Ratings & Reactions: Brighton v Villa

[the_eristic]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........................ wait, it's over?

We need some energy and composure badly. So behind the play all night, poor touches, poor passes and giveaways, poor decisions, barely involved our attackers. I thought that breakaway by Jack from Bertie was going to be it, but then the ball went to Barkley and he sent it straight into traffic instead of just rolling out to Ollie in space on his left. Brighton learned from Hammers to effectively double mark Jack on the left, none of our side able to take advantage of the space because they were too sluggish and/or sloppy. Sanson and Nakamba in for Ross & SJM for me. Not sure about Trez for Bert, maybe because it's Leicester next but Trez just has next to nothing going forward.

[BleedClaretAndBlue]

1 minute ago, Alakagom said:

I know lots of people like Traore enough but I still don't understand why we pursued him over Benrahma.  The only mistake in our impeccable transfer window.  Gotta feel for Watkings, had no help but was fighting like crazy. It's just nice to have players that give a ****. We didn't play well, but I still enjoyed seeing few individual performances.

Traore’s been decent. Had a much better return than Benrahma. Cost less, on less wages id imagine. Good signing imo

[weedman]

6 minutes ago, briny_ear said:

To be honest I can’t remember any real howlers on his part.

That's the problem though isn't it? They seem to be only judged on the "big decisions" and none of the others.

I mean Jack got a yellow for pulling back his man on the counter, fair enough. Literally 5 minutes later McGinn is pulled back in virtually the same area on a counter and no yellow. Look at the injury to Cash, 2 players shoulder to shoulder, Cash knocked off balance, gives ball away, fair enough. 5 minutes later for the Luiz yellow card he goes shoulder to shoulder, knocking their player off balance. Free kick and yellow card. 

The whole game was littered with these decisions for both teams 

It's maddeningly inconsistent and that's the stuff that refs need to be judged on, not just the "oh he gave a penalty that shouldn't have been then VAR didn't change it because it was Man Utd" decisions 

[AntrimBlack]

1 minute ago, est1874 said:

Cash hamstring injury confirmed by Dean.

Maybe not so smart to let Guilbert go.

[smg]

22 minutes ago, flashingqwerty said:

Team selection was wrong

setup was wrong

Half time team talk had no impact

Subs had little to no impact.

Extremely frustrating seeing DS making the same mistakes now that he was making 2 years ago.

Guessing you wanted to say Smith out ?

[VillaFaninLondon]

Really poor performance. Take the point in the end but what Emi says is right, the performance wasn’t good enough. A week off and that’s one of the worst performances of the season. Brighton absolutely deserved to win.

 

When teams press us we just look unimaginative and tonight we made so many sloppy passes. We need to improve drastically if we’re to make an unlikely push for Europe but we’re still in with a chance. We are so much better than tonight and we need to get back to how we were playing 2 months ago ASAP.

[HanoiVillan]

8 minutes ago, picicata said:

Whilst we need a plan B for definite, I would say it probably wouldn't have helped tonight. Too many players were misplacing passes, letting the ball bounce off them and generally playing exceedingly poor. 

We've been poor since our return from Covid. 

Teams have also started doubling up on Jack again and it's completely nullifying us. Before the break we looked far more dangerous with Anwar on the left and Jack in the middle and I think I'd try that again. Especially as Barkley is a big old waste of space.

I agree with this. I have been a hold-out on putting Jack in the centre, but he seems to be struggling with being double marked. It will be harder for teams to double-mark Jack in the centre, and I know El Ghazi was unbelievably shit in his last performance, but he was wide right and he's more threatening playing on the left.

I think it might be worth trying Sanson deeper instead of McGinn, but I doubt we'll change that for Leicester. But Barkley has to ride the pine for a game or two, he's hugely out of form.

[John]

Another clean sheet on a night, when a point was as much as we could hope for, given how little impact we had in their half. Martinez was determined to not be beaten and Mings was very vocal, in organising our exceptional defensive performance.

This was a game of two halves. We were top quality in our own half, but were AWOL in theirs. A hard earned point, on a night when their keeper might as well have sat in the stand behind his goal, as we totally failed to test him tonight. This was a game we would have without doubt have lost at this stage of last season, we are so much harder to beat now.

Edited February 14, 2021 by John

[Stratvillan]

Thought emi was excellent clean sheet 12, 1 behind man city.

Thought back 4 were good.

I'm not a fan of Luiz, but thought he was the better of the deep 2. Do we need a deep 2?

Thought the front 4 didn't see enough of the ball to make a judgement.

To me playing Barkley and Traore causes us problems.

Like a pre lockdown performance, with a better defence.

 

[AV82]

20 minutes ago, sidcow said:

There is a positive out of all this. 

We've started to be a club who pick up points when they play badly. We haven't been that kind of team for years. 

We've had 2 wins and a draw in our last 5 games, probably none of which we deserved. 

It's most concerning just how badly we are playing but you can't put a price on undeserved points. 

 

Thanks for this.

[maqroll]

Lucky draw. Deserved to lose. Barkley needs to be dropped. Martinez the man.

[TRO]

It wasn't a game for Barkley or Traore.....

Sanson, and Trez was the right move, but much too late.

[HanoiVillan]

4 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

Maybe not so smart to let Guilbert go.

I don't think Guilbert was very good, and anyway he obviously wasn't trusted by Smith so I think he'd have been reluctant to bring him on. Maybe this is a chance for Kesler-Hayden to get on the bench and maybe get a few minutes at some point.

Edited February 13, 2021 by HanoiVillan

[jackbauer24]

I almost feel we'd be better off losing one of these games to shake up the team and stop saying it was a hard won point because, Emi aside, it wasn't. Not a single player looked that bothered and we drew because Brighton aren't clinical. I don't have much time for the defence either tonight, they were just light years ahead of the most abject midfield performance of the last few seasons.

The defence were equally as sloppy, lazy and uninterested as everyone else, it's just they could throw in a last ditch tackle or a vertical header every so often. But jeez, Barkley, McGinn, Traore, Luiz and Grealish (in that order) all had awful games. I think they all had close to their worst games in Villa shirts, in the same game!

Brighton had 26 shots!!

I'm not going to depress myself but I'd dread to look at how many succesful passes we had, how many consecutive passes we had or how many touches we had in their half even!! The most one-sided draw in a long time. I'm genuinely amazed that ended 0-0.

And that's now 4 or 5 games where we have been atrocious... We are in for an absolute demolition soon unless we change that midfield. I was hoping the longer break may refresh us but we looked as flat as ever. Even Grealish couldn't control a ball or successfully create an opportunity. It's not a one off game, it's a pattern that's developing and we're looking devoid of ideas and, crucially, effort. We look like we've been worked out.

Martinez is incredible, could have been an absolute rout.

Martinez 10 - couldn't have done a single thing more

Defence 5 - head/body in the way... But any actual football on display?

Barkley & McGinn 2 - neither offered a damn thing. Maybe generous for Barkley, he didn't even run.

Traore 3 - Great ball For Grealish, nothing else.

Luiz and Grealish 4 - poor touches, no vision and couldn't get in the game

Watkins 6 - what can the lad do with that behind him? Not a single opportunity created for him. 

We've come a long way but that shows how much further we have to go.

 

[Villa 59]

Barkley...plays like he thinks he's doing us a flucking flavour. I'd ship him back to Chelsea now if we could. 

I see people saying that it's in his contract to play if he's fit, well there's your 'get out of jail card' right there for he's nowhere near fit!. Moreover, he's one hell of a lazy tw*t and I hate seeing them in a Villa shirt. 

Terrible performance overall apart from Martinez although the defence was resilient which is a real plus point! 

On the positive side it's a point that takes us past last year's total with 16 games left. So I'll take a point tonight and move on (swiftly)

[The Fun Factory]

A point away from home when you are not playing well I will always take that.

Move on to the next game.

Martinez is pound for pound the best signing in the league this season. End of.

[UpTheVilla26]

1 person has voted Barkley MOTM. 

I would suggest a bottle of Jack Daniels, some anti depressants and a visit to Specsavers will solve your problem. 

[neilski]

One thing that annoys me in most games even where weve played well and won is that we play it backwards so much from midfield. We should not be playing balls back to emi from the half way line(to the extent that we do)or sometimes even when we are building up on the edge of the box. It seems like we lack that player that can link between defence and attack by being able to turn a player and really this is what barkley should be doing but we need soneone with the tenacity to win the ball like mcginn(on form) and turn and go past people a la grealish, watkins, traore. Sometimes i think trezeguet has that drive and after tonights performance him or sanson start over barkley,or nakamba drops in mcginns position and mcginn goes into cam. 

[Nigel]

I knew this was likely to happen, im not slapping myself on the back, rather a bit disappointed.

These teams that press hard, transition well and have good movement seem to baffle us!

We need to find an answer to this!

[AntrimBlack]

Terrible performance. Barkley needs replaced and sent back to Chelsea at season end. Bring in Sanson. Drop Mc Ginn and bring in Nakamba.

And Smith, make a change at halftime when we are performing like that. Just do something to change things.