Ratings & Reactions: Villa v Brighton

[bickster]

Players now added to Poll

[rubberman]

What a massive relief. 3 very welcome points and a clean sheet. Let's take that positivity in to the coming games. Welcome to the best club in the world Stevie. 

[Spoony]

Wonderful. Really happy to be back to winning ways and fair play to Gerrard - has the passion and seems to have motivated the players. As soon as Watkins scored and the players’ tails were back up we looked different class. Hopefully that injection of confidence means we’ve turned a corner.

Big critic of Mings but he was class today and what a finish  long may it continue.

Buendia unfortunately looks like a shit N’Zogbia. Absolute turd of a player and awful personality.

[sheepyvillian]

19 minutes ago, Genie said:

I know almost nothing about the game apart from the score. Looking forward to MOTD later, how often does that get said?? 

Tbf, the score was the best part.

[IrishVilla10]

17 minutes ago, skell said:

Completely wrong. Watkins can play wide . He can compete with Bailey for a place

He shouldn’t be competing with bailey , Ings should be competing for ollies place up top 

[Genie]

3 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

Tbf, the score was the best part.

I’ve seen the goals now, I couldn’t resist 

[Ponky]

Reminds me of the Everton game. We looked pretty pedestrian until all of a sudden we didn't. 

All of Gerrard's changes contributed to the win, but I thought Potter taking off Lamptey also helped immensely. 

[Delphinho123]

It was a very even match in the sense no side created many clear cut opportunities. If I’m honest, Brighton had more quality than us and probably edged it in terms of the football played. That said, the result is all that matters.

The two main positives for me today were…

1. Effort and desire. It was there in abundance and even had we lost the match, it wouldn’t have been through want of trying to win. Every player put in a shift. 

2. The substitutions. A personal highlight for me. The right players were taken off at the right time and we kept the right system. 

Individually, I thought Mings, Ramsey, Cash and McGinn were good and Martinez was excellent in goal.

The real negatives are Buendia, Ings and Bailey. I thought all were poor, especially Buendia who I’m really concerned about now. Looks way off the pace and I was champing at the bit for us to sign him! 

Great win, if not the most attractive win. Huge 3 points.

[AVFCDAN]

Not really any negatives today just a solid performance against a decent team. Perhaps most importantly McGinn had his best game for ages and the same for Targett which is encouraging.

Buendia is just wasting a spot at the moment though, I would rather el Ghazi played there at the moment.

Edited November 20, 2021 by AVFCDAN

[VillaFaninLondon]

Much-needed win. Still sloppy at times, Buendia still struggling, and from an attacking point of view before the goal we were really quite poor.

 

But defensively and out of possession we were better. Still needed Martinez to make some big saves but weren't nearly as open as in recent weeks.

 

Unfortunately Smith never got the team comfortable in possession and pressing effectively so Brighton had a lot of the ball, but hopefully we will improve on this in time. 

 

They still had too much time on the ball at times but in non-dangerous positions and we were smart with how we set up. 

 

Still very early days but some good signs from Gerrard's management given he's only had a week with the team. 

[JoshVilla]

Can't really ask for much more. A manager is never going to be able to imprint his philosophy on a new team in a week, so digging deep and stopping the slide was crucial. 2 goals and a clean sheet is a big bonus.

Both halves pretty much went the same way, I think. We started both sharply, but faded away as Brighton controlled the possession (which, to be fair, is pretty much what they do to teams - control the possession and frustrate you). 

A win gives us a great platform and relieves a huge amount of pressure. It's nice to not be pissed off on a Saturday evening for once!

[Peter Griffin]

So on MOTD tonight, will there be more screen time of SG's post match interview than actual game time?

[thunderball]

If McGinn can play like this, great, but the midfield is generally not where it should be. Here in lies our improvement together with a more confident, familiar front three. 
 

Would like to see Bailey - Watkins - Traore tried upfront. I think we need a new face to anchor the midfield. I think Sanson could nail down the other place.

But we would then have a strong bench and options should form dip/rotation.

Hopefully once we steady the ship and hopefully get some results, Chuck, Bidace and Archer get some game time.

[thunderball]

10 minutes ago, AVFCDAN said:

Not really any negatives today just a solid performance against a decent team. Perhaps most importantly McGinn had his best game for ages and the same for Targett which is encouraging.

Buendia is just wasting a spot at the moment though, I would rather el Ghazi played there at the moment.

I thought Buendia was OK on balance, definitely improving.

[skell]

17 minutes ago, IrishVilla10 said:

He shouldn’t be competing with bailey , Ings should be competing for ollies place up top 

Let's have both! As long as we find the best 3 . The point is that ollie can play in both position 

[Shirtman]

55 minutes ago, Dante_Lockhart said:

McGinn looked like the International version. As did Mings 

Yes, for me they were the pick of our players.

Great to get a win. Would have taken a draw at half-time

[ciggiesnbeer]

Mings was sensational for that second goal.  The work rate and the quality that late in the game. Love it.

[IrishVilla10]

3 minutes ago, skell said:

Let's have both! As long as we find the best 3 . The point is that ollie can play in both position 

Ollie definitely can yeah but Ings and Ollie shouldn’t be on the pitch at the same time, it hasn’t worked once this season. We didn’t need Ings to start with 

[Lochheads twin]

A very important win today. (it stops the rot and has extra significance when you see the other results at the bottom of the table)

• It's too early to see any noticeable changes but we got the job done.
• I was pleased to see Mings win some early ball in the air and hopefully he has now taken on responsibility to attack crosses at both ends.
• The back four were effective and looked more assured than of late but BHA don't have a real cutting edge to threaten given all that possession
• We still have the Ings /Watkins conundrum to solve. it's just not working and Ollie looked a disconsolate figure until Ings went off. There was no way he was passing even though AEG was wide open.
• Martinez did not have loads to do but did everything asked of him.
• Makamba was solid & held things together. I was pleased to see him on the teamsheet, given some pre-match rumours.
• Jury still out on Buendia but given that he has such an important role in this formation we need to see more influence on the game.
• Ashley Young looked good in the time he was on and played a super ball to Ollie.

A great start for Stevie G and the team, let's hope they can build on this when he gets a full squad and more time with the players at Bodymoor Heath. Today should have given him a fair representation of our limitations and the challenges ahead for him

UTV

p.s, Anthony Taylor was poor today, especially when it was not a difficult game to ref.

 

[rbcuk]

Game changed when they took lamptey off and went 4 at the back, much needed 3 points though