Ratings & Reactions: Brighton v Villa

[Woody1000]

I don’t think there is any need for any point scoring over who has said what during our poor recent run, let’s just enjoy the fact we’ve won today and an away win at that. 

[picicata]

1 hour ago, sheepyvillian said:

The sad thing is, you're probably not wrong. 

Really? I suspect there are a couple of posters not happy and that's because they are not actually Villa fans. I suspect those who have doubts about Gerrard as a manager are still very happy with the result. I know I am.

I thought we were better than average without ever being really good and, thankfully, today better than average was good enough to beat Brighton. Onwards and upwards. McGinn MotM.

[punkiller1981]

1 hour ago, OutByEaster? said:

 

Two Villa players were booked for this incident.

Thoughts and prayers are with Cucurella who bravely played on despite the pain/shame.

Sums up the refs in this league that a shambles like that ended with two Villa players getting booked for Watkins getting an elbow in the throat. Shit refs making shit decisions again in real time and television 

[sparrow1988]

1 hour ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Hope those hammering him pre game for his team selection can now acknowledge he got it right.

I think that Zatman was in before the final whistle actually

[Thug]

1 hour ago, Xela said:

Some of the pre game comments were embarrassing. I learnt my lesson in the past - don't comment on the selection until after the game!  

 

Haha you’re so right!

 

I was tempted to say wtf?? But I held off.

 

[fruitvilla]

17 minutes ago, Woody1000 said:

I don’t think there is any need for any point scoring over who has said what during our poor recent run, let’s just enjoy the fact we’ve won today and an away win at that. 

God you are so negative, you did not even mention the clean sheet!

[srsmithusa]

I understand the different line-up and strategy today.  SG needed to change something to get a win.  But (and  I'm cringing in advance of the response this will get here).  I thought the last few matches had shown some sharp incisive passing to create great positions for our attacking players.  I think that's more how we should play and how SG wants us to play.  But we were let down by really poor finishing and mental lapses in defense.  He changed it up, the lapses were fewer and not as costly.  We finished a couple, but the overall play was less impressive, less incisive than it had been the past few matches.  So adjusting to get three points I can support.  But I hope he work to get the more incisive passing from the past few weeks back into the play - and i think that means Watkins up front with Coutinho and Buendia tucked in narrow behind him.

 

And while I'm unpopular.  A referee on his third Premier League match knows he's being watched.  He will always follow the book on things like shirts removed.  He will also always try to control the match without making any big, critical calls.  (Cuco clearly deserved a second yellow from the Elbow on Watkins,  but a referee trying to prove himself is never going to make that call as it makes him too controversial, too critical to the match outcome.  I'm not saying it should be that way.  I'm just saying it is that way.  

 

[Zhan_Zhuang]

Thought we deserved a win, especially after the last few results.

Southampton next, we need another win and then top ten is on!

UTV

[tomav84]

Decent performance vs one of the poorest teams we've played this season 

[chappy]

McGinn MOTM. Thought everyone had a decent day actually. Nice goals by Cash and Watkins. Important win to end our bad run. Think Soton will be a tougher test but we can handle it. We definitely looked better than in recent games, weird that taking out Buendia did that, as he’s been one of the brighter sparks.

[bannedfromHandV]

1 hour ago, ender4 said:

I’m confused.   We lose a 2 goal lead to Leeds at home, play awful against Newcastle and lose at home to Watford.  
 

However, we can easily beat Brighton away, Everton away and draw with Man Utd. 
 

It feels like we are close to being a really good team, but also close to being a really bad team!

The definition of midtable.

Good performance today from everyone, fingers crossed we can follow it up next week, Southampton are streaky so hopefully we can begin the end of their good form.

[jim]

I had faith

 

[Mantis]

Very competent performance. Didn't really look troubled at all after we'd weathered the first 10 minutes or so.

[thunderball]

There’s a lot of poor/underperforming teams in this division this season (we are one), it’s a miracle that we are where we are in the table considering we have lost more than half our games. We showed more spirit today and managed a 90 minutes performance too. Hopefully this is the corner turned and we see a steady improvement. With our squad and resources we really should be top 7 this season. 

Still not sure we create enough nor use our forwards very well. Midfield is still a bit of an uncertain muddle too. Still

Still lots to do I think, but at least the dog didn’t get a kick today….

[Adam2003]

3 hours ago, TomC said:

A thought: Are we better off playing as a counter-attacking team?

We always have been, at least in the 30+ years I’ve been watching.

[Louis]

I was listening to BBC Radio Sussex today as I was down in West Sussex. It sounded like we were playing quite good. Good to hear Warren Aspinall as the co commentator.

[Brumstopdogs]

 

[roonst83]

Much much needed win. We actually dominated the play more than I expected as Brighton are usually good at dictating play. Game was very scrappy but once we took the lead we calmed down more and looked more assured. That said, Brighton we’re woeful and didn’t really threaten us atall. 

McGinn was man of the match but a country mile and, crucially, he was involved for the full 90mins which hasn’t been the case for a while. Broke up play and drove us forward so much. Really good to see. 

Really pleased with the Watkins goal but thought he was mostly poor aside from the very good finish. That goal reminded me of the ones he’d score last season. And look how much it meant to him. Good to see Ings going nuts with Ollie too. Love to see that. 

Great to have Konsa back too. Love his aggression and passion. Think he brings the best out of Mings too. We looked much more solid than recently and comfortable at the back. 

I must say I thought our in-game management wasn’t the best after going 0-2 up. Hard to say as we saw out the win with a clean sheet but we completely dropped off and our poorest period of play was after we scored until the end. I never fancy Ashley Young starting as he doesn’t offer us much but he didn’t do much wrong. I just feel a better team than Brighton would punish us. 

The ref really didn’t have a grip on the game. But our yellow cards were mostly completely unnecessary, as they often are. But we showed great discipline in the second half and controlled ourselves well. 

Coutinho showed moments of class with flicks and tricks but wasn’t too effective for us overall. Ramsay showed quality in the first half but didn’t notice him second half atall. 

But we got a much needed win and after last week it’s more than I thought we’d get. Makes you wonder what’s been happening these last few weeks against the likes of Newcastle, Leeds and Watford. If we’d kept things more simple as we did today we could’ve taken more points. 

Big win today and hope we can start to push on and take confidence from a clean sheet and comfortable win. 

[Marka Ragnos]

3 hours ago, ciggiesnbeer said:

Spot on.

English refereeing needs reform badly.   I watch German, Spanish and Italian football. They all have competent referees who make rare mistakes. When they do VAR helps the ref address them. In England competent refs are rare and VAR adds to the errors they make not help. It really is ridiculous. 

I guess I wonder where the ref system gets it wrong in the FA. It’s a whole topic unto itself. There are clear paths up through the system, and so many good young people getting into training courses, but somewhere up the long path the quality fails. 

[Brumstopdogs]