Ratings & Reactions: Liverpool v Villa

[Lochheads twin]

Not bad, not bad at all. No disgrace here.

Fine margins or favouritism?

Lots of grit, determination & discipline for the first hour. I do like the discipline the new coaching team are bringing to the squad. No silly fouls being given away by rash challenges. In fact, we conceded half the fouls but got twice the cards. How does that work? seems to follow the formula from the City & Leicester matches.

I like the way we are now lasting the full 90 and usually ending on the front foot. Steve G seems to be using his subs very well. I liked the introduction of Buendia & Sanson and how we suddenly were able to hold and move the ball around the pitch. I would not de disappointed to see these two start the next game. They look as though they have the potential to be the players we hoped we had signed. 

Steve G is a class act. From what we have seen over the last few weeks he seems to be a good for us. Players have responded to the coaching and with some shrugging off injuries, he should have a fullish squad to get us through this busy month of games.

Onwards & upwards!

[TRO]

1 hour ago, DaveAV1 said:

Klopp was stalking the fourth official. I thought the guy would ask for a restraining order. Him and Pepe the other night were both rattled. Ok their teams are in a different place than us at the moment, but they don’t like it up ‘em. People questioning our approach to the game clearly don’t understand the situation. We had to remain in the game and give ourselves the chance to hit them with a sucker punch towards the end. In boxing parlance if we’d tried to out box them it would have been all over by the 3rd round. 

When SG arrived he identified the problem that needed fixing immediately, which was we were conceding too many goals. Basically we were a soft touch. He’s fixed that tactically and mentality wise. As time goes on we will become a more possession based team, whilst not forgetting the basics of being hard to beat. One step at a time. Games at Anfield are not the time to try to develop new strategies and ideas. 

well put Dave.

[TRO]

1 hour ago, zab6359 said:

Actually enjoyed that game 1-0 from a dubious penalty isn't the worst result against a team of that quality, we dwelled on the ball far to much early on and couldn't handle there press. Some good take aways though, don't think it'll be long before Sanson is starting he's beginning to show why we bought him and I think SG fancies him as a starter, Emi B is our main creator right now I think he needs to be starting.

Whilst we have got better handling the press, its always been our achilles for me.....it seems the ball control and first touch could be better, in dealing with it better.

[TRO]

1 hour ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said:

Having watched all the incidents back i think Nakamba on Robertson was the stone waller. We were hoping for a 0-0, didnt embarrass ourselves with a heavy defeat; just need to make sure we’re at it and on the front foot on Tuesday. 
 

If we’d have drawn all 3 in that run of City, Leicester and Liverpool, id suspect we’d all be delighted. Well we took 3 points from those games so im pleased with that. Lets hope for some strong performances in these winnable next 2. 

perspective.

[Herman22]

1 hour ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said:

Having watched all the incidents back i think Nakamba on Robertson was the stone waller.

Not even the MOTD thought that one was a pen! I don’t think Marv actually touches him. 
For Liverpool this was a numbers game. They knew if they got in the box and hit the ground enough times they would get a pen. And when the refs refuse to give cards for simulation it’s a no risk situation!

[flashingqwerty]

14 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

What did Mings do against Leicester?

 

Hit Casper in the face with his leading arm.

[sidcow]

19 hours ago, 1974Centenary said:

we made a game of it way too late,liked the formation at the end,otherwise,we were rubbish.

You are aware that defending is part of the game? As others have said they've been blowing teams away by multiple goals.  Our defending was brilliant at times. 

No team is coming away from Anfield with a single goal defeat after being rubbish. 

Edited December 12, 2021 by sidcow

[RicRic]

We defended exceptionally well , MOTM for me was a toss up between Emi Martinez and  Ezri Konsa , followed closely by Mings, could have been 4 or 5 for liverpool with that constant onslaught, happy with the way we set ourselves up and not disappointed when we lose in this manner, stevie G has got us playing with a gritty style with structure. 

[OutByEaster?]

3 hours ago, flashingqwerty said:

Hit Casper in the face with his leading arm.

Tosh. He jumped with him, there's absolutely no foul in it.

[OutByEaster?]

12 hours ago, Quofan said:

The referees need to do more about simulation. Once a few cards are handed out for it then the message will start to get through. It's a shame as Salah's a superb player but he lets himself down by having to resort to cheating. 

Thankfully now we have VAR it'll catch all of that stuff.

Or something.

[villalad21]

1 hour ago, RicRic said:

We defended exceptionally well , MOTM for me was a toss up between Emi Martinez and  Ezri Konsa , followed closely by Mings, could have been 4 or 5 for liverpool with that constant onslaught, happy with the way we set ourselves up and not disappointed when we lose in this manner, stevie G has got us playing with a gritty style with structure. 

Wouldn't say defended well.

Liverpool had 20 shots. Martinez being motm don't support the claim of it being a good defensive performance. 

Liverpool got into some really good scoring positions and had plenty of chances. We were lucky to only concede 1.

[RedFloyd]

4 hours ago, sidcow said:

You are aware that defending is part of the game? As others have said they've been blowing teams away by multiple goals.  Our defending was brilliant at times. 

No team is coming away from Anfield with a single goal defeat after being rubbish. 

[Django_Zooms]

How do we get the Mercedes F1 officials to appeal against the penalty decisions?

[onmeedson]

We are not quite savvy enough to steal a point yet and players like Salah are masters at luring a tackle that is not needed. The Anfield crowd were so relieved at the end they celebrated like a cup final and were grateful to get the result .

[Louis]

On 11/12/2021 at 19:44, villalad21 said:

We were.

Battered in every aspect of the game apart from the scoreline.

On another day they'd be more clinical and score 3 or 4.

Glad it wasn’t a cricket score.

[sidcow]

On 11/12/2021 at 17:17, IrishVilla10 said:

You didn’t think we were flat today?

If you are at Anfield and flat, you go down 5 + nil 

[villalad21]

On 11/12/2021 at 17:57, ferguson1 said:

We came to frustrate and I suppose it nearly worked but some of the decisions witnessed today were just bizarre?

Oh well, don’t let it ruin your weekend folks. 

Hopefully we’ll get two wins out of next two games.  

That's what we used to do under Lambert in the big games. 

Thought those days were past us. I guess not. 

Edited December 13, 2021 by villalad21

[villalad21]

11 hours ago, onmeedson said:

We are not quite savvy enough to steal a point yet and players like Salah are masters at luring a tackle that is not needed. The Anfield crowd were so relieved at the end they celebrated like a cup final and were grateful to get the result .

Brentford were brave against Liverpool. Scored 3 goals, created loads of chances and gave them problems. 

We showed them way too much respect.

Liverpool actually been defensively suspect this season so setting up the way we did we played into their strengths. 

[Pelle]

We lost to a better team, that's all, really. We tried to frustrate them and was really close to fullfill that. I think their penalty was a penalty, but likewise was our shout. You're not allowed to hit someone over his legs. But apart from that I think Atwell had a good game. He didn't fall for their dives in the first half. But Klopp should've been sent to the stands in the first half. The way he acted all the first 45 minutes was a disgrace.

All those few saying we should've played like we did in the last 15 minutes or so from the start must've forgotten their 2 or 3 very dangerous counter attacks during that period. Yes, we defended them very well, especially Konsa, I think it was. But having those counter attacks for 90 minutes and we will lose byt at least 3. I don't think they sat back after their goal per se, I just think they were relieved and relaxed and then we were all over them and they got nervous realising this wasn't over. I think they were a bit surprised that we went that hard for an equaliser. I won't go as far as they were panicking, but their reactions to the final whistle said a lot. 

Absolutely a fair result but we weren't lucky. We thought hard and made it very difficult for them. Encouraging and SG has gone from strength to strength. Now we have two games that are another kind of a test. How will we play against "lesser" teams? Will we struggle or will we win relatively easy? That's to be seen.'

Not happy with the result, but happy with the performance and SG's reactions after the game. He's in it. He's not looking for that other job. I don't doubt that it's a wish for him to come true one day, but I don't think he thinks about it too much now. He's in this job 100% and I like it. And he's done really well so far. Long may it continue.

UTV!

P.S. The best swedish football journalist Erik Niva highlighted in the studio that chelsea won from a dubious penalty, citeh won from a dubious penalty, liverpool won from a correct penalty but we didn't get one we probably should have. And that was before the manure game. I laughed a little when I saw that manure won from a penalty. 

[onmeedson]

Think we can allow Stevie G to show a little respect on his first game back to his home turf, but next time.