Aston Villa (H) - Sun 3rd Sep 2023 (2:00pm)

[deiseach]

I figured Liverpool would be on the same number of points as West Ham at the international break.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Who took the armband when Trent went off?

[Carvalho Diablo]

1 minute ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

Who took the armband when Trent went off?

Robbo

[kemskem]

3 hours ago, an tha said:

Most controlled and organised seen us for a while....Playing with a midfield that has legs, mobility and importantly too a bit of creativity/threat makes a real difference.

 

Mac Allister and Szoboszlai were excellent today and offer big upgrades for us....with much more to come.

 

Shame we have to stop for that frigging international shite now - as would really love to see us play again quickly after that.

 

One other thing the absolute state of Aston Villa fans - that dirge of a "national anthem" which was bad enough and sign on - sign on, from people from Birmingham/West Midlands - absolute fucking beauts....

Topped off with “We conquered all of Europe … yow will hear us singing …” etc

[Scott_M]

Today was our best performance in absolutely ages - very, very close to being back to our absolute best. 

[Kevin D]

3 hours ago, polymerpunkah said:

Fantastic performance all round, but Villa were poor.

 

No press, didn't create much from the few chances they had on the counter, and didn't have any clue how to deal with the press.

 

Nunez creates so much havoc, even if he doesn't score, he creates goals (Diaz taps in the second if Cash doesn't get a boot on it, header going wide but Salah is there, etc).

 

Slobozlai's goal reminded me of Thiago's vs Porto.

 

Instead of playing more defensively in the absence of both starting CBs, Klopp went the other direction. Good choice.

 

Impressed with the referee who managed to do his job without inserting himself into the match.

Villa’s tactics were very strange, not seen anyone try to play that way at Anfield since Roma let in 5 doing that.

[TheHowieLama]

They had all 11 behind the ball at 3-0 down. 

 

Good ebening.

[Barrington Womble]

33 minutes ago, Scott_M said:

Today was our best performance in absolutely ages - very, very close to being back to our absolute best. 

 

I dunno if it is close to our absolute best, I thought we were a way off that. But it was a good performance and it's a massive upgrade on most of what we saw last season. The energy of the new midfield is like night &  day compared to last season. The signs are pretty good so far. Just worried about numbers in defence and this Trent injury - he was tremendous today. 

[manwiththestick]

Just watched the game as I was busy earlier. Great result and mase up with clean sheet.

 

Allison's new trim has him looking like an Action Man doll.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

I thought Curtis Jones looked and played like a proper grown-up, rather than just a potentially promising kid.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

4 minutes ago, manwiththestick said:

Allison's new trim has him looking like an Action Man doll.

I saw a girl of about 10 at Anfield today, dressed head to toe in an Alisson kit, carrying an Ali plushie.

[s(k)aturation]

 

Last season, we'd have gotten a point from these last two games.

 

Things are looking quite good.

[Caramac]

 

 

[bossy]

We have a lot of talent in our team now and I hope this is just the beginning of more good times.

[Reckoner]

https://x.com/optajoe/status/1698342849127789015?s=46&t=UwO3pcJNvhxWLdwBAYWYrA

 

 

[Megadrive Man]

23 minutes ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

I thought Curtis Jones looked and played like a proper grown-up, rather than just a potentially promising kid.

Both Jones and Elliott seem like they've kicked on significantly in 2023. I think both are going to make a really big impact here.

[an tha]

What i liked most today was we exerted a lot more control than we often do - it wasn't helter skelter stuff.

 

And the midfield is starting to look like a different beast - it now has legs and energy and it has a bit of creativity/threat too - which is useful.

 

If we are reasonably lucky on the injury front this season there is every chance we will be the closest to abu dhabi and of course who knows from there - the defensive options just don't quite look enough though is the worry.....we are a bit by the seat of our pants IMO there....

 

But overall it is looking positive with more to come from what is already looking like a much improved midfield which makes us better going both ways and an embarrassment of riches in attack. 

[Pidge]

Yeah, Elliott was storming around again when he came on, until he got that kick (unpunished, of course), which quietened him down. Jones did well, really put in the work.

 

Would have taken Szoboszlai off instead of Mac Allister today, felt he put in some hard yards in the sun. Mac Allister did brilliantly but was mainly sat in and would have liked to have seen him given licence to get involved more up top for 20 minutes.

[TheHowieLama]

16 minutes ago, Pidge said:

 

 

Would have taken Szoboszlai off instead of Mac Allister today,

 

No reason to overwork the #6

[Charles Penrose]

54 minutes ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

I saw a girl of about 10 at Anfield today, dressed head to toe in an Alisson kit, carrying an Ali plushie.

Currently on holiday in Turkey. This fella is absolutely everywhere. 

[Moo]

Great technique from Szobo for his goal.

[Aventus]

I'm going to allow myself to get a bit excited now, I knew with all the changes to the team it could take a while for everything to click into place and to build the chemistry, I was just hoping we could at least scrape a reasonable number of points til that happened. 

 

This is it, we're actually seeing the beginning of phase 2 starting to take shape, and if we can avoid any major injuries it's only going to improve from here. 

[Vincent Vega]

An 18 page match thread? Anyone would think we’d had a convincing, routine win with an early goal to settle nerves. The perpetual moaners must be fuming tonight.

[The Golden Eel]

1 hour ago, Barrington Womble said:

 

I dunno if it is close to our absolute best, I thought we were a way off that. But it was a good performance and it's a massive upgrade on most of what we saw last season. The energy of the new midfield is like night &  day compared to last season. The signs are pretty good so far. Just worried about numbers in defence and this Trent injury - he was tremendous today. 

Yes, the defence is a bit worrying. In the worst case scenario, if Trent and Konate are injured, you're probably looking at playing Gomez right back and Quansah and Matip at CB in the next game. Might not happen of course and obviously van Dijk will be back at some point but it just feels dicey at the back when you have two injury prone players like Konate and Matip to consider. Another CB would surely have made sense. 

[BeefStroganoff]

Just caught up with the full game, we looked very good. Villa got in now and again but we will never keep teams 90% out of games.

 

I thought Matip and Gomez where on it today and the midfield where to.

 

Weve got the basis for another very good team I’d like to see us cement that in January with a new cb and another midfielder and then in the summer get another cb.

 

What a difference having legs and younger minds in midfield make, who would have thought!