Liverpool 3 Aston Villa 2 (Sep 24 2015)

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Dave Usher at Anfield

I suppose the first thing to say is I enjoyed this; it was fun and I had a smile on my face when I came out of Anfield. It changed nothing in terms of the big picture but it’s a step in the right direction at least. The second half was almost, almost like the return of “Rodgeball”, with goals at both ends, exciting attacking play and Keystone Cops defending.

In comparison with most of our other games this season, this was a big improvement, but then that just shows what a low bar has been set these past 12 months.

Despite it being better, much better even, Villa were absolutely dreadful yet still came close to nicking a point. That’s not good is it? Not that it stopped Rodgers from sounding off at his critics. Won one have you? Fucking hell. There’d be no living with him if he ever managed to beat anybody decent. You’ve seen that little statistic I’m sure, how since April the only teams we’ve beaten have been 16th-19th place in the table or halfway down the Championship. We couldn’t even beat Carlisle, yet he comes out swinging after just about overcoming Tim fucking Sherwood.

I’m actually embarrassed for him now, but I’m not going to dissect all of his ridiculous comments in here, I’ll leave that for the Diary and just stick to the game itself.

If Agbonlahor had been available this could have been a different story as he always seems to give us big problems at Anfield. Even in his absence our defence couldn’t cope with that big lump Gestede even though we had three centre backs, so there’s still plenty of cause for concern despite the improved play at the other end.

Beggars can’t be choosers though and I’ll take this kind of performance over the West Ham one all day. It seems as though the only way we can be defensively secure is to completely sacrifice any kind of attacking play (e.g. the first few games of the season) and as soon as we open it up a bit we start shipping goals again. We’ve had that for over three years now and that’s not going to change under this manager, no matter what players he signs.

Still, there are encouraging signs that our attacking play is returning now and it’s not a co-incidence that it’s happened since Benteke (and to a lesser extent Firmino) went out and Sturridge and Ings came in. We all knew how important Sturridge is to making Rodgers’ brand of football work, but this display put an exclamation point on it. And guess what Brendan, playing two up front increases the chances of scoring goals. Who’d have thunk it eh? Oh yeah, basically everybody except you, it seems. Still, better late than never.

It’s fair to say though that had Sturridge never gotten injured there’s every chance Rodgers wouldn’t be in this precarious position. That’s not an excuse for him, if anything it’s the opposite. If he can’t make his style of football work with players other than Sturridge and Suarez then that’s a fairly damning indictment of his coaching ability. A drop off was to be expected when you lose players of that quality, but there’s no excuse for the arse completely falling out of our game for the best part of 12 months.

It’s not just Sturridge though, Ings too has really helped to make the team look something more like what we were a couple of years ago but again that doesn’t reflect well on Rodgers because he’s only in the side as Benteke got hurt.

Ings is not Suarez, not by a long way, but he does do some Suarez-like things and that should help Sturridge to shine again, fitness permitting of course. What happens when Benteke is fit again will be interesting. In theory, there’s no reason why Benteke and Sturridge couldn’t work as a pairing, but it would take some time to develop as other players would need to get used to Benteke and the change of style required to get the best from him.

With Ings that isn’t the case, he’s like a “Poundland Suarez” and has just slotted in straight away and looks like he’s been here for years. I’m actually excited about his partnership with Sturridge, it looks like we might be onto something there. Where that leaves Benteke (not to mention Firmino and Origi) I’m not sure, but that’s Brendan’s problem, and one he created for himself.

We got off to the perfect start when Milner lashed one in from the edge of the box. That was a tactical decision from Rodgers that paid immediate dividends to be fair. He had Milner as the most advanced of the three midfielders and dropped Coutinho back in more or less alongside Lucas to dictate the play. Coutinho fed Milner and he scored, so credit Rodgers for that one.

I don’t know how much the early goal helped really though. We’ve taken the lead in the last three games and not really built on it, and for the rest of the first half we seemed happy to just keep plodding along at 1-0 and weren’t pressing the issue like we might have. It’s like scoring gives them an excuse to relax instead of go looking for more. You’d think a goal would lift their confidence and give them a platform to get more, but it seems to do the opposite.

We had loads of the ball but at just 1-0 down Villa weren’t going to scrap their gameplan and just camped in their own half with everyone behind the ball, and most of what we did was in front of them. It’s been a familiar theme for a while now. Worryingly, despite their lack of quality and ambition, Villa probably had the best of the chances in the first half. Gestede headed just wide and then sliced a shot past the post after being teed up by the erratic Emre Can.

Despite not having to do much defending we looked ropey any time Villa ventured forward, and they had another chance after Mignolet had palmed a cross straight to one of their players. Why he’s not catching that I don’t know, but fortunately unlike last week he got away with this one.

The second half was much better, and I can only put that down to Sturridge deciding he was going to turn it on. He’d done nothing in the first half and appeared lacklustre to the point of almost being disinterested. There was one overhit pass that he refused to chase that pissed me right off. He may or may not have been able to keep it in, but he made a half arsed attempt to chase and then just threw his arms up and gave up. Ings would have bust a gut to try and keep that in.

After the break though Sturridge came alive. Even before his goal he’d started to look lively and was getting involved in the game much more. The goal was just top drawer. A nice pass by Milner but that finish was Fowler-esque. That’s the thing, Sturridge is a fucking brilliant finisher and he makes it look effortless.

We found ourselves in the rare position of having scored twice in a game, maybe that’s why we completely switched off and let Villa score so quickly. The way Can let Gestede just run past him for a tap in was completely unacceptable, regardless of whether he’s a “natural” defender or not. Sakho’s positioning seemed suspect too, him and Skrtel were too close together.

Sturridge restored our two goal advantage almost immediately with a brilliant goal, playing a terrific one two with Coutinho before casually rolling the ball into the bottom corner. That should have been that, but instead we allowed Villa to pull another one back and make it a nervous finish.

I can live with that goal though, the cross in was brilliant and when Gestede has a run at a ball like that no-one is stopping him. Sakho was in the way but got completely flattened. Sometimes you just say “good goal that” and don’t over analyse things too much. The first goal was not one of those times, but the second might be.

We should have had five or six ourselves though. Sturridge wasted a great chance when over elaborated a little and then whiffed his shot, and soon after he was denied by a brilliant save from Guzan after Ings had sent him in with a clever flick. Milner and Clyne had both gone close too, and it was nice to see us looking dangerous after so many weeks of sterile, toothless shite.

Things could have gotten really edgy after they pulled it back to 3-2, and but for Lucas they might have. He did more than anybody to settle things down, putting out fires all over the place. Villa brought on Adama Traore and he looked like he’d been fired out of a frigging cannon. He blew by Moreno as though he wasn’t even there, and few people do the Spaniard for pace.

Traore looked really lively and you have to wonder why he didn’t start, but Lucas kept him in check with some timely challenges and the Brazilian was a real calming presence in the closing stages. Villa never really threatened an equaliser but I can’t help wonder what would have happened if we’d been playing a side who carried more of a threat. We’ll find out soon enough, just look at our upcoming fixtures.

Star man is obviously Sturridge, but Lucas, Milner and Ings were all good too and both wing backs played quite well.

Team: Mignolet; Can, Skrtel, Sakho; Clyne, Lucas, Milner, Coutinho, Moreno; Ings, Sturridge (Allen):