Brighton 0-2 Aston Villa: Ratings from another awful Amex afternoon
Brighton 0-2 Aston Villa was the second week running in which no Albion player scored higher than a six in the player ratings.
Once again, Solly March led the way with a marginally better score from the start than he had managed when coming off the bench in the crushing 3-0 home defeat to Burnley seven days earlier.
Robert Sanchez was not far behind – which tells you a lot about how this game went – but other than those two, it was another awful afternoon of football at the Amex.
One shot on target easily saved by Emiliano Martinez in the Villa goal. A toothless performance and some questionable defending against a Villa side who just seemed to want it more.
It was not what any Albion fan wanted to see after the effort made in getting to the Amex through rail replacement buses and crashes on the A23 which meant kick off being delayed by 30 minutes.
Here are your player ratings for Brighton 0-2 Aston Villa.
Robert Sanchez – 5.55
Not much he could do about either of the goals. The final score would have been far worse without his magnificent tip around the post from a Philippe Coutinho free kick and he also saved well in the first half from John McGinn.
Joel Veltman – 4.73
You know a team are in a slump when even their most dependable player starts making costly mistakes. Mr 7/10 completely misjudged a long pass from Tyrone Mings, allowing Ollie Watkins a sight of Sanchez’s goal which he duly took for Villa’s second to kill the game off.
Lewis Dunk – 5.18
Returned from suspension. Having looked rusty before his red card at Old Trafford, another week off seems to have done him no favours unsurprisingly. Needs to get back to match sharpness and fast.
Marc Cucurella – 5.18
How many Albion fans would have given their blessing to the sale of Dan Burn if they knew it would mean Cucurella having to play as a centre back? One of Brighton’s best attacking players has been severely blunted since Burn’s departure, making it little surprise that the Albion have failed to score in three Premier League matches out of four since Burn’s departure.
Tariq Lamptey – 5.18
Steven Gerrard had done his homework, doubling up on Lamptey and managing to keep him quiet for the most part. As good a player as he may be, he is not quite of the standard yet whereby he can take on two experienced defensive players and make them look silly as he does when going one-on-one at a defender.
Yves Bissouma – 4.09
Who thought they would see the day when Bissouma finished bottom of the player ratings, something he managed by some distance in Brighton 0-2 Aston Villa? With each passing game that he continues going through the motions, it looks more like he is off this summer. Nobody would begrudge him a move to a bigger and better club for his form over the past two seasons, but to down tools is not really acceptable.
Alexis Mac Allister – 5.00
Tried to get the Albion playing on the front foot. Had the best chance Brighton could muster all afternoon with a rising shot that clipped the top of the crossbar on its way into the stands. He should have put that on target at the very least.
SOLLY MARCH – 5.64
With Cucurella having more defensive duties placed on him, it has at least given March a chance to shine back in the starting XI. Top of the player ratings for the second game running, he created several good chances in Brighton 0-2 Aston Villa which his teammates failed to make the most of.
Jakub Moder – 5.00
A couple of nice touches but this was a below-par performance from a player who has been so dynamic in recent weeks. With war waging so close to his native Poland and his international teammate Tomasz Kedziora – who Cash revealed a message to after scoring – stuck in Kyiv, nobody could blame him if he was a little distracted.
Leandro Trossard – 4.64
It sometimes gets forgotten just how important Trossard is in terms of making things happen for Brighton. He never fired against Villa; couple that with a different type of creative outlet in Pascal Gross being left on the bench and you can see why the Albion struggled to create anything.
Neal Maupay – 4.73
How we miss the days when every post-game review featured numerous complaints about the chances being missed by Maupay. These days, he barely has a shot which is damning of the lack of service currently being given to the Albion front line.
Danny Welbeck – 4.64
Graham Potter’s only sub got on the end of a good March cross shortly after Villa had gone 2-0 ahead, only to put his header off target instead of taking a very real chance to half the deficit.
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.
