Aston Villa - Liverpool Sun 4th October 19.15 Thread | Page 61 | Vital Football

Aston Villa - Liverpool Sun 4th October 19.15 Thread

gator said:
HAHA I remember Highbury unfortunately Rotterdam was a blur I was drunk leaving Brierley Hill for the ferry and unfortunately I never recovered for the duration of the trip.
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There was a sports club over the road from the Rotterdam stadium open when the coach arrived early. Took sterling over the bar. A fifty a side kickabout v Bayern fans but most of us just enjoying sunshine and Dutch lager. Oh and I think there was a proper match later in the evening - lots of shouting and dancing anyway.
 
Hark at you lot, crawled into bed at gone 2am and had to be up at 7.30am as we were having the fusebox moved.

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What a wonderful start to the week it’s been....had a couple of replies to messages on social media from Liverpool supporters I know, blimey what a bitter lot they are. Any praise through gritted teeth and the suggestion that it was down to them being useless rather than anything we’d done well. One even went on to say that we’d still be in a relegation scrap come the end of the season...pointed out that was clearly why he was feeling so humiliated and embarrassed with ‘relegation fodder‘ sticking 7 past them. One of the best night’s we’ve had for many a year and we should milk it for all it’s worth!
 
Villa 4 Ever said:
Not yet mate I would love to see it as well, I think at times it was a 4,2,3,1 which is why Barkley had that freedom, and McGinn was sitting quite deep at times, which might explain why Liverpool found it troubling on the edge of our box, Although saying that Grealish and Trezeguet dropped quite deep at times and Barkley was still up there making it more of a 4,4,1,1.

How we played, how the players were moving around I absolutely loved it, the fact we were organised but players had the freedom to move in and out of different positions was impressive and I believe we really are working on something and it's starting to click.
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One of the key things for me - particularly the CM battle which is where most games are won or lost - was how often we'd have three players crowding one of their's, literally within a yard of each other in a swarming manner.

The freedom of expression on display was breathtaking at times too though - it was sheer joy to see Barkley breaking out through the centre circle with the ball at his feet and (as I remarked during the game) often ahead of Ollie who was often running back the other way to help out lol!

If you have three or four quick, competent players all running like that with/out the ball at the same time then I don't know how you counter that, you're literally forced to be better than them somehow otherwise they'll simply overrun you and you'll be dragged all over the shop as last night showed.

These points were always at the heart of my disliking of Ghazi and Hourihane - I just knew that if we could get some quality swinging dicks that also put a shift in amongst Jack and SJM then we could be transformed and so we were!

Still pinching myself tbh - I don't even know how I can categorise how we played/what we achieved last night as I don't think I've seen it before, at least at that scale.

For sure you can make Leicester/Vardy comparions but we had 3-4 Vardys all over the pitch lol - unbeatable!

Trez Bremner
Jack
SJM
Barkley
Ollie

Five names that will go down in Villa folklore for generations to come - I wasn't there, nobody was but the world saw it unfold live as it happened.

You think our profile may have gone up a notch or three now?
 
gator said:
Because now we have a forward line every team will fear Iv'e said this before somewhere but last season every team came to VP looking for a win except Burnley and thinking about it Newcastle but now the lesser teams will come and put a wall up.The better teams will still come expecting to win but we have the pace now to get behind these teams.
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As I mentioned last night - nobody is likely to try and play a high line against us for the rest of the season so that will immediately nullify at least some of our new found prowess up front.

We'll have more time and space in midfield because of that, however, so perhaps the requirement will be less about pace and running with the ball and more on quality passing to leverage that pace against people who are sitting back more.

I still think that suggests that you-know-who could play a part in that respect and provide more competition, and cover, for our midfield generals - let's see if anything turns up over the next fortnight.
 
Villan57 said:
I thought he was the difference back in his correct position battling and scrapping not trying to be a no8 where he doesn't cut it.

I said earlier in the week I see Barkley playing no8 and SJM taking over from the wand as SJM has the all-round game that you know who will never have
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Yup - you called that one right mate so respect - I remembered what you'd said and noticed straight from the kick off that's where SJM was planted.
 
Bonker said:
As I mentioned last night - nobody is likely to try and play a high line against us for the rest of the season so that will immediately nullify at least some of our new found prowess up front.

We'll have more time and space in midfield because of that, however, so perhaps the requirement will be less about pace and running with the ball and more on quality passing to leverage that pace against people who are sitting back more.

I still think that suggests that you-know-who could play a part in that respect and provide more competition, and cover, for our midfield generals - let's see if anything turns up over the next fortnight.
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Yep going to be interesting isn't it
 
Villa 4 Ever said:
I think he still has room to improve defensively if Deano starts playing him in a 4,2,3,1, Unfortunately I cannot load the video clips on here after I've slow mode them down, But better positioning and Liverpool wouldn't of had them 2 goals.

Not taking anything away from the result, but we need to still look at where it went wrong and how we can improve on that for next time, Totally different position for him last night, Worked really hard and was all over the pitch.

He did lose possession more than any other Villa player 17, and the only player to lose possession more was Robinson for Liverpool.

Passing accuracy was poor at 58% 18/31

So wasn't a MotM performace for me, and has room to improve in his new role but with that beautiful assist best of the match and a good goal, you have to give him an 8/10.

I've always liked SJM but that's my unbiased opinion.
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The bar has been raised mate so the not-cutting-it net will catch a few seemingly unlikely victims as it goes higher.

That said, I think we have to cut SJM some slack as he's in a new role - kinda - with new players etc and still working his way back into form but his pass to Jack and his own goal, deflected or not, were top drawer.

I'll admit I don't have the early phase stuff in my head re their two goals but I thought Targett was woeful in both of them. Lunging in to leave Salah free for the first and not reacting at all to us losing the ball right in front of him while Salah peeled away into space behind him. He got stuck in alright in the game which he clearly likes to do but as a defender he really is terrible, he's just asleep at the switch all the time.
 
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