Ratings and reactions: Villa 0-2 Liverpool

[Laivasse]

Please let nobody say 'Well it was only 2 goals from defensive errors against a CL challenging side'. Injuries don't excuse this either... We were abject. No ideas from the manager, no fight in the players. The reason teams stop scoring against us is because they realise it's NOT WORTH THE EFFORT.

Zog the best of a bad bunch. Even he didn't have a good game, but he at least looked pissed off that we were losing and he doesn't seem to have lost his sharpness of touch that he discovered in the Bolton game. Fonz was energetic but too ineffective for me. The rest: nothing even worth saying. Alby put in his expected One Good Cross but bugger all else.

There are worse teams in the division than us, but the margin is not great.

[GREAT_BEARD_OF_ZEUS]

Completely inept performance!

The level of our passing was lower than that of pub football standards, it really was. Back four were pantomime as usual.

Pathetic

[Villa101]

2-0 flattered us. Ah well, we knew we were in a 14 team shit league before kick off and nothing has changed, theres 6 good teams and the rest.

[villan_007]

It's about time we stopped blaming Mcleish - name one manager that would come in and do well with this team. Lerner has turned it into this, our squad is very average.

[dudevillaisnice]

It's about time we stopped blaming Mcleish - name one manager that would come in and do well with this team. Lerner has turned it into this, our squad is very average.

Laughable comment.

[Davkaus]

People want McLeish to go, but the players have now looked uninterested under 3 different managers.

McLeish is one of the problems, but we have a squad full of highly paid journeymen who don't care and will perform the same under other managers. And a chairman who won't pay to replace them. It's rotten from top to bottom.

[NowDoINotLikeThat]

Our squad is very average but our manager is exceptionally shit.

Make no mistake he is a diabolical manager and should be nowhere near a Premiership side.

If our board weren't so **** stupid he would not be managing a Premiership side.

[The_Steve]

It's about time we stopped blaming Mcleish - name one manager that would come in and do well with this team. Lerner has turned it into this, our squad is very average.

Lerner has never managed the team, surely our defensive hangover from MON's over indulgence on ageing defenders on long contract. Defending set pieces has been a problem for the past 3-4 seasons.

[villarule123]

at least my boycott of VP until he is gone is making my bank account feel better

[maqroll]

Predictable result, really. Come January we'll be hovering uncomfortably around 15th place, with even a lower degree of confidence than we have now....

Randy, are you watching?

[dudevillaisnice]

but we have a squad full of highly paid journeymen who don't care

I agree

[PeteStan]

Why is he not considering Cuellar/and or Clark? Or am I mssing something? This defence doesn't look good enough against the better sides particularly.

You know what you are going to get from them at the moment across the whole back four and it just isn't good enough!

[jacketspuds]

We need another man manager. Not someone that the players will look at and think "what the **** do you know about football? You got your last club relegated." Yes the players need to take some responsibility but McLeish is crap.

[Laivasse]

It's about time we stopped blaming Mcleish - name one manager that would come in and do well with this team. Lerner has turned it into this, our squad is very average.

Lerner has never managed the team, surely are defensive hangover from MON's over indulgence on ageing defenders on long contract. Defending set pieces has been a problem for the past 3-4 seasons.

This defence performed well for MON. Our vulnerability against set pieces crept in with Houllier. Hutton crept in with Eck.

[The_Steve]

It's about time we stopped blaming Mcleish - name one manager that would come in and do well with this team. Lerner has turned it into this, our squad is very average.

Lerner has never managed the team, surely are defensive hangover from MON's over indulgence on ageing defenders on long contract. Defending set pieces has been a problem for the past 3-4 seasons.

This defence performed well for MON. Our vulnerability against set pieces crept in with Houllier. Hutton crept in with Eck.

We conceded plenty of goals from set pieces in MON's final season.

[Mantis]

I don't know why but under McLeish our defending from set-pieces has nosedived, and it wasn't even good to begin with. Our squad isn't great but there's just no excuses for what we're seeing. Our defending has been on the whole pretty shit this season yet McLeish wont change anything?

[AndyBM]

at least my boycott of VP until he is gone is making my bank account feel better

maybe i should boycott the other half, maybe then my bank account would feel better? lol

poor team selection, poor team to select from

AM had nothing to work with today, its a shame we rely so much on 2 players

[makouns_grin]

We're we shit?

[Laivasse]

We conceded plenty of goals from set pieces in MON's final season.

I'd like to see the stats on that one. Regardless, this same defence bar one player was among the tightest in the league for over half a season until the squad tired and we stopped defending from the front.

That contrast to their current form can either be attributed to luck, the sudden effects of old age, or bad coaching/management. Considering AMc's past record and how wrong we're going all over the rest of the pitch I know which one I'm plumping for.

[privateer]

but we have a squad full of highly paid journeymen who don't care

I agree

I think Houllier recognised it as well. A real pity he didn't get to complete his work.