Aston Villa v Liverpool Post-Match Thread

[steamer]

2nd half pathetic, no level of pressure or creativity.
At one stage I think we had more than 10 passes that ended up back at Guzan.
Bannan should not have come out for the second half.
A clear problem is that there is no driving force on the park, if you watched the game without having seen the team sheet you would struggle to name the Villa captain.
I despair for my beloved Villa as it seems did most of the crowd who seemed to be waiting for the inevitable.

[onje_villa]

That could have been a lot worse.  Disappointing not to take points but on the whole a good battling performance with periods of sustained pressure.  On another day we could have scored 4 or 5.  Impressed with Sylla, his range of passing is better than I expected, and he breaks play up well, a good find, and alongside Westwood in the  middle they coped well against a very experienced midfield.  Gabby looked bright at times and Benteke did what he does.  Guzan was immense.  Two big games against Fulham (3 points) and Stoke.  That wasn't a relegation performance. We must finish above Sunderland.  Please.

Really? Thought it was very poor second half and you know that Villa have to score two or more to get anything out of a game. No clean sheet in 20. Once Liverpool went 2-1 up they just sat back, there was no more space in behind for Gabby and Benteke and we looked very poor.

[eastie]

Unprofessional and naive. Days like this I dn't think we deserve to stay up when you see the fight from teams like Wigan and Southampton who take on the top teams and really go for it....for 90 minutes

That is what worries me.

We beat Reading and QPR but we never look like pulling off the sort of surprise result other teams around us can.

I dread to think this could go to the final day and the loser goes down, because I'd back us to lose that one, every time.

If it goes to the wigan game them i have no doubt we will go down - these players lack the fight - we must get clear before the last game.

[N'Zimidy]

Weimann is too key to take off. He is the only player who runs into space and drags away defenders. Without him we are absolutely toothless.

[supertom]

That was too easy in the end for a pretty ordinary Liverpool. It only goes to further compound how poor and inconsistent we are. When it really matters we always seem to be found wanting. It's been the difference over the years between finishing 6th when we could have had 4th, or potentially this season surviving and going down. Too poor.

For all Lamberts ideals and good work, he's just sorely lacking in nous. He's clueless tactically. The squad are too young. Games like this we have to be getting points on the board. We bottled it, as we've done all too often this season. The trouble now is we're right in the final furlong now and now is the time to start getting a consistent run of results to survive.

If we don't get a point from Stoke, who are the most off form team in the league right now, then we are all but one nail left in our coffin. It'll be virtually all she wrote.
Our remaining home games are must wins, bar Cheslki where a point will do. We've got to be targeting points off Norwich and Wigan too.
7 games left to get 8-9 points. I can see Soton, Wigan and possibly Sunderland getting close to 40. We may have to get as high as that to survive. If we don't win the winnable games we are completely FUBAR.
Wigan looked dead and buried but Martinez just has the knack of pulling them out of it when the time is right. They seem to build a head of steam when others are lagging. Sunderlands post O Neill response could benefit us, or on the flipside they might have a new manager surge.

[PaulWinch again]

The other thing is in the past three games to win would have had to score 2, 3 and 3 in each game. You can't sustain that sort of scoring as was shown today, you have to be able to grit out 1-0s. Unfortunately Baker cost us a goal at Reading with an awful clearance and he cost us the game today with an awful and typical lunge tackle.

[paulcomben]

We were always unlikely to get anything from that match. 3 back to back wins? Aston Villa?! No.  Plus a lousy head to head record v Liverpool. But, we would have done, if we had not yet again made schoolgirl errors. Now we need 4-6 points from Stoke and Fulham.

[onje_villa]

Weimann is too key to take off. He is the only player who runs into space and drags away defenders. Without him we are absolutely toothless.

At 2-1 there was no more space in behind, they just sat back and soaked it up where our pace couldn't hurt them.

[eastie]

Very disappointed. Liverpool are always a team that can be got at, but we seemed to forget everything that worked well in the 1st half. Same story we've had for most of the season, Surely Lambert's had enough time to address the constant fucks ups?

"Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error"

Agreed - poor management today - we could all see changes were needed and bannan was shocking.

[danno]

were we any better with Delph and N'zog on though?

[PaulWinch again]

Weimann coming off was critical, we badly need him involved hope it isn't a serious injury.

[paulcomben]

Nathan Baker. Dough!

[supertom]

Again this comes down to Lamberts january business again. Baker and Clark dropping clangers persistently just highlights how desperate we were for a centre half. Vlaar hasn't really been the inspirational, concrete Captain we'd hoped for either. It's very depressing.

The sad part is, after two wins on the spin we were going into a run of games where we could have put together something of a run. It was a fantastic opportunity that we couldn't afford to bottle. We've just shot ourselves in the foot here. Had we gained a point today, we'd have fancied 4-6 points in the next two, leading into a likely nil points against Utd.

Given how gutless we looked today, again (just as you think we might turn the corner), we'll be lucky to get 2 points out of the next couple of games. Which won't be enough because I fancy teams around us to win a few.

[eastie]

I expect qpr to beat Fulham tomorrow and we are in the shit big time - stoke will be a huge huge game now .

The central defensive area is utterly shocking - huge error not bringing in a defender in January and could cost us tens of millions.

Seems di canio is on his way to Sunderland as we speak - how he performs could have a huge say in our future.

[ChrissyPrice]

Really, really lost it at the start of the second half. Delph should have come on earlier, although he's not really the answer .

If it's any consolation the Chelsea fans watching it in the pub where I was reckon we'll be fine.
I pointed out that their manager could have helped by not putting out their reserves yesterday.