Aston Villa v Liverpool - Sat 2nd Nov, 3pm - Match Thread | Page 13 | Vital Football

Aston Villa v Liverpool - Sat 2nd Nov, 3pm - Match Thread

I'm probably in the minority but my heart sank when I saw Howahane coming on, we really needed a battler, not a jogger, he's not renowned for getting stuck in at the best of time never mind a game like that, same went for Koj.
The air was blue by me I can tell you seeing those two coming on.
Definitely not a hindsight view from me I can tell you.

Very commendable of Dean to stick to his principles but an extra CB for the last 10 mins and we'd have 3 points
 
robbali said:
Thd two goals were given away. Terrible marking from El ghazi and Kodjjia from the crosses and no one on the posts for a last fling corner? Once again we ran out of steam around the 70 minute mark. On the positive side I got the prediction right so unlike villa I'm safely in midtable in the prediction league.
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Think there were a few more positives than you getting a prediction right dont you think?....but if that makes you happier than trying to find a glimmer of praise for a great team effort yesterday so be it. Cant say I'm surprised, you seem to continually criticise everything about the squad and management, win, lose or draw.
 
Positives are all 11 even Wesley put in a shift and for 86 mins, we were on for 3 points against the best side in Europe and all done without the Premier leagues best English midfielder.

I await the calls for him to be left out next week because you can't change a winning side oh hang on
 
Villan57 said:
I'm probably in the minority but my heart sank when I saw Howahane coming on, we really needed a battler, not a jogger, he's not renowned for getting stuck in at the best of time never mind a game like that, same went for Koj.
The air was blue by me I can tell you seeing those two coming on.
Definitely not a hindsight view from me I can tell you.

Very commendable of Dean to stick to his principles but an extra CB for the last 10 mins and we'd have 3 points
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Can see where you're coming from 57.....neither Conor or Hourihane fit the bill for backs to the wall stuff......cant remember Kodjia touching the ball once and his and Conor's half hearted defending for the winner kind of sums it up.
 
Plenty to be optimistic about from yesterday. Encouraging to see we can play without Jack, some great performances all over the park Trez and Freddy had great games as did Engels. If Wesley manned up a little he could offer us more, he worked hard yesterday hence the ovation when he came off. Bring on Wolves.
 
I've rarely felt as sick about losing a game as this one, I couldn't bear to look at it on MOTD last night.
 
I’m puzzled by the theme of being ahead but losing to late goals against the “bigger” clubs. Is it a mental issue or a fitness issue? Is the divide between us and these clubs simply a matter of them being more relentless? One of the papers talked of trezeguet and el ghazi running out of puff. I think the same could be said of Wesley.
 
Langoe66 said:
Can see where you're coming from 57.....neither Conor or Hourihane fit the bill for backs to the wall stuff......cant remember Kodjia touching the ball once and his and Conor's half hearted defending for the winner kind of sums it up.
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I noticed he was in there "marking" for the corner and I said to the bloke next to me why is he in there FFS . I've only seen it once live and I won't be watching replays. He really is a piss poor footballer who takes a decent dead ball anything else he's weak.
Boils my blood beyond belief, not blaming him for the defeat Can't really blame anyone other than us dropping deeper and deeper and Deano not making them push out.
Could have put on another defender on, left Trez to run around up front as he was doing.

Just so disappointed at the end to take nothing from what was 3 points
 
I think the reason for us dropping deeper and deeper was our inability to hold onto the ball. Part of that was due to Jack missing but so often our front three seem so isolated from each other and any midfielders we inevitably end up giving the ball back to the opposition. From what I saw Liverpool players always had support and an "out" ball when in possession. From those of us lucky enough to remember Peter Withe, not the quickest or most skilful of players, his ability to hold the ball allowing time for support to reach was outstanding and a major contribution to our success back then.
All that said we gave the European Champions one hell of a fright....well done Villa!!!
Onwards and upwards, VTID
 
danvilla2 said:
How shit are Liverpool fans by the way? The amount of media love they get, they hardly make a peep unless they’re celebrating
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Made the bad mistake of going to the comments section in the mail to see what their fans had to say. What a bunch of morons.
 
ldgavfc said:
Chip or blast it in near post, not the hardest finish at all.
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He couldn't just "chip" due to the covering Liverpool defender getting around Alisson. The angle isn't there to blast near post unless the goalkeepers position is all wrong and they're the ones ricocheting it in.

Taking into account Hourihane's goalscoring record for us (which let us not forget could be higher were it not for VAR), do you really think he wouldn't take a shot on if the odds weren't stacked for him?!
 
Hifriedelity said:
I’m puzzled by the theme of being ahead but losing to late goals against the “bigger” clubs. Is it a mental issue or a fitness issue? Is the divide between us and these clubs simply a matter of them being more relentless? One of the papers talked of trezeguet and el ghazi running out of puff. I think the same could be said of Wesley.
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I think it’s a combination physical fatigue, mental fatigue and tactical.

Physical and mental fatigue are linked, if you’re tired physically you’re probably going to suffer mentally. Just one player who makes the wrong decision or isn’t quite on his toes (like El Ghazi not making him a scapegoat just an observation) unfortunately then costs us.

I love our high pressing, straight-from-the-off tactics which are working to some degree and putting us in good positions. The problem is against the good teams we need to ideally build up a two goal lead and against the lesser teams a one goal lead.

The fact we tail off is only natural, we can’t expect to outplay and outrun the champions of Europe and league leaders for 90 mins unfortunately. We need more depth in our squad as Hourihane unfortunately wasn’t the right to come on but was probably the only option, and isn’t going to say to the manager he’s not the right player to come on!

The important thing for me though is that we don’t reduce our intensity now the big boys are out of the way. Every single game until the next time we play City is winnable even if there are tough tests in there. If we have intensity relative to our opposition we’ll keep losing to the tops teams and draw against those in our league. This will make the losses to City and Liverpool meaningless, as they are confidence boosters.

We’ve changed our tactics recently and it’s worked, I think in away games we need to change tactics accordingly (players not formation) and become a bit more street wise.
 
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11 big hearts out on the pitch playing at 100% effort, you can’t ask for more.
Wesley played his part for me but his replacement was non existent as was Hourihane. Would rather have seen Konsa coming on as he seems an all round ball player with aerial ability. Hindsight of course.
There are big areas for improvement in playing the ball out of defence. Our defensive headers are directed anywhere and generally fall to the opposition and we resort too often to hoofing long ball. We lack composure on the ball, Jack excluded, and the pace of premier players is making life difficult for us.
Fantastic to be in this great crowd watching the resurgence of our great club. No criticisms here only observations. Only 4 teams have scored more than us and only 3 teams have let in more than us, that’s why we’re where we are. Not suggesting we play more defensively, hell no! Saying we need to cleverer in playing out of defence and through midfield.
 
Tierney said:
He couldn't just "chip" due to the covering Liverpool defender getting around Alisson. The angle isn't there to blast near post unless the goalkeepers position is all wrong and they're the ones ricocheting it in.

Taking into account Hourihane's goalscoring record for us (which let us not forget could be higher were it not for VAR), do you really think he wouldn't take a shot on if the odds weren't stacked for him?!
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Pretty sure if that was Jack or McGinn who did the same there wouldn’t be any criticism for it. The ball through to him was over hit
 
Tierney said:
He couldn't just "chip" due to the covering Liverpool defender getting around Alisson. The angle isn't there to blast near post unless the goalkeepers position is all wrong and they're the ones ricocheting it in.

Taking into account Hourihane's goalscoring record for us (which let us not forget could be higher were it not for VAR), do you really think he wouldn't take a shot on if the odds weren't stacked for him?!
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Maybe nerves got the better of him. To be fair to Hourihane he finds himself in those positions and nine times out of ten he would have thundered that in near post or neatly slotted it past Allison but for some bizarre reason he decides not to.

I'm more angry about his weak, shitty, tame attempt to prevent mane crossing with his weaker foot on his weaker side.
 
At the end of the day, once again we've dropped points in the final throws of a game. Its just damning evidence of a lack of quality on the bench. We brought on three championship players and threw the game away.
 
Villan57 said:
I noticed he was in there "marking" for the corner and I said to the bloke next to me why is he in there FFS . I've only seen it once live and I won't be watching replays. He really is a piss poor footballer who takes a decent dead ball anything else he's weak.
Boils my blood beyond belief, not blaming him for the defeat Can't really blame anyone other than us dropping deeper and deeper and Deano not making them push out.
Could have put on another defender on, left Trez to run around up front as he was doing.

Just so disappointed at the end to take nothing from what was 3 points
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I know I'm an old codgers but why no men on the post from corners? Simple clearance with that winner.
 
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