Aston Villa v Liverpool Post-Match Thread

[Ron Manager]

Gave up Im afraid, left 10mins from the end. Coundnt see any reason to stay. Forecast the score right but thought we had a good chance of a point after the first half. The midfield was poor in the second half and we let Liverpool do more or less what they wanted.

Benteke furthered his reputation again and Agbonlahor had a good first half but there was no need for Baker to go in like that at all. Stupid in the extreme.

The bloke in front of us reckoned he could see Roy Keane in the stands but why would he be in attendance? Unless he is the new Sunderland manager that is!

A point would have been very useful today.

[PaulWinch again]

Westwood is generally very good on the ball though, Sylla compliments him nicely. It's the third member of the midfield that needs to do both, that should be Delph not Bannan.

[olaftab]

Absolutely dreadful today.  We've got enough up front, but the rest of the team is embarrassingly poor:


Vlaar - absolutely dreadful, what on earth did Lambert see in this clown



Shambolic, again.  Beating the two bottom teams isn't going to be enough.

Dreardful and shambolic are harsh words however I agree with your assessment of Vlaar. He is very poor on the ball awkward and clumsy. Young Doncian would be better than him even now!

[olaftab]

It was lack of belief in the second half that cost us the points today nothing else. We played some fantastic football leading up to our goal and when it came it was most deserving. After the goal we played well up to half time in a very professional way however we lost that approach at the start of the second half.
Having said we still had 4 very good chances to score in the bad half. Weimann hit the ball too well , how Gerrard got to that ball on line I don't know, Westwood chip just about kept out by  Queen and soon after they had equalised if only Gabby had passed to Sylla instead of looking for glory. A goal at that time would have turned the game in our favour. Instead they ended up getting a pen at the other end and our chance of quick equaliser was prevented by a desperate goal line clearance. Most of the time there is a  thin line between success and failure.

Anyway no need to slash our wrists we will win 3 more matches and stay up no problem.

[Lobsterboy]

We are still in the relegation zone with 7 games to play and the defence shows no sign of learning from past mistakes.

We may well score enough goals to stay up but on this showing (and in previous games) I am not confident

The end of the season can't come soon enough I just hope we are still in the Premier League come the end. Too many shit players (and sadly many bought in by Lambert) who need moving on in the summer if we are to push on next season.

Today I thought Benteke, Weimann and Guzan very good; Gabby in and out and the rest mostly rubbish; same as most of the previous 30 games and we got what we probably deserved - sod all

[PaulWinch again]

Basically we need to win our next two games now.

I think 4 points would suffice.

Not for me, Stoke are direct rivals and we have to take points out of the gap they have on us and we need to win our home games as well.

[olaftab]

Westwood is generally very good on the ball though, Sylla compliments him nicely. It's the third member of the midfield that needs to do both, that should be Delph not Bannan.

I thought Delph should have been on for Bannan straight away as it was clear in the first half that we were not dealing well with Gerrard/Coutinho link up and some good work by Baker saved us. Very disappointed with N'Zogbia. In fact when he and El Ahmadi came we were finished as an attacking unit.

[KRS]

Obviously everyone is disappointed with the result, but this is one of the games I'd written off or hoping for a point at best so not at all surprised or too down hearted. This time next week the doom and gloom could easily be shifted to being more positive and hopeful again if we beat Stoke away (not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination). If results go our way and as to be expected next week then we'll be out of the relegation zone and closing the gap on a few other teams...

Chelsea v Sunderland
Newcastle v Fulham
Norwich v Swansea
QPR v Wigan
Reading v Southampton

...realistically we could be sat above Sunderland and Wigan in the table by the end of play next weekend.

Lets not forget its not where we are this week or next, but where we are at the end of the season so lets not get too depressed by to be expected defeats against the likes of Liverpool, Man Utd or Chelsea.

I take your point regarding expecting defeats against the likes of the Manchester clubs and Chelsea but Liverpool are nowhere near as good as them .

Saints have beaten man city , Liverpool and Chelsea in recent weeks - we never took the game to them in the 2nd half and rolled over too easily .

Thats simply because we are shite and lose any kind of confidence when we concede a goal. We all know that Liverpool are almost as Jeckyll and Hyde as we are so theres no point comparing other teams results, but its fair to say that Southampton are better than the current Villa team.

[silhillvilla]

We are running out of games I'm Afraid. Liverpool were there for the taking today but it just didn't happen. Crowd was very flat too. I really hate the sky games they jinx us I'm sure.

[neo_Villan]

Hope Clark is back for the Stoke game now. Thought Baker was the better CB but he and Vlaar were just completely awful. Lowton/Vlaar/Clark/Baker is a shite backline, but still the best we can put together for now. Clark being slightly less of a liability than Baker at CB and Baker being slightly less of a liability than Bennett at LB. Luckily we are facing one of the lowest scorers in the league next. No doubt having said that, they'll probably score 3/4 now.

[eastie]

Bannan and  kea offer little to nothing from what I see of them - neither are anywhere near good enough to be playing in the premiership.

[jembob]

Saw plenty of things in the first half to think that we could have got a result today, however a couple of blunders and some nervous mistakes seemed to shake our fragile confidence just before the break. In the second half we were just feeble. For some reason everybody just stopped the movement and made it impossible to have any meaningful possession.

For all of the cash that Liverpool have spent they don't look particularly good and so much for Brendan Rogers style of passing football - get 10 men behind the ball and belt it up to the good player. We let them off the hook today and there were 3 points up for grabs to a side that had a bit more urgency and belief.

Before the game we were thinking the worst and decided that any points would have been a bonus. At the end we were disappointed by the attitude in the second half more than the loss.

[eastie]

Hope Clark is back for the Stoke game now. Thought Baker was the better CB but he and Vlaar were just completely awful. Lowton/Vlaar/Clark/Baker is a shite backline, but still the best we can put together for now. Clark being slightly less of a liability than Baker at CB and Baker being slightly less of a liability than Bennett at LB. Luckily we are facing one of the lowest scorers in the league next. No doubt having said that, they'll probably score 3/4 now.

Of the 3 central defenders I'm not sure Vlaar , Clark or baker are good enough to play regularly at this level- Clark and baker seem to drop huge changers regularly whereas Vlaar has looked average at best .

[SoccerHQ]

Westwood is generally very good on the ball though, Sylla compliments him nicely. It's the third member of the midfield that needs to do both, that should be Delph not Bannan.

Delph has to start next week.

Ridiculous we lost today as imo whoever you're playing you should never lose going in 1 up in a home game.

This Liverpool team is just a more advanced version of us, they concede plenty of chances yet have the quality upfront to paper over that, we just concede goals.

Must say it seems ever since the final whistle against QPR, things have been going against us big time.

What a torture this season is, people are bonkers for wanting this "excitement" over mid table mediocrity. Give me that over this anytime.

[PaulWinch again]

Bannan and  kea offer little to nothing from what I see of them - neither are anywhere near good enough to be playing in the premiership.

El Ahmadi was embarrassing when he came on, he didn't even try.