Aston Villa v Liverpool Post-Match Thread

[jembob]

Jeff Randall in the Telegraph today is commenting on the Euro crisis and made a comment that also relates to our manager and his post patch comments:

When fantasy masquerades as action, the end is nigh.

[Concrete John]

I thought we were fairly decent in the first half, other than ridiculous goals from set pieces.  Again.  But we passed it reasonably well and created a few chances.  I certainly don't think Liverpool were two goals better than us at half time. 

And then we just fell apart.  I don't know how it was they didn't score another couple, but there were so many mis-placed passes I couldn't work out if it was embarassing or actually funny - probably both!  I won't say we lacked attacking intent, but we did lack any real impetusor drive.  Good player though he is, Petrov isn't that kind of captain to drag his team back into a game by giving out a few tirades on the pitch.  And that's what I'm coming to see from AM's Villa:- a strangely passionless side. 

We'll still float around mid-table for the rest of the season as we have enough decent players to do so, but everyone at the club seems to be in cruise mode, from the chairman down, as the bar is being set too low with a mid table finish.  Say what you like about him, but under MON we we always striving to do better.  That's what we need right now. 

[midnite]

My brother summed it up when he started singing
"we may be shit but we're better than this."

It's such a ball ache at the moment. I don't enjoy going down to VP. Its a chore, an inconvenience. It was the most depressing train journey to the match too. Not only knowing where I'm going but on the train journey finding out we were without Bent and Herd. You knew it was going to be defeatist and negative. I'm bored

[Big Dick Edwards]

Why wasn't Stephen Ireland on the bench today?

[midnite]

Ill apparently. Matt Kendrick tweeted

[Pat McMahon]

We were really poor and I have been trying to think of something positive to cheer me up for for my trip home to England for xmas.

1. I thought Petrov did a decent job of encouraging and cajoling teammates in the first half and NZog showed more flair and desire than I have seen for a while.
2. Bent and Gabby will return
3. There are at least 3 worse teams than us

After that I am struggling. We made Jordan Henderson look good for God;s sake.

[Nev]

Why wasn't Stephen Ireland on the bench today?

He would have fitted perfectly into the side yesterday. Insipid, half arsed shoulder shrugging disinterest steered by a cowardly, sloping shouldered excuse for a manager.

[Villafirst]

I thought we were fairly decent in the first half, other than ridiculous goals from set pieces.  Again.  But we passed it reasonably well and created a few chances.  I certainly don't think Liverpool were two goals better than us at half time. 

And then we just fell apart.  I don't know how it was they didn't score another couple, but there were so many mis-placed passes I couldn't work out if it was embarassing or actually funny - probably both!  I won't say we lacked attacking intent, but we did lack any real impetusor drive.  Good player though he is, Petrov isn't that kind of captain to drag his team back into a game by giving out a few tirades on the pitch.  And that's what I'm coming to see from AM's Villa:- a strangely passionless side. 

We'll still float around mid-table for the rest of the season as we have enough decent players to do so, but everyone at the club seems to be in cruise mode, from the chairman down, as the bar is being set too low with a mid table finish.  Say what you like about him, but under MON we we always striving to do better.  That's what we need right now. 

Sorry mate, but our passing was simply atrocious - the amount of passes straight to a Liverpool player or into touch was a joke! These guys are earning 40-50k a week to 'play' like that! A disgrace. Root and branch change is needed I'm afraid.

[pauliewalnuts]

Everyone is to blame.

The chairman for making a baffling appointment which sapped the goodwill from the support, for appointing the clueless Faulkner, and also for slamming on the spending brakes so rapidly.

The manager for almost half a season of shit, negative anti-football dross, which is frankly an embarassment to Aston Villa.

The players, many of whom are clearly not bothered and/or not good enough.

Someone at the top needs to get a grip of this pretty quickly, because it is going to continue to get worse for a while yet.

Another thing I'm worried about, this "there are three teams worse than  us" makes us sound a bit like Newcastle fans in the year they went down

[midnite]

I think that's the main problem at the moment villafirst. The decision making from Delph, banan and albrighton was pretty poor. Delphs first thought always seems to be to slide tackle. You can forgive it somewhat when it is the kids making the wrong decisions with which pass to make, as that will come with experience, but when it's the simple stuff your patients does wear thin.

[ktvillan]

41 quid, froze my bollocks off to watch a bunch of miillionaires struggle to even go through the motions.  Very little movement, as soon as a player releases the ball he stands still and the receiving player is left with few options.  First half wasn't too bad despite conceding twice, but the second half was as abject a performance as I've seen from a Villa team in my 45 years of watching.  Really really woeful, and you know it's bad when your own crowd are giving you ironic cheers when you manage to string three passes together, and chant "what the fucking hell was that" at an attempted attack that ends in an aimless hoof.   We are an embarrassment at the moment.

[Chris Smith]

There are more than 3 teams worse than us.

We appear intimidated against the top sides but we'll pick up enough points elsewhere to bobble along in mid table.

[TonyD]

Can't the club get anything right.  Bent is paid millions and has tons of free time for shopping.  The least he could do is be in Trinity to watch the match.  Rudderless.

[LeeB]

Everyone is to blame.

The chairman for making a baffling appointment which sapped the goodwill from the support, for appointing the clueless Faulkner, and also for slamming on the spending brakes so rapidly.

The manager for almost half a season of shit, negative anti-football dross, which is frankly an embarassment to Aston Villa.

The players, many of whom are clearly not bothered and/or not good enough.

Someone at the top needs to get a grip of this pretty quickly, because it is going to continue to get worse for a while yet.

Another thing I'm worried about, this "there are three teams worse than  us" makes us sound a bit like Newcastle fans in the year they went down

Spot on paulie.

If I thought it was just the manager, I could at least have the hope that were he to be removed we'd be ok.

Instead, we seem to have engineered ourselves the perfect storm of having a shit board, shit players on great money, and a shit manager who's about as popular as, well, as popular as a ginger bluenose.

[Concrete John]

I thought we were fairly decent in the first half, other than ridiculous goals from set pieces.  Again.  But we passed it reasonably well and created a few chances.  I certainly don't think Liverpool were two goals better than us at half time. 

And then we just fell apart.  I don't know how it was they didn't score another couple, but there were so many mis-placed passes I couldn't work out if it was embarassing or actually funny - probably both!  I won't say we lacked attacking intent, but we did lack any real impetusor drive.  Good player though he is, Petrov isn't that kind of captain to drag his team back into a game by giving out a few tirades on the pitch.  And that's what I'm coming to see from AM's Villa:- a strangely passionless side. 

We'll still float around mid-table for the rest of the season as we have enough decent players to do so, but everyone at the club seems to be in cruise mode, from the chairman down, as the bar is being set too low with a mid table finish.  Say what you like about him, but under MON we we always striving to do better.  That's what we need right now. 

Sorry mate, but our passing was simply atrocious - the amount of passes straight to a Liverpool player or into touch was a joke! These guys are earning 40-50k a week to 'play' like that! A disgrace. Root and branch change is needed I'm afraid.

I fully agree and that's what I said in the post you quoted in fact.  I guess you're therefore disagreeing with my comment about it being better in the first half?  Fair enough if you are - it's just an opinion!