LIVERPOOL AT HOME; MAYBE TWICE
So after beating Wolves on Wednesday, it turns out we’ve drawn Liverpool at home in the next round of the cup.
Which is pretty ironic, seeing as we face them in the Premier league today.
In what seems typical, the other top clubs, in Citeh and Utd have drawn Colchester and Oxford. Lucky so and so’s.
Jurgen Klopp has said that if the date of the game isn’t changed, then the club will forfeit, because they’ll be in the middle of the World club competition, probably meaning we’d get a bye.
It won’t happen though and the EFL/EPL will pander to what one of the top clubs want. We all know it.
Anyway, onto today’s game and I have to say I’m writing this on Thursday night, as I have to work a late shift on Friday and don’t know what time I’ll finish on Saturday.
Hence, some stuff might be out of date.
As it stands, according to Dean Smith, there’s a chance Jack Grealish might actually be fit for the game.
Kienan Davis’ injury was unfortunate, but at least Kodjia got a run-out, which means he’s back up for Wesley, who I think Smith still has faith in.
Jota won’t be available.
Quite simply, I see this as probably more difficult than the Man City game.
Liverpool will play the high press and with their wide players and attack, we know they can be devastating.
That said, Liverpool can be vulnerable at the back and they do sometimes leave a lot of space in the middle. We have players capable of taking advantage of that, especially with the Grealish-McGinn combo.
But I think our defence will have too much to cope with and I can’t see us conceding less than 2 goals.
Just as a reminder, my Liverpool supporting workmate reaffirmed today that he thought Man Utd sussed Pool out by going 3/5 at the back.
His first question was “who are your full/wing backs?”
And when you consider Targett isn’t the best defender, the alarm bells rung.
That said, I didn’t realise it, but we’ve taken points in all of the last five games at home, so we’ve a decent record at Villa Park.
Which makes it quite interesting if you fancy a bet for this one.
The sites I’ve seen reviewed on My Top Sportsbooks have us at around 7-1 to win, which is roughly twice the odds of any other Premier league home team this weekend.
If you’re confident, those are good odds.
But I mentioned in the Man City post, that I just had a feeling that we’d take a point from this and the City game. Where according to the above link, you can get about 4-1 for the draw.
I actually quite fancy those odds and might well be tempted to have a flutter, as nothing would surprise me in this game.
If we don’t get a total spanking, I fancy 2-2 or even 3-3.
today we face the best team in Europe, great test for us and again in the cup if they can rearrange a date for them. i thought we played well first half against city last weekend, but we conceded soft goals and var gave them some helping hands for the second.
Liverpool are really good, but we are not bad team we can give them a game and give them things to worry about. watched pool loads over the years under klopp. one thing that they do loads. their full backs are primarily wingers that defend when called upon. if you can stop them you can stop pool. if you allow them to get high and unmarked they will punish you with quality balls into our box.
i would stick with the same side we fielded against city, like i said earlier we managed first half pretty comfortably. second half not so good, but the first goal may have unsettled us, coming so quick after the restart and it was so unlike city goal. one long punt and flick on undid all our good work. made the game easier then for city having the goal up.
same with pool we need to stay in the game as long as we can, we need to counter well and stop the fullbacks. if we can cut out the mistakes and carry a threat on the break. we can beat these for sure.
2 1 villa win and i am pretty confident / BUT if we make mistakes we could get hammered. can afford to lose headers like mings did against city. a long straight punt. that ball should have had mings name written all over it.
I can’t see anything but a spanking today. Liverpool are probably the best team in Europe right now and stand a good chance of winning the league this season after a barren spell. We were hammered 6-0 if I remember correctly when we were relegated. Both teams are better than those teams as well so hopefully our improvement is greater than theirs. My forecast is 0-3 although I’m predicting after watching England lose the rugby final so feeling a bit flat anyway.
Aston Villa: Heaton; Guilbert, Engels, Mings, Targett; Nakamba, Douglas Luiz, McGinn; Trezeguet, El Ghazi, Wesley
Substitutes: Steer, Taylor, Lansbury, Hourihane, Konsa, Kodjia, Elmohamady
That’s a blow, Grealish being out.
I’d have thought Hourihane might have taken his place, but it seems Smith doesn’t rate him very highly, imo.
This is going to be a tough game.
Tough game that we will do well to get anything out of. Maybe they will be a bit flat after their cup match against Arsenal. Fingers crossed but in truth I’ll be happy to avoid a pasting.,
Not a great surprise Grealish being out. Thought Dean was trying to be optimistic about him playing. Calf injuries can be a slow process so he might miss another game before he’s fit to play
Just hope we put up a good show.
Decent enough start.
Fingers crossed.
Yes, Traezuguet knocks in from the free kick.
1-0
Are they reviewing the goal with VAR yet 🙂
COYL
Bloody VAR wasn’t needed at all then, imo.
Goal stands
Oh – they actually are – can’t have Villa scoring can we!
This is where VAR is wrong for me.
I thought it was supposed to cover obvious mistakes and that was so close to call, there’s no way you could call it that.
And they equalise.
Well, it looked good and we have VAR again.
This is ridiculous.
Goal dissalowed.
Now I’d have given them that.
Mane booked for diving and rightly so.
My god, the pace of this game is frightening.
Bloody hell, now I can take a breath!
Trezuguet is given Lovren major problems and is having a great game, imo.
trezuguet and el ghazi are one of the main reasons we are winning this at h/t both are having a very good game pinning the pool full backs back and preventing them from getting high and crossing balls into our box.
i thought the pool goal that was VAR disallowed, was actually level but about time we got something from VAR. referee is having a decent game for once. Smith certainly got the tactics spot on.
secondf half pool will pick things up so we have to be ready for them. also we will have more chances to break ,important we take the chances when they come. cos pool will score so we need another for sure or two
p/s wesley has put himself around, gave the two central defenders a good rough and tumble first half
Yep, agree our wide players are stopping them playing. Let’s hope we can keep it up, although I see Pool getting it right at least once.
VAR has really annoyed me today.
Good goalkeeping from Heaton prevents Sallah scoring.
Origi on for Salah.
That’s some sub.