I wasn’t going to bother posting on this one, but how can I not write on what is a pretty historic result?
This is the first time Liverpool have conceded seven goals since around 1963, after all.
Not that I’m bothered by that.
But given that the consensus amongst a lot of Villa fans is that we’re aiming for maybe midtable, this was an outstanding result that nobody expected.
So what happened? Were Liverpool poor or were we really good?
Well, I think it was both.
I asked in the preview that we get at them and we did from the off. The whole midfield were like terriers and didn’t give Liverpool any time at all, which totally unsettled them.
This, in turn gave Watkins room to play and get a well deserved hat-trick. His workrate and movement is exactly what we missed last season and while I hadn’t seen a lot of him previously, I can now fully understand why Smith was willing to spend so much money on him.
And then add in Barkley too, whose driving runs gave him many opportunities. His aggressiveness and power also make him look a bargain too.
I think a mention for Dean Smith is warranted here, because I think he got the tactics absolutely perfect today.
Liverpool play a very high line in defence and it’s proved very successful previously as they caught a lot of other teams out for offside last season.
I’m assuming it was a deliberate tactic, but we managed to get in behind the defence a few times.
How Liverpool didn’t start to defend a little deeper, I don’t know, but I’m not complaining.
Very little went right for Liverpool, as three major deflections in our favour attested, but we weren’t lucky as such.
From memory I think it’s fair to say we could quite easily have scored a nice round dozen on a better day.
Heh, a better day.
That sounds crazy when you’ve just destroyed the champions, but it’s absolutely true.
Barkley missed a sitter and had two other very good chances along with the one he scored.
Watkins hit the bar.
That’s eleven and I’m sure there were more chances that I can’t remember.
The interesting thing was that Liverpools confidence was evidently shot to pieces, while this must have done the world of good for our lads.
We’re now second in the league on nine points while having a game in hand over the rest of the top ten.
It’s perhaps a bit fortuitous that our first two games were against teams that look like they might seriously struggle this time round, but there was no questioning todays result.
Was there any downside?
Well there’s very little off the top of my head and even less worth mentioning.
Heck, I even admitted that Matt Targett was having a good game and you won’t hear that from me very often unless he maintains that sort of standard.
I’m not at work tomorrow, but if I was, I’d be going in with a massive smile on my face.
I’m sure a few of you definitely will.
And it’ll be totally justified.
Happy days and UTV!!!
Comments
114 responses to “Villa 7 – 2 Liverpool: The champions utterly destroyed.”
This whole idea of giving the Sky 6 privileges is abhorrent and no end of pleading by Parry and the EFL will alter that.
The EPL can afford to share some of the TV revenue with the EFL without having to prostrate themselves in front of the Sky 6. That would be true philanthropy.
Giving the Sky 6 this sort of power would be just the tip of a rather nasty iceberg.
The prem should boot manure out. After villa beat them in 94 ferguson from then on was the first club to field weaker teams in that competition. Years later they refused to put a team into the fa cup for playing in brazil and hence started the decline of the fa cup. Now the charity shield is to go so they can have more money spinning pre season tours. The prem is next to suffer as they want a european super league soget in first andthem Kick em out now b4 they are ready and see how last.
If the EPL clubs vote in favour of these proposals they will be turkeys voting for Christmas
Interesting to see if Southgate picks an attacking side now…….just read this about Jack……..
” Grealish snub proves Southgate is no longer the man for England
The off-the-cuff ingenuity of the Aston Villa man could unleash the attacking potential in a gifted England generation but the manager is reluctant
Article continues below
It was surely a first in the history of the England team; a man-of-the-match full debutant failing to get a single minute on the pitch three days later in the very next game.
Gareth Southgate’s relationship with Jack Grealish has moved on from suspect to faintly ridiculous in the last week. It has moved from glaring squad omissions for spurious reasons to weirdly evasive answers to questions concerning the Aston Villa captain’s performance in an England shirt.
Southgate seemed desperate to talk about anything else after the 3-0 victory over Wales, most notably the qualities of Grealish’s main rival for a spot, Mason Mount. It was a baffling next step in a relationship that has always been uneasy.
Then there was the mysterious overlooking of Grealish during a purple patch of form in autumn 2019. Then came the strange explanation there was too much competition from Jadon Sancho, Mason Greenwood, and Marcus Rashford, players who could scarcely be more different technically, tactically, and positionally from the Villa No.10.
Next came the bizarre, unprompted reference to Villa fans ‘who have never forgiven me for leaving for Middlesbrough’ when discussing Grealish’s continued absence from the squad.
It seems Grealish is incapable of changing Southgate’s mind, no matter how well he plays for club or country, with the England manager unshakeable in his belief his players must diligently conform to a functional battle plan.
And while this might appear to be an isolated incident, his preference for Mount over Grealish acutely symbolises a wider problem. When the moment calls for idiosyncrasy, Southgate chooses pragmatism; as the England squad becomes progressive, Southgate retreats to conservatism.
Jack Grealish England
The team selection for the fortunate 2-1 victory over Belgium felt like that of a manager yearning for the days when he managed an underdog, when expectations were so low there was a unifying – even inspiring – quality to a clumpy midfield, to cobbling together unlikely lads, to picking three right-backs and playing none of them at right-back.
No wonder he wants to recapture that energy. His England at the 2018 World Cup was a joyous surprise, a makeshift team of lovable outsiders who brought the nation together precisely because England so clearly lacked the technical ability of their rivals. It was perfect for the moment, but not anymore.
Before we consider what should come next for the senior team, it is important to acknowledge that Southgate has been a spectacular success. Nobody should underestimate the magnitude of his achievement in de-toxifying England, in creating a likeable and low-pressure national setup after decades of stress, pain, and a seething relationship with the tabloid press.
The forward-facing England we see today is all of Southgate’s doing and a remarkable triumph considering Sven Goran Eriksson’s celebrity, Steve McClaren’s brolly, Fabio Capello’s noxious fear, and Roy Hodgson’s Iceland moment – the nadir from which Southgate, via the Sam Allardyce scandal, has revived the nation.
But the attributes that made Southgate ideal – pragmatic, statesmanlike, calming – are now the very attributes that are holding England back.
The England team of 2020 is unrecognisable from the one of 2018, or at least it should be. In Russia, England were caught between eras and on the precipice of the first wave of teenagers graduating through St George’s Park, the national football centre opened in 2012 as the centrepiece of a new development strategy at the FA.
That strategy has been extraordinarily successful, so much so that the current senior manager is no longer the right fit.
In 2017, England won the World Cup or European Championship at Under-17, U19 and U20 levels. Three years later, these players are graduating at breakneck speed to become the fulcrum of a new-look, newly-progressive England team.
Sancho, Raheem Sterling, Harry Kane, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jordan Henderson, Rashford: nobody would doubt that all six of these players could be prominent squad members of the best, most attacking clubs in Europe.
When you add to this the newly emerging Phil Foden, Greenwood, Bukayo Saka, Grealish, and Dominic Calvert-Lewin, one has to start thinking about that most hated, most cursed of phrases: a Golden Generation.
And that is why the perception of Southgate’s England has nose-dived over the past 12 months, why dreary 0-0 draws with Denmark aren’t simply shrugged off as meaningless results in the bigger picture.
There is a growing sense, quite rightly, that England is ready for a modern tactician willing to play expansive, vertical possession football in the German model that dominates the European game.
Because a nation with greater ambition would not just pick Grealish over Mount, but build the entire team around him, offering the sort of maverick playmaker qualities that are so often at the heart of the world’s most successful teams.
By contrast, Mount – though talented – is most liked for being a willing runner; a diligent presser; a listener. He is the conservative choice of a manager fearing what he will lose rather than dreaming of what could be gained.
Picking him over Grealish communicates the same logic that underpins the selection of a stodgy double axis in midfield, that insists on a three-man defence, that refuses to trust the sort of high defensive line and hard pressing that would unleash the best of Sancho, Sterling, and Alexander-Arnold.
Imagine Pep Guardiola in the England job with Henderson in the Fernandinho role; Grealish and Foden dove-tailing like Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva; Alexander-Arnold bursting down the right; Saka an inverted full-back filling in the gaps.
The Man City manager would not be interested in the role, of course, but that calibre – or at least that type of vision – is what a generation of extraordinarily gifted footballers needs and deserves.
Southgate has been superb for England, but increasingly it looks as though the FA would be wise to move him on after next summer’s European Championship finals.
Perhaps then Grealish would get his chance. “
Thoughtful, perceptive and balanced piece which will probably move Grealish backwards in Southgate’s mind should he read it.
The antithesis of cautious, Grealish is Southgate’s worst nightmare – he might just be catalyst for a new forward thinking England manager. Southgate has regrounded a national team that had lost its fans – now we need a forward thinking progressive manager to move us to the next level – Pochettino anyone?
EPL clubs vote down the manure / pool power grab and quite right too.
Needs an inclusive solution – I agree the EPL should cede some of the TV money to help the EFL.
Did you realise that one of the proposals was the stopping of parachute payments? Talk about trying to bend the finances to suit the most powerful – still outraged.
But a quick note to applaud the fans of the top six that unanimously objected to the proposal.
Time to move on
Think they have offered the EFL just £50M …they wanted £250M…
Apparently that’s just to L1 and 2 clubs. EPL to have separate discussions with Championship sides.
Grealish left out again.
Joke
Come on Denmark! Southgate out!
England’s loss is Villa’s gain – sadly I’m not that bothered about England.
Colourless shirts; similar performance
UTV
Looks like Benrahma will be going to West Ham. I think we are missing out again just like we did with Jarrod Bowen.
I trust Smith’s judgement. He knows Benrahma and decided on Watkins in preference.
Maybe he thinks £30m Is too much for a player that may have reached the peak of his performance?
Unbelievable, pike face should give it up trying to manage England. I’m not vindictive the blithering idiot. 😂
🙂 🙂
Who’s an hairy hat that play’s for utd cost 80 odd millions gets a second yellow card and sent off. Why it’s McGire would you believe , I effing knew it.
The most expensive donkey in England…
He haw he haw he haw to be in jail….
Say bye bye to Benararma he’s having a medical at West Ham ..
As said previously, I’m not convinced Benrahma has ever been on our radar. Watkins was the primary target and I think we’ve got the better deal.
Benrahma was anonymous in Brentford’s run in and in the play off final – not convinced he’ll cut it in the Prem. As an example Jota was brilliant in the Championship at Brentford …… say no more!
Watkins is younger, will continue to improve and from what we’ve seen so far is very bit as good as Abraham.
I will be very surprised if we add to the squad before tomorrow night.
UTV
I think Watkins is young enough to get even better in the PL, whereas suspect you’re right that Benrahma may already be as good as he’ll ever be.
When i saw the southgate post match interview and he was asked about grealish. He responded that they needed speed. I couldn’t help thinking about Rocky 2 where his trainer said he needed speed to beat apollo creed and got him trying to catch a chicken running round a yard.
Well Southgate you are that chicken and headless.
So he put on Sancho who did naff all and Henderson who’d struggle to catch a tortoise.
The man’s a blithering idiot. I’d rather he was honest and said ‘I’m in love with Mount – not Grealish’ 🙂
I feel for a Jack but England’s loss etc………
UTV