Aston Villa v Liverpool Post-Match Thread

[eastie]

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.

[Ron Manager]

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.

[Matt Collins]

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. . . ?

[not3bad]

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.

[Tony Erdington]

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.

[The Man With A Stick]

Was impressed with what I saw from Tonev, would like to see him get a run out on Wednesday.

[Tony Erdington]

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.

[Matt Collins]

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.

[villa kicks]

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

[Fin Feds Dad]

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

[Matt Collins]

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.

[Clampy]

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.

[eastie]

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 .

[Matt Collins]

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.

[LeeB]

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.