Aston Villa 2-0 Brighton: Lamptey and Steele positives in player ratings
Well, that was all rather disappointing. Graham Potter marked his 100th game in charge of Brighton with a 2-0 defeat against Steve Gerrard who was enjoying his first game in charge of Aston Villa – and our player ratings tell you what a poor performance the Albion put in.
Other than Tariq Lamptey and Jason Steele, nobody scored above a seven in a toothless attacking display. Brighton recorded 63 possession and yet registered an xG of only 0.29, the lowest of any top flight club on Saturday.
The problem was Potter’s team selection compounded by his substitutions. The Albion named no natural centre forward, instead opting to continue with Leandro Trossard as a false nine.
On several occasions, Lamptey and the progressive Marc Cucurella flashed crosses into the box for nobody to get on the end of.
A genuine striker like Neal Maupay would at least have put themselves in the position to have a shot on goal from such a scenario.
Sure, Maupay might have missed, but that is still better than seeing a ball harmlessly zip across the opposition goal.
Potter then hauled Cucurella and Lamptey, withdrawing Brighton’s main attacking threats by the time he finally introduced Maupay.
Without the outstanding Lamptey on the pitch, the scoreline went from Aston Villa 0-0 Brighton to Aston Villa 2-0 Brighton in the space of 11 minutes.
There can be no doubt that this was a point chucked away. Potter would have been worthy of a very low score if we did manager ratings for Aston Villa 2-0 Brighton. Thankfully for the Albion boss, we only do player ratings – which are as follows…
Jason Steele – 7.00
Nobody was quite sure how his Premier League debut at the age of 31 would go. A repeat of the performance against Newport County in which he resembled a Sunday League goalkeeper playing after 17 pints of Stella? Or more of the heroics he then produced in the shoot out at Rodney Parade in saving four penalties? It turned out to be the latter as he made three superb stops to prevent the scoreline becoming embarrassing.
Adam Webster – 6.29
His first Premier League start since injury and as we well know, it often takes him a while to shake the ring rust and get up and running. Never managed to stride forward and start attacks in his normal manner, which may explain why Brighton were a little blunt going forward – other than the obvious lack of striker.
Shane Duffy – 6.29
Did reasonably well against Danny Ings who has so often been a thorn in the Albion’s side. Not as much as a threat from attacking set pieces as we have seen so far this season which, whisper it quietly, might be because Tyrone Mings is not the donkey a lot of Brighton fans believe him to be.
Lewis Dunk – 6.43
The highest scoring member of the back three in the Aston Villa 2-0 Brighton ratings. Good against Ollie Watkins and tried to get the Albion going when he had his foot on the ball. He is in good form right now.
TARIQ LAMPTEY – 7.43
In a game lacking in quality, he was the best player on the pitch from both sides by some distance. Gave Matt Targett a torrid afternoon with numerous rampaging runs forward and came close to scoring when forcing Emiliano Martinez into an excellent save. Withdrawn with 11 minutes to go and in that time, Brighton went from being about to comfortably earn a point to losing 2-0.
Yves Bissouma – 6.86
Getting back to his best following that month long layoff with injury. Played a huge role in helping to quieten the Villa Park crowd after the hosts had attempted to make a fast start, consistently breaking up attacks and spraying the ball to Lamptey and Marc Cucurella. Not urged to shoot as much either, which probably helped him concentrate more on his game.
Jakub Moder – 6.14
Involved in the Albion’s two best chances of the match which fell to Leandro Trossard and Lamptey in the final five minutes of the first half. Even so, it felt like he could have imposed himself more on proceedings – especially given the amount of ground he covers.
Marc Cucurella – 6.29
Good going forward and he might have had a couple of assists had Potter opted to play an actual striker to get onto his dangerous crosses into the box. He struggled though to halt the runs from right back of Villa’s new Poland international Matty Cash, including when Cash drew a fine save from Steele with a header in the opening 10 minutes.
Adam Lallana – 5.29
A quiet game by the midfielder’s high standards, reflected by the fact that Aston Villa 2-0 Brighton was his lowest player ratings score of the season. Good in possession but there was none of the incision which normally makes him such a joy to watch.
Pascal Gross – 5.43
Kept the ball nicely but it was hard to tell what exactly what his role was meant to be with Potter cramming four central midfielders into his team. Switched to right wing back once Lamptey was withdrawn, a very strange decision.
Leandro Trossard – 5.86
A false nine might work against Liverpool and Manchester City but we now know it does not when Brighton are up against strugglers like Newcastle United and Villa. Buzzed around, drew a good save from Martinez but he really needed an out-and-out, genuine striker alongside him.
Solly March – 5.00
Struggled to get into the game in an attacking sense when introduced for Cucurella. Did at least stop Cash being such a threat coming forward.
Neal Maupay – 4.29
From WAB Player of the Month in September to barely getting a look in November. Everyone could see that Brighton were crying out for a centre forward, so Potter chucks him on with 11 minutes to go having hauled the Albion’s two most dangerous attacking outlets in Lamptey and Cucurella. Bizarre management.
The WAB Player Ratings are formulated using marks out of 10 given by Brighton fans via Twitter. To have your scores included, follow We Are Brighton on Twitter and look out for the player rating thread after each game.
