Yep, that’ll do. The only thing I’m relatively unhappy about is that the scoreline makes this seem close. It really wasn’t, or at least it shouldn’t have been. We played really well and absolutely dominated Villa but we didn’t convert that into goals and because of that the last 15 minutes became a bit mental. We should have been out of sight by then though.
This is close to a 1-0 hammering as you’ll ever see. It was close because we didn’t convert our dominance into goals and because the referee was pitiful and missed two clear penalties in the first half. Granted, he hasn’t been helped out by whichever dickhead was on VAR either, but Stuart Atwel did his level best to ruin this game.
On top of that, Villa were fucking horrible. It felt like we were playing Atletico Madrid. Time wasting, shithousing, playacting, surrounding the ref, it was fucking grim. It’s ironic really. When Stevie became a manager he spoke of how he’d take bits he’d learned from all the great managers he played for and implement them into his own style. And it turns out that the manager who influenced his ‘style’ the most is the one he nearly played for. Twice.
I didn’t like how Villa approached the game but the bigger problem was the useless cunt with the whistle who did absolutely nothing to stop it. Teams like Villa (and by that I mean 80% of the league) will do that shit if they’re allowed to because the less time the ball is in play the less time we have to put it in their net.
Gerrard had clearly instructed his players to take the piss as much as possible, and the inclusion of Ashley Young as one of their front three was all the proof I need. Young in a front three? What is this, 2014? In fairness he was too busy refereeing the game to pose any threat to our defence. But while Villa’s tactics did nothing to improve the spectacle, Gerrard is entitled to set up his team however he likes and the real issue is the referee doing nothing to stop it.
Atwell is one pathetic fucking weasel. His performance was an absolute disgrace. He got so many decisions wrong but the worst thing was how weak he was with Villa’s gamesmanship.
The keeper was taking an age over every goal kick in the first half and Atwell did nothing. Our players were telling him, the crowd were going mad about it, but he did fuck all. Eventually, early in the second half, it looked like he would finally produce a yellow card for the keeper. But he didn’t. Instead, he delayed the game about 30 seconds while he made his way back to the keeper to give him a jolly good telling off. No card, just a lecture that wasted even more time than the keeper himself could have done.
Incredible. When Villa made a sub the lad walked off and stopped along the way to get a big hug from Ashley Young. What did Atwell do? Nothing. Absolutely fuck all. When we had the lead and subbed Thiago though, he made a point of escorting him off and telling him to hurry up. And when Sadio was subbed he wouldn’t even let him leave the field in the normal way! He forced him to go off at the nearest point and then walk all the way around the side of the pitch. Which I’m fine with normally, but it sticks in the throat when he didn’t give a fuck about time wasting until it was Villa’s time that was being wasted.
The worst thing about Atwell’s display though was how he allowed Villa’s players to try and disrupt the taking of the penalty. The keeper did it initially but that wasn’t too bad. Nothing you don’t normally see really. But after that was sorted and literally everyone else on the pitch was ready for the penalty. Mings just walked over and stood over the ball. And Atwell did nothing.
In the end Hendo had to go over and try to drag him away, but Mings still didn’t budge. And again, Atwell did fuck all. That’s as clear a yellow card as you’ll ever see, as you just can’t do what Mings did. Atwell did nothing though, the spineless little fucking turd.
I’ll get to the penalty in due course though. I’ll start with the line up Klopp went with. 10 of that side pick themselves but with Jota not fully fit and Divock rules out, Klopp elected to go with Ox as the nine ahead of Minamino. I was a little surprised by that as Taki looked like he was being groomed as a natural understudy for Bobby’s role.
I said on the pod earlier in the season that there are certain situations where I would be fine with Ox playing the false nine. Specifically away games when there’s space to run and counter attack. Not, however, a home game against a blanket defence. Taki seemed like a more obvious choice for this type of game but maybe Klopp just wanted to get Ox in the side somewhere because he’s been playing well of late.
It didn’t work though. For me, Ox didn’t do anything wrong especially. It’s not that he had a bad game, because he didn’t. He just made very little impact but that’s because it isn’t his position.
The difference between him and Jota (and Taki for that matter) is that when we have the ball Ox comes short or he hangs back wanting a cut back, whereas Jota (and Taki) will run in behind and when we reach the byline he’s looking for tap ins. That just isn’t Ox’s game.
It didn’t impact on our build up and general play, with or without the ball (the pressing was brilliant all day), but we had less of a cutting edge because of the lack of a number nine. I actually thought we played really well though and on another day we’d have given them the battering their shithousery deserved.
Sadio and Robbo were great down the left and between them they seemed to be able to get to the byline to cut it back whenever they wanted. Somehow we were never able to get on the end of the cut backs and it was incredibly frustrating. That’s where Jota would have been filling his boots.
Our pressing was relentless and Villa couldn’t keep the ball and stem the flow of attacks. I thought we were good in the first half but then there was a 15 minute spell at the beginning of the second when we really ramped it up and we were fucking brilliant. We had them penned in and it was wave after wave of attacks. Somehow we didn’t score but eventually the pressure told and we got the penalty.
On first view it looked like a stonewall pen to me. I’ve got a decent view from my seat and I’d have been shocked if that hadn’t been given. I didn’t think VAR would overturn it either simply based on the reaction of Mings. Other players were complaining but he just put his head down and walked away. That told me he knew it was a pen.
So it was surprising to hear Gerrard’s take on it afterwards. I had a look on twitter when I got home as I wanted to see if I could find a clip of it. I did, but having searched “Salah Mings” I was also subjected to all manner of bollocks being spouted by Villa fans. No surprise there, the fucking bad weapons. Before the game some of them were walking in front of the Kop singing their new Gerrard song.
Oh yes, that’s right. After years of singing that Demba Ba shite they suddenly love Stevie now. “Steve Gerrard Gerrard, he loves it at Villa Park, he says that the City’s ours, Steve Gerrard Gerrard”. Lame as fuck, just as you’d expect from these pricks.
Anyway, I eventually found a clip and it is a pen and Gerrard’s take that “Salah fouled Mings first” is bollocks. What actually happens is Mo is going round him and Mings knows he’s in trouble, so he puts his arm out and across the chest of Mo. Not enough for a pen but outside the box you’d concede a foul for that.
So he’s putting his arm across Mo, and Mo is fighting to get in front of him and puts his leg across him. There’s a coming together, but Mo now has the step on him and Mings stumbles and brings him down. Not the most stonewall pen you’ll see but it is a clear pen for me.
We actually had three penalty shouts and that was maybe the weakest of all three. I can’t believe VAR didn’t tell Atwell to have a look at the other two. Sadio was dragged back by the shoulder and Robbo is clearly kicked on the shin. The Robbo one you can argue he wasn’t going to reach the ball anyway, but that one on Mané is blatant. Disgraceful they didn’t ask him to take a look, because in Atwell’s defence he probably can’t see the hand on the shoulder from his angle.
Gerrard was also complaining about one they didn’t get, but there are two reasons he’s wrong on that one. Firstly, while to naked eye it does look like Alisson fouls Ings, you can see on the replay he gets the ball so therefore it’s not a pen. Secondly, Ings shoves Matip in the back which is why Alisson’s clearance hits him. So if anything it’s a free-kick to us.
Anyway, Mo won a penalty and we then had all the gamesmanship bollocks as they tried to put Mo off, but as usual it didn’t work. The keeper was bouncing around on his line (fair enough) and also pointing to his right to suggest he knew where the pen was going (again, fair enough). It was all bluffing and second guessing and he didn’t even dive that way. He dived to his left. Which was where Mo put his kick.
That pen needed to be perfect to go in and it was. Right in the corner and just away from the keeper’s reach. It would have been boss if Mo had then pointed to that corner to celebrate but that’s just not how he rolls is it? He didn’t even taunt the Blueshite after they tried to assault him.
I still can’t believe Atwell let Mings do what he did though. It’s just rank incompetence and he’s such a fucking jellyfish. Refs need to have some authority. They don’t need to be officious little pricks like Mike Dean, but you have to let the players know you’re in charge and you aren’t going to let them run the show. Atwell letting Mings do that is shameful. He should be embarrassed.
Anyway, 1-0 and assive relief all around the stadium, but I definitely didn’t think it was over. I was worried actually, because our intensity had been relentless in the second half and I felt we needed to keep that up and stay on the front foot. But my fear was that we’d sit off and protect the lead. Do we stick or twist?
As it turned out, we didn’t really do either. We got caught in between wanting to attack and thinking we should defend and the last 10-15 minutes were a mess. Villa suddenly didn’t want to time waste anymore and actually sent players over the half way line. They posed a threat without creating anything clear cut, but all we had to do was put one counter attack together and we’d kill them.
The chances were there to do it and twice we had three against one situations. Both times Mo fucked them up. The first was when Sadio led the charge through the middle and had Jota to his left and Mo to his right. Understandably he elected to play it to Mo but the defender was back in position and the shot wasn’t on. Normally you’d expect Mo to cut back onto his left and score, but he unselfishly tried to squad it through the legs of the defender and they cleared it.
The second time he tried to play Jota in but just slightly overhit the pass and forced him wide. We had a third opportunity as well when Hendo did brilliantly to set Mo clear. He went himself, messed it up and then Jota blasted the loose ball over the bar. That’s two games in a row now where we haven’t been clinical but it’s two games that we won regardless, so that’s a good thing.
The Ings penalty appeal incident set nerves jangling around the stadium and it highlighted just how unsettled Alisson had been all day. He was uncharacteristically hesitant and had two jittery moments in the first half. The first was when he slipped when coming out to deal with a routine through ball. The slip almost allowed Young to get in but Matip (I think) dealt with it.
Then there was another weird one when Trent was shepherding a ball back and wanting Alisson to come and pick it up. Usually he’s all over that shit, but again he hesitated. He had virtually nothing to do all day, thankfully, but then he’s smashing a clearance straight into Matip (who had been fouled) and all hell is breaking loose. Anything could have happened there but it came out of nothing and it’s all because Alisson just wasn’t himself.
Still, if he’s going to throw in a game like this, better it comes when we keep a clean sheet and win. He’s saved us enough times so if his team-mates can bail him out once in a while then it’s all good.
It’s mad that the top three all won with penalties and it’s given the mid-lower table loonies further fuel to their “Premier League favouring the big clubs” conspiracy theories. There was a shocking penalty awarded to Leicester against Newcastle on Sunday. What’s the Premier League’s angle on that one?
*checks twitter*
Right, ok. That’s part of a vendetta the PL have against Newcastle because of the takeover and they’ll stop at nothing until the Geordies are relegated. I love a good ref conspiracy theory as much as the next man, but there’s nothing untoward going on here, it’s just that some of them are not very good and they make mistakes.
Atwell could have given us three penalties if his brief was to help us out. Still, let Stevie have his little moan and let the Villa fans lap it up. I don’t give a fuck, none of it is our concern. I know a lot of Reds were disappointed with Gerrard’s tactics and some were even disappointed at the lack of enthusiasm from him when his name was chanted.
Get over it. He’s Aston Villa’s manager and his loyalty is to them now. He acknowledged the reception he got from the Kop but he made sure most of his attention was directed towards the knobheads in the away end, as it should be. They pay his wages, he works for them and the only thing that should be on his mind is making them successful
This wasn’t an audition for the Liverpool job and his tactics are irrelevant to how he will be in the future when he has a better team with better players. He might turn out to be Mourinho MkII for all I know but this particular game doesn’t give us any indication of what he’ll be like.
I’m bored of the whole “future Liverpool manager” narrative anyway. It was a distraction all week and it leaves me cold. I’ll always love Stevie the player and Stevie the person. To me he’s our greatest ever player. Stevie the Villa manager means nothing to me though. I can’t want Villa to be successful because I just don’t like the fuckers. Even if my Dad was managing them I still wouldn’t want them to do well.
I think part of my disinterest in Gerrard’s managerial career and my resistance to the idea of him one day being our manager stems from the fact I just don’t want to entertain any notion of Klopp not being here. I know it will happen one day but I’m not going to sour my enjoyment of what we have now by worrying about what happens when he leaves. The thought terrifies me to be honest.
I just want to savour every moment we have with Klopp and this team because even on days like this, when it’s scrappy and a game that won’t live long in the memory, some of the football played is still just fucking sensational. As much as I want the title for us, the fans, I think I want it more for Klopp and the team, because they were denied the parade last time. They deserve that parade and let’s hope they’ll have it next summer.
Star man is Big Bird but I thought Sadio had his best game in a while and Robbo was great too. Newcastle next and I really hope the ruthlessness in front of goal returns for that one as I’d dearly love to fucking royally stuff the cunts, as other than Everton, they’re the only set of fans who are worse than Villa.
Come on Reds, put ten past these fucking wankers.
Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Henderson, Thiago (Milner); Salah, Oxlade-Chamberlain (Jota), Mané:
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