LFC v villa post match. scapegoat thread

[dom9]

A hollow victory

[dom9]

At least, in what in all probability are the final hours of Speckled Jim's short life, he's listening to some decent music. None of his friends and colleagues would have had a similar send off. I'm happy to help.

[wiw]

I am more concerned by lack of pressing and slower tempo, they are essential to our play and system

Goals will come if we move the ball quicker and press teams more, but the slow laborious play of today is a worry

I thought it panned out quite like against City, where again they seemed very happy to let us have the ball to a degree and we farted around playing at a slow tempo not really getting anywhere. They weren't particularly aggressive in their pressing until we got into the final third but they were very organised. We are so good at counter attacking i can understand teams using this as a tactic, but we need to find a way around it and sharpish.

[Daffy Duck]

So annoyed by this... Some of our players and new signings need to show much more than they have so far.

[Shaggy]

Dunno what to say in addition to everything already said. Thought it was a bit mad starting with so many new players - Markovic, Lallana, Balotelli etc. Think we had six new signings in the XI?! Sterling needs to be looked after but he would've given us a bit more continuity in the forward areas and should surely have started. As it was we had a completely new look attack. It was too much and we couldn't get the likes of Markovic on the ball enough to affect the game. ****ing depressing. So much hope and then this happens ffs. **** off Villa.

[McDermotX]

Dunno what to say in addition to everything already said. Thought it was a bit mad starting with so many new players - Markovic, Lallana, Balotelli etc. Think we had six new signings in the XI?! Sterling needs to be looked after but he would've given us a bit more continuity in the forward areas and should surely have started. As it was we had a completely new look attack. It was too much and we couldn't get the likes of Markovic on the ball enough to affect the game. ****ing depressing. So much hope and then this happens ffs. **** off Villa.

Think Brendan got a bit ahead of himself on this one.

Whatever about Villa, mistakes, lack of shots on target........the one constant seemed be the disjointed nature of our play for the vast majority of the game.

[danperkins]

[Venton]

Think Brendan got a bit ahead of himself on this one.

Whatever about Villa, mistakes, lack of shots on target........the one constant seemed be the disjointed nature of our play for the vast majority of the game.

I think he was trying to be clever with the CL game coming up. This year is going to be a step up for him as well as the team. It may well be a step back before we do two steps forward. A few different players and a slightly different shape - it wasn't going to work against a well drilled side. They scored through a mistake on our part, could have been the other way around. I hope Rodgers learns from this. One thing to take away is that Balotelli needs to press when we don't have the ball. If he doesn't he can **** right off.

[McDermotX]

Oh...I've no doubt regarding his intentions, but I think he gambled too far, and ultimately you don't have a problem resting players if the result comes in.......but when it doesn't, especially in the manner of how we looked overall with the new players coming in, then you can only hold your hands up and say 'we may have ****ed up here'.
Besides, we've only started the season, so I'm not sure the need to rotate and rest is paramount right now, especially when we've lost our top forward through Bodgson.

It's funny that one of the questions posed to him before the game resulted in Brendan acknowledging that he messed up last time round with the team setup and selection......to which he followed up saying 'he hopes to have it right this time'.

[Venton]

Oh...I've no doubt regarding his intentions, but I think he gambled too far, and ultimately you don't have a problem resting players if the result comes in.......but when it doesn't, especially in the manner of how we looked overall with the new players coming in, then you can only hold your hands up and say 'we may have ****ed up here'.
Besides, we've only started the season, so I'm not sure the need to rotate and rest is paramount right now, especially when we've lost our top forward through Bodgson.

It's funny that one of the questions posed to him before the game resulted in Brendan acknowledging that he messed up last time round with the team setup and selection......to which he followed up saying 'he hopes to have it right this time'.

Young manager, pretty young team. We'll get there I think but it's a lot more games this season.

[Maxiedge]

[this football team is currently closed for maintenance work. Will be back for Tuesday]

Have to say Villa did this to us last season even with Suarez. They love parking the bus at Anfield. Suits them and Lambert down to a tee. They did it to Chelsea last season too (first time they lost at home under Mourinho?).

It was one of those games where each one of their set pieces was delivered with a world class swerve while on any other day they'd struggle to beat the first man.

They're cunts but we shouldn't have conceded. That's the problem. The whole game plan goes out of the window when you concede a soft first goal. We conceded two last time. A draw would've been an alright result all things considered.

We'll be alright. The way we're playing right now reminds me of when Brendan first took over. It's like someones pressed the reset button. Think it'll just take time and giving game time to inexperienced players like Manquillo, Moreno and Markovic might be painful in terms of results now but it will bode well for the future. International break probably didn't help us either.

[Darkon]

Dunno what to say in addition to everything already said. Thought it was a bit mad starting with so many new players - Markovic, Lallana, Balotelli etc. Think we had six new signings in the XI?! Sterling needs to be looked after but he would've given us a bit more continuity in the forward areas and should surely have started. As it was we had a completely new look attack. It was too much and we couldn't get the likes of Markovic on the ball enough to affect the game. ****ing depressing. So much hope and then this happens ffs. **** off Villa.

I agree, but also have to ask the question about how much choice we had? I mean Sturridge, Allen, Can injured in internationals and no Suarez compared to last season, Skrtel out and no other lb than Moreno really. If then Rodgers and the team felt Sterling needed a break / were not fit for 60+ minutes then it was the only outcome. Borini is basically new in the squad as well, and it was probably only Lucas that could have started from the bench, but wouldn't make much sense instead of Lallana or Markovic.

It was however a very disorganised performance, and you could easily tell it's a team that didn't quite know eachothers movements. Several poor passes were down to misunderstandings. Really need to get the squad blending soon, and I'm certain it will a month down the road.

Also have to give credit to Villa, were tactically spot on and hardly made a mistake all game. Lambert have really got them well organized - won't be in relegation battle as predicted by many.

[captainfog]

Should have played the diamond. Without Suarez it's the best formation for our players. All our strikers need to play with someone.

[BobTheCharmer]

Agreed foggy.

[Muddled]

I dunno, perhaps. I think playing a diamond would have had us still playing through the middle and we would still be struggling to get through Aston Villa's defence right now. We just ran out of ideas - it's not the first time and it won't be the last. The way Villa were set up, our only option was going wide and our delivery from the flanks was atrocious.

We'd have been better sticking Lambert in the middle and sticking Henderson wide right and seeing what happens. Instead, we kept working it across the pitch for Coutinho to have an attempt from distance.