Liverpool v Aston Villa Match Thread

[N'ZMAV]

Torres needs to wake up. Cash very erratic at the moment. Needs to calm his game down. Digne can’t get in the game. Bailey has been lovely since coming on. Watkins is off the pace. Centre midfield pair look frustrated.

A lot to do even just to stay in the game.

[andyh]

I feel we are going to miss Tyrone more and more and more as this season.
I’m guessing Digne has gone back to being shit because he’s not agging for a move now?

I worry that we will revert to a team that hold its own, but can’t complete with the ‘big boys’.

[taylorsworkrate]

We've made it so easy for them. Not pressing their back line is funeraling us.

[paul_e]

For the chance I just think Ollie was expecting Bailey to reach it first so simply wasn't set to strike it properly. It happens. Was another fantastic cross from Digne.

McGinn was the bigger miss, have to be getting it on target at least.

I'd definitely put that one down as a miss for Bailey rather than Watkins, as soon as Bailey went for it it became a really tough chance for Watkins.

[john2710]

We're too fucking slow. Slow to start, slow to move the ball & slow to close down.

[rougegorge]

I didn't think we would turn in another performance like that after Newcastle, despite the opposition.

We are getting caught so many times down the flanks with a simple lofted ball, and when we win the ball back, we've been too slow to move it on many occasions allowing them to swarm over us.

[Skerra]

Fair play to Bingo. Had our number right from the start with their high press, from which their first goal came from. This is where I hope, in the future, Unai varies the tactics a bit and not always play out very slowly from the back.
The other ball that is killing us today is their long ball tactic which our defence doesn’t seem to have an answer to.

[Bad English]

Thanks to everybody who sent me pms. Although my now deleted message was not actually a request but a cunningly crafted sentence which showed people where they could find one. ;-)

[dicedlam]

There's a reason they've lost once in the last 40 odd at home and you simply can't concede to them in first 10 minutes and expect a result.

Exactly this.
The one place that you need to keep the first twenty minutes tight is Anfield.
Pay’s defending has been atrocious, but the ball Martinez played to him for the first goal was suicidal with two Liverpool players bearing down on him. Martinez should of put his foot through it and cleared it up field.

[coreyfeldman]

Not sure about the decision to bring on Bailey tbh, we look outnumbered in the middle of the park and we need all the cover we can get. Bailey does not offer cover, or much else really

[SoccerHQ]

I feel we are going to miss Tyrone more and more and more as this season.
I’m guessing Digne has gone back to being shit because he’s not agging for a move now?

I worry that we will revert to a team that hold its own, but can’t complete with the ‘big boys’.

Chelsea away will be much easier than this, don't worry about that.

I think Liverpool will be Man. City's closest challengers in the league. They have flaws in defence and midfield but that attack is scary so can see why they want to hang onto Salah for 12 more months.

Bemusing why we've just decided to have no one within 5 yards of Macalister though. McGinn needs to be getting into him far more as he did when he played for Brighton.

[Monty]

Also - what's the point of Watkins if we're not pressing? We've got a stupidly high line without putting pressure on the ball. That might be the shape - they've overwhelmed us numerically in that area, so we stand off them worried that they'll go through us - but they just go over us anyway so what's the point? And what's the point of a physical, hard-working but technically insecure striker if we're just standing around doing nothing?

Not good enough. Need to make big changes.

[dorsetvillian]

High line but no press. Bizarre. Torres very very poor. Should have taken one of our chances.

[LeonW]

This game has come too early in the season for us. The players and the new players haven’t settled in together yet. We still look a threat on the attack but are very vulnerable at the back. As good as he can be offensively, Digne has never been the best defensively and he doesn’t have Mings behind him to cover that - Torres can’t perform that role and Moreno will be the same position when he comes back. So we’re going to have to have a rethink about the set up for these bigger games because the left side of defence is really vulnerable without Mings.

Worry about Carlos. I hope he’s not another one we can’t rely on to stay fit.

[Risso]

This was always going to be a good indicator of where we are, and unfortunately it's miles behind.