Ratings & Reactions: Southampton v Villa

[TheMightyVillans]

These are the same players Gerrard had to dumb down his tactics for because they couldn't take on all the information.

Emery probably giving them far more information than Gerrard ever gave them and they are clearly listening. 

Give Emery whatever he wants.

Edited January 21, 2023 by TheMightyVillans

[GingerCollins29]

10 minutes ago, Hiney said:

I've never felt as comfortable defending a lead as I do under Emery. 

Not the best performance, I think the ref was quite favourable to us but we did enough. 

Ref denied one, imo, stonewall pen and another one potentially

[Zatman]

11 points off the drop zone and just one behind Chelsea and Liverpool. I hope we try to reel in Brentford/Fulham in the next few weeks

[AvonVillain]

Even Danny Murphy thought Southampton's goal was rightly chalked off!

[MWARLEY2]

A clear idea of how things will be under this manager.i loved the first half and the first bit of the second. Then naturally ( because this team are used to flaking it historically they came back into it. Then they had bad luck and we had good luck and then we held them off really easily.

Martinez is looking in the form of his life. Confidence with no arrogance. 

Moreno was ok but he needs to get used to the pace and physicality. I am sure he will do . 

Ty and Konsa were flawless. Flawless. 

Ash passed really well and positioned hmself really well. 

Boubs and Dougie did their job today and stopped Lavia and Ward Prowse . 

Emi and JJ did ok. Nothing too great but their skillsets are a threat.

Ollie fought hard with little reward other than a goal and Leon had one of his games where nothing quite works. But he is still a threat in the game and pulled their players around .

I like Salisu. Very strong and committed. Kind of their version of Mings.

A lovely 3 points .Thank you very much 

Edited January 21, 2023 by MWARLEY2

[Lochheads twin]

A good team performance built on our rocks of  Emi - Mings - Kamara - Douglas and lots of graft by Ollie.

We seem more relaxed on the ball and everyone knows their jobs. Simples!

The whole defence looks good but it helps when Emi is on this level of form. Morena has settled in like he has been there all season, playing well up the pitch in the first half.

Ramsey is starting to look more like his old self after the injury. We do need to be more clinical and take some of the type of opportunities that we created in the first half. We have options allover the pitch except for the front 2 (and the keeper)

Lots to like. Big games to come but 3 points against Leicester will set us up nicely for the two heavyweight games against Citeh & Aresenal. We really will be able to judge progress after these 3.

Onwards & upwards. UTV!

 

Edited January 21, 2023 by Lochheads twin

[juanpablosaliceband]

11 minutes ago, icouldtelltheworld said:

I would be absolutely fuming if I was a Southampton fan right now. Big 3 points for us, thought we looked decent in the first half but that second half really was dire

Do you think they were hard done by though? I thought all the big decisions were right on both sides, although many were close calls. And we had the better of the play overall. 

[bose]

In Unai Emery Etxegoien we trust.

[Annoyman]

Martinez is embarking on the sweeper-keeper destiny where he eventually gets so high on his own supply he loses the ball on halfway attempting a Marseille roulette in a cup final. God bless him, and uh may it happen while playing for Argentina

Not a bad performance at all in context against a team that had put together a good run of results, luckily we're not Everton. Their fans were howling blue murder but they were surrendering possession in dangerous areas and committing too many fouls as a result; the big decisions were right, it was a clear foul for their goal even if barely anybody seemed to notice it wasn't given for a push, despite the player going down holding his ankle in pain immediately when he was in position to clear the ball. The first half pen shouts not given for us could have been given on another day but weren't travesties of justice or anything

Ashley Young, very tidy

Better performance than Leeds I think, I don't think we were lucky to win

Looks like it will be a nice entertaining MOTD later, which we will almost definitely be dead last on

 

 

 

 

 

[MakemineVanilla]

The quality of Villa's passing was excellent but missing so many chances was worrying.

Why they played Ward-Prowse so far forward was beyond me, he's just too slow to press and was too often isolated.

 

 

[Vive_La_Villa]

8 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

Blatant push in the back - a foul is a foul. We should have had a penalty too .

overall Easy win although one or two sloppy moments and we need to be sharper with our chances. Glad Ollie scored. 

I think it was soft but we definitely deserved the win and agree we should have had a pen. 

[Zhan_Zhuang]

1 minute ago, Zatman said:

11 points off the drop zone and just one behind Chelsea and Liverpool. I hope we try to reel in Brentford/Fulham in the next few weeks

We still have to play them both too towards the end of the season, well Brighton is our last home game. Could be crucial to finishing above them.

I do fancy us now to catch them both, but we may have a blip come February....

[Pongo's Socks]

10 minutes ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said:

Madonna looking good for her age

[Farlz]

A bit different to the past league games where I thought everything up until the ball got to the final third was great today. Our attacking players really aren't it right now and it's a bit of a concern. Making very hard work of games we should be comfortable in. 

At the risk of being shot down I do think we've been quite fortunate with these wins lately, never really convincing at all and I doubt we'll keep up with it but for now it's working so we'll take it. 

Definitely need a new attacker in by Leicester.

[HKP90]

3 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

We didn't play well, particularly going forward, but our shape is good, we're organised and we're difficult to break down - we've become a hard team to beat.

This manager is the real deal; imagine us when we play well, imagine us with a little more quality in the front four. We're on the bottom step of something that could be very exciting.

I thought the four in the middle of the park, Mings, Konsa, Kamara and Luiz were excellent again, the box shape those four make is our strength. Moreno looked a little lightweight at times but Ashley Young was rock solid and Martinez was brilliant, both in stopping shots and in being quick off his line.

In front of that we've got difficulty, Bailey just isn't firing, Watkins got the goal but seems to struggle to get into shooting positions, Ramsey isn't involved enough and Buendia's forward passing was awful. Coutinho didn't add much and we're short of any other options.

We'll strengthen, we'll add and we'll improve, I have no doubt about that - but the pleasing thing is that the strengths we do have, and the tactical awareness and coaching ability of this manager, mean that we can still win games while we do. 

It's a good win, a dog average performance, a wonderful three points and another step along a process that could end up in some very special places.

I'll take that.

Agree wholeheartedly with all of this

[Jas10]

 

[fightoffyour]

3 minutes ago, Nigel said:

16 points out of a possible 21. Champions league form.

It’s title winning form pre-City era

[Jas10]

 

[Nigel]

We had 72% possession in that first half

....I cant count that high!

[1974Centenary]

13 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I think we made hard work of that. Were in control and on top enough to win comfortably. VAR also let us off too as was never a foul for me.
 

Can see the confidence of the players growing though. So great passing at times. 
 

Another 3 points. This is starting to feel weird. 

it was