Aston Villa 2 Brighton 2 Post Match Thread.

[brontebilly]

Konsa at right back has become a hologram in defence and where the ball goes to die in attack. Maybe it works against teams who dominate possession against us but today showed exactly the sort of game where it doesn’t work.

Barkley should have been on straight after Tielemans lung busting run forward that finished him completely. We didn’t do enough in the final third to create chances and it always looked likely they’d get another once Mitoma came on to target our right side.

Maybe Tielemans needs to work on his stamina? Hardly broke sweat at Newcastle and blowing out his arse tonight in second half...

Don't think he has ever been described as having a decent engine.

Which is an issue, if we're intent on making him the fulcrum of the side (which Emery seems set on).

He has quality. But needs to be rested and rotated to a far greater extent than Douglas Luiz, for example.

He started the season very well but he has regressed rapidly to the show pony I feared he would be playing in that position. It's not as if Emery doesn't have other options, I was against Barkley resigning but if he can't be trusted at home to Brighton over Xmas then no point having him in the squad. Onana is our record signing and surely could have played tonight. That midfield picked tonight was unbalanced.

Show pony? You're talking directly out of your arse here. He's created one of the highest amounts of chances in the league this season and has been one of our most consistent and best performers. He looked leggy tonight and has played a lot of football recently owing to Onanas injury

He has been rubbish in that position for weeks.

[stevo_st]

Subs were too late. Should have responded to their three subs much sooner.
Thought Konsa was okay up until Mitoma came on.
Watkins did well playing off the last man, chance at the end was a difficult one, but the header before it looked like he should have done better with.
McGinn was shit on the right, wonder if it would have been better bringing on Philogene on for Bailey to keep the shape better.
Hope Pau isn’t out for too long

[ChicagoLion]

It’s really simple for me, unless Unai can work out a way to do something different with how we play defensively ( I don’t mean personnel, although that’s a factor, I mean more how the whole system functions back to front and vice versa) we have maxed out. We will not go on a sequence of wins because we simply concede too many goals for the attack to compensate.

Agree, and the worry is that he does not seem to know how to fix it.
Also of concern is his lack of in game management, as the second half progressed our midfield was slowing and their intensity increasing. He did nothing to arrest this.

[aj2k77]

It’s really simple for me, unless Unai can work out a way to do something different with how we play defensively ( I don’t mean personnel, although that’s a factor, I mean more how the whole system functions back to front and vice versa) we have maxed out. We will not go on a sequence of wins because we simply concede too many goals for the attack to compensate.

Agree, and the worry is that he does not seem to know how to fix it.
Also of concern is his lack of in game management, as the second half progressed our midfield was slowing and their intensity increasing. He did nothing to arrest this.

The defence has conceded 65 goals in the 37 games this calendar year. Whatever videos they're watching before games, it isn't working. The defence is a long standing problem that will make it impossible for us to progress unless it's rectified. You aren't going to win many games 3-2.

[RamboandBruno]

Subs were too late. Should have responded to their three subs much sooner.
Thought Konsa was okay up until Mitoma came on.
Watkins did well playing off the last man, chance at the end was a difficult one, but the header before it looked like he should have done better with.
McGinn was shit on the right, wonder if it would have been better bringing on Philogene on for Bailey to keep the shape better.
Hope Pau isn’t out for too long

McGinn wasn’t shit at all, one of our best players on the night

[VillaTim]

Torres is the elephant in the room central defensively . Konsa simply isn't a RB , why Emery keeps playing him there is bizarre . Emery is supposed to be meticulous around planning , stats etc but that notion seems juxtaposed to our defence and its performance. Stubbornness? We've seen many mangers before who become blinkered and refuse to accept their errors and correct them .

[tomd2103]

Frustrating one that.  Maybe could have won it, maybe could have lost it, so guess a draw isn't the worst result.  Thought we had a chance to push on and take the game away from them for a period when we went 2-1 up, but there were just too many mixed bag performances to gain any real control over the game. 

I thought we looked a bit jaded by the end and the January fixture list looks quite daunting with three midweek fixtures in a row during the month.  Not sure which genius thought it would be a good idea to throw a round of league fixtures in the calendar the week starting the 13th January. 

[ROBBO]

Bailey has lost a lot of his pace, yes he was better but on both wings we need more speed.
We looked far better playing a high defensive line last season, why Emery changed the style of play i'm not sure but then, every defender knew what he had to do. We played some nice football but we have become erratic. The high through ball seemed to terrify our backline.

[RamboandBruno]

Torres is the elephant in the room central defensively . Konsa simply isn't a RB , why Emery keeps playing him there is bizarre . Emery is supposed to be meticulous around planning , stats etc but that notion seems juxtaposed to our defence and its performance. Stubbornness? We've seen many mangers before who become blinkered and refuse to accept their errors and correct them .

And yet Torres played about 10 mins today, so how do you account for the last twenty minutes. You’ve bern banging on about Mings In numerous threads for weeks, but as much as he didn’t do badly at all, there was no obvious  difference.   

[VillaTim]

Torres is the elephant in the room central defensively . Konsa simply isn't a RB , why Emery keeps playing him there is bizarre . Emery is supposed to be meticulous around planning , stats etc but that notion seems juxtaposed to our defence and its performance. Stubbornness? We've seen many mangers before who become blinkered and refuse to accept their errors and correct them .

And yet Torres played about 10 mins today, so how do you account for the last twenty minutes. You’ve bern banging on about Mings In numerous threads for weeks, but as much as he didn’t do badly at all, there was no obvious  difference.

Needs to be Konsa Mings in the middle . We also need to give Mings a few weeks to get fully up,to match speed . When he came on today he made an immediate impact after the extremely shaky start .

[brontebilly]

Mings yellow was crazy really and filthy on Pedro. Was there a collision between them beforehand? Just seemed very strange

[eamonn]

Didn't see the game but followed through the BBC Live Text on their website. From the hour mark, it seemed a Brighton equaliser was inevitable especially after they made 3 changes. Again, Emery's subs are too late.

How did JJ do by the way?

[dorsetvillian]

So frustrating to throw away another 3 points when we dominated for such large periods if the game. Uni was slow to bring on the Villa subs as we started to loose some control after the Brighton changes. Common threads tonight though were Konsa should not play at right back. He was awful. Another goal against from our opponents first effort on goal. Another late goal let in to let slip 3 points from a winning position.

[tony scott]

Strange game they pressed us quite well and you could sense they would get opportunities to score ,I think most teams know if they press us we lose our concentration this is a huge issue when we are constantly playing out from the back.  Can Unai and the coaching team fix it or will our Season just fizzle out.  Not enough CBs now surely it’s Courtney’s time.

[PaulWinch again]

As much as Tim, and some others, steadfastly stick to the view there is a single combination of defensive players that fix our issues, there just isn’t. That’s not to say Mings isn’t a good player - but all of the defensive players have shown they can play to a good level in the Premier League. It gets dismissed, because it was last year but Pau, DC, Konsa, and Cash were all playing when we were really good last year. The issue is that since then the whole defensive system, across the team has collapsed. You can spin up all the narratives around Pau or whoever you want (Mings will be next in a few weeks when he’s made some errors) but basically the system is exposing individual flaws/errors rather than accentuating strengths. Shuffling deck chairs won’t meaningfully change it, beyond some incremental short-term changes. Unai has to work out a way to get the team defending as a team rather than a group of disjointed individuals.