Ratings & Reactions: Brighton v Villa

[TRO]

26 minutes ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

It's McGinn.

Last season granted he started the season well yet his form dropped off about a month before his injury. We rushed him back and he was still way off, he finally found a little consistency end of last season and was helped by the Covid break.

This season he's had literally a couple of decent games and many more passenger ones.

McGinn's too slow, gives the ball away too much and is constantly caught in possession.

If we continue to play him he's costing us performances due to us being constantly walked through in the middle. Nakamba has proven in his fleeting appearances he can make us a little more solid there. However I'd prefer Sanson over McGinn everyday.

I fear, sadly, you are right.

[PaulC]

I look at the difference Ndidi makes to Leicester. He is in my opinion is as important as Vardy is to them. We need that type of player. We dont need passengers either and I am sceptical about both Barkley and Traore. MGinn needs to be taken out of the side for a bit. 

[TRO]

25 minutes ago, Tommo_b said:

I don’t think we were bullied or out grafted, we were plan and simply out played, our play was sloppy, we were slow, lots of mistakes, whereas Brighton were sharp, crisp, energetic and fast.

We were lucky Martinez was in unbelievable form, another keeper in our goal and we would’ve lost that, some very good saves. 

Isn't that much the same thing.....we were physically denied our own way...we like space and room to play

you can call it outplayed, because they had the ball and we couldn't get it back....but something influenced that, is my point....their approach ruined our game, so in my eyes, we was bullied out of it.

Brighton was all the things you describe, yes.

Edited February 14, 2021 by TRO

[pacbuddies]

Barkley & McGinn need to be dropped. Poor passing by both, lack of energy & effort by Barkley.

[BigJim]

5 hours ago, a-k said:

I think this is exactly what Barkley was brought in to do. He did it really well in some of his early matches but it's clearly not working now. They can gang up on Jack out wide when the player in the middle is anonymous. 

I don't have much time for RB when he's off the pace but to be fair, they were ganging up on him as well. OK his movement is minimal, but I still saw four players practically on top of him when he received the ball on more than one occasion. That's a measure of how hard Brighton work and how well organised they are. We, on the other hand...

[TRO]

1 hour ago, BigJim said:

I don't have much time for RB when he's off the pace but to be fair, they were ganging up on him as well. OK his movement is minimal, but I still saw four players practically on top of him when he received the ball on more than one occasion. That's a measure of how hard Brighton work and how well organised they are. We, on the other hand...

So if 4 players were on top of Barkley and i am not arguing that.....what were our players doing with no one marking them?

that is the main issue, we have too many ball watchers, waiting to be fed the ball as opposed to foraging for it......in games like this, we make ourselves too easy to play against.

 

Edited February 14, 2021 by TRO

[tinker]

Just now, TRO said:

So if 4 players were on top of Barkley and i am not arguing that.....what were our players doing with no one marking them.

that is the main issue, we have too many ball watchers, waiting to be fed the ball as opposed to foraging for it......in games like this, we make ourselves too easy to play against.

 

The issue is we don't move the ball far and fast enough , of the opposition are surrounding our play makers then we need to move the ball further to punish them for leaving too much space in other areas. We tend to just continue to play short balls in the area their flooding with players .

[TRO]

13 minutes ago, tinker said:

The issue is we don't move the ball far and fast enough , of the opposition are surrounding our play makers then we need to move the ball further to punish them for leaving too much space in other areas. We tend to just continue to play short balls in the area their flooding with players .

It is one of the issues, we pither on the ball, because, we lack options from players off ball, they don't move,enough,just static.

[ciggiesnbeer]

Glass half full for me. Happy with that point given how bad the performance was. Credit to Potter he got the better of the tactical battle.

We need a plan B for when teams focus on making Jack mortal. That should free up space on the right or elsewhere. Why didnt it?

[villalad21]

Potter gave us a footballing lesson 

Very impressed with them 

[flashingqwerty]

14 hours ago, skell said:

I just think he knows.more.than me and you. I you shouldn't jump on managers back at every opportunity. Especially one who has.brought us so far. 

How much of it is down to DS and how much is down to the coaching and recruitment staff?

We don't know what's happening behind closed doors, or what might have been with a different manager.

[flashingqwerty]

14 hours ago, skell said:

Yeh he needs changing. There are a million fans with a million ideas of what we need to do. But sulking and saying manager out is not not ideal and needed at this time. I I thought the fickle fans had disappeared 

I never said manager out.  Yet again you are putting words 8nto my mouth.

You might want to spend more time actually reading what's written rather than looking for things between the lines, because you're finding things that simply are not there.

[flashingqwerty]

12 hours ago, Mjvilla said:

He can keep making these 'mistakes' if it means we improve as much as we have done in the previous 2 years. 

Another poster has commented how those people that didn't want him here in the first place are the first, quickest and most harshest to criticise. I didn't necessarily think this was the case, but my god you've changed my opinion.

I didn't want him here in the first place, but what he has achieved here is remarkable so I'm enjoying it and he definitely has my vote. I think we could finish top 4 and he still wouldn't win some over.

Managers, like players, have their levels.

Clubs have aspirations.

I'm pointing out patterns that have existed in DS in multiple clubs that appear to not be progressing.

At the level this club wants to be operating at, the manager needs to show he can progress with it.

He's done a good so far, but he is far from being above reproach.

The criticisms I had of him when he arrived are the same ones I have now.  The playing staff has been improved with significant outlay, and addition coaching staff brought in to address issues DS wasn't addressing himself.

I think DS is operating above his ceiling right now as I don't see him improving.

[flashingqwerty]

10 hours ago, TRO said:

I thought it was harsh on Nakamba.

This wasn't a bad day at the office, if we think that, we are misleading ourselves....players who keep losing the ball cheaply,should be left out....we can't do anything without the ball.....In fact, we look very ordinary indeed, without the ball.

It has happened in more games than just this, where we have been unable to secure the ball and unable to win it back....this has to be addressed, with some focus.

despite an overall good season..... we have managed to secure 2 points only from games against Brighton,West Ham and Burnley....those teams have a style, we are uncomfortable with and it is clear as daylight.....we need to recruit a few players who will thrive in that environment.....Blimey Joel Veltman cost £900,000, we need a few of them in the squad, for times like this.....He irritated the life out of Jack and our other players offered nothing else, to compensate.

Players who don't work and just ball watch have no place in our project, you only have to watch Man City and their workrate is phenomenal, despite their untold talent, they work like trojans.......We turn up in games like this, with a clear intention of playing football and it stands out, spoilers like Brighton, just rub their hands in glee and set about disrupting our passages of play by stifiling us and getting irritating touches on the ball whilst we are in possession......we have to be cuter and stronger than that....our passing too was abysmal and our players without the ball offering no options to help out, just waiting around for a "Roy of the Rovers", pass......We have to understand the adage " You have to win the right to play football"....and execute it.

This Midfield of ours has no tenacity or combative qualities to counter such acts of competitiveness....we have seen it before....this is no one off, if we think it is ,we are kidding ourselves.

We will see similar issues when we play Leeds, except, they will just run the legs off us.....and we will just resort to the midfield retreating and them expecting the defence to win the ball for them, to start any attacks.

We have to sort out this midfield, moving forward.

 

Great post!  Glad some people are paying attention!

This isn't isolated, it's a pattern.  But we keep falling into the same trap because we only know how to play 1 way.  Its annoying

[VillaFaninLondon]

The key points for me:

• Barkley looks off the pace, constantly gives the ball away, and fails to track back. There really must be a strong argument now for dropping him for the next couple of games and making him earn his way back in the side. I really missed him when he was injured and was desperate for him to come back, but he hasn't looked anywhere near good enough since he's returned to the extent that he is now disrupting the rhythm of the team and this desperately needs to be addressed. 
• McGinn does ok defensively but is a liability going forward at the moment. Constantly gives the ball away and sloppy in possession, he's also no longer breaking forward with the ball and looks dreadful a lot of the time. Another player who DS must seriously be looking at wondering if he should be taken out for a couple of games (Nakamba has played well when he's started, does the basics right and has been very unlucky not to retain his place after he's stepped in). 
• Luiz is a liability defensively. He gave away maybe 4 free kicks in very good areas yesterday and he's done it all season. I like him as a player but he just isn't a DM and when we're on the backfoot in games like we were most of yesterday it's really noticeable how many misplaced tackles he makes. 
• Martinez deserves every praise he gets. If it wasn't for him we'd have lost comfortably yesterday, another top performance like so many others this season. 
• I'm very concerned that we're not scoring enough goals. Our attacking play has dropped off since the new year. We've scored 9 goals in the last 9 league games, before that we had scored 27 goals in 13 league games. 
• I'm also concerned that defensively we've become more open, tantamount to some of our games last year which is a real worry. In the last 8 league games, we have had 20+ shots against us in 4 games (Man City, Southampton, West Ham and Brighton). In the 14 games prior to that, only one team had 20+ shots against us (Leeds) and that was widely considered our worst performance of the season.
• I'm also concerned that too many players just aren't performing. Even Jack was below par yesterday and you can understand maybe one or two having an off day from time to time, but when Jack, Barkley, McGinn, Traore, Watkins, Luiz all don't perform in the same game it's just puzzling as to why. We've got some very good players in our side, if they all performed yesterday we'd have caused Brighton a lot of problems but none of our attacking players had a good game. Credit Brighton for how they defended too, but it runs deeper than that. 

 

I think some big decisions on selection have to be made. I'd put Jack to no 10 (he's been ineffective on the left recently and in a 10 where he can roam will be more valuable to us). El Ghazi on the left, Traore/Trezeguet on the right (maybe Trez now that Cash is injured and we need more defensive protection), and maybe Nakamba and Sanson or Luiz in the middle.

 

I understand DS being cautious on changing the team and I know he's desperate for Barkley to play himself into form, but if we play like we did yesterday against Leicester and Leeds we could be in trouble. Luckily Brighton don't score a lot of goals but Leicester will murder us if we play like that against them and we've already seen what Leeds can do if you don't turn up against them. 

[villalad21]

Still can't believe Brighton played us off the park.

This is a real wake up call. And it should be for Dean and the players.

Something needs to change.

[TRO]

10 hours ago, flashingqwerty said:

Great post!  Glad some people are paying attention!

This isn't isolated, it's a pattern.  But we keep falling into the same trap because we only know how to play 1 way.  Its annoying

What is most annoying....is when it is clear as daylight, where the problem lies mostly and some fans just see it as an attack on the team....its isn't, its just observing the games and the issues in them.

We have managed to play excellent for the majority of the season, just having a wobble, playing teams that don't suit our style.....we are work in progress, just saying we need to be aware of some additional players who have a nose for winning the ball back, when we venture in to the market.... we everyones second team and the rest don't like it so, they want to stop our gallop.....we have to counter that.

It might sound obvious to some......but you can't attack without the ball.....we keep signing attackers, without the ability to feed them the ball.

Traore, was clobbered by the fans against Brighton, but who passed him the ball?........He was just starved of the ball.

 

[Raver50032]

You look at how we know we can play, and then you look at the performance we put in at Brighton and it almost felt to me that so many players were off the game, it smelled of match fixing. We were that bad across the whole pitch, goal-keeper aside. Of course, that's nonsense. 

Giving away possession too cheaply, wayward passing, and a perceived aura of not really being 'arsed' at the top end of our team sheet. That might do one or two players a disservice I'll admit. You would never know that it was us who had a whole week to prepare for this game, and that it was Brighton who had played a hard game midweek in the Cup. We are currently sleepwalking towards a heavy defeat... with Lestoh and Dirty-Leeds waiting in the wings for us. A match to re-light Vardy's season... and Bummer Bamford... anyone but that word removed. 

So things need changing up a bit. It's all becoming a bit Billy-Big-Bollox with all this talk about possibly gaining a European place. We haven't looked anything like it for half a dozen games. Yeah, we've had a couple of wins (against the run of play), a couple of defeats (deserved to lose) and now this draw at Brighton, which could easily have been a heavy defeat with different personnel between the sticks. 

We're still having a good season way above our hopes and dreams. However, it's all in danger of fizzling out into a tail spin of negativity if we don't sort this out. I'm not a football person, so I don't know the answer. But common sense tells me that even if Grealish is being double-marked, then that creates space elsewhere on the pitch for others to exploit and cause damage. We did neither against Hamas or Brighton. As such, we gained a single point. 

It isn't about whether Jack has been found out... it's about exploiting the other opportunities on the pitch that appear as we change things up. That should be our Plan-B... no?

In other news... SUPER LUTON!!!!!!! YAY!!!! 

Edited February 15, 2021 by Raver50032

[TRO]

On 14/02/2021 at 01:32, Quofan said:

Whilst the whole team (bar Martinez) were poor tonight, all I can think is that either Barkley has something in his contract to say that he has to play when fit or he's doing something every week in training that is out of this world. He's extremely lazy in matches. Personally I think he's a liability and the sooner he goes back to Chelsea the better. 

 

I don't think the whole team was bad.....North of the defence, yes 6 players, bit of an excuse for Ollie.

5 players is too many to be off it.

[TRO]

54 minutes ago, Raver50032 said:

You look at how we know we can play, and then you look at the performance we put in at Brighton and it almost felt to me that so many players were off the game, it smelled of match fixing. We were that bad across the whole pitch, goal-keeper aside. Of course, that's nonsense. 

Giving away possession too cheaply, wayward passing, and a perceived aura of not really being 'arsed' at the top end of our team sheet. That might do one or two players a disservice I'll admit. You would never know that it was us who had a whole week to prepare for this game, and that it was Brighton who had played a hard game midweek in the Cup. We are currently sleepwalking towards a heavy defeat... with Lestoh and Dirty-Leeds waiting in the wings for us. A match to re-light Vardy's season... and Bummer Bamford... anyone but that word removed. 

So things need changing up a bit. It's all becoming a bit Billy-Big-Bollox with all this talk about possibly gaining a European place. We haven't looked anything like it for half a dozen games. Yeah, we've had a couple of wins (against the run of play), a couple of defeats (deserved to lose) and now this draw at Brighton, which could easily have been a heavy defeat with different personnel between the sticks. 

We're still having a good season way above our hopes and dreams. However, it's all in danger of fizzling out into a tail spin of negativity if we don't sort this out. I'm not a football person, so I don't know the answer. But common sense tells me that even if Grealish is being double-marked, then that creates space elsewhere on the pitch for others to exploit and cause damage. We did neither against Hamas or Brighton. As such, we gained a single point. 

It isn't about whether Jack has been found out... it's about exploiting the other opportunities on the pitch that appear as we change things up. That should be our Plan-B... no?

In other news... SUPER LUTON!!!!!!! YAY!!!! 

We are a team who need to learn to play better, without the ball, if we are to progress....particularly the front 6

Edited February 15, 2021 by TRO