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**********Thee Unofficial Brighton & Hove Albion v Aston Villa Match day Thread**********



Easy 10

Brain dead MUG SHEEP
Jul 5, 2003
61,647
Location Location
As I said elsewhere, I think if Grealish and Ayew had started instead of the (anonymous) Gardner and Agbonlahore, we would not have survived that.
 

Nixonator

Well-known member
Feb 8, 2016
6,733
Shoreham Beach
They pressed high as we sent diagonals to our right wing for 90 mins. Neither team were particularly good in posession.

Gave them way too much respect. Sure they have some gamechanging players at their disposal but when you offset that with Gabby Agbonglahor, Gary Gardener and Alan Hutton, who has 2 moves (one of which is punt it in the stands) we should have exploited their weaknesses far more effectively. And christ, Nathan ****ing Baker, wasn't he at Bristol City last season as we dispatched 4 past them?

Bruce has made a big difference there no doubt, but we looked deflated, which is a concern with the timing of the CC fiasco.
 

NooBHA

Well-known member
Jan 13, 2015
8,584
I think some posts are slightly over critical of the players tonight.

Villa pressed really well, they kept their shape defensively and gave very little away. Their No 22 was on top of Stpehens within seconds of him receiving the ball and that restricted us being able to play through the Midfield. I thought Sidwell played well but he doesn't create the angles which Kayal does to be able to pass our way through a team which close down as well as they did.

They also constantly pressed both our centre backs and full backs but Duffy, Dunk and Bruno stayed calm and kept position really well out of defence despite the pressure. Bong less so.

They did a real good job on our creative players but I don't think we played badly, our opponents just defended well against us. Villa are no great shakes creatively. Yes they defended well against us and kept their shape brilliantly but apart form the odd occasion which you would expect from a team costing what they have done, they rarely opened us up too much either.

A point is a fair result tonight but there is a lot more to come from us creatively but I don't see Villa being any better than they were tonight. They will lose very few more games this season but we will win more than them between now and next May. We have a decent point gap between us both at the moment and I don't think that Villa will win 4 more games than us between now and the end of the season.

They have got play offs written all over them. We have more of a cutting edge than they do. Not a great performance from us but not so many teams are as good defensively as Villa are so I am really encouraged by what I saw tonight despite not being at our best.

And finally a really lovely touch by Chris and Knocky tonight when he took him off - Gave each other a big hug and Chris very seldom does that when a player comes off - especially sine twice in the space of 5 mins just prior to that he was bollocking him for switching off when they took a couple of short corners and he hadn't gone out to cover his man he should have marked.

Really nice touch by both of them that they can switch from one extreme to the other - with each other.
 


Stat Brother

Well-known member
NSC Licker Extraordinaire
Jul 11, 2003
73,270
West west west Sussex
I thought last night was the first game the team properly missed Kayal.

The fact that it's mid November means I'm happy with that, assuming it's not the first of many.
 

Peter Grummit

Well-known member
Oct 13, 2004
6,769
Lewes
Credit to Villa, we knew they had some talented players but Bruce has them working hard and pointing in the same direction - in marked contrast to Norwich. Couldn't fail to be impressed by Grealish, not least his decision making.

Our talisman Knocky seemed to be almost trying too hard and things didn't go for him. His decision making was frustrating.

Truth is we can't win every game, and this may turn out to be one of the better ones to have drawn. A huge long way to go, but after last season we would all be keen not to have to get something up there on May 7th.

PG

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
 


neilbard

Hedging up
Oct 8, 2013
6,245
Tyringham
Probably worst I have seen us play all season both sides huffed and puffed Villa pressed us high our midfield was non existent at times passing was poor! I didn't think Villa looked anything special considering all the cash they have spent we never got going I would put it down as a bad day at the office and move on!
 
Feb 23, 2009
22,772
Brighton factually.....
Well there goes my 100% win record starting a match day thread, although it felt like a win when the final whistle went. Very happy with a point keeps that confidence high which is all important.
 



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