So I went to the game and quite frankly hated it.
This is not an analysis of the game in any way and I’m just talking about the experience.
As per usual (and I’ve been to Anfield a few times), it’s generally a very good ground to go to. The stands are massive and it’s basically a different version of Villa park. The big difference is it’s seen a lot more achievements in it’s time, which adds to the feeling of it being somewhat sacred.
I always like the experience of Anfield.
Consider that I’m currently staying about 3-4 miles from the ground.
I spoke to many a red fan asking the best options and the replies were all similar. It used to be not so bad getting in/out, but since they increased the capacity, it’s a nightmare.
And this time was different. Since my previous torrid time, which I don’t want to discuss any more, I can’t stand the cold. It really annoys me, as I’ve worked in the middle of nowhere in the middle of winter many times and it’s never been a problem. But the weight loss, which I just can’t put back on is probably the cause and I was already a skinny wretch beforehand.
But that’s how it is and the truth is, with the weather suddenly turning nippy, I really didn’t fancy going at all.
On arriving at the ground, I was already cold and stood in the stand where things just got worse. I was so cold by half time, I decided to leave, having not been able to concentrate on the game at all.
So basically, it was an hour trip each way and more involving a short drive, a train and a walk, as I decided to quickly walk to Lime St, in a vain attempt to warm myself up. Add in waiting time, it was more like an hour, 15 minutes.
I concluded that leaving the digs at 5.15pm, arriving back at around 11.50pm and spending about £100 just isn’t worth the hassle to me anymore. Particularly when I can just pay a sub or whatever and watch it on telly, with a far superior view and all the comforts of home.
So what did I think of the result?
Well, it wasn’t as bad as I thought, but the performance was poor and if it offered something, I’d have struggled, but stayed to watch more.
More of a concern is that we’re now 15th in the current form league. That probably won’t stay like that.
But it’s obvious that the Champion’s league is too much for the squad. The players just can’t handle the mental requirements in my opinion and swapping players out too much is detrimental to the team.
Which leads me to a question that’s very controversial, but nagging away at me.
What do we do now? Concentrate on doing our best in the CL?
Or prioritise the Premier League, to make sure we qualify again next year?
I know what Emery will want, because it’s best for him and his ambitions.
But I have said previously that the way forward for the club is to consistently keep qualifying for the very top table.
There’s absolutely no point getting to, say the quarters or semis if we’re not there next year.
And anyway, if we’re not playing in warmer climes, how am I ever going to see an away game again?
Comments
205 responses to “Liverpool 2 – 0 Villa; I didn’t enjoy that.”
If my sums are correct, after 12 games last season, we had 6 more points. That would put us on 25 and comfortable in second. Those 6 points are Ipswich away, Bournemouth home, and yesterday. All fine margins, but we should have won all 3 of those games. The problem is the defence. Both players and the tactics. Put that right and we should be OK. But it’s not happening at the moment. We need a fast, powerful CB to partner Konsa. Then you could even play Pau holding with one other defensive mid. And a RB of note is obviously needed.
Sid & Gerry.
My complaint about Emery’s decisions is like the difference between the approach of an engineer and mechanic to a machine fault. The engineer wants to know why the fault occurred, the mechanic wants to know how to fix it.
After the Palace game the mechanic can view two Palace goals where their attacker outpaced all Villa defenders from the half-way line, and one missed penalty taken by a strange choice of player. We cannot increase the speed of the 4 defenders starting, so either they should not have started – if somebody faster was available – or they needed to stay further back and not all push forward at our corner kicks.
Tielemans takes and misses penalties for Belgium – why him then? Watkins did not miss his last penalty – and in case it is news to Emery, Barclay smashes his spot kicks.
Now over to the Engineer: if the high line is built in, then the attack needs shooting practice, and delivery into the box practice.
OLL – which is it that Unai requires?
Emery is definitely an ‘engineer’. He improved the performance of most of our players last year with better passing skills and tactical changes, the most controversial being the high line. He won’t adopt a mechanic’s solution and change the way we play i.e. abandon the high line, even in the face of evidence his defence without Konsa and a fit Mings is too slow.
So, Villa will continue to give cheap goals away to break-outs, therefore the engineering answer is to increase the number of goals we score. Plenty of room for improvement: rushing shooting chances, cutting inside instead of rounding the defender and dithering.
Thanks OLL.
I absolutely agree that we need the speed of Konsa at CB – not at RB – and if he’s not fit and, importantly, in my view, neither is Kamara then the defence has to sit deeper even at the expense of possession. We need to substantially increase the number of clean sheets.
I don’t buy the ‘Martinez is not as good as is made out’ narrative. Too many times he’s left exposed by the defence, His save in the second half to divert the ball onto the post was outstanding and was probably instrumental in us taking a point.
I can’t find it now but I read yesterday that our XG was around 3.5 so it would seem we do have a challenge converting goal opportunities.
Bailey looked much better second half (hardly could have looked worse) and was unlucky when he hit the post – that would have been a worldie! Watkins scored but he had other chances, one in particular in the second half when clean through and dallied over his shot allowing a defender to get back and tackle him.
And then there was that penalty.
Dallied is the key word. They’ve all been dallying for a couple of months now. If this lethargic, stagnant Villa go to Chelsea next week, we’ll be spanked. If the vibrant, energetic Villa returns,…
A lot of the vibrance and energy came from Diaby. He hasn’t been replaced. I was harsh on him last season; it was a very productive season and the team miss him. It’s all very well getting your 50 mil back, but the team has gone backwards. The club should’ve made a tidy profit btw; just getting their money back was an error, in my view.
The horrors of PSR – we were forced into two sales we probably didn’t want to make and it could happen again at the end f the season.
Think we might be restricted to loans in January.
Dibling at Southampton is exceptional; a fantastic ball-carrier with end product. Perfect replacement for Ramsey and dare I say better than Grealish at the same age. January – Get it done! Before someone else does!!! A real talent and I’ve seen enough to be sure he’s the real deal.
Ramsey or Bailey. Or Jaden. He’d be an upgrade on all of them.
I wonder if it’s worth bringing Enzo and Illing Jr back in January to shake things up and increase competition for places. Thoughts?
Are they any better than what we have?
I’m not so sure and the loan fees and getting their wages (or part thereof) off the books is all about the overly restrictive financial rules.
Can’t hurt can it?
I haven’t seen any of yesterday’s game so can only comment on match reports.
I heard their second goal came from our corner. That’s the definition of madness when you do the same things and expect different results. Our two quickest available defenders are Cash and Mings who didn’t start so common sense tells me that they need players to sit deeper to prevent the counter attack. Too many teams are taking the piss out of our set up and future teams we encounter will see that as a great opportunity to beat us.
Everyone agreed that our squad is much stronger than last season but four injuries made us look weak in defence and midfield. I haven’t checked but I’d wager that our results are much worse when Onana doesn’t play. Unfortunately it looks like he can’t play 90 minutes let alone a continuous run of games.
We were excellent last season with the Kamara and Luiz partnership and without them, despite Tielemans doing well, we look vulnerable to the counter attacks.
Criticism of Emery might be harsh but there is a definite drop off in terms of performances and he needs to kick not only the players arses but his coaching staffs arses. MacPhee I assume is the set piece coach and he needs to sort out the defensive side of set pieces or Emery needs a replacement coach.
PSR/FFP bullshit is frustrating but it’s not the total reason for our current problems.
It was supposed to be a run of the mill victory against a relegation threatened team with a terrible away record. Now though it has added pressure on getting results against Juventus and Chelsea.
I fear the worst but maybe that’s the part of me that has seen this story too many times in my lifetime.
Change of subject
During the first half at Portman Road, Ref Taylor called the skippers together and told them the fire alarm had gone off at Stockley Park so VAR was unavailable. [true]
Rumour has it “the Fire Brigade spent 4 minutes measuring with their hoses before deciding the fire was outside their area. Thus, the on-field decision to let the place burn would stand. The VAR was seen waving frantically from a first-floor window, but the brigade decided his arms were in a natural position for someone whose trousers were on fire, so they took no action.”
OLL – that’s truly very, very funny.
Hat’s off to you – you’re wit is excellent.
🙂
🤣
🙂
Spurs, Forest and Brighton all have relatively easy home matches on Saturday. And Newcastle at Palace. If we don’t beat Chelsea, we’ll be midtable and, while not necessarily in free fall, drifting aimlessly on a downward trajectory. Two massive games this week and I’m really not confident with either. In fact, I’m not sure if I want to watch.
Just having a gander at the Serie A standings, Juventus are unbeaten in 13, scored 21, conceded only 7 so I think we can take from that, this is going to be a very tricky tie.
Should Morgan Rogers be starting for Aston Villa?
The uncomfortable questions need to be asked of Rogers, not the fact that he isn’t an attacking threat for Villa, but how he doesn’t provide the control with the ball or the bite the team need without it.
https://www.astonvilla.news/analysis/unai-emery-now-needs-to-be-ruthless-and-has-to-make-unpopular-morgan-rogers-call/
So it’s not just me then?
Completely agree with all of that. Rogers or Bailey behind Ollie. McGinn, Barkley, Tielemans and one other in midfield. That’s what was about to beat City and Arsenal in 4 days this time last year. Remember how elated and stunned we all were? Time to get back to what works. The whole team needs tightening and stiffening up. And we need the skipper pulling strings and getting everything out of his men. I want last year’s Villa back.
With all the spending restrictions on Villa, does the appointment of Monchi seem a bit like having a Porsche without having any money left to spend on fuel?
The next two games are massive. If we lose both, then serious questions need to be asked about what is going wrong and who are responsible.
My feeling is that complacency is a big factor in many clubs reaching a peak before free falling. If you look at Liverpool with exactly the same players. A new management team and coaches have brought the level of their team to a new level with refinements where needed. Just like happened when Emery took over from Gerrard. Can Emery reinvigorate the squad or will it need an overhaul of players there or new ……?
I’m certain that Sawris and Edens won’t be happy at all with a mid table finish and no European football next season. Maybe an FA Cup or at least a Wembley final might surpress the disappointment.
I see your point but has Monchi ever had this much money to spend? It’s not a great series of results but I certainly can’t see the owners even consider throwing the towel in.
I don’t get why we let Diaby go, and Luiz’s head was turned by Juve. Sorry, but Turin sounds a nicer place to live than Brum, and I’m from there. I think Diaby went because of FFP pressure and it hasn’t quite worked out for us with just an out of form Leroy. We haven’t looked fluid all season.
I still think we’ll get there. Even if the top 4 is out of reach, but it isn’t even December yet! Wednesday will be the biggest game for us in years. It could change our season if we look nailed on for the top CL8. I still can’t get over Mings moment of utter, utter madness. I just hope it doesn’t cost us.
Mings and Buendia’s returns haven’t been all we hoped they would either. I can see both going in the summer in a significant shake up.
What’s the net spend? I don’t think Monchi has any money to spend. More wheeling and dealing. More Delboi that Monchi.
Does Grealish ever get a game at Citeh anymore?
Not big on players returning to former clubs, it rarely works out Thanks for the memories and all that but not for me.
Ooops. He’s playing tonight for a change. Talking of dips in form, Foden and Haaland aren’t performing as they did last season.
Louie Barry has 13 goals in 17 games in L1, and 1 assist. He’s 21 years of age. Has he missed the Villa boat or is there still time? A successful Championship loan next season and then…?
Natural finisher.
Thoughts?
He’s been pulling up trees at stockpot, apparently grabbing the attention of a number of clubs but it appears none from his parent club?
Perhaps if he changed his name be deed poll to Luis Barquero and did a stint at Villarreal, then just maybe there may spark a bit of interest?
Tough game tonight. I would expect us to play a bit defensively and we will probably suffer a lack of possession like against Bayern. Juve concede very few goals so it could be a real struggle
I would happily take a draw now but I hope to be surprised.
My money is on a draw. Juve have been playing with a low block and their only true striker, Vlahovic, is out with a midfielder taking his place.
Although they are unbeaten in Serie A they have drawn seven times. A draw would do me fine with Opta saying that ten points gives us a 99% chance of finishing in the play offs. However, a win would be better.
COYL.
Just watched Premier League 100 featuring Dion Dublin. What a great striker. Villa legend. 👌👌👌
Team announced. We will lose.
Sorry, I was reading the subs! 😆
Quite the vote of confidence for the bench.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
You bloody plonker! Been at the Christmas sherry already???!!!
Who’s the awful female presenter on TNT????????? She should stay on ‘Love Island’ or that sort of bo…cks.
I knew we’d draw against Palace. I see a win tonight.
😆😆😆
Was going to mention the dreadful presenter. Not the best, is she?
Ref is a twat. Juve diving like they’ve been shot. Same old same old Italians…
Rogers a passenger and a liability. Too much too soon. Needs to come out of the team. Put Ross in. More guile and knowhow.
These are ridiculous on the ball. It’s glued to their feet and we’re chasing shadows. Impressive. 👀
What a save.
Come on lads! I can smell a Villa goal!!!!
And Pau gets a Yellow???? European refs hate the English. Eff ‘Em!!!
It’s been a good half for us. We’ve had the best of the chances.
I wouldn’t change a thing atbthis stage. Watkins has been unlucky…
How good has Kamala been? So glad he is back.
Agree with comments that Roger’s is a passenger tonight. The good news is Bailey is looking to have belief back and is playing way better than any other time this season.
Juve so good at stopping us playing out from the back – they show how ponderous we are, whilst they are like grease lightening closing us down.
Still, we will have a chance or two next half, which we must take.
I am assuming the ref will look to have us playing with 10 before too long. So card happy against us.