Liverpool v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Clampy]

I thought we were superb in the first half. It's amazing how inferior you can make good sides look by closing them down. I've not read the whole thread but a quick word for KEA who get's slaughtered on here at times but I thought he did a cracking job yesterday. He's definitely a better player away from home. Really impressed with Bertrand as well, he looks great.

One minor criticism, i'd have probably brought on Albrighton rather than Holt but other than that, no complaints.

[rob_bridge]

After Shearer and Linaker had finished licking each others arse a question was put to the audience and 70% said that Suarez  dived. I guess the other 30% were Liverpool fans in China.

I'm sorry but Mickey Quinn said it was a penalty on Talk Shite this morning and that's good enough for me. I think he's about unbiased as you could get when it comes to these sort of things and he's also one of the most intelligent football pundits you're likely to come across

I wonder when the phrase Gobshite was invented. Was it around the time Quinn learned to speak? What an absolute fucking bellend that bloke is.

[Hillbilly]

I'll take it. Funny to watch the scousers live up to chippy, touchy stereotype all over newspaper comment sections.

[danlanza]

All of the Liverpool fans in the bar yesterday said it wasn't a penalty and things got a bit heated to be honest.
" It was never a penalty, but we will take it," they said.
Never mind, these things happen. More pleased with our performance than disappointed with the penalty decision.
Lets hope we can keep it up against the boggies.
It would be great to give them a good thumping.

[N'Zimidy]

Worse result than last year. Lambert out!

 

[Monty]

So, we woz robbed by the cheating arsehole who, however good he is at football, will continue to find himself hated if he carries on like this.

As for us, brilliant in the first half. The two goals came at a time when we had had 61% of the ball, which tells you all you need to know about our apparent strengths and weaknesses - we're better with the ball than without, and there's no excuse for us to be getting the kind of low stats we have been getting, especially at home. Even though Liverpool ramped it up a lot after that, our dominance of the first third of the game meant we still finished with 46% of the ball overall - more than most will get at Anfield, especially while keepball-obsessive Rodgers is their manager.

I do think, though, that bringing on Holt for Gabby was a mistake. In the first half, we had players wide and that stretched Liverpool, allowing us to press them and win space in the centre, which is one way we kept so much of the ball. With both Holt and Benteke on the pitch we went long, and long into an increasingly congested middle of the pitch. Without the options wide (and the front three in the first half were constantly interchanging, dragging Liverpool defenders all over the place while keeping the pitch big) they began to crowd us out, we lost our fluency and, to complete the vicious circle, humped it long even more.

I thought Holt did well for what he did, no problems there, especially in his actual ball retention, but the loss of shape dragged us down a bit, and it's depressing to see Lambert, after watching a half where short passing through the midfield worked so incredibly well, suddenly thought "okay, now let's try lumping it forward". Once you've got it right, there's no excuse for then getting it wrong again.

[Villafirst]

Is that really the same team that played Palace & Sheff Utd recently, bar a few changes?. More like the Villa from the last 2 months of last season. Now to get it right at Villa Park! I thought Delph was superb yesterday - any news on a new contract ? I think his current deal runs out in 2015? Get it sorted Villa!

[Lizz]

Just seen Oliver Holt on SSN saying it was a definite penalty. He's the kind of person that even if I agreed with him I'd never admit it. To clarify though, in this instance I didn't think it was a penalty, but have to say still feel chuffed about the performance.

[OCD]

I thought it was a penalty live and although, (having seen the replies) I thought the little bastard won the penalty, I can't blame the ref for giving it. I just hope Guzan learns from that because once Suarez had taken that touch, the angle was too much to do anything from.

[Dave Clark Five]

I just hope Guzan learns from that because once Suarez had taken that touch, the angle was too much to do anything from.

Unfortunately, Suarez could score from the corner flag with the ball an inch off the line.

[Tuscans]

Have nothing but praise for everyone of them yesterday, the performance was a stark contrast to what I have seen almost the majority of the season. I saw the young, hungry, competitive, evolving and improving side of last season at Anfield, and it has to be said this is a pretty bloody good Liverpool team that has scored and created goals for fun, especially at their place.

Of course every player might of made a little mistake but I'm not looking at any of that as Villa have put me in such a positive spin today after being quite honestly shocked at how we can actually perform against so called "title challengers".

I don'y know if the signings of Bertrand and Holt kicked everyone up the arse or just reality kicked in that we could be sucked into another gloomy relegation battle if we didn't start performing.

Let's not let this just be a one game wonder now though lads, I'm hoping for a few more and I think this has set the bar for the rest of the season. Bring on the Baggies.

[MoetVillan]

That is not what I was expecting after the past couple of games at VP.  So frustrating knowing that we could play like this.  Andi was back to what we saw last year, Benteke looks like our God, that goal against Arse has hit his "re-set" button.  Midfield appeared to not only know each other again, but also how to pass to each other.  We also appear to have refound the ability to take a throw in, and retain possession.  Hope Gabby is alright, he was literally fucking brilliant.  Losing him was a turning point.  Well done Villa, looking forward to the next game.  I havent said that very often this season!

[Monty]

The crucial player was Westwood. When we don't boof it over his head, and when he gets it and uses it instead of being pish (as he has been), he's the oil in the cogs for us. When we use him and he plays well, the whole team plays better.

[LTA]

Really encouraged what I saw last night, despite not getting the win.  Personally don't think it was a penalty, but Guzan was a fool to rush out like that - he should be clued up enough to know Suarez will always go down given a chance.

Now all we need to do i bottle that performance as a melling salt and stick it under the players noses befoe they go out at Villa Park every home game

[olaftab]

Stan is getting some horrible abuse on Twitter from Scousers most of it deeply racist. Clearly Sturridge, Sterling and Johnson are quite comfortable to turnout for them every week!