Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Match Threads & Player Ratings => Topic started by: Legion on August 24, 2013, 10:50:36 AM
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Available Saturday night @7:15pm.
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Oh well, if its any consolation we're only conceding 1 goal a game instead of 4.
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On the plus side we've got 3 weeks to sort ourselves out and get ready to batter Newcastle.
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Disappointing flat performance.
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Poor 1st half , much better 2nd , maybe deserved a point but would have taken 3 points from these 3 games and a zero goal diff before the season started - we do need to beat newcastle though next game .
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Bacuna looks absolutely dreadful. Truly awful.
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just like last season at home no cutting edge , not enough quality
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Very very very poor.
For how many years now are we avoid of ideas on opening up game without relying on counter attack.
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I cannot post, I am "beating the traffic across Perpignan".
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This should tell the club and especially Lambert that we need to buy a different type of player when we need to force the issue and create chances at home.
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Almost looks like we're relying on Benteke every single game to pull some magic out. When it doesn't happen we look less than ordinary.
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Hopefully Lambert will have seen, laid bare, our need for a more creative player in midfield. Westwood and KEA are good as metronomes in midfield but you only really need one, Delph is a fixture with his dynamism but there's not enough creativity and there's not enough technicality on the ball.
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Our home fans have had an awful few years. Flip sake.
That was poor but teams that finish top six would have scraped a point with those chances. We didn't. We are still a fair bit off that.
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Bacuna looks absolutely dreadful. Truly awful.
I have no idea why you would say that-he looks a good player to me-strong on the ball and likes to go forward. yes-he gave the ball away but he will get better. Good second half-deserved a point but didn't threaten a nervous looking keeper enough. Home jitters methinks.
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Liverpool aren't up to much. Bad defeat.
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We need a different style of play at home, learn to keep possession and not give the ball away so easily.
Liverpool were not that much better than Villa overall, but we were so crap in the first half.
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We do struggle to break down teams , Liverpool were happy to protect the lead and we failed to break them down enough - Liverpool will not be challenging for top 4 in my view, 6th at best.
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we still need that Merson type
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Didn't think we were as good as we could have been. Our players seemed to take a poor or wrong touch too often. In spite of that we had a good few chances to get an equaliser where with more skill or better decision making from our players would have got us a point.
Delph and Okore impressed me. Bacuna had a great workrate and tackled well but passes like NRC.
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Bacuna looks absolutely dreadful. Truly awful.
Give him a chance.
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Villa, go get that Kiyotake. Let's go for it this season, lets take things to the next level.
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Disappointing flat performance.
I think 'flat' is a good word to describe it. If anything I think it shows me might be feeling the effects of the rapid succession of our opening fixtures, I'm not too worried yet.
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I found the match thread quite depressing today. We've out-played Arsenal and Chelsea and come up short against a team who made one clear chance and scored with a really well taken goal. It was it was a bit of an anti climax today but I think far from a disaster.
Liverpool are a similar side to us in that they are better away from home and have some dangerous players in their side. They will be 6th or 7th I reckon. Same with us.
I think we need to remember that we've played 3 really good teams this week. We have deserved 2 wins and a point today. We come away with 3 which, while disappointing, is still respectable. SHame we have to wait for another game. I'm still really exited about this season.
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Oh well, we go again.
3 points from first week, not so bad.
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Poor team selection, tactics and performance against a decent top half side. Too many players with leaden boots first half, second half an improvement but our strikers need to take their chances when they get them.
Jores was a class above anybody else on the pitch. He makes the game look extremely easy.
Lots of work to be done.
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Well, as long as we can put 4 past Rotherham next week then that will wipe away the misery of this dire game.
We keep going!
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Ill go with home game nerves, pushing it too much too early.
We will get over this, but after the first two games it would have been in-Villa like to have won this.
Gerrard and Lucas won the game for them, protecting the defence
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First half did for us and inability to keep the ball. We huffed and puffed but it was very hit and hope at times. Disappointed in AW so far this season, needs to contribute and midfield needs a bit more. Defence does look stronger though.
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Had we got a deserved point at Chelsea, 4 points would have been a good return from these 3 games. As it is it just feels disappointing which is cause for some optimism in a bizarre way given who we had to play to start the season.
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I have to admit before the season kicked off I had us down for zero points and conceding about 7.
It's better than I thought so its some kind of positive.
Evolution not revolution.
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3 points v Chelsea and Arsenal away and Liverpool at home is still acceptable IMO
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We must stop this starting games playing counter attack. We were the home team against a beatable Liverpool. They had one shot on target all game.
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I do feel for the season ticket holders . we dont win much . maybe it was the 3 games in a week , I dont know.
we just looked like last season
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We must stop this starting games playing counter attack. We were the home team against a beatable Liverpool. They had one shot on target all game.
Agreed. It's great to be such a threat on the counter, and if they're on top and there's a break on sure, go for it, but aiming for that as your tactic is a little MONish.
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Liverpool aren't up to much. Bad defeat.
Playing us on the back of our exertions at Chelsea and Arsenal was a lucky break for them. We seemed a bit flat and lacking in energy and I think our first two matches being crammed into four days was a large factor behind that.
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We must stop this starting games playing counter attack. We were the home team against a beatable Liverpool. They had one shot on target all game.
Spot on. All I've heard/read this week is how we're a counter attacking side. There's far more to us than that but first half it seems the players forgot.
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No pace, tempo, ideas or ambition first half which wasn't helped by the fact Liverpool held onto the ball so well. A lot more huff and puff second half but like so many home displays against the Sky 4 it just wasn't good enough. As much as we threatened, Liverpool still didn't really have to break much of a sweat despite looking an average side on paper. On the plus side Luna again played well, I thought Helenius and Tonev gave a bit more to the side in terms of ideas and threat and there are a lot of teams worse than Liverpool still to play at Villa Park. We need a plan B and to vary it up a bit. Disappointing and I hate losing at home so often to these Sky 4 teams but we've still got more points than I expected before the season started.
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Deserved a point Delph man of the match by a long way. Andi was poor again.
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Yeah, i think tonight proves we need a no 10 player, to break teams down.We rely too much on Benteke.
On the positives, i thought Luna, and Delph played well, despite his rustiness, Okores and his pace gives me reassurace at the back.Vlaar was steady, and KEA made a difference.Gabby had his moments, Weimann not so many.
On reflection, it probably was'nt the game to introduce Bacuna, he looked nervous and hesitant, although he did play better in the 2nd half.The one consilation is i thought Lplop, for all the money they have spent, were shit.
We need to play a pressing game, and when we get the ball, keep it better, partic at home, maybe the 3 games in a week caught up with us.
I expected a max of 1 point from the first 3 games, so we are 2 points better of.PL can use this defeat to manage expectations, and maybe get a bit more money for one or twon signings.I think Chelsk are a better team than us, as i think are Arse, don't think Lplop are.
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lost to another nothing goal, annoying.
Okore looks the part. Pretty happy with what I've seen so far. We are a decent team.
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Hmm. Just listening to Rodgers talking about the game and he's more or less confirmed what I thought. He's set his team out to play quite deep to counter our, er, countering. I think they did their job very well, Liverpool, and to be honest I think the unspoken thing there is the idea that we probably wouldn't be able to get through them very effectively.
It's precisely the problem that has done for us over the last few years and I will be genuinely disappointed if Lambert doesn't start to do something more to address it.
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I dont care what the scousers say, that's as poor a Liverpool side as I can ever remember seeing. Which makes the defeat all the more difficult to take.
We lack inventiveness and the pace and running off the ball we saw in the last two games was completely devoid.
Happily we look better organised defensively and Guzan had virtually nothing to do.
On the downside, I thought Bacuna had a shocker. I hope it was down to nerves and not a true indication of his talents.
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Liverpool won't finish above either arsenal or spurs in my opinion - the words dominating the game from redknapp and co ? They had 1 shot on target in 90 mins - villa 17 shots to their 5 , 3 on target to their one and 8 corners to their two- hardly dominated - after 30 mins we were the better team.
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Not too downhearted, we're are a work in progress and despite, for the third match in a row, a really slow start we had a go. We're not quite there and won't be for a while.
The opposition were poor considering their expectations but, from my view in the pub, the grandstanding from Sky regarding Liverpool was appalling. The goal was exceptional but to give Sturridge MOM was bias beyond the pale and I don't care who Smith supports, it's who pays him that counts and to ignore the contributions of both Delph and Gerrard was pathetic.
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Still, there are positives, too; I thought our back line looked about as composed as I've seen them under Lambert. I wonder how much is down to Okore playing? We also looked pretty assured versus Chelsea after he came on.
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Liverpool won't finish above either arsenal or spurs in my opinion - the words dominating the game from redknapp and co ? They had 1 shot on target in 90 mins - villa 17 shots to their 5 , 3 on target to their one and 8 corners to their two- hardly dominated - after 30 mins we were the better team.
Agree. We were well below par but still had more than enough chances to take at least a point, so they are clearly not all that.
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We looked a bit tired, inevitably so after the two games this week. Not sure I agree with some of the negativity around here, Liverpool were very well organised and strangled our attempts to play, numerous times they had about 8 men bunched up in the area to stop us getting anything. Delph and Luna both looked very good and I'm looking forward to seeing more of Tonev. All in all I don't think we can complain too much after these first three games and I still think we'll finish comfortably in the top half.
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And I think a few were tired, there just wasn't the movement today, especially players making runs to create space.
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We are missing a special player to help Benteke. As much as there is a lot of potential in the side we need at least one more established player to take some of the burden off the midfield and off Benteke. If he isn't at the top of his game we look quite lost at times.
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Surprised at some of the comments. Yes we know we need a play-maker but it's a while since Ive seen us dominate a top 6 side so much in one half. Tough 3 games in 7 days..we looked jaded. Our season starts now......
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As with Arsenal & Chelsea, we started poorly. 2nd half in both games we've shown just how good we can be. We just need to go out confident and ready.
Not a big fan of Tonev, little too greedy for my liking.
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Bacuna looks absolutely dreadful. Truly awful.
I have no idea why you would say that-he looks a good player to me-strong on the ball and likes to go forward. yes-he gave the ball away but he will get better. Good second half-deserved a point but didn't threaten a nervous looking keeper enough. Home jitters methinks.
He had a tough player to deal as well with Coutinho and had very little help in the first half from Weimann and Lowton. He worked hard and showed energy (not many did that in first half).
Needs a few more chances to prove himself. It also looked better in the 2nd half. Almost equalized the possesion in the end (and that was like 25-75 in first so reversed in 2nd).
If only Bentekes final chance had resulted... Its nice to see that Helenious can offer those airial touches. It opens new options even if it didnt happen today.
In honesty I feel Liverpool in the first half was better then Chelsea and definitely Arsenal. Next one will be easier. Newcastle looked harmless today against Hammers. Thats got to be 3 points!
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We are missing a special player to help Benteke. As much as there is a lot of potential in the side we need at least one more established player to take some of the burden off the midfield and off Benteke. If he isn't at the top of his game we look quite lost at times.
Weimann needs to step up soon. He's no longer a goal threat, not helped by playing out wide but when the ball is on the left, he really should be getting into the box more.
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I liked the look of Tonev as well. Single minded, not afraid to shoot and take players on and looked to attack the defenders when he could...
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Bacuna looks absolutely dreadful. Truly awful.
Give him a chance.
I agree he looked awful. I'm not saying I will now assume he will be awful for ever, just that in this particular game at times he didn't look like a professional footballer.
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Poor game. God our home fans suffer dont they? :)
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Think PL got it wrong by starting 4-4-2, their midfield ran the show and it was only when he changed near the end of the half that we started to get into the game. Thought the defence was good, Luna was my MOTM and Okore and Vlar were strong. Delph was ok, grew into the game the longer it went on, Westwood didnt have a good game and the front 3 werent at their best by a long way, thought Toure was excellent for the scousers. Bacuna was poor, but lets give the lad a chance, showed energy but looked nervous. Even in a poor performance Benteke was denied by keeper twice with good saves.
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Bacuna may be ok as a back up right back but I think he's a bit out of his depth in midfield , he gave away possession far too often - would have started with sylla or kea and given bacuna the game against Rotherham .
Man of the match was okore for me just shading it from Delph , Weimann looked a bit jaded today and Lowton also below par.
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Problem is without Benteke in beast mode we are not good enough. I thought Toure is handling Benteke well as he is bigger bloke than him. We need to improve set pieces and passing and keeping the ball and opening the defence. I lost 10 quids on a bet for Benteke to score today :(
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Agree with Sandman, touch and decision making lacking. Smash a few in mid-week, work on the one touch passing, give the new boys a run, sorted.
Tonev looked promising, not great but looks like he'll make things happen. Okore impressed, Luna too, Bacuna not as bad as some are saying. Putting today down to teething troubles.
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I disagree with many of the comments. Delph was awful, as was Gabby. They both looked like they couldn't trap a bag of cement. Bacuna gave the ball away a lot especially early on, but he's definately got talent. Okore looks very promising, Luna has sorted our left back problem.
The talent is there for all to see, but they didn't look like a team today, and this home performance thing is strange and worrying. I don't think we need a 'number 10', we have a glut of attacking options. If the movement and ideas are lacking going forward it will be a struggle for any new attacking player to change it. We still need a leader on the pitch to gee everyone up and get messages across better. Has Scott Parker signed for anyone yet?
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I disagree with many of the comments. Delph was awful, as was Gabby. They both looked like they couldn't trap a bag of cement. Bacuna gave the ball away a lot especially early on, but he's definately got talent. Okore looks very promising, Luna has sorted our left back problem.
The talent is there for all to see, but they didn't look like a team today, and this home performance thing is strange and worrying. I don't think we need a 'number 10', we have a glut of attacking options. If the movement and ideas are lacking going forward it will be a struggle for any new attacking player to change it. We still need a leader on the pitch to gee everyone up and get messages across better. Has Scott Parker signed for anyone yet?
Fulham, he made his debut today.
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I disagree with many of the comments. Delph was awful, as was Gabby. They both looked like they couldn't trap a bag of cement. Bacuna gave the ball away a lot especially early on, but he's definately got talent. Okore looks very promising, Luna has sorted our left back problem.
The talent is there for all to see, but they didn't look like a team today, and this home performance thing is strange and worrying. I don't think we need a 'number 10', we have a glut of attacking options. If the movement and ideas are lacking going forward it will be a struggle for any new attacking player to change it. We still need a leader on the pitch to gee everyone up and get messages across better. Has Scott Parker signed for anyone yet?
Delph was not awful , one of our best 2 players today in my opinion with okore.
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First half very poor, second half much better.
As others have said, we looked like we were playing our third very difficult game in seven days, which is what we were doing. Away to Arsenal and Chelsea and home to Liverpool that quickly is awfully tough.
Can't get away from the fact that, yet again, at home we are going to struggle to break teams down - precisely like it has been for years now, including the MON era. We can not expect to counter attack at home - the results were patchy when MON relied on it, and they'll be patchier this time around.
This team would benefit massively from an attacking midfielder, a typical number 10. Maybe Tonev could play that role, I don't know, but it seems a risky bet on such an inexperienced player.
I'd love us to go out and buy a bit of class for that position, it'd make an enormous difference.
As for those talking about finishing close to Liverpool - they are a much better side than us, with much better players. I am behind Lambert as much as the next man, but I think we need to keep a hold on reality too - they're way further down the line than we are.
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Scott Parker?!!!!! Seriously??
Though Delph was good again 2nd half....
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Dreadful first 40, much better after that but I suspect Liverpool took their foots off the gas somewhat.
Think Bacuna will do alright, he's got lots to offer. Okore looks very good already and Vlaar has definitely improved over the summer along with KEA.
Some of the technique was very poor though at times and we do need a bit of quality for games like this at home.
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We looked young and naive. Like that's news!
There were very encouraging signs, but a lack of judgement when openings arose e.g. Tonev's late free kick blast at goal when it needed lobbing in to the box. Bacuna was simply over enthusiastic and nervy on his debut. That is not a bad thing.
We certainly opened without a plan for playing at home, as compared with away and on the break. We do need that playmaker.
Vlaar and Okore were slack to let Sturridge in for the goal.
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I dont agree that Liverpool are so much better than us, they had one shot in the whole game. They had class in the shape of Toure, Gerrard and Sturridge to be fair. Some of our players did look jaded, three games in a week at the start of the season isnt easy. Personally I think Lambert could have made the subs a little earlier. As someone else mentioned, can only think Lowton was taken off for fear of being sent off
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Poor 1st half , much better 2nd , maybe deserved a point but would have taken 3 points from these 3 games and a zero goal diff before the season started - we do need to beat newcastle though next game .
spot on
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Scott Parker! Has Lambo resigned and MON been reinstated?
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I dont agree that Liverpool are so much better than us, they had one shot in the whole game. They had class in the shape of Toure, Gerrard and Sturridge to be fair. Some of our players did look jaded, three games in a week at the start of the season isnt easy. Personally I think Lambert could have made the subs a little earlier. As someone else mentioned, can only think Lowton was taken off for fear of being sent off
Me neither, Liverpool top 6 at best for me and no reason why we shouldn't finish top 8 on what I've seen so far.
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Not so much a Number 10, more a European Number 8 - an attacking central midfielder, a technical playmaker who can make things happen, and even play on the wing if necessary. Iniesta is the best in the world of this type, and Kiyotake is one of these as well.
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I was hoping Luck had a Villa kit on in the 2nd half. It's the least he could have done for us seeing how we were fucked by him during the week.
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Why people seem to think that everything is in place is beyond me. Over the last seven days the team have made me proud and having watched todays game, given the resources and stature of the clubs we have faced (which makes all the difference with the officials) we have been ok, no better no worse, but who would expect more?
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Didn't turn up first half and some of the passing was awful. Bacuna in particular was shocking but there's something there in him and ive a feeling he is going to be a star.
Delph again was excellent and Okore looks the defender we've been after. Is it just me though who thinks Benteke isn't putting as much effort in off the ball as he did last season?
Plenty of positives from the last three games though. UTV
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We were outthought in midfield by Gerrard and Lucas who controlled things, plus a great finish by Sturridge.
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I thought Delph was really good today but his footballing brain clearly works a lot quicker than his colleagues. When he appears to overcomplicate things he is waiting for them to catch up. I'd be really worried about him going before the deadline, as much as Benteke.
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If an attacking number 10 is needed how about Victor Moses on loan from Chelski - according to the Portuguese Gimp he is available????
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Our players appear very coachable and they'll learn and get better from this. Liverpool have spent immense amounts of money and have only beaten us 1-0. We need a little more guile in midfield. For a fraction of the price we are hardly a million miles behind.
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Awful first half, much better second. I think we should stop believing our own press and concentrate on the basics, like passing to Villa players, keeping possession, finding ways to break teams down. We have a long, long way to go yet, as I'm sure PL knows, but we could do with adding a midfield playmaker this transfer window, otherwise our home form could be our undoing.
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First half very poor indeed, but I'm prepared to give the benefit of the doubt due to the games we've played. Liverpool bossed it completely, but only had one chance.
Second half much better as we got on the front foot, even if we passed it badly still at times. Delph and Okore were the standouts, along with Luna. Overall, the defence looks a lot better than it has been.
Think we might be seeing a bit of second season syndrome with Weimann, Westwood and Lowton. They should all come through though.
Benteke's touch looked off, as it has done for many of our recent games actually. But he still threatens any team. Weimann's place must come under threat soon.
Overall, this is still a good start, as long as we go onto to take 4-6 points from the Newcastle and Norwich games.
We need to improve the crispness of our passing for those games.
Bacuna was awful in midfield for the most part, and a strange choice I thought. You could see in pre-season that he was giving the ball away a lot under pressure. But I certainly won't be writing him off.
I thought Tonev looked quite dangerous, but very greedy!
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Think PL got it wrong by starting 4-4-2, their midfield ran the show and it was only when he changed near the end of the half that we started to get into the game.
You thought we were playing 4-4-2, it looked 4-3-3 to me,
It looks like we have got a lot of pretty average midfield players.
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If an attacking number 10 is needed how about Victor Moses on loan from Chelski - according to the Portuguese Gimp he is available????
It's a yes from me.
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We were awful for 40 minutes, but once we changed back to 4-3-3 we were easily the better team, and deserved at least a point. Also worth remembering that, although it is clear that we could do with someone to unlock a defence, Liverpool have had something like 7 clean sheets in their last 9 games so will be one of the better teams defensively that we have to face this season at home. My views on the team:
Guzan - 7. Barely had anything to do, couldn't do anything about the goal. Managed to elbow Agger in the head and get a free kick at the same time which is always a bonus.
Lowton - 6. Pretty poor game by his standards, didn't offer much going forwards.
Okore - 9. Looks so assured, was clearly tiring late on so I'll forgive him that dodgy back header.
Vlaar - 8. A couple of vital interceptions, looks a lot better with Okore beside him.
Luna - 7. A bit dodgy occasionally when defending, excellent going forwards.
Bacuna - 5. Was looking poor in midfield, picked up a bit when moved to right back with some good tackles. Not writing him off by any means, definitely needs to improve on the ball though.
Westwood - 6. Pretty anonymous.
Delph - 8. Another great display from Fabian, looking like he could be a real asset this season.
Weimann - 6. See Westwood.
Agbonlahor - 7. Made some good runs, had to come deep quite often to get the ball.
Benteke - 7. Not his best game but could have still had a hat trick, we'll let him off this once though.
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If an attacking number 10 is needed how about Victor Moses on loan from Chelski - according to the Portuguese Gimp he is available????
He's another winger rather than a proper central player. We just need someone who knows how to manipulate space, when to quicken the game up and when to slow it down, and who has the patience and technique to do it.
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We were awful for 40 minutes, but once we changed back to 4-3-3 we were easily the better team, and deserved at least a point. Also worth remembering that, although it is clear that we could do with someone to unlock a defence, Liverpool have had something like 7 clean sheets in their last 9 games so will be one of the better teams defensively that we have to face this season at home. My views on the team:
Guzan - 7. Barely had anything to do, couldn't do anything about the goal. Managed to elbow Agger in the head and get a free kick at the same time which is always a bonus.
Lowton - 6. Pretty poor game by his standards, didn't offer much going forwards.
Okore - 9. Looks so assured, was clearly tiring late on so I'll forgive him that dodgy back header.
Vlaar - 8. A couple of vital interceptions, looks a lot better with Okore beside him.
Luna - 7. A bit dodgy occasionally when defending, excellent going forwards.
Bacuna - 5. Was looking poor in midfield, picked up a bit when moved to right back with some good tackles. Not writing him off by any means, definitely needs to improve on the ball though.
Westwood - 6. Pretty anonymous.
Delph - 8. Another great display from Fabian, looking like he could be a real asset this season.
Weimann - 6. See Westwood.
Agbonlahor - 7. Made some good runs, had to come deep quite often to get the ball.
Benteke - 7. Not his best game but could have still had a hat trick, we'll let him off this once though.
Pretty much spot on that in my opinion.
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Much better team/players than us pauilie?.
Take out Coutinhio and Sturridge they look a very average team.I forgot Iago was playing, and if Henderson is a £20m player, then so am i.Their best player, apart from the 2 above was Toure.Their 2 FBs look vulnerable, and Gerrard looks a shadow of what he was 2 years ago.
We could push on and not be far off them.For me we are in competition with Everton, Lplop, Swansea, and maybe Soton.They might finish 6th, but i can't see them finishing higher.
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Tonev - re the selfish comments. Give a player who thinks he can offer a team more than the current starting team are 10 minutes and he will be bloody selfish. What exactly is Wiemann doing now to keep him out the team?
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What's been encouraging so far is that we haven't shot ourselves in the foot defensively. We look more organised than last year and more resolute.
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They do have still the Uruguayan vampire to come back into their team.
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Think PL got it wrong by starting 4-4-2, their midfield ran the show and it was only when he changed near the end of the half that we started to get into the game.
You thought we were playing 4-4-2, it looked 4-3-3 to me,
It looks like we have got a lot of pretty average midfield players.
If we were playing 442 I don't understand football.
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Think PL got it wrong by starting 4-4-2, their midfield ran the show and it was only when he changed near the end of the half that we started to get into the game.
You thought we were playing 4-4-2, it looked 4-3-3 to me,
It looks like we have got a lot of pretty average midfield players.
Not at the start, Weiman was up top with Benteke and Bacuna was wide right. He changed after about 35 minutes
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Think PL got it wrong by starting 4-4-2, their midfield ran the show and it was only when he changed near the end of the half that we started to get into the game.
You thought we were playing 4-4-2, it looked 4-3-3 to me,
It looks like we have got a lot of pretty average midfield players.
If we were playing 442 I don't understand football.
No need for the sarcasm, but Weiman was playing through the middle with Benteke in the first half hour or so and Bacuna was playing wide right. Then the manager changed things. Bacuna was playing more in the middle and Weiman went wide right
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If an attacking number 10 is needed how about Victor Moses on loan from Chelski - according to the Portuguese Gimp he is available????
He's another winger rather than a proper central player. We just need someone who knows how to manipulate space, when to quicken the game up and when to slow it down, and who has the patience and technique to do it.
How about we compromise and describe him as 'versatile' - he has played in a number of positions for both Wigan & Chelski with good effect?
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I thought we might pull this one back as the second half progressed but it didnt happen. Its obvious we lack a playmaker but I cant think who. Liverpool without Suarez aren't that good. Gerrard played well enough but Rodgers has a few problems as we do. I thought Luna looked the part and Vlaar played a steady game. Weimann lacks technical skills at this level and tries to do everything at 100mph but I doubt if he will change. Delph had a good second half. Bacuna I cant make my mind up. He has something but its early days yet.
We really need to beat Newcastle to keep the momentum going.
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If an attacking number 10 is needed how about Victor Moses on loan from Chelski - according to the Portuguese Gimp he is available????
He's another winger rather than a proper central player. We just need someone who knows how to manipulate space, when to quicken the game up and when to slow it down, and who has the patience and technique to do it.
How about we compromise and describe him as 'versatile' - he has played in a number of positions for both Wigan & Chelski with good effect?
Well I do agree that sure, he could play behind the striker, but so could Tonev or Weimann, and we'd still have the creativity problems. We have plenty of pace and energy and raw threat - we need a bit more vision and composure.
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Ozz called it pre match and I suppose that was the fear at the back of our minds after the "heroic" loss to Chelsea we'd get a flat performance. First half we were not at it all and when we were in possession we were just so sloppy and second to most of the second balls.
That was a solid, professional performance from Liverpool. Ironically they didn't create much at all apart from the goal but they're an interesting side for me to compare us to as I feel they have a similar set of players that we have but are more rounded as a team. Coutinho is a terrific little player mind.
Was amazed Bacuna got MOTM tbh,would've given it to Okore who looks like he has all the qualities needed to be a good premier league centre half. Really I only felt we improved significantly when Bacuna was shifted to RB and KEA came on.
We could still have easily nicked a point today without hitting the standard required, was certain Benteke was going to equalise but top save from Mingolet.
Not going to lose heart, the break now is unfortunate but we have two winnable games after it in Newcastle and Norwich.
Edit: Hopefully any business we do between now and the next league game will involve an attacking midfielder. I'm not expecting a Coutinho standard player but it would be nice to have a midfielder who when he gets in the final third actually relishes the chance to try to play a ball through a packed defence rather than to the wings all the time. With the firepower we have we really should be winning more home games this season.
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Think PL got it wrong by starting 4-4-2, their midfield ran the show and it was only when he changed near the end of the half that we started to get into the game.
You thought we were playing 4-4-2, it looked 4-3-3 to me,
It looks like we have got a lot of pretty average midfield players.
If we were playing 442 I don't understand football.
No need for the sarcasm, but Weiman was playing through the middle with Benteke in the first half hour or so and Bacuna was playing wide right. Then the manager changed things. Bacuna was playing more in the middle and Weiman went wide right
It was indeed 4-4-2 for about 35 mins. Strange to change from a formation which served us well over the last 2 games I thought. I presume he wanted the 2 strikers to pressure the back line so they couldn't dictate and keep the ball as well as Liverpool love to do. They ended up passing around us with ease.
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Has Paul Lambert been through the filing cabinet and stumbled upon MON blueprint of a team? I'm slowly seeing a very very similar side that MON assembled when he was working here and although I'm not saying that its a negative thing, does Paul Lambert have that plan B that MON didn't?
I have the utmost respect, admiration, love for what Paul Lambert is doing, but at the end of last season and this I feel like I'm almost watching a team I watched a few years back. The similarities are obvious so I won't go through them. My point is where MON struggled and become stubborn in his weaknesses, I hope Lambert doesn't and has the intelligence to see where we might be failing.
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If an attacking number 10 is needed how about Victor Moses on loan from Chelski - according to the Portuguese Gimp he is available????
He's another winger rather than a proper central player. We just need someone who knows how to manipulate space, when to quicken the game up and when to slow it down, and who has the patience and technique to do it.
How about we compromise and describe him as 'versatile' - he has played in a number of positions for both Wigan & Chelski with good effect?
Well I do agree that sure, he could play behind the striker, but so could Tonev or Weimann, and we'd still have the creativity problems. We have plenty of pace and energy and raw threat - we need a bit more vision and composure.
Helenius might yet prove he can play in that position. With limited time today he produced that lovely flick on for Benteke that almost equalized it for us. True he looks a bit like Bambi on ice with the ball but that height paired with Bentekes its alot for defenders to deal with. Plus we get less predictable. Liverpool had to convert Gerrard to a fullback in 2nd half to bail out their defence.
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Think PL got it wrong by starting 4-4-2, their midfield ran the show and it was only when he changed near the end of the half that we started to get into the game.
You thought we were playing 4-4-2, it looked 4-3-3 to me,
It looks like we have got a lot of pretty average midfield players.
If we were playing 442 I don't understand football.
No need for the sarcasm, but Weiman was playing through the middle with Benteke in the first half hour or so and Bacuna was playing wide right. Then the manager changed things. Bacuna was playing more in the middle and Weiman went wide right
It was indeed 4-4-2 for about 35 mins. Strange to change from a formation which served us well over the last 2 games I thought. I presume he wanted the 2 strikers to pressure the back line so they couldn't dictate and keep the ball as well as Liverpool love to do. They ended up passing around us with ease.
Yea I agree when I seen us after about 3-4 minutes I thought to myself the shape looked strange and then you could see the were set up in 4-4-2.
Credit to Lambert for seeing our home form was a weakness last season and we needed to take it to the opposition. It just didn't work today so I'm ok with that
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Think PL got it wrong by starting 4-4-2, their midfield ran the show and it was only when he changed near the end of the half that we started to get into the game.
You thought we were playing 4-4-2, it looked 4-3-3 to me,
It looks like we have got a lot of pretty average midfield players.
If we were playing 442 I don't understand football.
No need for the sarcasm, but Weiman was playing through the middle with Benteke in the first half hour or so and Bacuna was playing wide right. Then the manager changed things. Bacuna was playing more in the middle and Weiman went wide right
It was indeed 4-4-2 for about 35 mins. Strange to change from a formation which served us well over the last 2 games I thought. I presume he wanted the 2 strikers to pressure the back line so they couldn't dictate and keep the ball as well as Liverpool love to do. They ended up passing around us with ease.
Thank you, I thought the scrumpy had gone to my head. We took control as soon as he changed back to normal formation
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As for Wiemann, he looks like he's come back a good half stone overweight. I'd give Helenius a run in the side to give him a kick up the arse. How many times do you see a player get a new contract and immediately take their foot off the pedal.
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Coutinho is a terrific little player mind.
We were linked to him massively in the January window. I wonder how close to signing him we actually got (if anywhere) before Liverpool had him.
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Has Paul Lambert been through the filing cabinet and stumbled upon MON blueprint of a team? I'm slowly seeing a very very similar side that MON assembled when he was working here and although I'm not saying that its a negative thing, does Paul Lambert have that plan B that MON didn't?
I have the utmost respect, admiration, love for what Paul Lambert is doing, but at the end of last season and this I feel like I'm almost watching a team I watched a few years back. The similarities are obvious so I won't go through them. My point is where MON struggled and become stubborn in his weaknesses, I hope Lambert doesn't and has the intelligence to see where we might be failing.
There are huge differences though, huge differences. MON would probably have never signed any of the players that Lambo has, and vice versa. If Lambo had MON's money I think he wouldn't have spent it better. Yes we played with similar problems to MON, but that was partially down to finance and partially down to Westwood playing much less well than he can. Also, we play modern formations - no outmoded, static 4-4-2s from Lambo as from MON.
Most importantly, Lambo will know that there's a problem - MON was blind to anything that couldn't be solved with 'peeyace and poworr'.
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Tuscans, I think 4-4-2 will be fine against most teams at home just didnt think Liverpool was the game to do it as they are so strong in that area
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Helenius might yet prove he can play in that position. With limited time today he produced that lovely flick on for Benteke that almost equalized it for us.
The BBC website thing mentioned "that 6'5" Helenius came on so guess what Villa will do for the last 10 mins". They obviously do not realise he has more about him then just height. But as they said Nathan Lowton was going off I'm not that surprised.
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MON's team was all about wingers and width.
Lambert's team is not even remotely about wingers.
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Has Paul Lambert been through the filing cabinet and stumbled upon MON blueprint of a team? I'm slowly seeing a very very similar side that MON assembled when he was working here and although I'm not saying that its a negative thing, does Paul Lambert have that plan B that MON didn't?
I have the utmost respect, admiration, love for what Paul Lambert is doing, but at the end of last season and this I feel like I'm almost watching a team I watched a few years back. The similarities are obvious so I won't go through them. My point is where MON struggled and become stubborn in his weaknesses, I hope Lambert doesn't and has the intelligence to see where we might be failing.
There are huge differences though, huge differences. MON would probably have never signed any of the players that Lambo has, and vice versa. If Lambo had MON's money I think he wouldn't have spent it better. Yes we played with similar problems to MON, but that was partially down to finance and partially down to Westwood playing much less well than he can. Also, we play modern formations - no outmoded, static 4-4-2s from Lambo as from MON.
Most importantly, Lambo will know that there's a problem - MON was blind to anything that couldn't be solved with 'peeyace and poworr'.
I wasn't saying its FACT, I was just putting it out there. I'm fully behind what Lambert does.
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Has Paul Lambert been through the filing cabinet and stumbled upon MON blueprint of a team? I'm slowly seeing a very very similar side that MON assembled when he was working here and although I'm not saying that its a negative thing, does Paul Lambert have that plan B that MON didn't?
I have the utmost respect, admiration, love for what Paul Lambert is doing, but at the end of last season and this I feel like I'm almost watching a team I watched a few years back. The similarities are obvious so I won't go through them. My point is where MON struggled and become stubborn in his weaknesses, I hope Lambert doesn't and has the intelligence to see where we might be failing.
There are huge differences though, huge differences. MON would probably have never signed any of the players that Lambo has, and vice versa. If Lambo had MON's money I think he wouldn't have spent it better. Yes we played with similar problems to MON, but that was partially down to finance and partially down to Westwood playing much less well than he can. Also, we play modern formations - no outmoded, static 4-4-2s from Lambo as from MON.
Most importantly, Lambo will know that there's a problem - MON was blind to anything that couldn't be solved with 'peeyace and poworr'.
I wasn't saying its FACT, I was just putting it out there. I'm fully behind what Lambert does.
It was worth saying though, because we did have a lot of the same problems today. We need a creative player in midfield to make things happen in the final third against massed defences, that's without question.
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I'm not sure how many conclusions I want to draw from that.
Third game in seven days, a few new players still bedding in and the season has just started.
We lost our first home game against Wigan a couple of years ago and went on to have a decent season.
Was pretty frustrating today, but there were some positives:
Okore playing so well in his first start,
Delph and Luna had some very nice exchanges, with Gabby that side of the pitch looks like our strongest.
The bench had viable options on it instead of Mcleish leftovers and fast tracked youth players.
Thought KEA looked good when he came on, playing the ball quicker and generally being sharper than last year.
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Okore looks a confident young man who knows what he's doing.
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The big positive is we are still to have some players hit form, both Weimann and Westwood are way behind the standards they set last season for example, and yet after 3 matches where most pundits, and a fair few Villa fans, thought we'd struggle to get a point and keep the -GD in single numbers we have 3 points and it could easily be at least 5. And more importantly we as a club are disappointed it is only 3.
Onwards and upwards.
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MON's team was all about wingers and width.
Lambert's team is not even remotely about wingers.
It isn't - but I reckon if you stuck Ashley Young in that side today, we'd not only have scored, we'd have won.
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The big positive for me is the defence. For the first time in 2-3 years we finally look like we have some composure along the back 4. And it's all down to Okore. Not only does he look some player, but he is helping Vlaar be the player we hoped he would.
A few more games together and I think we will be really solid.
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danno, I agree with you about KEA, he moved the ball quicker than Westwood did today. Good options in the squad and am sure we will be fine, just hope we make one more signing that will see us top half IMO
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Our midfield isn't doing the business, unfortunately. They're too deep most of the time and nobody looks to occupy that space between the opposition's defence and midfield. We need one player in there with a combination of balls-out arrogance and technical ability to really hurt the opposition, someone who can drift and pull defenders out of position.
The problem is that we are very predictable in our build-up and there's nothing like enough movement off the ball. Liverpool had a very fluid attacking formation that enabled them to retain possession, whereas we were much too rigid and nobody was making runs to commit Gerrard or Lucas. When El Ahmadi came on, we tried it and Lucas got booked within a couple of minutes. We should have started doing that much earlier, and Lambert should have had the courage to make the change even before half time.
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Just one of those days really. They have one clear cut chance and take it, we have a lot of possession in the second half and dont really create too much,but considering how much they have spent and we have,there wasn't too much between us. Lots to look forward to i think UTV.
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As for Liverpool, am I the only one who thinks they are nothing special at all and not much ahead of us? No chance they will be top 4.
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The big positive for me is the defence. For the first time in 2-3 years we finally look like we have some composure along the back 4. And it's all down to Okore. Not only does he look some player, but he is helping Vlaar be the player we hoped he would.
A few more games together and I think we will be really solid.
They were really good today IMHO. Luna impressed as well, love his attitude
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As for Liverpool, am I the only one who thinks they are nothing special at all and not much ahead of us? No chance they will be top 4.
We made them look good for first 35 minutes, wrong formation and too much respect paid to them.
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We didn't play at all well. There was very little movement in the centre and we were very tentative when on the ball. That said we don't have too much to be downhearted about. Liverpool came to contain and did a reasonable job of it.
We still managed 17 attempts at goal. To put that into context, when Chelsea beat us 8-0 last season they had a total of 24.
If we had put a goal away we'd be saying it was a workmanlike point, or even three.
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I've been saying for ages that at home we simply can't play with Gabby, Wiemann and Benteke. By playing three strikers it allows the opposition to fill the midfield and keep the ball better as they did first half. At home we need to play a variation of 4-3-1-2 with either Gabby or Wiemann with Benteke. This will allow our full backs the width to push forward and to have a Tonev/Bacuna/AM behind our front two.
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Just got back very poor game. Our poor form at home continues i think we've only won 5 or 6 home games under Lambert which concerns me. Hopefully we can do some more business before the barcodes match which will be just as tough.
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Has Paul Lambert been through the filing cabinet and stumbled upon MON blueprint of a team? I'm slowly seeing a very very similar side that MON assembled when he was working here and although I'm not saying that its a negative thing, does Paul Lambert have that plan B that MON didn't?
I have the utmost respect, admiration, love for what Paul Lambert is doing, but at the end of last season and this I feel like I'm almost watching a team I watched a few years back. The similarities are obvious so I won't go through them. My point is where MON struggled and become stubborn in his weaknesses, I hope Lambert doesn't and has the intelligence to see where we might be failing.
Also, we play modern formations - no outmoded, static 4-4-2s from Lambo as from MON.
I think the MON Lambert team comparison is relevant. Counter attacking, lump it up to the big man, goalkeeper hoofing it even at home. I think Lambert has got a bit more about him, well I hope so.
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before the barcodes match which will be just as tough.
You Bobby Moore ?
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Helenius reminds me of Ian Ormondroyd, gangly git but looks like he has a good touch
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9 home league wins in two seasons...abysmal.
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Helenius reminds me of Ian Ormondroyd, gangly git but looks like he has a good touch
Just say it.
"nice touch for a big man"
:)
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We HAVE to buy a quality, creative link player/playmaker.
NOT a rough diamond that may come good, one that will go straight into the side
Other wise our home form will continue to dwindle to nothing
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9 home league wins in two seasons...abysmal.
I'd like to think somebody at villa would have an internal inquiry into why, tactics aside, we are so poor at home. Even under Houllier and MON we weren't great at home. Our poor home performances must have cost us ten points each year surely, since about MON's third season?
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Luna and Okore the only positives for me.
We give teams too much space and time in midfield.
Delph was a bit too stretched and became frustrated - another silly booking.
Don't rate Henderson but we made him look good and Gerrard didn't even get a sweat on.
Bacuna didn't quite seem to know where he was playing and whoever gave him MOM needs to sober up!
Inevitably disappointed after the last 2 games but hoping we will only get better from now!
UTV!
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We need an attacking midfielder - we have done for years.
I am happy with the transfer deals done so far this summer - and I'm praying that if we can shift some of the bomb squad some funds will be made available for one final signing.
I think one more signing could be a real statement of intent for us.
Okore looked very accomplished and I thought Delph put in another great performance - on top of the two in London this week.
How Bacuna got man of the match off the sponsors is way beyond me.
The game was decided by the one bit of real skill in the match.
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I thought we were second best for most of the first half. Defended too deep, gave them too much space and gave the ball away far too often. Much better for the last 10 minutes or so and then all of the second half where I felt we matched them. A draw would have been a fair result, an opinion shared by my Liverpool-supporting friend who was at the match today with his family. Two great saves from their G-K to deny Benteke. Did Bacuna really get MoM? Were they drunk or was it a name pulled out of a hat? Okore was far better than him as were Delph and Luna.
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Lambert:
Paul Lambert was in positive mood despite the 1-0 home loss to Liverpool, insisting: "We have nothing to be down about."
Lambert was thrilled with the way his side found a second wind after the break to push the Reds back and search bravely for an equaliser.
But, more importantly, Lambert sees the bigger picture and believes his team will have a good season overall if they continue in the same vein as their performances against Arsenal, Chelsea and the Reds.
He said: "I knew we would have an adverse reaction after the games on Saturday and Wednesday. I knew that.
"We had to hang in when Liverpool had the domination for about 30 minutes or so.
"I thought we started to get a second wind in the last 10-15 minutes of the first half.
"Then in the second half we were excellent. We gave it a go.
"We have played three teams who you'd expect to be in that top group. They have given every one of them a game.
"We won the first one, we just got beaten on Wednesday and the same today.
"The progress is there for everyone to see. That's what I am pleased about.
"We play like that for most of the season and we will have a good season.
"It's a big, big ask what we have done there - Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. That's a big turnaround in a week.
"Look at the intensity you have to play at in those three games, especially two away from home.
"But I have nothing but praise. We kept on going.
"The goalkeeper has made two fantastic saves from Christian and Gabby might have scored and Andi had a deflected one.
"It wasn't as if we never had chances. In the second half, I thought we dominated.
"How many teams will go to Chelsea and do what we did? I am not so sure.
"We had Liverpool on the back foot for much of the second half. That shows how far we have come.
"I said to the lads that they have nothing to be ashamed or down about.
"Those three games they have had they have gone toe to toe with every one of them.
"If someone had said to me at the beginning that we'd take three points from the first three games I'd have bitten their hand off.
"The bonus on top of the three points is the way we have played. That's important."
Lambert also spoke of his delight at the passion of the supporters, who backed the team throughout the 90 minutes.
He added: "It was great. Even after the game you can hear the crowd. They are right with us. I think that's the beauty of it.
"I think they have seen the effort we have put in these past three games.
"There were 42,000 here and what an atmosphere they generate. They have been absolutely fantastic for me and the team."
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The game was decided by the one bit of real skill in the match.
Agreed.
Very impressed with the way Sturridge worked for his goal and finished it.
*grits teeth and hits self with empty beer bottle*
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I think they will be top 6, and in the race for top 4 until the last month at worst PWS
They are looking to spend mad money on another midfielder, and I think they look a really decent side. Second half we upped our game which gave them a match, and we were on balance probably worth a point, but Liverpool will win a lot of games this season.
I thought Okore looked the muts nuts to be honest. Rarely do you watch a centre half in his first start and think fuck all will get past him. The goal was through Vlaar being sold by the Coutinho dummy and Sturridge getting it in brilliantly from the angle.
I love Luna. He looks the part. I though Helenius showed a glimpse of being very good, while Tonev has potential and Bacuna looked a better right back than midfield player!
All in all we looked a class attacking midfield player from hurting them. And I do think we need to seriously find competition for Weimann and or Gabby. Weimann looked either shattered or not at it much of the game, and Tonev didn't look the immediate answer to me. 2 players short for that are genuine first team players.
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We'll see come the end of the season Ozz, but my money on them is to be nowhere in the fight for top 4. Feel free to make me eat my words come the end of the season if i'm wrong!
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Fuck me. We beat Arsenal and we're the greatest ever, lose to Chelsea and Liverpool, in which we play well in parts) and its the end of the world!
Thought Liverpool controlled the game for 20/30 mins then we got going.
Thought we deserved a draw out of it but for a couple of good saves.
Think the turnaround was us improving and Liverpool playing worse.
Can see where people are coming from with some observations, but think we'll know more after playing teams not likely to finish top 6 how we're going to do.
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Back to reality really.
Absolutely awful first 35 minutes, then an average last 55. Agree with everything said about the midfield. Bags of energy, but little creativity suggests we are going to struggle to break teams down at home. We really need to sign someone in that area with a bit of something different.
Okore had a good game, apart from losing Sturridge for the goal, but it still shouldn't have been conceded really. I have to say that Bacuna had a shocker today. I'll be generous and put it down to nerves
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Okore and Delph played very well.
Bacuna MOTM? Made a few laugh, including me. He'd have a very poor touch one minute and then look quite good the next. At one point I wasn't sure if he could kick a ball properly.
Okore looked quite comfortable and looks as though he'll basically be saying to strikers "you ain't beating me". Looks strong.
Weimann looks a little out of sorts. I'd play him Wednesday to get him scoring (hopefully). Still, can't fault his effort and contribution defensively.
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We were very poor first half. Maybe the endeavours of the last week created some tired legs but we looked pretty leaden. 'The Mighty Reds YNWA' sat back and passed through us and it was difficult to get any real zip or urgency to our game. Much better second half and in the end unlucky not to come away with a point - Benteke put everything into that shot and it was a brilliant save by Mignolet.
Couple of asides - no hint of anyone doing the 19th minute applause so that's been put to bed in the nicest way
And the official sponsor's man of the match award for Bacuna resulted in everyone in the Upper Holte looking round at each other in confused disbelief. Delph was MOTM for me
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Oh and Mr Sox will be able to confirm that the stereotypical Scousers hawking their wares were there again today. Including the bloke and his shopping trolley.
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I thought we took a long time to learn to keep the ball.
Bacuna wasn't completely terrible as he found space well but it didn't work today in midfield. You have got to press as a unit and if you're not you will look disjointed. We really let them take the life out of the game.
Second half we were a lot more lively but despite us looking threatening I didn't feel we created enough. Gabby went close and Benteke could and should have scored, but beyond thay, not enough. Mind you thay was far more than they created.
I think thats what makes it frustrating, how little they offered and yet they still held on.
That is two points we have dropped this week, bit two more than I expected us to get.
Delph looks absolute quality at the moment. I would like Sylla to play along side him and a real attacking midfielder in front for home games.
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Sturridge goal was class and we were to slow from what i saw. Bit pissed off to be honest. Two world class saves by their keeper kept us out of the game. Onto the next game, Rotherham. Lets hope we can get a convincing result on Wednesday to gain some home confidence and lots of goals.
UTV everybody.
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We do lack the quality to open teams up & the options from the bench to change the game are non-existant. I'm sure that Lambert is fully aware of this, I expect some of the deadwood to move out & hopefully get 1 quality signing in before the deadline closes. We are very reliant on 1 or 2 players delivering every week.
We have improved over the last 6 months & the effort of the opening 2 games seemed to have had an impact on most of the team.
In truth there was very little in the game & we deserved a draw.
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I dont care what the scousers say, that's as poor a Liverpool side as I can ever remember seeing. Which makes the defeat all the more difficult to take.
We lack inventiveness and the pace and running off the ball we saw in the last two games was completely devoid.
Happily we look better organised defensively and Guzan had virtually nothing to do.
On the downside, I thought Bacuna had a shocker. I hope it was down to nerves and not a true indication of his talents.
Just had some food after getting back and coming on here.
This is pretty much what I my opinion.
Lambo seemed to start 4-4-2 and switched to 4-3-3?
Thought we looked clueless for large stretches although there were cameos from Luna, Gabby, Okore, Delph that showed promise.
Liverpool there for the taking but were neat and well set up.
Bit shit really...
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Just got back. Gutted we didn't get at least a point.
It's fairly obvious that this team is not setup to play at home. Lamborghini has 7-10 days to bring in a creative player to break teams down at home. We're continuing where we left off from last season regarding our home form.
How the sponsors gave Bacuna MOTM is baffling. Cue bewilderment in the lower Holte.
Some scouse degenerates contaminated our sacred stand and were promptly ejected. Stewards will now have to hose that area down.
Delph for me is impressive and has bundles of energy.
Lowton, Weimann, Westwood - you got your new contracts boys but your playing well below par. Last chance vs bar codes or Lamborghini should shove them on the bench.
Tony Moon - sinyor, how skilful are you! If he coould match it with a bit more solidity at the back, he's some player.
Vlaar and Okore - finally a decent centre half pairing! They look confident and assured, think Clark will now get splinters.
Play the stiffs vs Rotheram and get a 3 week break in to train and be fresh for the hammering of the bar codes.
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Oh yeah and for me Gabby had the easiest chance of the match.
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I'm truly sick of seeing Liverpool win at Villa Park. A truly uninspiring display from Villa today and lots of the floating fans who shelled out top dollar for tickets today will have left thinking fuck this, what a waste of money and time that was. That's the harsh reality.
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Oh yeah and for me Gabby had the easiest chance of the match.
Thought he was pretty poor today tbh.
He has the ability - pace - to put the shits up most defenders and there's little they can do about it. It's a great advantage for us and shown perfectly against Arse last week. But he does need to utilise this strength a bit more often and not just when everything falls into place for him.
Come on Gab!
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I'm truly sick of seeing Liverpool win at Villa Park. A truly uninspiring display from Villa today and lots of the floating fans who shelled out top dollar for tickets today will have left thinking fuck this, what a waste of money and time that was. That's the harsh reality.
This
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I'm truly sick of seeing Liverpool win at Villa Park. A truly uninspiring display from Villa today and lots of the floating fans who shelled out top dollar for tickets today will have left thinking fuck this, what a waste of money and time that was. That's the harsh reality.
This
And if that's what they think they can fuck off and not come back.
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You are either Villa or you're not. If you are such a person who wont bother coming again after one so-so performance then as Dave says, you can go fuck yourself you fair weather twat.
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I don't think i've ever seen as many day-trippers at VP as I saw today on Witton Lane.
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You are either Villa or you're not. If you are such a person who wont bother coming again after one so-so performance then as Dave says, you can go fuck yourself you fair weather twat.
Dave is right. I wouldn't call it a so-so performance, though. It did not quite come off today but at least we gave it a good go.
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I don't think i've ever seen as many day-trippers at VP as I saw today on Witton Lane.
Plenty on the Trinity Road. Over-flowing at times. Lots of foreign fans aswell for both teams.
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It certainly wasn't poor but was by no means good. Frustrating I suppose is best. An "almost" performance.
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Also, handbags and fisticuffs outside Witton Station.
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It certainly wasn't poor but was by no means good. Frustrating I suppose is best. An "almost" performance.
Indeed. On another day we'd have scored a couple.
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I'm truly sick of seeing Liverpool win at Villa Park. A truly uninspiring display from Villa today and lots of the floating fans who shelled out top dollar for tickets today will have left thinking fuck this, what a waste of money and time that was. That's the harsh reality.
This
And if that's what they think they can fuck off and not come back.
Totally agree with Mr woodhall here. Fuck off and don't come back. 3rd game in 7 days, we beat Arsenal away, we should have had at least a draw against Chelsea, away, but for a shocking ref and today we have lost our first home game thanks to two world class saves from the Liverpool keeper. If you don't like what you see and you thought you were jumping on some sort of glory ride, fuck off and don't come back. Go back to wearing your Manure shirt whilst shopping with the Mrs in Merry Hell or the Bullring. Villa Park is for Villa fans, no plastic wankers allowed, so fuck off. UTV.
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Although we lost I think there were some positives to take out the game. Liverpool were certainly the better side for the first 45 minutes but I was very impressed with how we played in the second half.
Despite this being the third tough game of the week, we pressed Liverpool after the break and they were definitely the first team to get tired and make mistakes.
Delph put in another good performance in midfield and I was little surprised that he wasn't given man of the match. Luna also made some good runs with the ball down the left hand side. Were it not for an excellent reflex safe from Mignolet, Benteke would have scored the equaliser that our second half performance deserved.
3 points from the first three games is a decent enough return given the quality of the opposition and the fact that two of the games were away from home. It will mean nothing though if we don't pick up six points against Newcastle and Norwich. We need some more points on the board before the Man City game.
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Not long back, so not read the thread. First viewing of this season's side. Overall, I think we look a lot more solid than last season. Delph has come on at a rate of progression which suggests he didn't stop playing all through the summer. Immense. KEA, is he the same bloke? All the new signings look and play like they belong. Okore looks the bollocks, Tonev seems lively.
But.....
We still give the ball away too cheaply, too often.
The movement is still next to nothing.
Most ominously, a lot of people's doubts over our ability to break sides down at home seem to be realized.
Away from home, I wouldn't change a thing. We're set up perfectly for the counter. But we need more at VP. I think Lambert knows this, with the attempt at 442 towards the end. Personally, I'd like to see us go 4312. Only who to play as the 1? The midfield three is providing us with an energy and dynamism I've not seen in a good while. Both full-backs are more than capable in the opposition's half, so width shouldn't be a problem. With the four strikers at our disposal, whichever two that play will be a threat.
So, who plays "number ten"? I don't think any of our strikers could. KEA? Whilst I never saw him play in Holland, he currently seems a perfect foil for Delph, but not the key for unlocking defences. Is it Tonev? Is it someone else? I think Lambert knows he needs to address this. Maybe he believes he already has, maybe he's still looking. Whichever, I hope to see something more creative by the time the barcodes show up.
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Guzan 7 did what he needed to do. Can't be blamed for the goal.
Lowton 3 Our worst player on the pitch. Gets pulled out of position easily and was not much good going forward.
Vlaar 5 don't like him and he didn't do anything today to make me change my mind. Got easily dummied for their goal.
Okore 7 has the making of a real class defender.
Luna 8 had fantastic game and at times was our only option.
Westwood 5 Was effective but looked lost at times.
Delph 8 Fantastic MotM IMO.
Bacuna 6 good debut and could turn into a very good midfielder.
Agbonlahor 5 Liverpool had him worked out and missed an easy chance.
Benteke 6 amazingly ineffective however could have still scored twice.
Weimann 4 Very poor today and he really needs to find a role in this team.
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Lowton 3? He wasn't great, but that's ridiculous! As a defender, he'd have have to be responsible for two goals and been skinned countless times to warrant that surely?
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Wonder how many Liverpool fans made up the attendance, as there were plenty in the home ends.
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Guzan 7 did what he needed to do. Can't be blamed for the goal.
Lowton 3 Our worst player on the pitch. Gets pulled out of position easily and was not much good going forward.
Vlaar 5 don't like him and he didn't do anything today to make me change my mind. Got easily dummied for their goal.
Okore 7 has the making of a real class defender.
Luna 8 had fantastic game and at times was our only option.
Westwood 5 Was effective but looked lost at times.
Delph 8 Fantastic MotM IMO.
Bacuna 6 good debut and could turn into a very good midfielder.
Agbonlahor 5 Liverpool had him worked out and missed an easy chance.
Benteke 6 amazingly ineffective however could have still scored twice.
Weimann 4 Very poor today and he really needs to find a role in this team.
Olaftab, cant agree with some of those ratings. Thought Lowton was ok and dont know why he was taken off, Vlaar played well imo, I had Luna as my MOTM closely followed by Okore. Delph had poor first half but improved a lot
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Why are we the only club who take the financial fair play rules seriously. I love the development of young players, but, if he doesn't see that we need an experienced Defender to help them out and an experienced Merson type player in midfield then I am afraid we are in for more of the same as last season.
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Things I learned:
- if Benteke isn't at the top of his game, we lack any sort of potency at home;
- too many of our new players are poor passers;
- we have nothing on the bench. I missed having Ireland, Bent and N'Zogbia to call on;
- Kolo Toure was a bargain for Liverpool;
- Delph would be top class if he had a final ball;
- our set pieces are still awful;
- we have insufficient width;
- we can't cross. Hence my previous comment can be ignored;
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Bacuna looks absolutely dreadful. Truly awful.
How the hell the sponsors made him 'man of the match' god only knows; he was the worst player on the pitch.
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First half they seemed to have 15 yards space round every one of our players,second half we seemed to have a little more time on the ball, mid was rubbish at times, bud did improve, sorry for the bluntness but I am a bit drunk. Vtid.
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Has Paul Lambert been through the filing cabinet and stumbled upon MON blueprint of a team?
Taking off RB and moving a midfielder to RB...yes he checked the master coaching manual by MON!
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If you're referring to Bacuna he had a far better performance at RB than he did in midfield. I think.
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Wonder how many Liverpool fans made up the attendance, as there were plenty in the home ends.
I would say lots given our first home game is usually around the 35k mark and it's always washed away under the excuse that everyone's on holiday.
Was in the North stand but noticed it was kicking off big time in the Holte end after the first goal.
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Things I have learned today:
People are very quick to judge and condemn our new signings.
It's early days and three tough games in seven days.
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Why are we the only club who take the financial fair play rules seriously. I love the development of young players, but, if he doesn't see that we need an experienced Defender to help them out and an experienced Merson type player in midfield then I am afraid we are in for more of the same as last season.
I think the defence has been ok this season, as for creative midfielder, does he have to be experienced, N'Zogbia is experienced? Maybe Tonev can be that player, lets give them a chance. I recall seeing Des Bremner having the worst debut I have ever seen and then becoming a top player for us, I am with a half full pint
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If you're referring to Bacuna he had a far better performance at RB than he did in midfield. I think.
Yes he did and he was also better than Lowton. However MotM...no way.
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Was in the North stand but noticed it was kicking off big time in the Holte end after the first goal.
How many more were there?
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You've got better eye-sight than I have, then. All I saw was a couple of Liverpool fans being removed from their away seating and someone being ejected from the Lower North.
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Has Paul Lambert been through the filing cabinet and stumbled upon MON blueprint of a team?
Taking off RB and moving a midfielder to RB...yes he checked the master coaching manual by MON!
I did joke with a mate about that, but maybe he was worried that Lowton had lost his cool. The substitution did improve the performance to be fair
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If you'd of given me three points out of these first three games I'd have took your money, but still improvements needed. Utv
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God, some of the negativity in this thread is unbelievable. Comparing it to the MON years! This match deserved to be a draw - on another day Mignolet wouldn't have pulled off two worldie saves of Benteke, and Gabby might've put away that volley in the box. Both teams were fairly evenly matched, and we lost the game on the first 20 minutes, in which we were set up wrongly by Lambert. Going with a 4-4-2 against Pool was always going to be a bad idea - Gerrard, Henderson and Lucas passed through Westy/Delph in the first 20 minutes and we hardly got a kick. He then moved Bacuna slightly more central to form a midfield three after half an hour - and we controlled the majority of the game from that point. The change from the first 25 minutes to the rest of the match was visible within seconds - the two workmen in front of Westwood helped him to keep us ticking over better, and although he still didn't look 100% it certainly helped things, hopefully he'll get back to full pace soon.
But by then it was too late because Sturridge had his only chance of the game, and like all good strikers put it away (very nicely, mind). Second half was all us, which was why it deserved to be a 1-1. If we'd gone with that 4-3-3 from the beginning the result would probably have been a little different; Lambert underestimated the quality of this Liverpool team a little, I think (Coutinho ran things first half, hardly had a kick second). If we play how we did in the second half we'll have no trouble against a lot of teams in the league, particularly in the bottom half of the table... It was an ok performance, not our best by any means, playing three in a week probably didn't help us, while they had had a full week to recover from a fairly easy start at home to Stewk.
Okore MOTM - he gave the defence a confidence and calmness that we don't get with Clark/Baker, and it transferred to the rest of the back four... we looked pretty solid throughout. All in all it was a decent performance, and we certainly didn't deserve to lose 1-0. The Rotherham game will be a perfect way to keep confidence high after these three games, hopefully we can stick a hatful past them and blood some of the new boys.
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The comment about scousers in the Holte - as I came through the turnstile in the U Holte a guy wearing a 'Pool was stopped by stewards, he had a 9-year old girl with him trying to cover up her red strip, she looked terrified. What a fucking idiot bringing a child into that area _ I doubt anyone would cause her harm but it was ridiculous. The blokes in the Lower were stupid although I was told one of them had been wearing a Villa top before the silliness started...
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Today's game makes it obvious why Lambert inquired about the Japanese lad. I'd not be surprised if someone similar does not find his way to B6 by the end end of the window.
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Vlaar 5 don't like him and he didn't do anything today to make me change my mind. Got easily dummied for their goal.
Okore 7 has the making of a real class defender.
So... Okore gets pulled out of position chasing a lost cause, leaving a huge hole in central defence that Vlaar struggles to fill....but he himself is at fault? Bizarre.
I struggle to see this dislike of Vlaar sometimes. He's a good footballer from what I see, if we stopped asking him to be a babysitter he'd be able to get on with his own job and we'd be better off for it.
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Hey, one week gone, 3 points, level goal difference, 3 of the top teams played already, positive signs of a new team gelling, three weeks to train and conduct transfers. It is good, people.
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The comment about scousers in the Holte - as I came through the turnstile in the U Holte a guy wearing a 'Pool was stopped by stewards, he had a 9-year old girl with him trying to cover up her red strip, she looked terrified. What a fucking idiot bringing a child into that area _ I doubt anyone would cause her harm but it was ridiculous. The blokes in the Lower were stupid although I was told one of them had been wearing a Villa top before the silliness started...
This chap was probably a "tourist". I doubt it if he knew the slightest bit about football in this country that he would have been going into the fanatical home end with a 9 year old girl in opposition kit.
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Hey, one week gone, 3 points, level goal difference, 3 of the top teams played already, positive signs of a new team gelling, three weeks to train and conduct transfers. It is good, people.
This.
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God, some of the negativity in this thread is unbelievable. Comparing it to the MON years! This match deserved to be a draw - on another day Mignolet wouldn't have pulled off two worldie saves of Benteke, and Gabby might've put away that volley in the box. Both teams were fairly evenly matched, and we lost the game on the first 20 minutes, in which we were set up wrongly by Lambert. Going with a 4-4-2 against Pool was always going to be a bad idea - Gerrard, Henderson and Lucas passed through Westy/Delph in the first 20 minutes and we hardly got a kick. He then moved Bacuna slightly more central to form a midfield three after half an hour - and we controlled the majority of the game from that point. The change from the first 25 minutes to the rest of the match was visible within seconds - the two workmen in front of Westwood helped him to keep us ticking over better, and although he still didn't look 100% it certainly helped things, hopefully he'll get back to full pace soon.
But by then it was too late because Sturridge had his only chance of the game, and like all good strikers put it away (very nicely, mind). Second half was all us, which was why it deserved to be a 1-1. If we'd gone with that 4-3-3 from the beginning the result would probably have been a little different; Lambert underestimated the quality of this Liverpool team a little, I think (Coutinho ran things first half, hardly had a kick second). If we play how we did in the second half we'll have no trouble against a lot of teams in the league, particularly in the bottom half of the table... It was an ok performance, not our best by any means, playing three in a week probably didn't help us, while they had had a full week to recover from a fairly easy start at home to Stewk.
Okore MOTM - he gave the defence a confidence and calmness that we don't get with Clark/Baker, and it transferred to the rest of the back four... we looked pretty solid throughout. All in all it was a decent performance, and we certainly didn't deserve to lose 1-0. The Rotherham game will be a perfect way to keep confidence high after these three games, hopefully we can stick a hatful past them and blood some of the new boys.
Absolutely spot on from first to last
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Why the fuck is Harry Redknapp on MOTD ?
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Highlights seem a fair reflection from the sounds of it. One piece of skill from them and then all us. BBC showed we had as much possession second half as they had the first half.
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The big positive is we are still to have some players hit form, both Weimann and Westwood are way behind the standards they set last season for example, and yet after 3 matches where most pundits, and a fair few Villa fans, thought we'd struggle to get a point and keep the -GD in single numbers we have 3 points and it could easily be at least 5. And more importantly we as a club are disappointed it is only 3.
Onwards and upwards.
Yep, I agree.
Liverpool were fresh as daisies whilst we've just had two incredibly tough away games inside six days. I'm not surprised we were a little off our game today. There are plenty of positives to take from the opening week's fixtures.
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There were some punches thrown in the Holte. The stewards got the Norwegians out of their seats and stood there while a few blokes kept running down the stairs throwing punches.
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Why the fuck is Harry Redknapp on MOTD ?
He lost his Monaco retirement fund recently so needs more moolah. Although his comment that Liverpool deserved the 3 points as they dominated so much in the first half a minute after discussing Liverpool created no chances bar one seems very contradictory.
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So ss Tax and BBC Licence payers are we are paying Harry twice now.
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Need a plan b for when a good team sit deep and deny any counter attacking opportunities. Gabby and Weiman don't have enough guile and flair in these circumstances. A mythical No.10 might help as an option.
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Why the fuck is Harry Redknapp on MOTD ?
He lost his Monaco retirement fund recently so needs more moolah. Although his comment that Liverpool deserved the 3 points as they dominated so much in the first half a minute after discussing Liverpool created no chances bar one seems very contradictory.
And when Lineker mentioned Villa turnaround in the second he piped up "yes great , fantastic superb" whilst looking pissed.
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Thought Villa looked lethargic first half but a good second half. The move that lead to Agbonlahor's chance in the second half was excellent.
To be fair to Sturridge, great piece of skill for their goal. The points about getting in a creative midfielder are well made. Stephen Ireland anyone? Just kidding. There's still a couple of weeks of the transfer window left so we'll see.
But even if we don't get one in I think Villa will be much better in 3 weeks time. Remember we've had a very tough opening week.
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The comment about scousers in the Holte - as I came through the turnstile in the U Holte a guy wearing a 'Pool was stopped by stewards, he had a 9-year old girl with him trying to cover up her red strip, she looked terrified. What a fucking idiot bringing a child into that area _ I doubt anyone would cause her harm but it was ridiculous. The blokes in the Lower were stupid although I was told one of them had been wearing a Villa top before the silliness started...
This chap was probably a "tourist". I doubt it if he knew the slightest bit about football in this country that he would have been going into the fanatical home end with a 9 year old girl in opposition kit.
Maybe a tourist from Kent. Does not every ticket turnstyle other than those designated state Home Supporters only. Then again maybe armchair supporters of Sky4/5 probably think Home means those who Sky favour. We now have the Big5 like The Match in 1980's.
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Why the fuck is Harry Redknapp on MOTD ?
He lost his Monaco retirement fund recently so needs more moolah. Although his comment that Liverpool deserved the 3 points as they dominated so much in the first half a minute after discussing Liverpool created no chances bar one seems very contradictory.
And when Lineker mentioned Villa turnaround in the second he piped up "yes great , fantastic superb" whilst looking pissed.
He is a relegation infused twat, no doubt worshipped by the EDL and their softer Sun reading cousins.
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Thought Villa looked lethargic first half but a good second half. The move that lead to Agbonlahor's chance in the second half was excellent.
To be fair to Sturridge, great piece of skill for their goal. The points about getting in a creative midfielder are well made. Stephen Ireland anyone? Just kidding. There's still a couple of weeks of the transfer window left so we'll see.
But even if we don't get one in I think Villa will be much better in 3 weeks time. Remember we've had a very tough opening week.
Sturridge is IMHO quality. As a forward he is has just a bit extrra. It is like Benitez let him go to his former employers as a sop to his soon to be ex-employer Darth Vadar.
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Oh and happy birthday to the old boy who has been going down VP since 1922. I salute you.
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Happy birthday to him.
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I wish we had a player like Coutinho. Not since Merson have we had a natural attacking midfielder who drifts in space in the final third and can create. None of our midfield three do it - surely we could have two defensive mids and give one a bit more licence to roam. In fact, matching the way the scousers set up, with Gerrard and Lucas shielding the back four and Coutinho getting forward...
I think until we get a bit more balance and variety into our midfield, we'll struggle a bit to break down well organised defences.
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I don't think i've ever seen as many day-trippers at VP as I saw today on Witton Lane.
Were they the lot wearing those stupid half and half scarves?
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Happy birthday to him.
Even the Liverpool fans applauded when it was announced at ht
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I don't think i've ever seen as many day-trippers at VP as I saw today on Witton Lane.
Anyone who buys one of those for a league should get a life ban from football.
Were they the lot wearing those stupid half and half scarves?
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Best highlight from the game was see those
Wonder how many Liverpool fans made up the attendance, as there were plenty in the home ends.
I would say lots given our first home game is usually around the 35k mark and it's always washed away under the excuse that everyone's on holiday.
Was in the North stand but noticed it was kicking off big time in the Holte end after the first goal.
There were loads of them around me in the Witton upper, ****** even celebrated i gave a couple of them the evil eye like what the fuck you doing, then i realised. stewards did fuck all unlike those muppets in the Holte.
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Fucking terrible
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As others have said - it was a nearly performance. A couple of half chances missed and good saves off Benteke denied us a point.
Some of the same old issues need to be addressed if we are to progress.
Vlaar continues to worry - Sturridge caused him a multitude of problems in the first half.
Both full backs failed to sufficiently support the midfield or provide width/link up with effectively with Gabby and Weiman.
The midfield simply doesn't create or score enough. Bacuna was woeful.
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Fucking terrible
What is?
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I watched injury time on the screens in the Lower Holte. Was it my ears playing tricks on me or did Bacuna get a MOTM award?
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Fabian Delph and Jores Okore were the main men against Liverpool when it came to statistics.
For the second game running, Delph did well in a host of categories, including attacking passes, interceptions and fouls suffered.
Okore, too, impressed in ball recoveries and take-ons.
Delph was No.3 for passes with 58 successful from 67 attempted. Okore was No.4 with 54 successful from 60 attempted. Lucas Leiva and Steven Gerrard were No.1 and No.2 respectively.
Delph was No.1 for attacking third passes with 14 successful from 19 attempted.
Gabriel Agbonlahor, Christian Benteke, Ashley Westwood and Okore were all joint No.2 for chances created with two.
Leandro Bacuna was No.3 for take-ons, with two successful from three created. Delph and Okore were joint No.4 with two successful from two attempted.
Okore was No.1 for ball recoveries with nine.
Bacuna was No.1 for tackles with six successful from seven attempted.
Delph was No.1 for interceptions with six. Ron Vlaar was No.5 with two.
Vlaar was No.2 for blocks with one.
Okore was No.3 for clearances with eight out of eight. Delph was No.4 with five from five.
Delph was No.1 for fouls suffered with three.
Christian Benteke was No.2 for shots, with three in total and two on target. Daniel Sturridge was No.1 with one in total, one on target and one goal.
Benteke was No.2 for aerial duels with five successful from 12 attempted. Glen Johnson was No.1.
Antonio Luna to Delph was the No.1 pass combination with 20 while No.2 was Delph to Luna with 19. Okore to Vlaar was No.4 with 14 while Vlaar to Okore was No.5 with 13.
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Poor first half cost us, they weren't much better and we had better chances, having said that I think we need to rest / drop Weimann at home. Need 2 up top and a creative midfielder to lay on chances. Nothing doin with 3 in middle and 3 up top
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9 home league wins in two seasons...abysmal.
We've been Shite at home for year's that includes the mon era. Think the last time we were any good at home was under dolly in his first season I could be wrong
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Oh and happy birthday to the old boy who has been going down VP since 1922. I salute you.
He's suffered enough!
Tremendous stamina...
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First half was like watching last season but second half only Mignolet with two superb saves stopped Villa winning it. Strange how as he was a buffoon at Villa Park last season. Second half was impressive but first half was uncohesive and disorganised. Perhaps some of these players are still getting to know each other. Liverpool only had one shot on target and although it was a great finish by Sturridge it's now 29 games without a clean sheet and that is unacceptable.
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WE played better as the game went on, still room for improvement and we will get better as the new players gel.
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is it an over simplification to say that we can only play as a counter attacking side and have done for years? Until we can build a squad with the ability/flexibility to play home and away we are always going to hit a mid table ceiling. If that is too black and white apologies but even with yesterday's squad we should have been good enough for the draw.
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We'll see come the end of the season Ozz, but my money on them is to be nowhere in the fight for top 4. Feel free to make me eat my words come the end of the season if i'm wrong!
Liverpool top 6 at best for me, nothing ive seen to suggest we can't finish top 8 - we have improved a lot defensively and need to just sort out our home form which hasn't really been what it should be for a good few years now.
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On holiday in rural Herefordshire and had the misfortune to watch the game in a strange little pub with 4 bouncers on at 5:30! The small plasma telly was surrounded by 7 'Liverpool' fans who spoke unmitigated shite throughout and had all left by 70 minutes!
This was compounded by Jamie Redknaps analysis at half time which made think I was watching the John Barnes team of the mid-late eighties such was the praise being heaped upon them .....for what possession? They only showed the goal. Why? Because they didn't have any other chances!
We may have been flat, we lacked invention and gave the ball away too often but there are huge positives to our start. Last season I used to shit myself every time teams like the three we have just played attacked. So far in a week how many chances, let alone goals have we conceded?
It appears many of our defensive frailties are behind us (Okore looks mustard!) and with the addition of a creative midfielder we could really get some results. UTV!
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We were unlucky to made to play the extra game, three games in seven days will give your apponenenets a definate advantage. Couple of points, Weiman seems to be struggling to make an impact, Benteke isn't dropping as deep as last season and looks isolated at times and the first touch of some of our players is dreadful. On the positives it looks like we have at long last found a decent Left back and Okore was the stadout in defence for me.
We have more chance of the top eight than Liverpool have for the top four, i just don't know whether the midfield will be good enough without a top addition.
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Why not stick with Delph, Westwood & Sylla in midfield? It worked fine at the end of last season. Big mistake playing Bacuna iin such a big game - this unbalanced the team.
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I watched injury time on the screens in the Lower Holte. Was it my ears playing tricks on me or did Bacuna get a MOTM award?
Indeed he did! I couldn't believe it, but thought that maybe I had misjudged him. Thought that it was my reading of the game that was at fault! Very relieved to get on here and find that others were amazed as well. Do you think the sponsors confused the names Bacuna and Luna?
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Still obvious that we need a strong midfielder - we really haven't replaced Petrov.
Bacuna looked out of his depth - early days granted .
Andi looking like he needs a goal to me..
We are a counter attacking team , need to find ways to change this at VP
where we ought to be playing more like the home side !
6/10 yesterday but fair play to Liverpool
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Why not stick with Delph, Westwood & Sylla in midfield? It worked fine at the end of last season. Big mistake playing Bacuna iin such a big game - this unbalanced the team.
I'd say three from four - kea, sylla, Delph and Westwood - was very surprised bacuna got chosen ahead of kea and sylla , he looks a better right back than midfielder from what I saw of him yesterday .
Okore was a huge improvement to our defence and Vlaar looks more at ease alongside him , important now to build on this start and win our next games against newcastle and Norwich , both of whom have looked poor so far.
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I must admit I didnt hear that. Bacuna worked hard but gave it away too much. I couldnt say we had anyone who was particulary good.
Lambert has a lot to think about before we play Newcastle.
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It is interesting what's happened to sylla. I know he was injured initially but be only got injured because he was playing for the under 21s. I'd have thought he was the obvious option to step into midfield if KEA was tired. If Bacuna was motm that's very strange! Still, Ian Taylor looked hopeless on the ball when he joined and he went on to be fantastic for us.
I don't make too many conclusions about our home form. It has been poor for years because we haven't passed the ball properly for years. But since last feb or so I look at it like this:
We've generally beaten teams in mid to lower table whether home or away. We beat west ham, QPR and of course Sunderland.
We lost against Chelsea and Liverpool (twice) but lots of teams do
We had the misfortune - which I thought was going to really cost us - of having some seemingly easier home games last season right when we had our worst injury and form crisis. We lost against Newcastle, Wigan and Southampton.
If we'd played those home games in March or April I think we'd have got 7-9 points.
So I do think we're better set up to play away from home and could do with a proper number 10 to unlock teams at home. But I think the stats can be a bit misleading
I think our defence is starting to look quite reasonable actually. Okore and Luna make a difference. We may even see a clean sheet in the next few games. . . ?
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We'll see come the end of the season Ozz, but my money on them is to be nowhere in the fight for top 4. Feel free to make me eat my words come the end of the season if i'm wrong!
Liverpool top 6 aft best for me, nothing ive seen to suggest we can't finish top 8 - we have improved a lot defensively and need to just sort out our home form which hasn't really been what it should be for a good few years now.
On the other hand they have a 100% start and are unbeaten in the league since March.
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just recovering from the effects of the match, Liverpool got a pretty good goal, then defended. cant remember them doing anything after that. so it was down to us to break them down, But when your playing against a pretty decent midfield and your short on numbers, your going to struggle. For me DELPH was motm by a country mile. through my claret and blue eyes he is putting himself round the pitch as David Platt did. he must be the first name on our team sheet. Bacuna when we heard he got motm we were mystified, sorry I know it was his first game But passing the ball forward at least 90% of the time it went to a white shirt. he passed the ball backwards a bit, and just about found a Villa player, he was slow of thought, didn't read the game at all. im hoping he was either overwhelmed or intimidated, but with 30 minutes gone I could see he was not contributing to the team, and the only reason PL didn't take him off was for his confidence. KEA on the other hand is a great retainer of the ball and with him on earlier maybe the team could have grown in confidence.
Liverpool got the goal and sat back and imho said come on then break us down.
i'll be there against the mighty Rotherham, spose we will see all the players who haven't had much of a shout so far. I would like to see Bacuna in this one as I think the jury is out on him at this point.
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Was impressed with what I saw from Tonev, would like to see him get a run out on Wednesday.
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Was impressed with what I saw from Tonev, would like to see him get a run out on Wednesday.
yes agreed, also positive about Luna, don't think we are far off, being a decent team that is.
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Tonev made a decent impression. He looks a lot less lightweight than I was expecting. There's a good case for starting him ahead of Weimann
The thing about Weimann tho is that he's played pretty badly in all three games so far, but could easily have got a goal in the last two games were it not for be luck and good keeping. You don't want to be too reliant on benteke. Tonev likes a shot too tho, clearly.
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Delph and Okore were the stand out performers.
West wood and Weimann have to do better. I'm gald westwood was taken off as he did not offer much yesterday and Tonev or Helenuis would have been more likely to score with those long range efforts he had.
In fact Westy was very frustrating as he was again rarely getting forward and Delph is an example of what a midfielder should do. Time and again westwood drops so deep with central defenders passes and doesnt move. The guy lacks energy and i was disappointed overall with his contribution. Also his set pieces are lacking as he floats the ball perhaps told to too same spot every corner - looking for beats benteke!! Look at ward-prose of suton or larson or gardner delivery of free kicks and corners i think tonev needs to come in. Westwood passing stats were 88% accurate but the guys passing short obviosu passes needs alot more drive and forward thinking !!
The game as a whole was unlucky for us not to get a point esp with 17 shots to 5 and that second half was mainly villa but a bit huff and puff.. Villa are set up to conatain and 1st half thats how it looked i think next 2 matches at home we will be more offensive from the off I would like tonev delph and gardner/kea/sylla in next 2 matches westwood can be dropped
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Just had a look at the RAWK website - some very complimentary stuff about us on their thread and the way they saw Liverpools approach change during the game to nullify ' arguably the best counter attacking team in the country' .
http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=308172.0
There is also a post called ' I came for the football' - which will resonate with many of us of a certain age - well worth a read.
http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=308143.0
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On Westwood, I agree be needs to improve, but I don't agree he should be playing a fundamentally different role.
He sits deep so that - in theory - our full backs can really bomb on. Last season he was generally completing over 90% of his passes, and there were plenty of them. So he must be making himself available
I do agree that I prefer a whipped in corner. But I'm pretty sure that Westwood to benteke is the only corner routine we scored from last season.
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I don't think Liverpool could have complained if it had finished a draw. Other than their goal, they didn't create very much. Like the last two games, it took us a long time to get into it. We didn't seem to click in the first half at all.
I think there could be a useful player in Bacuna given time but like somebody else said has said, he didn't seem to know where he was meant to be playing. I thought Delph and Luna were decent again and once Okore properly settles in, he'll be very good.
Overall, disappointed but we've the makings of a good side there. There's a lot to be optimistic about.
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Delph and Okore were the stand out performers.
West wood and Weimann have to do better. I'm gald westwood was taken off as he did not offer much yesterday and Tonev or Helenuis would have been more likely to score with those long range efforts he had.
In fact Westy was very frustrating as he was again rarely getting forward and Delph is an example of what a midfielder should do. Time and again westwood drops so deep with central defenders passes and doesnt move. The guy lacks energy and i was disappointed overall with his contribution. Also his set pieces are lacking as he floats the ball perhaps told to too same spot every corner - looking for beats benteke!! Look at ward-prose of suton or larson or gardner delivery of free kicks and corners i think tonev needs to come in. Westwood passing stats were 88% accurate but the guys passing short obviosu passes needs alot more drive and forward thinking !!
The game as a whole was unlucky for us not to get a point esp with 17 shots to 5 and that second half was mainly villa but a bit huff and puff.. Villa are set up to conatain and 1st half thats how it looked i think next 2 matches at home we will be more offensive from the off I would like tonev delph and gardner/kea/sylla in next 2 matches westwood can be dropped
Bit harsh on Westwood that , he hasn't reached the form of last season yet but the reason he sits deep is probably because thats what lambert wants him to do .
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Agreed. It'll just be interesting to see how we shape up against Newcastle.
We could take the view that the 433 should be good enough because it'll be easier to get the ball into our forwards and they'll always create chances.
It'd be great to see more of a playmaker in there for bacuna though. In the absence of that I would be tempted to play Tonev there, or put him wide and play Weimann there. Not sure on that one.
We really should be aiming for 6 points from the next two games. I think Newcastle and Norwich are bottom six contenders this year. Redmond looks good for Norwich though.
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Liverpool must be very pleased, they we're reminiscent of their glory years.
Get the early goal and suck the fucking life out of the game.
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I liked all the pictures down on Witton Lane, a very clever idea, although the Tom Hanks one ruined it slightly.
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I liked all the pictures down on Witton Lane, a very clever idea, although the Tom Hanks one ruined it slightly.
I agree, they should replace it with a pissed up Geezer Butler telling a Texan copper "Go on then shoot me, I'll die for Aston Villa".
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I remember this feeling, the churning annoyance that you've dropped points that you shouldn't have, and I don't like it.
A good start on reflection. I think we are one or two players light, especially an attacking midfielder, but we look decent again. Compare that with our opening week last season and we're seeing progress.
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Arsenal,Chelsea away and then Liverpool who are a much improved side and to come out of those games with equal goal 'difference' ,scored 4 and 4 against ,suggests a comfortable top half side.
Defensive frailties were the big concern before the season but we look solid enough,so the criticism is focusing now on midfield creativity.Bacuna didn't look the part in midfield and when KEA came on ,our passing and movement improved.Lowton's substitution was possibly to avoid a sending off,as there was ill feeling between him and Coutinho.
It was good to see that we had reduced a team that had earlier passed it around us at will into a side that was desperately hanging on at the end.This pressure will make lesser teams capitulate.
Okore and Luna look to be great signings.
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I'm hoping the tactic of defending and counter attacking if we're not losing isn't going to apply to every game.
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Okore and Luna look to be great signings.
Yeah, I really like Tony Moon a lot. I think Bennett's going to have trouble getting back in.
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Before the season started I'd have been happy with 3 points, we should have 5 points. So I won't get too carried away with yesterday's result any more than I did after the Arsenal game.
Our home results are why we have been locked into a relgation battle for the past 3 years, like yesterday, our home performances often do not give us the results we deserve.
Most teams will come to Villa Park & setup to stop us playing, the others (the top 6) will come to beat us. From an attacking position we need more options to either come off the bench or put pressure on those in the team.
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I liked all the pictures down on Witton Lane, a very clever idea, although the Tom Hanks one ruined it slightly.
What's this all about Clampy? Sounds good.
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MotD (http://www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/aston-villa-0-liverpool-1-motd/)
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Before the season started I'd have been happy with 3 points, we should have 5 points.
This. Nobody would have a problem if this was our points total now. We've certainly been good enough. Just shows how slim the margins are.
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Guzan 7 did what he needed to do. Can't be blamed for the goal.
Lowton 3 Our worst player on the pitch. Gets pulled out of position easily and was not much good going forward.
Vlaar 5 don't like him and he didn't do anything today to make me change my mind. Got easily dummied for their goal.
Okore 7 has the making of a real class defender.
Luna 8 had fantastic game and at times was our only option.
Westwood 5 Was effective but looked lost at times.
Delph 8 Fantastic MotM IMO.
Bacuna 6 good debut and could turn into a very good midfielder.
Agbonlahor 5 Liverpool had him worked out and missed an easy chance.
Benteke 6 amazingly ineffective however could have still scored twice.
Weimann 4 Very poor today and he really needs to find a role in this team.
I really cannot see how you can say Bacuna had a good debut ? He was the worst player on the pitch. Everyone around me were holding their breathe when he had the ball. For the wrong reasons !! He has been decent in previous games but today his nerves got the better of him ......
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I liked all the pictures down on Witton Lane, a very clever idea, although the Tom Hanks one ruined it slightly.
What's this all about Clampy? Sounds good.
Info here (http://www.heroesandvillains.info/forumv3/index.php?topic=45481.0)
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/p480x480/994568_697902513570643_224281297_n.jpg)
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Still very optimistic, despite the last 2 results, being denied 2 crucial penalties doesnt help us but the performances were encouraging, but please dont give us "Kevin Enemy" for a ref again for the forseable future, - like the next 10 years ideally.
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(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/p480x480/1239473_10152186496553136_458207962_n.jpg)
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The morning after the performance wasn't too bad I suppose.
Slow start and formation change bolloxed the first half for us - second half we should have equalised.
Okore looks great but needs to develop tactical awareness for his pass out after winning the ball (we still look very static?)
Tony Mooooon looks like he adds something and has a bit of spirit.
Gabby picked us up I thought with the run late in the first half and took people on a couple of times when it was needed
On another day we would beat so bring on Noocasl
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Feeling quite deflated today. After that brilliant opening day, back to back defeats and now 3 weeks without a game is hard to take. I know we have 3 points which is credible but I think I'd have preferred 3 draws.
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MotD (http://www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/aston-villa-0-liverpool-1-motd/)
Thanks for that.
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Three points and progress in the League Cup won't be a bad opening to the season. We aren't adrift at the bottom, we haven't shipped in goals, we've matched 3 of the top teams in the country and we have a bunch of new players settling in.
Let's not get too downbeat.
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Three points and progress in the League Cup won't be a bad opening to the season. We aren't adrift at the bottom, we haven't shipped in goals, we've matched 3 of the top teams in the country and we have a bunch of new players settling in.
Let's not get too downbeat.
A very good summary so far. To be honest even though we have lost the last two game it does not feel like we have.
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Liverpool minus Suarez are definitely not one of the top teams. Losing at home to them again is a real kick in the teeth.
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I think thats key. We have played three of the top six*, two of which were away from home and matched them. The performances merrited five points but yeilded just three. We have a neutral goal difference and have shown sides of improvement at the back.
We lost all three fixtures last year and conceded twelve and scored two. So it is progress. Our peers for the top half are the likes of West Ham, who look functional, Southampton, who haven't settled, West Brom, who look poor and Swansea who we will find out more today.
I certainly thing by the time we face the Geordies we will have one more in too. I am as frustrated as anybody that we lost, but in context, I can see the colours on the canvass of that bigger picture starting to form.
* I think Liverpool will finish 6th, Arsenal 4th and Chelsea 2nd.
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We'll see come the end of the season Ozz, but my money on them is to be nowhere in the fight for top 4. Feel free to make me eat my words come the end of the season if i'm wrong!
Liverpool top 6 aft best for me, nothing ive seen to suggest we can't finish top 8 - we have improved a lot defensively and need to just sort out our home form which hasn't really been what it should be for a good few years now.
On the other hand they have a 100% start and are unbeaten in the league since March.
Stoke missed a late penalty.
Most of us would agree we were poor for the first 40, and a lot of the talk has been how we struggled to create. Yet during the match apart from the goal I can't remember a decent effort from them. While despite struggling to create we had 4 good/close chances. The deflected shot that went just over, the Gabby effort and the 2 top saves from the Benteke efforts. It's not like they romped both games.
I'm sticking to they aren't much kop (geddit) so ner ner.
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Liverpool will certainly finish somewhere in the top 6, really don't see an Everton team in transition and who have started with two underwhelming draws doing enough to be above them.
Very open below the top 6 this season imo.
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I think thats key. We have played three of the top six*, two of which were away from home and matched them. The performances merrited five points but yeilded just three. We have a neutral goal difference and have shown sides of improvement at the back.
We lost all three fixtures last year and conceded twelve and scored two. So it is progress. Our peers for the top half are the likes of West Ham, who look functional, Southampton, who haven't settled, West Brom, who look poor and Swansea who we will find out more today.
I certainly thing by the time we face the Geordies we will have one more in too. I am as frustrated as anybody that we lost, but in context, I can see the colours on the canvass of that bigger picture starting to form.
* I think Liverpool will finish 6th, Arsenal 4th and Chelsea 2nd.
Precisely. Yesterdays performance should be looked at as part of the bigger picture which, looks refreshing and exciting. Good times ahead
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I liked all the pictures down on Witton Lane, a very clever idea, although the Tom Hanks one ruined it slightly.
What's this all about Clampy? Sounds good.
Info here (http://www.heroesandvillains.info/forumv3/index.php?topic=45481.0)
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/p480x480/994568_697902513570643_224281297_n.jpg)
Wow! Ta Clampy and Legion, will have a look next time.
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Well worth a look Percy, I think they are ace. Apart from the Tom Hanks one.
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Liverpool will certainly finish somewhere in the top 6, really don't see an Everton team in transition and who have started with two underwhelming draws doing enough to be above them.
Very open below the top 6 this season imo.
Maybe but not in the top 5 they won't.
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It certainly wasn't poor but was by no means good. Frustrating I suppose is best. An "almost" performance.
Indeed. On another day we'd have scored a couple.
Yep, fairly evenly matched teams with the game settled by a well taken goal. On another day it might have gone our way. On the evidence so far I think we'll have a decent season.
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Some decent words from the dippers
Glad we got the 3 points. But boy is that Villa team relentless. They do not tire out there. Stevie and Lucas were gasping for air at the end and they kept coming at us. Love Mignolet.
What a fucking relief.
We were fucking battered the last 55 minutes of the game or so.
Also going to add that Villa will beat a fair few teams this season, they are big, powerful and good on the break. We didn't make it hard work, Villa are a good side and gave us a game. They thrashed Arsenal and were robbed of a draw against Chelsea so I think we should put the hard second half into context.
And villa were good, especially Delph.
And then I got bored of reading Welsh.
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Very good pws - always nice when the opposition fans have good things to say about us - I think we will recieve a lot of praise from others this season.
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I'm truly sick of seeing Liverpool win at Villa Park. A truly uninspiring display from Villa today and lots of the floating fans who shelled out top dollar for tickets today will have left thinking fuck this, what a waste of money and time that was. That's the harsh reality.
This
And if that's what they think they can fuck off and not come back.
This!
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We improved in the second half I also agree Delph was my motm.
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This is pretty interesting.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/EnglishPride2004/heat_zps429e3817.png)
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Brendan Rogers' post-match comments are not far from classic Pulis. Paraphrasing 'We nicked one on the break, then we sat back, they came on strong, we held out'. Not exactly a confident outfit and a less naive, mature version of this Villa team would have had them.
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A game to many within 7 days for some yesterday, tired legs and minds.
This magical number 10, is fine if players around him move off the ball, yesterday plenty of ours did not, we have to press from minute one without the ball , when we do have the ball we have to give options, the amount of times the defence and a midfielder had to go across the pitch, even in the second half when we stepped up a bit, lack of movement. We need to be able to adapt the play especially at home as plenty will come and park the bus this year.
Andi and Benteke yesterday were nullified, Gabby gave it loads of effort, but his best work was done in areas that are never going to hurt teams, by being the one with some movement out of the forwards but far to deep at times. A couple of weeks to either work with what we have and get better or add a bit of finished ability, not just promise. Still feel this team has got so much yet to give and the ride is going to be different that's for sure.
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I'm truly sick of seeing Liverpool win at Villa Park. A truly uninspiring display from Villa today and lots of the floating fans who shelled out top dollar for tickets today will have left thinking fuck this, what a waste of money and time that was. That's the harsh reality.
This
And if that's what they think they can fuck off and not come back.
This!
This +1!
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Some decent words from the dippers
Glad we got the 3 points. But boy is that Villa team relentless. They do not tire out there. Stevie and Lucas were gasping for air at the end and they kept coming at us. Love Mignolet.
What a fucking relief.
We were fucking battered the last 55 minutes of the game or so.
Also going to add that Villa will beat a fair few teams this season, they are big, powerful and good on the break. We didn't make it hard work, Villa are a good side and gave us a game. They thrashed Arsenal and were robbed of a draw against Chelsea so I think we should put the hard second half into context.
And villa were good, especially Delph.
And then I got bored of reading Welsh.
This is all well and good, but we lost, just like we did against chelski.
Difference being, we did not deserve to lose to Chelski, referee was a complete baboon and obviously took a bung.
But yesterday's first half performance was inadequate, boring, lacking any real positivity.
Second half was better, but we never really looked like scoring?
Let's face it, our style of play is suited to playing away, we are not a team who are going to dominate possession, and I think our home games are going to be very frustrating for our fans.
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Brendan Rogers' post-match comments are not far from classic Pulis. Paraphrasing 'We nicked one on the break, then we sat back, they came on strong, we held out'. Not exactly a confident outfit and a less naive, mature version of this Villa team would have had them.
or alternatively a perfect set of tactics that got them another 3 points and a clean sheet. Once they scored they had absolutely no need to attack and we still coouldn't wear them down. for that i'd say spot on Rogers
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Some decent words from the dippers
Glad we got the 3 points. But boy is that Villa team relentless. They do not tire out there. Stevie and Lucas were gasping for air at the end and they kept coming at us. Love Mignolet.
What a fucking relief.
We were fucking battered the last 55 minutes of the game or so.
Also going to add that Villa will beat a fair few teams this season, they are big, powerful and good on the break. We didn't make it hard work, Villa are a good side and gave us a game. They thrashed Arsenal and were robbed of a draw against Chelsea so I think we should put the hard second half into context.
And villa were good, especially Delph.
And then I got bored of reading Welsh.
This is all well and good, but we lost, just like we did against chelski.
Difference being, we did not deserve to lose to Chelski, referee was a complete baboon and obviously took a bung.
But yesterday's first half performance was inadequate, boring, lacking any real positivity.
Second half was better, but we never really looked like scoring?
Let's face it, our style of play is suited to playing away, we are not a team who are going to dominate possession, and I think our home games are going to be very frustrating for our fans.
Comments you quoted spot on. But your comment, 'never looked like scoring', we did twice second half, they didn't at all.
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This is all well and good, but we lost, just like we did against chelski.
Difference being, we did not deserve to lose to Chelski, referee was a complete baboon and obviously took a bung.
But yesterday's first half performance was inadequate, boring, lacking any real positivity.
Second half was better, but we never really looked like scoring?
Let's face it, our style of play is suited to playing away, we are not a team who are going to dominate possession, and I think our home games are going to be very frustrating for our fans.
Apart from us having 60% possession second half and the times we did look like scoring?
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A game to many within 7 days for some yesterday, tired legs and minds.
This magical number 10, is fine if players around him move off the ball, yesterday plenty of ours did not, we have to press from minute one without the ball , when we do have the ball we have to give options, the amount of times the defence and a midfielder had to go across the pitch, even in the second half when we stepped up a bit, lack of movement. We need to be able to adapt the play especially at home as plenty will come and park the bus this year.
Andi and Benteke yesterday were nullified, Gabby gave it loads of effort, but his best work was done in areas that are never going to hurt teams, by being the one with some movement out of the forwards but far to deep at times. A couple of weeks to either work with what we have and get better or add a bit of finished ability, not just promise. Still feel this team has got so much yet to give and the ride is going to be different that's for sure.
Thing is a quality number 10 will pull teams out of shape and create space for others. I really think we need that type of player if we are to make progress at home.
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Brad Guzan insists Villa have taken huge strides forward.
Guzan was anything but downbeat on the final whistle as he reflected on the 1-0 defeat to the Reds.
Villa's No.1 doesn't like losing but he was positive about the team's chances of success this term, after they showed character and class in abundance against Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool.
He told AVTV: "We knew on paper the fixture list this week was going to be difficult for us.
"But the work ethic has been unbelievable - in training and in all three games.
"The shift the boys put in against Liverpool was second to none so it was a unfortunate to come up a bit short.
"To come out on the losing side is not a good feeling but if you look at where this club has come in the last 12 months, it's huge strides.
"To put that kind of performance in, especially in the second half? I thought we were phenomenal after the break.
"To come away with nothing, it leaves a bit of a sour taste in the mouth.
"But we know we have put in three really, really good performances.
"Yes the result wasn't there against Chelsea or Liverpool. But when you put together performances like we have, we will win more games than not.
"So for us it's just a matter of continuing to fight on.
"We know it's early in the season - there are a lot of games to come - but if we put in these performances, good things are going to come."
Guzan paid tribute to his opposite number Simon Mignolet, who kept the Reds in the game after the break with several fine saves.
He added: "I wouldn't say it was an easy day at the office for me but it wasn't a busy one.
"Simon is a good goalkeeper and unfortunately for us, he's pulled one or two good saves out of the bag and kept a clean sheet.
"On another day one of those goes in and we get a d
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The game was a bit of an anti-climax.
We looked like we were still feeling sorry for ourselves from Wednesday in the 1st half.
2nd half picked up but a lack of movement and consistency in our final ball let us down. You could argue that could be down to playing 3 games in the space of a week though.
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This is all well and good, but we lost, just like we did against chelski.
Difference being, we did not deserve to lose to Chelski, referee was a complete baboon and obviously took a bung.
But yesterday's first half performance was inadequate, boring, lacking any real positivity.
Second half was better, but we never really looked like scoring?
Let's face it, our style of play is suited to playing away, we are not a team who are going to dominate possession, and I think our home games are going to be very frustrating for our fans.
Apart from us having 60% possession second half and the times we did look like scoring?
I thought we looked liked scoring on at least 3 attempts.
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What annoyed me was the lack of movement off the ball, particularly by the forward players. On one occasion all 3 front men plus one other (cant remember who) were stood together in the centre of the field and a handkerchief could have covered all 4! None of them made any movement to give our players with the ball any options. We really must start making runs so that we pull defences about otherwise they just have an easy afternoon marking the statues.
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If anyone wants perspective, think back to our first home game of last season.
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If anyone wants perspective, think back to our first home game of last season.
Exactly.
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Opposition fans, players and managers can compliment you all day long when they've beaten you. I'd rather have them pissing and moaning about us after we've given them a beating.
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Nothing annoyed me about yesterday other than the result. May be some players could have performed better than they did. It was a tough ask to play 3 very huge effort games in basically 8 days. Liverpool are a decent team and we were very competitive against them as we were against the other two. There is too much dissection going on here about tactics and team selection. There is no need for that just now. The team will hammer lesser teams and those of you who are worried about that just remember Stoke, QPR , Norwich and Sunderland near the end of last season.
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The most annoying thing is that we have to wait another 3 weeks for the next league game. Someone is due a thrashing from us.
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Opposition fans, players and managers can compliment you all day long when they've beaten you. I'd rather have them pissing and moaning about us after we've given them a beating.
Yep Wenger last week of course.
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The challenge for us now is that when we get back to PL action we turn this effort and optimism into 3 points against the teams we should be beating. Good showings this week but it will be wasted if Newcastle show up and take anything away from Villa Park.
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This is all well and good, but we lost, just like we did against chelski.
Difference being, we did not deserve to lose to Chelski, referee was a complete baboon and obviously took a bung.
But yesterday's first half performance was inadequate, boring, lacking any real positivity.
Second half was better, but we never really looked like scoring?
Let's face it, our style of play is suited to playing away, we are not a team who are going to dominate possession, and I think our home games are going to be very frustrating for our fans.
Apart from us having 60% possession second half and the times we did look like scoring?
Not denying we had lots of possession, just saying I felt like we could of played for 3 hours without putting the ball in the net.
We look uncomfortable when we try to play the passing game, don't get me wrong, still a massive improvement on last season, just infuriating because I hate them scouser fans who believe they warrant a top four spot every season, and I believe they were there for the taking yesterday.
I think we may have stood a better chance of beating them if we we're playing at anfield, our counter attacking is unrivalled.
Still a massive improvement, but I do think our away days may be where we get our points.
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This is all well and good, but we lost, just like we did against chelski.
Difference being, we did not deserve to lose to Chelski, referee was a complete baboon and obviously took a bung.
But yesterday's first half performance was inadequate, boring, lacking any real positivity.
Second half was better, but we never really looked like scoring?
Let's face it, our style of play is suited to playing away, we are not a team who are going to dominate possession, and I think our home games are going to be very frustrating for our fans.
Apart from us having 60% possession second half and the times we did look like scoring?
Not denying we had lots of possession, just saying I felt like we could of played for 3 hours without putting the ball in the net.
We look uncomfortable when we try to play the passing game, don't get me wrong, still a massive improvement on last season, just infuriating because I hate them scouser fans who believe they warrant a top four spot every season, and I believe they were there for the taking yesterday.
I think we may have stood a better chance of beating them if we we're playing at anfield, our counter attacking is unrivalled.
Still a massive improvement, but I do think our away days may be where we get our points.
Away form will definitely be important. However if we can consistently reproduce our form in the second half yesterday, we should be able to beat most of the teams that will come to VP this season.
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author=warleyboy12345=789
just saying I felt like we could of played for 3 hours without putting the ball in the net.
That's a bit harsh. With a bit of luck Gabby and Christian should have both scored and game won. Agree with rest of your comments.
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If anyone wants perspective, think back to our first home game of last season.
Exactly.
For me i'm not in the business or mindset of comparing to last season or any season. Its negligible as all we have is this season right now. Sure use it as a measure to progress however this is the Premier league instant gratification society. We want our success now but i'm hearing want you saying. Its always about the money.
We don't have a £10-£12 million to spend on another striker say like Giroud or Sturridge or £10 million to spend on an ivanovic. That s where we are. If we did replace Dunne and Bent basically with 2 quality players we would have won all 3 matches!!
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We'll be fine. By the end of last season all most people were really worried about was left-back and centre-half. I think PL has sorted that with his usual aplomb.
As a big fan of Sylla though, I'd like to know what he's done wrong. Saying that, KEA has been like a new player, so maybe he's just been really good in training.
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Sylla offers little goal threat and not much as an offensive player so i think kea is given the edge as he has tactical nous presses well and has a go.
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I think it's more a case of Sylla was injured so KEA stepped in and so far has earned keeping the shirt.
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I've got to question why we started with a 4-4-2 formation when all of our improvement since the turn of the year has been with the 4-3-2-1 formation? Once we switched back to that formation we took control of the game.
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Totally agree john2710, especially against a team like Liverpool who always play 3 in the centre and are strong there
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I hate losing our undefeated home record on the first day of the season. It pisses me off that Villa Park hasn't been a fortress in many a year as I love the intimidation factor of being able to beat anybody at home and I think it lifts confidence if 35,000 Villa fans see us win rather than 2500 of us in the away end.
I don't think that Steven Gerrard has ever lost at Villa Park - that pisses me off. As does the fact that Liverpool see our ground in the way that Man You and Arsenal do ( and Spurs and Man City are moving that way too).
Don't think we have had an unbeaten season at home in my lifetime. Just one would make me very happy......
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I hate losing our undefeated home record on the first day of the season. It pisses me off that Villa Park hasn't been a fortress in many a year as I love the intimidation factor of being able to beat anybody at home and I think it lifts confidence if 35,000 Villa fans see us win rather than 2500 of us in the away end.
I don't think that Steven Gerrard has ever lost at Villa Park - that pisses me off. As does the fact that Liverpool see our ground in the way that Man You and Arsenal do ( and Spurs and Man City are moving that way too).
Don't think we have had an unbeaten season at home in my lifetime. Just one would make me very happy......
Winning 2 in a row will do me!
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I don't think that Steven Gerrard has ever lost at Villa Park - that pisses me off.
We'll beat them in the cup final. Just you watch...
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In a couple of months Liverpool will be thankful they caught us before we'd properly warmed up.
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In a couple of months Liverpool will be thankful they caught us before we'd properly warmed up.
I'd have to disagree, I think Liverpool will improve over the season.
I believe we will have a decent first half, maybe even a little more, but fatigue will set in latter part of season.
We will get very tired and lacklustre, we play a very hi tempo, energetic up and at em type of football, no way will the boys be able to reproduce every game.
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Our weakest performance of the three so far, it always seemed likely that if they scored first they would win as they are one of best teams at closing down a game away from home and we do sometimes crumble against good footballing sides when playing in front of our fans.
Don't know why people are getting so upset me and a few others said this would be a tough fixture. Liverpool are a top six or five club at least, we are mid-table at best.
There are positive signs from the first three games, and the big games for us are against the likes of Fulham and in the Cups. Progress has been made and I think we will have a good season.
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It seemed to be one of those games where we could have plugged away all night but we wouldn't have scored. Between uninspired, slightly rushed attacking play, to their keeper on top form, it was a tough game.
Much as I hate Liverpool, I do like Rodgers and he's going to do well for them. Things are clicking. If anything they've actually improved as a team while Suarez has been out too. Sturridge and Coutinho have stepped up. Gerrard has re-invented himself too. They're gonna push Arsenal.
If you look at Liverpool they've worked hard for a couple of 1-0 wins. They ground them out. They did dominate Stoke but almost slipped up because they couldn't put them to bed.
Still. Two hard games. Two wins.
It'll be interesting to see if they can keep that sort of consistency against the teams below the top 4-5.
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Hope Bacuna settles in quickly. He reminded me of a certain Uliyses De La Cruz on Saturday .
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Hope Bacuna settles in quickly. He reminded me of a certain Uliyses De La Cruz on Saturday .
What, you mean a much-maligned and decent player who was scapegoated because it was oh-so-clever to make amusing plays on his name?
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Hope Bacuna settles in quickly. He reminded me of a certain Uliyses De La Cruz on Saturday .
What, you mean a much-maligned and decent player who was scapegoated because it was oh-so-clever to make amusing plays on his name?
UDC had a few good games but come on, overall ?? Fairly poor.
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Hope Bacuna settles in quickly. He reminded me of a certain Uliyses De La Cruz on Saturday .
What, you mean a much-maligned and decent player who was scapegoated because it was oh-so-clever to make amusing plays on his name?
UDC had a few good games but come on, overall ?? Fairly poor.
Overall he was decent. Not world-beating but good enough.
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Hope Bacuna settles in quickly. He reminded me of a certain Uliyses De La Cruz on Saturday .
What, you mean a much-maligned and decent player who was scapegoated because it was oh-so-clever to make amusing plays on his name?
UDC had a few good games but come on, overall ?? Fairly poor.
Overall he was decent. Not world-beating but good enough.
He was cracking on Pro Evo to be fair. ;)
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Does anyone else not understand these post match 'stat facts' ?
Every paper/news outlet seems to have one that differs from the next one. How hard can it be to be accurate about shots on target for example ?
One had us down as having 9 shots ON target on Saturday, I scratched my head and came up with 3. Then lo and behold tonights E&S also lists it as 3
Who's making them up ?
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Arguably worth keeping your own stats as they vary so much . At least corners and shots on target.
Possession more difficult of Course.
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It was a though game that we started poorly in. Liverpool played possession football and we were looking to get the ball forward too quickly wheh we got it back. That changed about 30 minutes in and we started holding it better. The rest of the half was then more even, but it was hard to argue with a 1 nil lead to Liverpool at the break.
2nd half was then pretty much all us and we deserved the equaliser. Unlike Chelsea though, we only had ourselves to blame here as is simply didn't happen for us in front of goal. And when it did, Mingolet pulled off two very good saves.
Disappointing, but like the previous two games there was enough there to suggest we'll be fine this season.
And one additional point:- I think the '3 games in a week' thing is just an excuse. These are very fit lads at the start of the season. Plus I saw no lack of energy from them during the game.
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Garth Crooks in his team of the week.
Daniel Sturridge took his goal brilliantly in the win against Aston Villa and should have been awarded a penalty when goalkeeper Brad Guzan clearly brought him down late in the second half.
I thought Brad got a good hand on the ball diverting it away from Sturridge.
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Garth Crooks in his team of the week.
Daniel Sturridge took his goal brilliantly in the win against Aston Villa and should have been awarded a penalty when goalkeeper Brad Guzan clearly brought him down late in the second half.
I thought Brad got a good hand on the ball diverting it away from Sturridge.
He did.
Crooks is just bigging up his choice who just did one thing of merit in the match.
Did it bloody well mind you!
He's looking sharp this season. (Sturridge, not Crooks!)
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Whatever the opposite of sharp is,Crooks is it.