

Last night reminded me a lot of the game against Sunderland early in the season where we weren't great but you could see signs that things were starting to settle. Losing the players we did when we did, alongside the upheaval of the transfer window has broken our rhythm but I think we're getting back on track again and I suspect we'll see a few more positive performances over the next few weeks.

[Stu]

When are McGinn and Tielemans expected back?

[Chris Smith]

Everybody by us jumped up to celebrate Buendia’s goal in the first half, immediately followed by a few sheepish laughs when we realised it was the wrong side of the post.

[caster troy]

Bailey said that Unai's priority was a clean sheet, even reiterated it at half time. So that explains a lot in terms of the team selection, Bogarde staying back and the lack of risk taking.

With the players we have out it is harder to play out from the back and break the press, it would have been a great game for McGinn to do his half way line hold up play from long balls.

We also look tired, big opportunity to rotate at the weekend.