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.”
Wow, just wow.
It’s just a shame there were no fans to witness it.
We’ve often criticised our managers for having no Plan B – it seems to me that Klopp had no Plan B which is staggering!
Klopp, of course, is blaming circumstances to a degree – but is struggling to really explain why they lost – because they were second best? Tbf he did praise Villa as well.
The real point is that the difference between last season and this is massive, Barkley might just be the key acquisition. We have a much better side and shouldn’t struggle with relegation. Not to get carried away with our current position but we should be targeting a top half finish as part of our development.
Great to be a Villan.
Almost looking forward to going into work tomorrow, especially because of the Liverpool fan I work with. Happy days!
Unbelievable result, our attacking play was excellent, Barkley adds everything we’ve been missing in midfield and we finally have a proper striker.
Smith deserves the credit though, his tactics were spot on and he has the team playing some really good attacking play, we are a lot nicer to watch too.
I had my doubts about Barkley’s apettite to come to Villa, but his power freed up Grealish & Watkins no end.
There is a marked difference between him and Hourihane in the middle, he drives the play forward so much better.
Badger a great summary.
Days like these have been too rare over the last decade. Well done to everyone at Villa. It looks like we have the makings of a good side. Our counter attacking style will cause most teams difficulties.
What is even more amazing, there are to be substantiated rumours that we still may be looking to add further quality to the team.
Tonight I am walking on air, thank you Villa.
Really sad that Sky seem to be concentrating on Liverpool being poor rather than the excellence of everyone in the Villa side,
Deano saying that Watkins value now doubled 🙂
Smith saying Villa will enjoy going into the international break but will not get carried away.,
Sourness is a miserable prat!
Like most of Sky’s pundits he can’t let go of his red connections.
After the Leicester result today, our upcoming game against them doesn’t look quite so worrying, does it?
So so happy that is a game we will be talking about for years wooo hooo
Watkins is so strong and when the ball goes up to him 95% of the time he holds it without it drifting away giving defenders a sniff.
Credit when its due on Sky…Jamie Carragher was full of praise as well as demolishing L’pool and their God Dick Van Winkle….
Personal note : One of worse days was L’pool winning 6 nil at VP when we were at Sons wedding…..today could be best ever 7-2 on our 45th Anniversary…….
In December 1976, I was at Villa Park with my (now long suffering) wife to witness one of the great upsets in English football – Villa 5-1 up at half time against the English first division champions Liverpool. Our daughter Sarah was just 18 months old.
Tonight we celebrated dinner together; Sarah completing her virtual London Marathon raising money for the Primrose Hospice and Villa repeating ( and going 2 better) than that victory in 1976.
Liverpool still ran out Champions in 76 / 77 with Villa finishing fourth.
Is it an omen?
Happy days.
I was there Hitchens. Scooting out at the final whistle and running to catch a bus back to Corporation St and the last train to London. With the local Villa still in the stadium – cheering – I expected to be on a bus full of Scousers, but they had left earlier.
Are Scousers and United fans and pundits bad losers because they don’t get enough practice? Contrast Souness’ reaction to Klopp’s who stayed on the pitch to congratulate every Villa player as they came off. No early scoot down the tunnel or blaming bad luck. If you want to be known as a sportsman you have to admit that on the day you were thrashed by a better opponent.
Anyway the Lancashire Samaritans have issued these extra hotline numbers
Manchester 202 (0) 161616, Liverpool 202 (0) 727272 for anyone needing counselling.
The Scouse Reds & Mancs Reds are poor loosers beacuse they’re arrogant, just like most of the people associated with those clubs.
I think it’s simply down to having had so much success over the years that they think that they have some divine right to keep getting more.
Funnily enough a I know a few Man Citeh fans, and their recent years of success don’t seem to have produced the same reaction – they’ve generally stayed pretty down to earth…
Hitch you saying that about omen, it was my daughter’s 54 th and she asked us to go round and celebrate the day, we are all Villa to the core, grandson Villa kit on 14 , grandaughter 17 plays for Cov ladies ,we could not have had a better party because this silly sod got up on every goal to jig in the middle of the floor with all of the family, Villa I thank you for giving us a day to remember till I die, you may remember I lost my lad this year who had the Villa plate Vlllaa on his cars and man room in his cottage into a Villa shrine . He would have been ecstatic over that 7-2 result. VTID. What a day…
i am still shell shocked but i look like the joker in batman, i have a grin plastered on my face and it looks crazy i just cant loose it.
i love trying to analyse games, break down what went right or wrong, not easy to do in a match like that, first of i seen klopps version of the truth, he claims pool were not pressing / or not implementing the ball pressure in midfield. well like i explained other day after watched leeds press high to the halfway line. villa will match up well with them cause we have midfielders that can beat their man, teams marked grealish with 3 players last season cause he is our danger. you add barkley and mcgin along side him you cant afford to mark grealish with three now.
so pool tried to press up to the halfway but klopp says they didnt put pressure on the ball and villa played throw them. well thats something like the truth, but i add the pool midfielders were trying to pressure the ball but our midfield are more allusive,
pool were dominant at 1 nil 2 nil and 2/1, but their game plan was knocked for 7 after that, cause like tyson said everyone has a plan until they get thumped in the face, pool got punched in the nose every villa attack. we broke past the pool pressure every time we turned over the ball. pool had no answer to villa cutting into them. where a normal team would say 4 1 down lets shut up shop pool couldnt do that, they knew they could recover this and they carried on making the same mistakes over and over.
truth be known villa should have had 4 more barkley had 2 more great chances watkins had 2 more, one hit the bar and he had a great one on one . pool were really lucky they claimed we were lucky cause we had 3 deflected goals, but if you dont shoot you wont score. we were in great positions all game to score and all three of them shots were on target, lots of goals get deflected, seems ex pool players and managers are looking for excusses
p/s that game reminded me of the villa 6 everton 2 under taylor we scored wha seemed every attack in that game. yesterday was similar only better we battered the champions not just beat them we battered them. we are a decent team now. you press us high and you will get hurt.
Apparently our grass was too long for Liverpool…
I heard that on Sky. Of course you know that Villa cannot win anything on merit, only with fate conspiring against their rivals. Bayern Munich’s keeper had the intended shot covered but Withe ‘shinned’ it in off the other post. Long grass does quite dislodge Boby Robson’s quacking ducks [outside the Ipswich team’s hotel near Middlesborough] from its ‘most risible’ perch – but it is close.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/10/04/aston-villa-vs-liverpool-premier-league-live-score-latest-updates/
Re-live the game…
Aside from the obvious praise, the sheer workrate of the team was a joy to watch. The amount of tracking and pressing done by Trezeguet and Grealish was phenomenal. Add in the quality of the link up with Barkley, so we now have two top class players who can carry the ball, gives us a whole new dimension going forward.
For all the dark days over the past decade, this was like a dream. And with 9 points out of 9 what a platform to build on. With the nature of the league this season, we should go into each game with a belief and positive attitude. Defences look so shaky across the board that there could be many more ‘shock’ results to come.
Stunning result. Barkley makes a huge difference in midfield and Watkins is perfect for that kind of game. Great pace, strength, hold-up play and hunger for goals.
The PL is tougher than ever this season but I feel happier that we can hold our own. Mid table would be fine with me. I’m not getting carried away with the result as reality will come back to bite at some point. It would be nice not to have to live through the stress of last season.
A couple of quality additions next summer and we could be a real force.
Would love to hear the chat between Jack and Trent in the England dressing room this week.
Liverpool are being investigated and possibly fined for letting in seven which is against the latest coronavirus ruling.
Looking for a vid of the match…non up yet…but re-watched this again…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/54410120
Full highlights here, mate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew6_twTL3zg
Rashica deal gone but I’m not sure that’s such a bad outcome.
Although we don’t have the details, from a distance it doesn’t seem that he was that keen on joining us. From it being reported we were in detailed discussions with him yesterday, he suddenly changed his mind and opted to move to another Bundesliga club – which has also fallen through.
We only want players that will not only improve us but want to join our great club.
That’s been pretty well the whole saga since August.
He didn’t seem to want to come here for weeks, then apparently considered ‘doing us a favour’ and coming – if we paid him twice what he’d been on at Werder Bremen…
Better off without players who think they’re too good for us – I don’t care if we’d been negotiating for Messi, unless they have some passion for playing for the Lion then I don’t want to see them here.
See we’ve managed to off-load Jota (permanently), hopefully a few more might go before tonight.
I don’t get it, your saying Rashica a done deal ,a player that didn’t want to come to Villa !! Someone explain to me how helpful is a player whose heart not at Villa, and why we persisted in going for him, I would imagine its all about money with him , he up till now would have lost respect from some fans saying things like that. If it’s true and he has signed I’d like to know what changed his mind. Please don’t parade him in front of cameras saying how pleased he came to Villa, I’ll probably throw boot at him.
Can’t see any news that he’s signed, in fact all stories I ‘ve seen are that we walked away from this a week or two ago.
He was supposed to move to RB Leipzig today, but that’s also fallen through.
Deflections are predominantly caused by bad deffending rather than ‘luck’. Van Dyk and Trent Arnold both turned their back on goal bound efforts instead of pressing the man in possesion. And nobody could be bothered to press or block Barkley’s goal.
No matter how the bin dippers try to spin it…..its both good attacking and poor defending….no luck whatsover involved IMO
UTV
As we’re ALL constantly being reminded by every TV pundit & all the national papers –
“Villa only survived in the PL by 1 point, less than three months ago”
It follows therefore that if we were somehow lucky-enough to completely destroy the PL Champions 7-2 we HAD to have done it because:
a) They had an injury or two
b) They were tired after a very short pre-season
c) It was an off-day for them
d) We didn’t mow the pitch properly for them
e) We were lucky with deflections & the like
f) ALL of the above.
OBVIOUSLY it had NOTHING to do with a superb team performance and some outstanding individual performances by players in claret & blue, or any game-plan by the coaching staff!
Actually, Liverpool were lucky we didn’t score 10 on the night and it was an outstanding display of fast counter attacking football at its best. So reminiscent of the Brentford side managed by Smith and why the majority of Villa fans wanted him at the club.
However, it’s also fair to say their defending was atrocious and they had their first choice back four on show.
Klopp, unlike Mourinho, was a real gentleman in defeat – fair play to him.
Amazing when they win its their attacking but when we win its their defending……..bring back Shanks to give their heads a wobble….
Nyland has been paid off.
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/breaking-aston-villa-transfers-nyland-19055673
A bit surprised that he went before Kalinic
Me too really.
I think his contract was up in this summer coming anyway.
I suppose it’s a case of as and when and this one didn’t cost much?
Makes you wonder how many are going to have to be paid off, doesn’t it?
God, we have an awful history of overpaying for rubbish players we lose an absolute fortune on 🙁
I don’t think we’re actually any worse in that respect than most sides.
Wait a few days until the full transfer lists are shown (on the BBC website, for example) and see the names of players who were famous for 5 minutes a few years ago for ‘big’ transfers to ‘big clubs’ but who’ve just quietly been ‘released’, ‘loaned out’ or given a ‘free transfer’ to some lower league or foreign clubs…
It’s only a few who make the news (e.g. Jack Wilshere today) but it happens at the end of every transfer window – the ending of what were once supposed to be sure-fire star careers.
Well, yes, fair enough.
But you’re supposed to make a few bob on them sometimes and we’re not good at that, imo.
Yes, we’ve had some, but not many.
You might be interested in the right hand side of this page;
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/aston-villa/alletransfers/verein/405
I found it fascinating, fwiw. Some of the names bring proper memories back 🙂
Interesting list.
Some names on the ‘gone’ side who were home-grown as well, and who were touted as ‘great prospects’ when they were 19,20 or 21 and have now ended up without a club (in some cases) in their mid-late 20’s when they should have been at the peak of their careers…
Stephen Ireland! What a wasted talent.
A proper trip down memory lane!
Sickening to see lads that might have been but failed in other peoples minds . Our policy changed about the youth of today in playing potential younge men.Grealish was lucky and had that extra talent ,thank the Lord for that. I still think their was better players than Ramsey that have been thrown to the wolves but who knows he might come good.