Liverpool vs Aston Villa Post-match Thread

[Lizz]

Is the photo on the BBC sports page of Gaby scoring? In the photo he's almost lying down on the pitch & Stevie G is behind the goalkeeper.

[silhillvilla]

I don't recall their shot on goal ? Was it courtinhio off the post ?

[silhillvilla]

Is the photo on the BBC sports page of Gaby scoring? In the photo he's almost lying down on the pitch & Stevie G is behind the goalkeeper.

Yes that's our goal.

[Dave]

I don't recall their shot on goal ? Was it courtinhio off the post ?

Sakho shot straight at Guzan.

[mr woo]

 Goals do change games and that makes it tough to plot any forecast of how a match will pan out. You can't really say we played poorly after we scored, simply because our tactics and therefore the oppositions mentality and course of the game altered the moment we got in front.       If you see what I mean.



Whatever....of anyone needs an explanation why we're doing so well this year.....

 Im convinced there are two simple reasons-

1.   A PROPER LEFT BACK.

2.   A PROPER RIGHT BACK.         


The centre backs never were the issue,

I'm convinced they just simply couldnt cope with the holes left by the ineptitude of the full backs prior to these two.



Roll on Chelsea....

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

Forgot to mention it, but a little mention to Charlie N. Dropped and the brought on, which many probably thought wasn't the best thing to do, but he came on and did his fair share of defensive work.

If he can do that and play as well as we've seen him play, he's a first team player.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Just back after a brilliant day for us and a full, juicy 3 points!
Nice to get one over the smug fu**ers who were looking down their noses at us at Stafford services and pre-kick off (our seats on extreme right of Villa fans, so next to their lot) and who started leaving 7/8 minutes before the end!
Thought we were excellent 1st half; played too deep 2nd...checking clock almost every second, it seemed.

On way back to car met an old Scouse college mate - was he pissed off!

Clash of the giants at the Bridge in two weeks!!! ;-)
UTV!

[Matt C]

Fair play to Baker, totally proved me wrong - that's the best I've ever seen him play for us. Senderos is a revelation too.

Tactically excellent today and we look strong and well organized - a real credit to Lambert & Keane. We've got a bit of guile about the team now too.

[silhillvilla]

The centre backs never were the issue,

I think that is correct.

[adrenachrome]

Absolutely without question the thing that has improved exponentially this season has been our organisation. No surprise it comes with having a few more experienced heads in the team.

I think having a couple of physical fullbacks has also really helped, as opposed to the likes of Lowton, Bennett and Luna who'd get blown over by a gnats fart. Hutton and Cissokho are also fairly useful in the air too.

I agree, but I would go further to suggest that the difference is having full backs who can defend and who realise that this is their primary function. I believe that this is a lesson which PL has learned painfully and slowly.  In the past we would often start off quite promisingly and then one or other full back would be skinned and the shape and confidence would disappear like mist in the sun.

Today, we kept our shape throughout and hardly ever looked like conceding and without Vlaar. Also they had wide pacy players aplenty. This is massive.

What remains unresolved is breaking down defensive teams at home.

Great result, great performance and well done to all concerned.

 

[PaulWinch again]

The centre backs never were the issue,

I think that is correct.

I'm not sure on that, there were some pretty diabolical individual performances by the centre halves as well.

[Concrete John]

I thought that was the perfect away game by Villa today, the first 20 minutes we played some excellent stuff took the lead then PL changed formation and almost totally snuffed Liverpool out for the rest of the game by the whole team working their socks off and limiting Liverpool to just one shot on target.

Well done to PL for his tactics today, that was the first time in a long while I could totally relax for the whole of the second half watching us defend a one goal lead.

I agree to an extent but I always think these 'deserved wins' after a backs-to-the-wall performance are pretty fickle. Coutinho's shot flies in, what then? It's all what ifs but ultimately Liverpool didn't do enough today. I'm not convinced that playing without any attacking intent for most of the game is the way to go.

You carry on being as miserable as you like. The rest of us can celebrate a win at Anfield.

It also overlooks the fact we were the team most likely to score for the first twenty minutes.

But that's exactly my point, why not carry on playing like that? We looked great at that point, could have gone on and scored more. These type of performances either end up being described as superb and deserved when the opposition are wasteful but it can also backfire as it did on numerous occasions last season. Of course it's great that we got the win today, ironically 2 years ago we won even more convincingly there.

And if we had gone gung-ho and left gaps at the back, that could have been described as naive had we conceded and dropped the points.  We'll never know, but what we do know is that the way we went tactically resulted in a win, so we can't say it was wrong.

[OCD]

When Baker and Clark played alongside eachother, they were an issue. When Vlaar had to be mindful of an inexperienced centre back partner, the central defence was an issue.

Regarding Baker, I wouldn't go from one extreme to another based on one game. He played well today, no doubt. However, I hope Vlaar and Okore are back soon. Then for Baker to get into the team, it will mean that he's regularly impressing in training.

I wonder whether Clark will be sent on loan to a Championship team.

[Archie]

I am obviously over the moon. If 2 months ago someone had told me that we'd have won at Anfield with a defence composed by Hutton, Senderos, Baker and Cyssoko, I would have thought that he was joking!
The team seems to have found an identity and a solid defence. And still we didn't play Okorč, Benteke, and Sanchez.
We  should not have renounced to play in the second half, tough. 99 times out of 100 to build a Maginot line in the box is the best way to concede goals.

[silhillvilla]

The centre backs never were the issue,

I think that is correct.

I'm not sure on that, there were some pretty diabolical individual performances by the centre halves as well.

Not to my knowledge. The pressure was largely down the flanks and that exposes the CB's to breaking point.