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Ratings & Reactions: Liverpool v Villa


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Match Polls  

158 members have voted

  1. 1. Who was your Man of the Match?

  2. 2. Manager's Performance

  3. 3. Refereeing Performance


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  • Poll closed on 13/04/21 at 22:59

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Just now, PaulC said:

Yes in a lot of those games Liverpool bossed but couldn't score. Same today. Think the one big mistake that smith made was bringing on Barkley for Nakamba. Its bad game management. 

That was a bit weird. Love the gung ho mentality, but I'd have taken Luiz off and probably replaced him with Ramsay.

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13 minutes ago, nick76 said:

You thought we played well today! 

I'm lost, I dont understand what game you watched mate.

Was expecting a comment of sorts. We kept them at bay for most of the game and they scored an injury time winner. 

Had we have hung on for a draw at the end people would mostly be applauding a decent hard fought result. With better decision making in key areas we could’ve won that and not lost, that’s all I’m saying. 

 

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23 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said:

Yeah I can barely remember if he did anything. Disappointing.

But he will get signed by Man City in the summer.....

TBH if we had decent offers for McGinn I would take it. Luiz Is young and Dean plays him despite his form, that’s on Smith.

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Only saw the first half and the last 10 minutes - the intervening 35 minutes were tracked on the BBC sports app while I was out and about. So I can’t score a man of the match.

I thought we were lucky in a way not to be 0-3 down before Ollie scored, through three very careless defensive lapses. However, Liverpool failed to capitalise and looked completely bereft of confidence in front of goal, so when we went one up, I was reasonably confident we could at least hang on for a draw.

Can’t comment on how most of the second half went but I was disappointed in our defending for the second goal. If five defenders are going to stand in front of goal blocking the keeper’s view, they need to stop a shot, not watch it through into the net.

I think before Christmas we would have won that but as it is we gave Liverpool  ample chance to play themselves back into form.

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36 minutes ago, rjw63 said:

Sick to **** death of ending EVERY other team/player/coach's poor run.

We do it EVERY time.

 

Thats where we are at....yes we have done well to secure 44 points.....but we are too benevolent as a team.

it depends on what Villa team, you want to appraise, early season or now.....That just simply lacked aggression.

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I think the Barkley for Nakamba change also came with a change from a formation with one holding player and two more advanced to two holding and one more advanced - I think that's the balance Smith was looking for. I'm not sure if that makes it a good idea or not. 

 

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1 minute ago, TRO said:

Thats where we are at....yes we have done well to secure 44 points.....but we are too benevolent as a team.

it depends on what Villa team, you want to appraise, early season or now.....That just simply lacked aggression.

I dont think it was a lack of agressiin so much today. Maybe one or two players lacked it but its our lack of being able to pass the ball to our own players was the problem. 

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1 minute ago, briny_ear said:

Only saw the first half and the last 10 minutes - the intervening 35 minutes were tracked on the BBC sports app while I was out and about. So I can’t score a man of the match.

I thought we were lucky in a way not to be 0-3 down before Ollie scored, through three very careless defensive lapses. However, Liverpool failed to capitalise and looked completely bereft of confidence in front of goal, so when we went one up, I was reasonably confident we could at least hang on for a draw.

Can’t comment on how most of the second half went but I was disappointed in our defending for the second goal. If five defenders are going to stand in front of goal blocking the keeper’s view, they need to stop a shot, not watch it through into the net.

I think before Christmas we would have won that but as it is we gave Liverpool  ample chance to play themselves back into form.

It simply lacked aggression from us....totally passive, that led to sloppy play, how many second balls and headers do we miss....it was just turgid at times......we could have lost that 6-1 only for Liverpool being a shadow of themselves.

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1 minute ago, Talldarkandransome said:

Why do so many people wanna be critical of Smith, to the point of making out he is shit and out of his depth.

Totally understand criticism of him, no-one is above criticism. But for God sake think before saying stuff like out of his depth etc etc 

HE'S THE BLOODY REASON WE ARE IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE AND THE REASON I LOOK FORWARD TO WATCHING VILLA AGAIN

Well that, and competent owners who don't mind spending a few quid

I agree. Smith got his selection and one sub wrong today, that doesn't warrant writing him off.

The sub was stupid, everytime we bring on Barkley we play worse not better, the one time he doesn't we come back from a goal down to win, it's not a coincidence, that was terrible. 

However out of his depth that doesn't make him. That was a McGinn's doing a poor job of the no 10 role so if I bring on a proper number 10 we should be more dangerous. So I understand where he was coming from. Still the wrong move and he should have known it. I understand he thought the match was set up for Barkley to make a match winning contribution, and he was putting faith in a player shot of confidence, but Barkley isn't that guy!

For me though our promotion was more about Jack and what he brings to the team, than any great management from Smith. I like Smith, I believe he has done a good job. But he isn't a top manger and neither is he a poor manager. He is a decent manager, a good man, with the right vision, and a good assistant (Terry), who is willing to learn and able to adapt. He trust his players so they want to play for him. 

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1 minute ago, The Fun Factory said:

Well you could  say it was an attacking option to get  the winner but didn't really work out.

In terms of the pattern of play it did, we had an extra body pressing high and it seemed to disrupt their flow in my opinion.

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2 minutes ago, PaulC said:

I dont think it was a lack of agressiin so much today. Maybe one or two players lacked it but its our lack of being able to pass the ball to our own players was the problem. 

its because we get closed down too easily, we lack the will to win, we allow teams to get their foot in and disrupt our passing, in contrast, we just watch them pass it around us and win the second ball......thats a lack of Aggression, it's being on the beach...call it what you will.

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31 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

The plan was good I think, we played deep and tried to break on them - we created three or four really good chances and probably should have scored more than one.

It's not pretty when you do that, it means Liverpool have lots of the ball and dominate territory, but I think we generally defended okay, ultimately I thought we were caught out by a bit of quality from TAA and the energy of Andy Roberston. 

Individually, I thought Cash and Target were good as was the keeper, Martinez was his usual picture of excellence and Konsa and Mings were decent with the exception of Ming's foul up of the day - he really does need to remove those from his game.

In the middle I thought McGinn did well and also didn't, a performance with energy and spirit and carelessness, Luiz likewise did well for the most part but needs those little lobbed passes that go nowhere slapped out of him, Nakamba did okay without much impact.

Our wingers aren't good enough - Trez makes terrible decisions, works hard and lacks a bit of quality, Traore makes poor decisions, drifts out of games, doesn't work hard enough but has moments of quality and El Ghazi is somewhere in between - none of those three are our future in my opinion.

Watkins is - he continues to work hard, pressure defenders and score goals.

I thought Barkley did okay, there was a bit more intent if not the confidence that might have brought him more joy with a long shot. Ramsey showed a lot of desire and some nice touches, he's got lots of good little moments in him, but he needs to have one or two big moments.

I think we've been a little unlucky. We lack quality on the flanks without Jack but we're working hard elsewhere and we're hard to break down.

Liverpool are a good side, at home, they've got rubbish centre backs but quality elsewhere and I thought Robertson was the best player on the pitch. Trent still isn't as good as Reece James and with Southgate desperate to pick Trippier and Walker I still think he'll be at home in the summer.

Agree with all of this except for Barkley. Davis on instead and we have a chance, happy to never see Ross in a Villa shirt again, offers less than nothing because he takes up a position that could be filled by someone with work rate. 

Except for one major mistake I thought Nakamaba did well again. Subbing him for Barkley was crackers. Need to find a way to hold onto top-half finish then add real quality up front this summer 

 

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I always wonder what the critics would say had Trez's effort gone in off the post and we'd won 1-2. Would the critics still be slagging us off because the performance would have been the same, just the result that would be different. For me, frustrating result but an okay performance against a CL side who are 4th in the table, who completely routed Arsenal last week and who SHOULD beat a mid-table Villa at home by some margin !

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7 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I think the Barkley for Nakamba change also came with a change from a formation with one holding player and two more advanced to two holding and one more advanced - I think that's the balance Smith was looking for. I'm not sure if that makes it a good idea or not. 

 

No Mcginn was meant to be no 10. Nakamba was taking up a right of centre position on front of the back 4 and Luiz was mirroring left of centre. Nakamba ended up two far forward with ball in positions he isn't good with a number of times, his hurt our attacking play. McGinn often had to drop back to help out.

bringing on Barkley he probably thought that a proper no 10 with Mcginn as no 6 being better in advanced positions we could be more of a threat, problem is Barkley is a waste of space on current form.

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