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Liverpool vs Aston Villa, Sep 13th 2014


WhiskeyJar
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Cringed at that starting line up, what's it going to take for Brendan to not underestimate Villa? We'll continue to drop silly points as long as Gerrard is a guaranteed starter and everyone else gets shackled to accommodate his deficiencies. Missed Hendo', Studge and Razza's running into space. I thought Lallana was supposed to provide that but he was lazy as fuck. Our strategy consisted of playing slow, obvious balls out wide and crossing in to the big man. Very Man United - esque.

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How are we going to play the diamond with we have Sterling/Lallana/Coutinho/Markvoic all probably fighting for that 1 spot at the top of the diamond. Yet at the same time, we could be seeing Borini and Lambert as the two strikers.

 

I believe 4-2-3-1 is not the way forward, Gerrard is forcing Henderson to seat back too much in the first half, yet still getting overrun. Even if we wants to play 1 striker, I feel that 4-3-3 with 3 central midfield would be much better.

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It might not be too bad if this is one of the rare games without Sterling or Sturridge starting. Without either of them it does look concerning, but players like Markovic, Lallana and Can should help us do better once there's a clearer idea of what we're doing. Looks like we need a consistent team lineup for the most part though with so many new players, and these injuries have hit us too hard.

 

Coutinho had a great shot obviously, but he looks off his game a fair bit too. I miss the type of passing and skill he's capable of and hope he gets back to playing well as quickly as possible.

 

Not too concerned at this stage, considering 3 of the 6 points dropped were against City.

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A poor performance in a season that still has much to offer us.

 

I think that we all need to acknowledge that this season may be one where we consolidate rather than push on. assimilating nine new players was never going to be easy. Losing our only world class player was always going to be a blow. How Rodgers handles his debut CL campaign and almost certainly losing ground on last years PL finish will tell us much about him.

 

The squad is stronger overall than last year, we will reshape, and we will redevelop. The paradox that Brendan is one of the longes serving PL managers whilst still being relatively inexperienced as a manager means that he will always provoke a horns and halos response depending upon his most recent results.

 

It will come good, but we will need patience.

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How are we going to play the diamond with we have Sterling/Lallana/Coutinho/Markvoic all probably fighting for that 1 spot at the top of the diamond. Yet at the same time, we could be seeing Borini and Lambert as the two strikers.

 

I believe 4-2-3-1 is not the way forward, Gerrard is forcing Henderson to seat back too much in the first half, yet still getting overrun. Even if we wants to play 1 striker, I feel that 4-3-3 with 3 central midfield would be much better.

Yeah this is another concern. Without Sturridge, we're going to struggle, because as we've seen in all our games, we're better with two up front. Lambert and Balotelli are too similar.

 

Then when Sturridge is fit and we're playing two up front, we've got too many players for the one position (and one standout option) who can't play anywhere else unless the system is changed.

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Haven't been as depressed about a defeat in a long time how can we go from the Spurs game to this? Brendan has to take a lot of the blame but it's a bit worrying that a team like Villa can do what Chelsea did but a lot easier and without resorting to the shite they pulled

Gotta be honest in all the years I've been going I can't remember an opposing goalie not having a save of any sort to make in a home game...

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I'm trying not to get too pessimistic but I am very concerned about the signings we made this Summer. I know we have injuries but going into a game with just 5 players who were here a few months ago is going to have an effect and our season could be over by the time they all settle in. I also have serious doubts about how good most of the players we've bought are too. The only players who excite me when they're on the ball are Sturridge and Sterling so that result was no surprise from the moment the team was named.

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Was really disappointed with that performance yesterday in a game we really should be looking to win comfortably. However, Villa are a much better organised side this season and to be fair they defended their early lead brilliantly with high levels of energy and commitment. Keane does seem to have made a noticeable difference there defensively. We'll see just how much of a difference though in their next four games against Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City and the bitters. That might then put yesterday's result in to a bit of perspective. 

 

It's pointless overreacting to a defeat so early in the season, but for me Brendan made a mistake 'resting' Sterling (unless he was carrying a slight injury?) - he's a fit young, motivated, confident, intelligent (and our best) player at the top of his ever improving game. There should be no need to rest him so early in the season after only a few games. Give him a day off training if you're worried about his energy levels! Secondly I get the point we've got lots of new players to bed in, but we're not the only club to be in that position and I hate to read that as an excuse for such a poor performance. It was just a bad day at the office that we need to put behind us and move on to the next game which we should be looking to win with an attacking, confident performance to blow away the memories of yesterday's mediocrity.

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I'm trying not to get too pessimistic but I am very concerned about the signings we made this Summer. I know we have injuries but going into a game with just 5 players who were here a few months ago is going to have an effect and our season could be over by the time they all settle in. I also have serious doubts about how good most of the players we've bought are too. The only players who excite me when they're on the ball are Sturridge and Sterling so that result was no surprise from the moment the team was named.

 

As pissed as I was about yesterday it's a bit much to be condemning players after one or a couple of games, yeah it wasn't great but I don't think anyone stunk the place out yesterday, the likes of Lallana and Lazar showed glimpses that they could be good here....

Hopefully one of those days and the manager will learn from it.....

This time next week once we've walloped Ludicrous and Fat Sam's cloggers everything will be rosy in the Red camp.

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I don't understand Gerrard playing so far back when teams park the bus, we seemed to be playing with 3 centre half's against a team who didn't come out of their half. Might as well take off a central defender.

I would have taken off manquillo and put henderson rb with our last subs

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Last season we averaged 17 crosses and 5 through balls per game. In this game we had 31 crosses and 1 through ball. Very Moyes like. 

 

Love Rodgers, but he completely mismanaged this game, it wasn't working from the first minute. Why wait until 60 minutes to bring Sterling on? I would have brought him on in the first half. Taking Balotelli off for Borini was also a mistake. 

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The three highest profile attacking players we have signed (Balotelli, Markovic, Lallana) have an air of a trio that will stand out when we are bullying an obviously inferior team, but who may not have the application, determination or spark to really drag the team through bruising, tight, or stolid encounters. That's my initial impression, anyway, and the reason why the loss of Suarez was keenly felt yesterday. But here's hoping something clicks.

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 Why wait until 60 minutes to bring Sterling on? I would have brought him on in the first half. Taking Balotelli off for Borini was also a mistake. 

 

I wasn't surprised as it seems he rarely makes changes at half time, just his habit for whatever reason. Suppose though there is a way of confirming that. Agree about Borini but it may have been Rodgers way of giving him a chance after all of the BS in the summer, didn't make much of it did he.

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Saw someone's post mentioning about Markovic should be on the left flank instead of right.

 

I wonder what's up with Rodgers's change in tactic of inverted wingers. I believe Markovic is right footed. Are we looking to play more crosses in, or him being forced wide by the Villa defence.

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Whatever way you look at it, this was an atrocious result. There is no excusing this, losing at home to Villa whose best player was Tom fucking Cleverly. Terrible. 

But it's still way too early to judge the new signings and ludicrous to lose faith in Rodgers after just 4 games. He learnt his lesson after the last time we played Villa at home so hopefully this will give her more to think about and to get us going again.

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Every player was shit yesterday and below their level, the atmosphere was not good and it was the worst performance I have seen since probably Rodgers first season or maybe before.

 

I don't expect to see many more performances of that standard so Im not overly concerned, a lot of new players started aswell and they need time to gel.

 

A shit performance but way to early to get pessimistic about the season, hopefully a new player or two gets a goal on Tuesday to boost their confidence and we bounce back next week in the prem.

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I suppose we need to frame last night within the 5 year project:

 

Year 1 - impose your style and team culture

Year 2 - back in the CL with increasingly his own team/ squad

Year 3 - back in the CL (and through to the knock-outs) and perhaps a Cup, with his own team/ squad

Year 4 - championship contender, knock-outs of the CL and a  Cup

Year 5 - champions!

 

So last season was perhaps two years ahead of schedule and within the context of losing losing your best player,I suppose this season is going to be about one step back, for two steps forward. 

 

The only consolation is that Chelsea/ City will also drop points  at home to lesser teams who park the bus (see Stoke)

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