Aston Villa v Liverpool Post-Match Thread

[Witton Warrior]

I said earlier the atmospere was strange for a (nearly) full house. The scousers didn't add much.
Only gaps I could see were extreme wings of the Holte Lower - not sure how that would not look great?

I saw empty seats in the Trinity lower, not loads just here and there.

I was in the Upper so can't see them. Best crowd of the season numbers-wise but certainly not loudest

[pav]

Very quiet , I was in the witton lane lower and a good dozen or so in a row were empty in front of me. I was telling my son how we used to sing a song for every player as they came out on to the pitch . How times change .

[JUAN PABLO]

1 The Centre backs are crap, Vlaar included.
2 Bannan is terrible. Im no Bannan hater but physically he's appalling and technically crap too.
3 Benteke is our best out and out centre forward of the last 20 years for me. Imagine him with Yorke up front.
4 Sylla is scared to pass the ball forward more than 5 yards.
5 There is too much pointing at players making runs and not enough following them
6 The players don't take the game by the scuff of its neck, loads of indecisive half hearted attempts at tackles and passes. No one saying give me the fucking ball.

Sylla does what he's been asked to do, press the opposition and keep the tempo going I think he's done very well.

I agree with all that but the Sylla point , this is what Carrick does for Manure . He has more potential than KEA anyway .

I think we look better with Sylla in the side , just need to decide who to put in instead of BB

[john2710]

1 The Centre backs are crap, Vlaar included.
2 Bannan is terrible. Im no Bannan hater but physically he's appalling and technically crap too.
3 Benteke is our best out and out centre forward of the last 20 years for me. Imagine him with Yorke up front.
4 Sylla is scared to pass the ball forward more than 5 yards.
5 There is too much pointing at players making runs and not enough following them
6 The players don't take the game by the scuff of its neck, loads of indecisive half hearted attempts at tackles and passes. No one saying give me the fucking ball.

Sylla does what he's been asked to do, press the opposition and keep the tempo going I think he's done very well.

I agree with all that but the Sylla point , this is what Carrick does for Manure . He has more potential than KEA anyway .

I think we look better with Sylla in the side , just need to decide who to put in instead of BB

Delph

[PaulWinch again]

1 The Centre backs are crap, Vlaar included.
2 Bannan is terrible. Im no Bannan hater but physically he's appalling and technically crap too.
3 Benteke is our best out and out centre forward of the last 20 years for me. Imagine him with Yorke up front.
4 Sylla is scared to pass the ball forward more than 5 yards.
5 There is too much pointing at players making runs and not enough following them
6 The players don't take the game by the scuff of its neck, loads of indecisive half hearted attempts at tackles and passes. No one saying give me the fucking ball.

Sylla does what he's been asked to do, press the opposition and keep the tempo going I think he's done very well.

I agree with all that but the Sylla point , this is what Carrick does for Manure . He has more potential than KEA anyway .

I think we look better with Sylla in the side , just need to decide who to put in instead of BB

Delph

Agree I think Westwood, Delph, Sylla would compliment each other.

[villadelph]

Delph?!

He came into form, let the yellow cards catch up to him, served his ban.. and then loses his place?! I think Delph and Sylla would've bossed the midfield today. We can't expect poor little Barry Bannan to be our #10, he just doesn't have it.

[JUAN PABLO]

1 The Centre backs are crap, Vlaar included.
2 Bannan is terrible. Im no Bannan hater but physically he's appalling and technically crap too.
3 Benteke is our best out and out centre forward of the last 20 years for me. Imagine him with Yorke up front.
4 Sylla is scared to pass the ball forward more than 5 yards.
5 There is too much pointing at players making runs and not enough following them
6 The players don't take the game by the scuff of its neck, loads of indecisive half hearted attempts at tackles and passes. No one saying give me the fucking ball.

Sylla does what he's been asked to do, press the opposition and keep the tempo going I think he's done very well.

I agree with all that but the Sylla point , this is what Carrick does for Manure . He has more potential than KEA anyway .

I think we look better with Sylla in the side , just need to decide who to put in instead of BB

Delph

Agree I think Westwood, Delph, Sylla would compliment each other.

should have been the starting 3 . Clanger from Lambert for me

[villan from luton]

1 The Centre backs are crap, Vlaar included.
2 Bannan is terrible. Im no Bannan hater but physically he's appalling and technically crap too.
3 Benteke is our best out and out centre forward of the last 20 years for me. Imagine him with Yorke up front.
4 Sylla is scared to pass the ball forward more than 5 yards.
5 There is too much pointing at players making runs and not enough following them
6 The players don't take the game by the scuff of its neck, loads of indecisive half hearted attempts at tackles and passes. No one saying give me the fucking ball.

Sylla does what he's been asked to do, press the opposition and keep the tempo going I think he's done very well.

I agree with all that but the Sylla point , this is what Carrick does for Manure . He has more potential than KEA anyway .

I think we look better with Sylla in the side , just need to decide who to put in instead of BB

Delph

Agree I think Westwood, Delph, Sylla would compliment each other.

should have be

Wen the starting 3 . Clanger from Lambert for me

We had actually won the last two games so not a clanger IMHO

[not3bad]

I can understand Bannan's inclusion because him, Westwood and Sylla were the midfield in the last two games that were won, but I'm pretty confident he won't start the next match.

[peter w]

Well what can you say? we know nothing worse about us today than we already know. Defensively we are poor. Hence we're in this position. Going forward, and when we appear confident, we are a threat and if we survive this season and can build next season there is more than enough there to suggest we could challenge higher up the table.

First half we played very well. We could have scored more, but so could have they. It was another 45 minute performance that we are used to seeing this season. However, it is better still than the abject Villa we saw too often this season. It does feel and look a lot better, but until we can sought that defence out we'll always be struggling.

[robbo1874]

Haven't seen the match, but it sounds like more of the same, so don't think I'll bother.

I honestly thought we'd win this one, having a big of momentum from reading and qpr. The international break probably didn't help though in that regard and as someone else mentioned we never seem to give a good account of ourselves when we're on TV.

Whilst I realise we've been shit for most of the season, I've usually seen enough there for me to stay positive about surviving the drop. Not so sure now. I see Sunderland as our main rivals and if they benefit from the new Manager bounce and have a decent 4-5 games including against us, we could find ourselves in trouble worse than we're in now.

If we have to go to Wigan needing a win I think we may be fucked. I still think we can do it, but we need to start winning games again. It's lucky that we've still got quite a few realistically winnable ones left. Man U is the only one I think we definitely can't get anything from. All the rest we can get points from in my view.

[villan from luton]

I can understand Bannan's inclusion because him, Westwood and Sylla were the midfield in the last two games that were won, but I'm pretty confident he won't start the next match.

Good comment and maybve some people need to be realistic, Bannan fucked up massively with great pass to Suarez but he werent crap IMHO and I am not a fan.

[Matt C]

Thought we played very well in the first half. Lost our way in the second and highlighted our desperate lack of in-game leadership. Not for the first time we needed someone to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and weather the storm.

[eamonn]

Very frustrating second half. I was screaming at Lambert to make a substitution (namely Delph for Bannan) as soon as Liverpool equalised as they had been building momentum since the latter stages of the first half and there was a big hole between the centre backs and our midfield where Suarez and Coutinho were finding space. As soon as the penalty went in it was always going to be a long way back. Our confidence in passing and pressing high up the pitch in the first half had waned and Liverpool were less careless in possession with a lead to protect. Sylla looks like he might be a player but too often he chose the wrong option. That our midfield has the experience of Sylla-Westwood and Bannan is laughable really. Petrov, you don't know how much we miss you. Dunne at the back too and this team would comfortable be 10th or thereabouts.

I still think we'll stay up but we've made it hard for ourselves with today's result coupled with the Wigan and Saints games going against us yesterday.

[Axl Rose]

A disappointing second half, the early goal certainly did not help, without stating the obvious.

First half, we were very good, I enjoyed watching us immensely. Bannan is still a liability, and should not have started ahead of Nzogbia or Delph. Gabby was the main man first half, despite his miss and was well up for it....he, along with the rest of the team seemed to run out of steam in the second period.

Worrying, but I think we'll be fine. Baker....sigh. It is the one area of his game which he seriously needs to work on as he is a decent centre half otherwise and we look more solid with him in the centre back position. Bennett and Lowton did well too. We have to remember that the defence was up against a striker who tricks far better back lines than ours week in week out, pretty much.

Not bad Villa, just sadly not good enough on this occasion. I think we deserved a point overall.