Ratings & Reactions: Liverpool v Villa

[stegzy]

1 minute ago, Sulberto21 said:

Which movie were they auditioning for?

Shaft(ed).

[Sulberto21]

Just now, Villa87 said:

Disagree - Mane always goes down easily (although he loves playing against Villa). Why do we always have players with records against us? I remember the commentator against Chelsea saying Lampard scored more career goals against us that any other. We **** love being the whipping boys.

Agree about Salah. Absolute disgrace.

It's because during the premier League era we have lacked the guts to make tough decisions on players and managers. We always go for the safe tried and trusted route. That's why the top players have got excellent records against us.

Had we bought Middlesbrough Juninho we would have won the league. We didn't pay the extra 500k for Robbie Keane. Falcao and Cavani out on a serving platter for us and we went with Heskey etc.

[ciggiesnbeer]

3 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

Which movie were they auditioning for?

Four feathers

[pacbuddies]

The only saving grace is that Norwich have virtually gone and Bournemouth and Watford have actually managed to be worse than us!

[DaveAV1]

33 minutes ago, flashingqwerty said:

Quality and results aren't the whole point though.  We clearly had very tired players from 60m and DS changed nothing.

We are allowed 5 subs, have played more games than any other team, and rotated the least.  We need to be making subs to keep energy levels up or we will get injuries, plain and simple.

Whilst I agree with you on this and think that substitutions in general, particularly the timing of them, are a major Smith weakness, when you look at the bench it’s just devoid of anyone you could even remotely describe as a game changer. Still we were running out of energy and changes should have been made earlier. Never mind easy game coming up   

[DaveAV1]

5 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

It's because during the premier League era we have lacked the guts to make tough decisions on players and managers. We always go for the safe tried and trusted route. That's why the top players have got excellent records against us.

Had we bought Middlesbrough Juninho we would have won the league. We didn't pay the extra 500k for Robbie Keane. Falcao and Cavani out on a serving platter for us and we went with Heskey etc.

Spot on and only the new owners can change this. We need to start acting like a big club. 

[Sulberto21]

7 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

Spot on and only the new owners can change this. We need to start acting like a big club. 

In addition when you buy a top player the difference between them and the rest is in intelligence. Mane's goal today was about intelligence he sent Taylor outside and then suddenly he had the time he needed to score. 

In the first half there was a moment when Luiz crossed the ball along the floor but Davis was behind the defender so it looks like a poor cross. Had Davis gone across Van Dijk he has a tap in. The point is Van Dijk was caught out and he blew a huge sigh of relief because he knew Luiz done him. Unfortunately he did our other attackers too.

Another player close to signing for us but ultimately decided to move to the team he did. Denis Bergkamp. 

Edited July 5, 2020 by Sulberto21

[Blasterpocket68]

5 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

Spot on and only the new owners can change this. We need to start acting like a big club. 

yes its been a very long time since we performed or acted like a  so called "big club"  .  

[wilko154]

Some strange opinions on here tonight.

I fully expected to lose today, Liverpool are absolutely miles ahead of us in every way and played in second gear today.

However I am encouraged by what I saw. Defensively we look a lot more resilient, we now need to get firing at the other end over the run in.

If we can get the Man United game out of the way within reach then it is down to the team to secure some points in the 'easier' fixtures. 

We are still in this. 

[TRO]

53 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

We were playing arguably the best side in the world. 

So was Watford, when they won 3-0

its not about other teams its about us.

Edited July 5, 2020 by TRO

[TRO]

41 minutes ago, Villa87 said:

Disagree - Mane always goes down easily (although he loves playing against Villa). Why do we always have players with records against us? I remember the commentator against Chelsea saying Lampard scored more career goals against us that any other. We **** love being the whipping boys.

Agree about Salah. Absolute disgrace.

We struggle with opponents movement.

[flashingqwerty]

59 minutes ago, Stratvillan said:

Liverpool's better subs won them the game. We bought on Jota, samatta and Vasillev. Do you think they're game changers?

Taylor's inability to stay goal side coat us the game. I suppose Smith could have played our other full back.. no wait a minute we dont have one. 

Elmo and guilbert were on the bench.  Both are fullbacks.

[TheAuthority]

1 hour ago, nick76 said:

Davis is just waste of a selection, and Samatta coming on didnt do anything.  Just cant get over Davis though....

 

Nick, you made similar comments about Davis in the match thread and I know you're a smart poster.

But come on, Davis is 22, has played less than 10 PL games in his career and was up against one of the best central defenders in the world!  Of course he looked a bit lost next to VVD. 

[TRO]

11 minutes ago, wilko154 said:

Some strange opinions on here tonight.

I fully expected to lose today, Liverpool are absolutely miles ahead of us in every way and played in second gear today.

However I am encouraged by what I saw. Defensively we look a lot more resilient, we now need to get firing at the other end over the run in.

If we can get the Man United game out of the way within reach then it is down to the team to secure some points in the 'easier' fixtures. 

We are still in this. 

But in the main , we have got the same results in the easier fixtures.

Bournemouth, got the double, Watfotd beat us 3-0, West Ham got a draw.

its fine looking for positives, but we need to identify the things that have turned us in to serial losers.

[flashingqwerty]

39 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

Spot on and only the new owners can change this. We need to start acting like a big club. 

In the last 100 years we've won the league once.  I'm sorry, but we aren't a big club and haven't been for quite some time 

[TheAuthority]

There was a nice touch on the US commentary today which I enjoyed. The lead commentator mentioned that the last time Liverplop won the league Graham Taylor's Aston Villa were runners up. He then went on and named the whole Villa team! Also named the scorers in the two 1-1 games we played in the 89-90 season (Olney scored at Anfield which I forgot.)

Then both commentators had a nice little chat about Paul McGrath. 

[flashingqwerty]

2 minutes ago, TheAuthority said:

Nick, you made similar comments about Davis in the match thread and I know you're a smart poster.

But come on, Davis is 22, has played less than 10 PL games in his career and was up against one of the best central defenders in the world!  Of course he looked a bit lost next to VVD. 

Its also worth noting that we looked more lost without him than with him.

Every game he starts, as soon as he goes off we lose our way.

He isn't going to score goals, but he is the only thing that gives us any hope of keeping possession because we play the long ball out of defence all the time.

[PaulC]

Liverpool for the most part until they made the subs looked like they were at the beach. I really feel we missed a good opportunity. We found ourselves in good attacking positions a number of times but were not clinical enough. 

[flashingqwerty]

47 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

Whilst I agree with you on this and think that substitutions in general, particularly the timing of them, are a major Smith weakness, when you look at the bench it’s just devoid of anyone you could even remotely describe as a game changer. Still we were running out of energy and changes should have been made earlier. Never mind easy game coming up   

Yeah, i don't believe that earlier subs change the result, but when we have a paper think squad that picks up injuries often, you'd have to be a fool not to take players off when they are clearly struggling.  Tired players pick up more injuries. 

[TheAuthority]

1 minute ago, flashingqwerty said:

Its also worth noting that we looked more lost without him than with him.

Every game he starts, as soon as he goes off we lose our way.

He isn't going to score goals, but he is the only thing that gives us any hope of keeping possession because we play the long ball out of defence all the time.

I agree completely. And Liverpool had to adjust their high line because at the beginning of the game we were playing balls over the top to him and he was causing problems. As he tired though (which he always does) the out ball became less effective. I wish we'd got an experienced old head striker in January to bring in and run around causing havoc. But no Suso went to his pal the Belgium agent......