Ratings & Reactions: Southampton v Villa

[Quofan]

9 hours ago, It's Your Round said:

This is a pleasant Sunday afternoon read, very much like one of our match threads to be fair. 

 

https://www.saintsweb.co.uk/topic/58516-saints-vs-villa-match-thread/page/4/

Had to laugh at this from one of the Southampton fans "Annoyed about the handball decision but more so by the way we approached the game, against a very average Villa side."

[troon_villan]

• Man, that Saints match day thread was really grim reading, even from a Villa fans point of view!! 

[robby b]

We actually beat Southampton.

  

What a season! But next season we need to beat them at Villa Park as we haven't beaten them at home for six games in a row, since 2004. And that will not do.

[fruitvilla]

My thoughts as I recall:

1) I missed the first seventeen minutes

2) I don't get the downer on Troare ...  he looked OK certainly was not the "worst" player on the pitch. Tracked back. Certainly was not quick tracking back and that brings me me to the next point.

3) As a team we looked tired ... overall we were not quick to track back. Soton's wide runners were fast and we were slow to pick them up.

4) I am not sure of Dean's reticence to use subs ... would love to have a quiet pint with him to understand better his philosophy.

 

[srsmithusa]

I thought Southhampton used a pretty simple and effective game plan.

attack down our right side with walcott and ward-prouse.  They were to put in driving crosses.  This was intended to keep Targett from working in support of Jack at the other end.  They undoubtedly hoped it would keep Jack back as well, but it did not accomplish this goal well.  instead, it did pull McGinn toward that side and Luiz more central.  Which allowed more dangerous attacking runs to hit the crosses coming in from our left.   

The other thing they did was -immediately upon losing possession.  place the heavy pressure on the ball to slow any counter attack, if the quick pressure couldn't stop the counter a niggling foul did.

Our plan was clearly to defend deep and launch counter attacks.  The part of our game plan that confused me, was to put as many shots as possible high or wide.   

 

[Monsieur Hazdazler]

14 hours ago, Tommo_b said:

And yet that’s football and happens up and down the professional leagues... especially for the top 6 teams. 

It does but it doesn't mean we can't try to mitigate it.

For perspective we gave up 3 out of 4 of the biggest chances Southampton had on xG in the last 20minutes or so, all excellent chances (per xG over 0.3 which is a very very good chance), that doesn't include Ings offside finish which was marginal. Prior to that we'd only given up one decent chance which was the Cash handball, then a load of low percentage chances. Worth noting as well though that two of those chances were from the same set piece where shots were blocked from both Adams and Stephens

Of the 11 shots we conceded in the box, 7 of them were in the last 21 minutes, and the vast majority of Southampton's xG total was from 69th minute onwards. 

I understand fully that we've got the result, so clearly it was the right call, but when the game goes from being fairly even, to massively in Southampton's favour during the second half, with their best chances coming at the end, it shows we lacked control of the situation. Yes we defended with bodies on the line, but if we do that every game more often than not we're going to concede. We barely created a chance in the second half, which just as much as the chances conceded showed we were struggling down the stretch. Traore did very little and isn't a defensive asset, so even if he wanted to keep the midfield 3 the same, why wouldn't he switch to Trez?

As noted before, I love Deano, fully in support of him, but everything but the scoreline points to a lack of action contributing to potential goals conceded. He's frequently shown that his use of the bench isn't perhaps what everyone agrees with, I'd love to sit down with him so he could explain it to me so I could be on side with it. Ultimately, he doesn't need to justify anything to me and he's paid the big bucks for a reason 

[It's Your Round]

7 hours ago, Quofan said:

Had to laugh at this from one of the Southampton fans "Annoyed about the handball decision but more so by the way we approached the game, against a very average Villa side."

That’s just their bitterness coming out, if this is an average Villa side I can’t wait to see the above average version. Should be Champions League regulars then. 

[mottaloo]

19 hours ago, Five Ken McNaughts said:

Che Adams’ foot may originally land on Martinez’s hand inadvertently (at the very least that part is hard to prove), but once it does there’s no doubt his next actions are entirely deliberate: pivoting unnaturally on the foot with the hand beneath it, putting his whole weight through those blades and onto the trapped fingers. Very sly, very nasty and could very easily have put our keeper out for weeks. 

Yeah, i noticed that sneaky movement.

You can take the boy out of small heath but...

[Raver50032]

Some nice moments on the counter, but this one did feel like we were under a lot of pressure in both halves. A frenetic, but fruitful defensive display, with Martinez my MOTM. All the bruhaha about VAR - to be fair to it, all it did was uphold the on-field decision. Nothing overturned. That said, I would have felt I had no grounds to complain had the penalty been given or the Ings goal. Neither are clear and obvious errors from the on-pitch refereeing team. The offside, is so marginal that in real time, I doubt even the most biased Villa fan would be screaming 'offside' for it. Such are the margins. 

But the biggest win is that Mike Dean didn't overturn the decisions. Listening to the commentary on Sky, they seemed desperate for Southampton to win - even the closet Villa fan (FIFA 2020 confirmed it to me) Alan Smith seemed to be cheering Southampton on and desperate for VAR to finger us. 

Anyway, we won a game against the run of play. Makes a nice change. 

Nice header from Ross, and a nice bit of work from Grealish for the assist. 

Bring on the Hummus 

Edited February 1, 2021 by Raver50032

[blobbyrob]

23 hours ago, It's Your Round said:

This is a pleasant Sunday afternoon read, very much like one of our match threads to be fair. 

 

https://www.saintsweb.co.uk/topic/58516-saints-vs-villa-match-thread/page/4/

Just read through the entire thread. Very entertaining. 

[Bizzzle]

On 31/01/2021 at 13:13, It's Your Round said:

This is a pleasant Sunday afternoon read, very much like one of our match threads to be fair. 

 

https://www.saintsweb.co.uk/topic/58516-saints-vs-villa-match-thread/page/4/

Hahaha it's funny because it's not us for a change!

[TheStagMan]

On 31/01/2021 at 09:03, villalad21 said:

Didn't see any Villa fans or players complain about VAR yesterday. The hypocrisy is just silly. When a decision goes against your team VAR is a disgrace. There is an agenda against Villa and it needs to be removed.

When it goes in your favor. Dead silence from the players, fans and staff.

I thought both Watkins disallowed goal against West Ham and Ings goal yesterday was a disgrace.

Also thought it should have been a pen. Cash makes himself bigger for me and it's a clear pen.

With that level of critical analysis and knowledge of the game, you are well suited to a job as a VAR official.

[Annoyman]

Am I going mad or did a Southampton defender, possibly Ward-Prowse, flick the ball up in the air and then head it back to his own keeper in the last ten minutes? Should have been a yellow card and an indirect free kick

 

Last time I remember that happening was Younes Kaboul also getting away with it at Villa Park for Portsmouth

[flashingqwerty]

On 31/01/2021 at 01:31, TRO said:

Not arguing, by the way, but if The CM's  were so poor and judging by the Motm vote after a (clean sheet) a single vote each for McGinn & Luiz and Barkley 2 off 225 voters......why did you rate them so high?

just curious.

I was perhaps a little generous