Fullbacks hindering Liverpool attack (ESPN article)

by Dave Usher for ESPN

It's fair to say that a lot of things went wrong against Aston Villa. Top of the list would be the initial team selection, although I have to be honest that I would have picked that same side and prior to kickoff I was certainly not anticipating things going the way they did.

That said, it was clear after about 10 or 15 minutes that it needed changing, as Villa were outnumbering the Reds in the middle and looked like scoring any time a Liverpool attack broke down. The lack of personnel in the centre of the park was hurting Liverpool with and without the ball, and I would be hugely surprised if we saw manager Brendan Rodgers go into a game with just two players in his engine room again this season.

The attack was blunted due to the lack of possession needed to patiently build attacks, and it was a very un-Liverpool-like display. In fact, it was far worse than the Villa game last season, which the Midlanders won 3-1. Rodgers' Liverpool are at their best when moving the ball and dragging opposing players around until an opening appears, but against Villa it was all too frantic and hurried and the Reds were trying to score too quickly any time they had the ball. As a result, they had absolutely no control of the game as they couldn't get their foot on the ball or sustain any kind of possession.

The defence was exposed because there were huge gaping holes in the centre of the park where Steven Gerrard was often swamped by three marauding Villa players. The pace, energy and athleticism of the visitors on the counter simply overwhelmed Liverpool, who didn't have enough bodies in there to cope. Villa were just waiting for the Reds' front men to lose the ball, and then they would spring their counterattacks to devastating effect.

Liverpool were completely shell-shocked in that first half, and it wasn't until Rodgers belatedly introduced Lucas Leiva at halftime that the tide of Villa attacks was stemmed. The Anfield side was also helped by Villa having to replace speedster Gabriel Agbonlahor with veteran target man Grant Holt. That was akin to swapping the Road Runner for Foghorn Leghorn.

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