Ratings & Reactions: Liverpool v Villa

[Awol]

Weak as kittens for most of that. Poor passing, rubbish on second balls, seemed like their role was to attend and get pumped for the Liverpool crowd. 

Watkins league form is a problem, McGinn not at it (and wasn’t against Hibs either), Pau Torres looks really bad against quality opposition, and Bailey used this game to resign as a starter.

Rotation and chances for other players after this break. Tielemans, Zaniolo and maybe even Longlet must fancy their chances at a start now.

Konsa and Luiz top drawer and very well played.

Moreno and JJ coming back will be very welcome.  Hopefully Unai can use this game as a teachable moment. 
 

 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

I'm wondering if a mutually agreed upon break until we all calm down and sober up ( for some ) until tomorrow is in order.

Feeling pretty deflated atm.

[regular_john]

Being fair to Liverpool, they were excellent from the first whistle and could easily have had 5+. It's hard to take but we were just beaten by a much better team today. Apart from a handful of errors, I don't think we were necessarily bad, just that Liverpool were very good.

 

Having said that, Torres had a bit of a mare.

 

We'll just have to make up for it when we face them at VP.

 

Worst bit of the game was listening to the Scouser on Optus (McManaman?) wank himself into a coma for 90 minutes. Really embarrassing for an apparently neutral broadcaster to have such biased commentary. It was like listening to Liverpool TV!

[KillieVillain]

Total shambolic performance,one of the worst under Unai and worryingly similar to the Newcastle game, really thought we would give them a hard game,  yes we have been massively unlucky with injuries to key players but we should be doing a hell of a lot better with the talent at our disposal, really need to improve when playing the top sides .

[UpTheVilla26]

Really poor. 

I'd have gone there and gone 4-3-3 today. Bailey & Diaby either side of Watkins. 

Trent can't defend, Gomez is crap and if we'd gone straight at them, pressed and had a go, we'd have got some joy IMO. 

Instead, I don't actually know what we did. We literally just strolled about, with a criminally high line (with a slow defence), didn't press and let Liverpool just dictate and play out an easy win. 

Hopefully Emery will re-acess over the break and we come back having learnt lessons. 

[brummybloke]

Emery made big mistakes that cost us any chance sadly.

Team set up seemed good but positioning was terrible from the back 5, Carlos went off and a chance to win the midfield by bringing either teilmans or donk on to make us more solid.

Puts the weakest player ever to done a villa shirt in Bailey. Literally useless today, in a game we need effort.

So many players just stopped even walking, let alone made any effort to even pass the ball to the correct team.

Dismal is flattering.

Looked far better once Bailey taken off and a player who wanted to win came on.

Duran hitting some wayward shots rather than check back but he's young and at least showed some fight

 

Any away game Bailey shouldn't be anywhere near the team unless we are 2 nil up with a minute to go.

He wasn't the only weak player today, its like yet wete ordered to not tackle, the most limp effortless performance I've seen since emery came in.

Can only get better.

[Paul33]

Can't believe I'm saying this but Villa were tactically very poor. I'm gobsmacked that Emery was so stupid in setting up to face Liverpool with the same tactics that we used to beat Burnley. Liverpool are not Burnley !

The scousers would have analysed the Burnley game and set up with a response which they did. Very disappointed and shocked at Emery's approach and bringing on his lover-boy Bailey once again ? What is the matter with him ?!!!

[Rossi]

Out played today end of 

[Lerner's Driver]

1 minute ago, MackHaakon said:

Schooled. Lots of skill but no leadership or steel. Work in progress I guess.

Yup. I'm confident Unai will get us fizzing eventually, but we were a million miles off it today.

Worrying that his top priority signing Pau was tosh, his obvious weaknesses fully exposed, as expected, by a good opponent.

Maybe this year is just about beating sub standard Conference League teams. 

[Villaphan04]

that was painful. at least we got Liverpool (A) out of the way for the season (also Newcastle A)... 

Luiz is easily our best player and him/Diaby were the only ones to come out with any credit today. Bailey was alright as well, don't think he should've been the one to come off. 

Duran showed more than Ollie in his cameo today, and that's not saying much. 

Pau was always going to struggle in a game like this, consistent pressing from Liverpool's forwards got to him

Hope Diego Carlos' injury isn't bad but who knows... good that we have the break

McGinn was invisible today, Kamara was bad just like the Newcastle game -

Clearly missed Moreno & JJ on the left, Digne was in no mans land quite often today. 

I know why we played with the high line, but it still makes me think why does Unai play with it when we are playing a team who have extremely pacey forwards that can easily expose it. Núñez probably could've had a brace with the chances he had. 

[Thug]

Martinez 7

Konsa - 8

Pau - 3

cash - 4

Digne - 4

Luiz - 5

McGinn - 4

Kamara - 4

Diaby - 8

Bailey - 4

Watkins - 3

Zaniolo - 7

Duran - 3

Tielemans - 6

 

 

[CVByrne]

Severe defensive issues that might not be able to be resolved without Mings 

[maqroll]

The more things change, the more they stay the same. 

Yes, injuries have been an issue, but if the Toon and Plop results are an early indication of how we respond to adversity, we may be in for a disappointing season. 

Selling Archer and Philogene is looking a bit rash. Time will tell a more complete story, but from top to bottom we are looking wobbly.

Edited September 3, 2023 by maqroll

[Rightdm00]

3 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

To be fair Liverpool also have a squad that cost around 3x ours

Doesn't excuse the lack of effort and fight but of course there's a difference in quality

I didn't see it as a lack of fight. We conceded 4 minutes in off a horror show from Pau. That will drop the shoulders of even the best team.

You can tell this team misses Buendia badly. He's the type of player that always brings 100% no matter the situation. Need someone to fill that role this season. 

[Marka Ragnos]

Licking wounds for a while ... We definitely have a mentality problem. That seems new -- or really old -- and scary. Can't just give up. It felt like we did today.

 

Edited September 3, 2023 by Marka Ragnos

[LondonLax]

Happy with 3-0 after that performance. Could easily have been another 5-1. 

[Strog]

Injuries haven’t helped at all but we are back to struggling against better and more established teams. The new players will take time to adapt but we need to cut out the silly mistakes. I honestly don’t think we’ll do as well in the league as I hoped, I can’t see us finishing in the top 8 as things stand. Hopefully we can do well in the cups though. 

[Ponky]

We are looking like flat track bullies so far. Main issue is inability to maintain composure under a tight press. We have the ball away too much and that leaves your defenders caught with their pants down.

Zaniolo looked very good though, and he looks a better option than Bailey.

[RicRic]

Diaby and Luiz didn’t deserve to be on the losing side im sure most of us will agree especially Diaby, And what the F**KKKKKK was Duran doing the Silly boy he is so raw and shouldn’t be playing at this level yet plays like hes at a five a-side very frustrating, Kamara was not switched on today whatsoever, zaniolo as i said before is not composed enough and looks too clumsy, he doesn’t have that sharpness that some of our players have either despite having the ability to showcase skill (NOT WRITING HIM OFF) but some of us get too excited thinking we are all jet set and ready to go well newsflash WE ARE BANG AVERAGE.

This is exactly why i was far from satisfied with the transfer window ending without as bringing in a couple of new boys, i did not enjoy that whatsoever and was swearing at the tele for the longest i have in a good while, first Newcastle and now these scouse c***s …. LIVID

Forgot watkins was even playing after a while and i felt sorry for Digne more than anything.

[Rugeley Villa]

2 minutes ago, Thug said:

Martinez 7

Konsa - 8

Pau - 3

cash - 4

Digne - 4

Luiz - 5

McGinn - 4

Kamara - 4

Diaby - 8

Bailey - 4

Watkins - 3

Zaniolo - 7

Duran - 3

Tielemans - 6

 

 

Martinez the only player to score above - bloody hell we were bad