PL: Liverpool h Ratings & Reactions

[Salsa Party Animal]

We were poor attacking wise. Midfield is tired. We can't rely defenders to win us everything. The strikers doesn't work together and spend too much time going wide.

I would have taken off Petrov and leave Reo Coker on. I think the conditions doesn't help, but we did not keep the ball on the ground. MON need to learn this classic quote from his former boss. At least he is positive in the end to try to win the game.

If God had meant football to be played in the air, He would have put grass in the sky

I think we missed Emile Heskey tonight.

Poor week for Villa's point of view.

[dalyvilla]

just posted some horrendous drivel that I'll be ashamed of tomorrow.

its allowed mate, nothin wrong showin emotion over a heartbreakin loss

[Chindie]

The simple facts are thus:

We aren't as good as the top four teams - nor do we have world class players that can score from nothing, like Tevez, Torres, Rooney, etc. We knew that before tonight - it's not news.

We have an excellent team spirit, some good attacking talent and a defence who have been flawless for about 15 games and have made one mistake tonight in an otherwise excellent defensive showing. We're a good solid team and give anyone a game, as this season has shown.

We have played the 'top four' teams 5 times this season, beating Liverpool away, Man United away and Chelsea at home, losing to Liverpool in the 94th minute thanks to an unfortunate ricochet and being outclassed by a terrific Arsenal on their own patch - and even that only when they brought on their matchwinner in Fabregas. On another day, we'd have scored at the other end and been 4th tonight. We didn't play very well, but it was snowy, draining and Liverpool were no better than us tonight, as most people would agree.

Our teams does have limitations in creativity and we don't pass it like some other teams. But we're effective enough to have lost the last 2 games and still be two points off 4th position. We need to continue to improve, but there's no need for all this '**** waste of space' nonsense.

The season hasn't ended, there is no cause for panic and this is purely the disappointment from losing two games against two good teams, both of whom would be expected to finish above us. No drama, no overreactions - yes, we're not the finished article and could do with buying another striker to support Gabby. But again, we knew that before tonight, it's not news.

And that is all.

I don't think you could be much more right here mate.

[Malachite]

The boys gave it their all and them having 24 hours longer to rest was a major contribution to us not being really at it today. Dunne Slipping cost us and a deflection into a world class strikers path. Its not the end of the world we are 2 points clear of Liverpool and we are 2 behind Spurs still all to play for in my opinion.

But wasn't it a case of the deflection into Torres's path was of ..........................none other than Agbonlahor, this is my point, what the hell is he doing having to play in a kind of defensive midfield position when Villa had the impetus.

Torres was never back there helping his dfence even when we had them under pressure, think he was standing on the sidelines with a hot water bottle waiting for the ball to come his way. (joke)

[OutByEaster?]

If I was Richard Scudamore and I ran what I constantly told people was the most successful league in the world, not in terms of achievement mind you, that'd be Spain, not in terms of bums on seats, that'd be Germany, but in terms of the amount of money from commercial and television deals; If I was Richard Scudamore and considered TV money success and if I considered and had publicly stated that having a stable and reliable big four was good for the success of that league as it made it simple for east asian markets to identify with a successful brand, yet still keep some level of competition; If I was Richard Scudamore and considered the big four to be key to the success of the Premiership, then I would know exactly what I would expect of my referees.

If I was Peter Walton, and I was up for the top job in refereeing at the end of the season; If I was Peter Walton who had already been threatened with demotion after giving a very dodgy penalty to Liverpool against small heath earlier this season; if I was Peter Walton with something to lose and I knew what my employer expected of me, I might call in sick and maybe get one of the juniors to do the job.

If I was Lee Probert and my potential future boss took me to one side and explained that his boss and the man that runs the league believed that the continued success of Liverpool football club was key to the success of the Premiership and that I should do as was expected of me...

I still don't think I could have produced a more obviously bent performance than he managed.

Well done Mr Probert.

You're a cock.

[emma_villan1]

It was a freezing horrible night. I thought we lacked creativity and in a way I thought we missed A.Young as I think we look a better team with Milner in the middle. Carew looked very lacklustre again today and majority of the time was defending not attacking and if we ever broke he wasn't up with the play.

I will do some ratings:

Friedel- 7 didn't have a lot to do.

Young- 7 Solid at the back again.

Dunne- 8 Controls the backline.

Warnock- 7 Had a good game apart from the incident.

Milner- 7 Worked hard as usually does.

Petrov- 6 Went missing for large amounts of the game.

NRC- 6 Put in a few good tackles but went missing also.

Downing- 7 Should have scored.

Agbonglahor- 7 I thought he worked hard, holding up the ball and looking up to find passes etc..

Carew- 6 Didn't do much, did more defending than attacking.

Sidwell- 5 Didn't see him do much.

Albrighton- 5 Again didn't have time to make an impact.

blimey cuellar made a big impression on you didnt he?

Ooops I've edited it now!

[snowychap]

Gutted.

I like Gabby and think he'll make up into a cracking player but swap Gabby for Torres and we'd have won 2-0 tonight (which is an unfair comment on Gabby but a fair comment on the game, I think).

No way of proving it obviously, but no way.

You don't seriously believe a player like Torres would risk his rep playing front of a midfield like Villa's...then he would have to put a 90 minute shift in and rely utterly on his individual ability to make anything happen.

Turn this around, How much a better player would Gabby be if he had midfielders like Gerrard, Benayoun, and link players like Kuyt. constantly feeding him, no mate. no way.

To say if Torres had have been in Gabby's position tonight he would have scored, you only have to look at the amount of work Gabby had to do first to get into that position, now if you had said Downing's first half sitter, yes i would agree, because you had to do more to miss that than to score. Gabby's subsequent cross over to Carew who simply just did nothing just stand there, i would agree, then compare with the Torres goal who almost seem to stroll the ball into the box and side foot past Friedal completely relaxed, because the guy hasn't done anything until that moment.

I think you have completely misunderstood what I said.

My point was that Torres is a world class striker - someone who, sometimes, only needs to be given a sniff of goal to find it.

It wasn't to do down Gabby's contribution, talent or potential but he isn't Torres.

'Risk rep' and 'utterly rely on his individual ability'?

What do you tink Torres did today? :?

Gabby's done really well for us and think he will only improve but he isn't deadly, yet.

As far as Downing's effort goes, I think you ought to look at it again. It was an amazing reaction save by Reina. To condemn Downing for not scoring is terrible.

[commander]

whilst i agree that fabregas and torres are a cut above anything we have - i'd also argue the following - Torres did noithing today, admittedly the chnace he got he scored, but on the whole he didn't casue us problems - it was a mistake which let him in - i was in teh holte so can't say exactly how esy / difficult it was, but i'd have backed most reasonable premiership strikers to score it (including our very own Gabby).

As for fabregas - if we'd have played NRC and got him to do a man marking job on him - would he have been so effective? I doubt it. Petrov can't play that role.

I think today Torres capitalised on a mistake, and Fabregas played well as he was allowed to play well, stick NRC on him and he may not have played so well and dominated. Mangaers are paid to be reactrive as well as proactive - as soon as Fabregas was warming up he should have thought about NRC for Petrov or because big Emile was injured, NRC for him.

Peopel need to understand that a 451 or more likely a 4231 with NRC / Petrov holding in front of Young, Milner Downing and the nGabby up top it is still very offensive minded and also give us balance and enough midfield protection.

[LatestConfirmedIn]

I think thats 6 points we have now lost in the last ten min of games.

Again we showed great team spirit after being knocked to the floor by Arsenal, but its a real sense of deja vu already but a few months earlier. These were two games where we really should have got something out of one of them to be serious...do we lack bottle? When it doesn't matter as much i.e. Chelsea, Manure and Liverpool away we were completely different. I think the players freeze when it really matters....worrying.

[OutByEaster?]

I thought we played well and looked the more likely scorers for most of the game, we did a good job of keeping Gerrard and Torres quiet and had started to get Gabby matched up one-on-one with Carragher which looked like it might work.

It was harsh on us that Torres should capitalise on a mistake to win the game in time added on for Reina's boots.

I can't see a collapse like last years, but I think we're in a difficult fight with three teams for European places.

4th is a pretty obvious prize, 5th is Europa League, we need to beat Blackburn to make sure 6th is also Europa League and then one of us, Spurs, Liverpool and Man Citeh will go away empty handed. We need to make sure that isn't us.

[snowychap]

I think as much as a difference torres made tonight for liverpool in a good sense Carew made for us in a bad sense.

I have never see anyone so lazy ever...

I'm not going to suggest that big John was brilliant tonight but did you actually watch the game?

Certainly, early on, he was really up for it.

He sprinted back to the edge of our box at one point in the first half to win the ball back for us (off whom I'm not sure) and pulled up afterwards. I thought he was injured; I was wrong.

[snowychap]

It was harsh on us that Torres should capitalise on a mistake to win the game in time added on for Reina's boots.

It was harsh - I'm not sure about the 'Reina's boots' comment, though.

I was glad when they called four minutes injury time as I thought it gave us more time to try and score.

[kurtsimonw]

Gutted. Should have won the game comfortably. At least it shows we can mix it with the big 4, by far the better side.

[sellyoakvilla]

Not long been back. Shite line at the train station.

Didn't think we played incredibly well but thought we did just about enough for a draw. We were too slow in breaking them down and when we did try to break them down we just got caught out.

Milner wasn't great and NRC looked a bit tired halfway through the second half. Should have been about 5/6 minutes added time because of the Reina incident and Johnson's "injury" but what can you do. We probably would not have scored if we were still playing now.

[rbcuk]

Gutted. Was reo-coker carrying an injury for him to be replaced? As me and my mates was saying it should have been petrov that got taken off, as he couldnt run 10yards in that second half, he looked knackered

[Malachite]

snowychap: Not misunderstanding what your saying, you simply can't compare what either player has to cope with and his role in there respective sides.

You say Torres is a World class player, I thought Torres was crap tonight, that simple, if i was an alien landing on this planet in order to buy players for my new team on that showing i wouldn't give Torres a second look. And Torres has certainly not been a World class striker this season, My point was he stand in front of a world class midfield, that's the point, he stands in front of arguably one of the best midfielders in the world today, makes his jobs a lot easier, and we only have to look back to the Arsenal game to know what a quality midfielder can do.

My point was I think Gabby is being played ever so slightly out of position because we don't have the depth in midfield, when MON plays Carew in the side rather than Gabby being direct he plays Carew right up front and Gabby all over the shop.

I don't doubt for one second Torres is class, and I don't doubt for one second that he will develop into a true world class player but i wouldn't make a comparison for one second with a player like Agbonlahor, until i had seen Agbonlahor playing in front of world class midfielders, only then I would say if he wasn't up to it, if we had Torres in front rather then Gabby we would have been 2-0 up, simply because its a sweeping statement. Thats the only point i'm making.

As for Downing' I'd put money on the fact he's sitting somewhere right now wondering how he missed that.

[PompeyVillan]

Heart breaking.

In many ways you could say it is better to lose like that. We've not been outclassed by Liverpool and we know it, we've been undone by a bit of bad luck and a world class striker.

I think we should take heart from that performance, Liverpool, despite their problems are still a 'top 4 side' with 'top 4' players.

Playing Blackburn on sat will us an opportunity to get this out of our system.

[reddwarf]

Gutted. Was reo-coker carrying an injury for him to be replaced? As me and my mates was saying it should have been petrov that got taken off, as he couldnt run 10yards in that second half, he looked knackered

Agreed - but MON will never sub petrov.

We did mount an attack of note for about 20 minutes after coker left the field.

Thought Cuellar looked a bit suspect tonight - hurried clearances and tangles of his own making.

[Hanky]

We lack cutting edge and miss a player who could create something out of nothing, like a Tuncay (from his performance the other week) as one example. We don't move the ball quick enough either and Gabby is often isolated on his own up front.

Gutted with the result as we did not deserve to lose but I maintain we won't be 4th this season but neither will Liverplop. We need to pick ourselves up and move on to the league cup which is our best chance of the season.

[rbcuk]

Gutted. Was reo-coker carrying an injury for him to be replaced? As me and my mates was saying it should have been petrov that got taken off, as he couldnt run 10yards in that second half, he looked knackered

Agreed - but MON will never sub petrov.

We did mount an attack of note for about 20 minutes after coker left the field.

Thought Cuellar looked a bit suspect tonight - hurried clearances and tangles of his own making.

I know yeh, its just annoying that we can see it but MON cant see it about petrov