Aston Villa vs Liverpool - Premier League (20/21 - Game 4)

[Phoenix07]

Bobbi has been poor for a long time now

It's easy to hide behind the mantra that a lot of his work is off the ball, but this season, I don't think he's even done that very well. Another player who I think has been well below par this season is Trent Alexander Arnold. Really sloppy, poor defensively.

Andy Robertson on the other hand, has been superb this season, and I felt sorry for him last night. Him and Jota just basically tried to take on the whole Villa team.

I know that when the team structure doesn't work, it has the potential to spectacularly fall apart, but surely not a 7-2 loss to Villa.

Hopefully, this will be a Spurs style reset, where we take stock, and refocus on the basics.

[Exiled_red]

Gone back to angry about this result, not good enough and we can’t just blame the keeper, without the 3 wicket deflections it still could have been 7/8-2, yea Gomes and Adrian were brutal, but Trent has been in worrying form for a while now, the midfield is waaay to inconsistent, and Boby has be short of confidence since the latter end of last season. Hopefully this will be wake up call, just pity its an embarrassing record breaking one.

The whole team was shocking but I though the midfield and defence lacked a leader, VVD was captain but I didn't really see him talking or shouting at people to tell them what to do or where to go, Henderson never seems to shut up every time you see him he seems to be shouting instructions to someone. I think the rest of the guys are far to passive including VVD, Fabinho and Wijnaldum, these are the guys the senior established guys in there who should be taking charge of the situation and that didn't happen.

As you say even without the deflected goals we must have given up 10 decent chances, we just don't do that normally.

[Exiled_red]

Not relevant to the fact that we got hammered, but that penalty call was an absolute shocker. . Won't get any attention because of the result but VAR is still a load of ****e.

I mentioned in the second half that the ref wasn't the reason for the loss but his performance was almost as bad as our players. Villa players were going down very softly all over the pitch and getting freekicks that should have been a pen and would have changed the game, it was at 1-0 IIRC

[Tribute]

A summary of last night in the cold light of day:
* Tempo not right from the start, no press, no energy
* Adrian gifted them the first with a careless pass and we never recovered
* No urgency or press from the front three or midfield, so gaps were huge at the back
* Adrian errors unsettled the back four and Gomez/TAA both had a shocker
* Poor finishing from Bobby and a couple of times from Jota
* Salah was on it but isolated with the lack of midfield press/winning back the ball
* Fab much better in the back four than Gomez
* Didn't learn from Villa's first half tactics and left more huge spaces in the second
* Adrian got worse as the game went on, confidence completely shot
* Deflected goals - all three were off target before deflection, spawny as ****
* Barkley should have scored a hat-trick in the first half if he wasn't so **** at finishing
* Defensive unit has gone from rapid, decisive and watertight to slow, blundering and lethargic

I can't believe we're now that shellshocked, we're actually looking at Hendo, Thiago, Mane and Matip to come in, step things up and Adrian to be fully focussed to be even thinking about securing a point against the blue ****e...

Bad, very bad... day at the office yesterday and three deflected goals didn't help. Let's hope it's the season ****fest in one game and we're back to being 100% at it against Everton. We need urgency and tempo from the first second... high press, aggressive attitude and quick, sharp passing... on our day we are still unplayable.

[The_weatherman]

He’s right really.

He’s have been hung drawn and quartered for that performance mind you.

https://twitter.com/dejan06lovren/st...62465479376898

Oh, yeah, he's right, and he's went after a lot people on twitter calling them out and telling to support other teams. He'd actually be good presence right now

This was a weird match, I guess things going on are maybe making the players lose concentration, I know I am having a hard time focusing on my job my with my boy in isolation as a precaution, and loads of cases close to us.

They are probably distracted, wouldn't be surprised if they were. Then add the Ali injury as well, we'll just use the two weeks now to regroup and hopefully we'll avoid more Covid cases and take out the frustration on Everton.

[BobTheCharmer]

It had the feel of a training game about it. I think the lack of fans is what's at the route of these weird scores kicking about. Some players can put game head on when there's no one there. The intensity isn't there. I think we'll see a few more high scoring games before the years out.

[danperkins]

It's easy to hide behind the mantra that a lot of his work is off the ball, but this season, I don't think he's even done that very well. Another player who I think has been well below par this season is Trent Alexander Arnold. Really sloppy, poor defensively.

Andy Robertson on the other hand, has been superb this season, and I felt sorry for him last night. Him and Jota just basically tried to take on the whole Villa team.

I know that when the team structure doesn't work, it has the potential to spectacularly fall apart, but surely not a 7-2 loss to Villa.

Hopefully, this will be a Spurs style reset, where we take stock, and refocus on the basics.

this is spot on. He works, he opens up space etc yes he used to do that so well but that has been lacking for a long time now. I've said this a few times and Bobby is a fan favorite and people didn't really like hearing it. He is way off his best and has been for awhile. Agree on Trent too, looks very leggy this season. Another player that seems lethargic is VVD imo.

Robbo has been flying, energy up and down the wing has been amazing. We

[Exiled_red]

It's easy to hide behind the mantra that a lot of his work is off the ball, but this season, I don't think he's even done that very well. Another player who I think has been well below par this season is Trent Alexander Arnold. Really sloppy, poor defensively.

Andy Robertson on the other hand, has been superb this season, and I felt sorry for him last night. Him and Jota just basically tried to take on the whole Villa team.

I know that when the team structure doesn't work, it has the potential to spectacularly fall apart, but surely not a 7-2 loss to Villa.

Hopefully, this will be a Spurs style reset, where we take stock, and refocus on the basics.

Yes, TAA has been a bit sloppy not just this season, but at the end of last as well to be honest, the same with Gomez, both of them being on the same side of the defence and playing as sloppy as the did last nigh left us really open down that side and I think most of the goals came from that side.

Robertson and Jota (first hour or so) were the only ones to come out with any credit. Salah got a couple of goals (and should have had a pen) but I didn't really feel that he was involved much in the game.

[danperkins]

There is a definitely tactic, firstly to put the ball over the top to beat our press and secondly put it right between Trent & Gomez. For me, Gomez just makes too many mistakes to be in a permanent CB pairing with VVD, he is so nervy on the ball too when under pressure. Matip is a much more solid option and doesn't get bullied like Joe does but we cannot rely upon him as he is forever injured. Gomez pace bails him out of alot of his mistakes. Trent is a worry, hopefully the derby perks him up a bit in the next game as he has looked so slow and lethargic.

Jota is very lively, a bit headless on times but he's a positive player and it's early days for him yet. Gini and Bobby are two quality players that are bang out of form, Bobby for a hell of alot longer though maybe Gini's head is still messed up after the Barca saga but he has been outstanding for us. Which brings me to Keita, I got told off in the Keita thread for saying it but I just don't see with him, he is an absolute passenger is most games, light weight and hides. In a LFC shirt how many games can any LFC fan say he has stood out in? For me, zero maybe one. Apparently he lost 100% of his duels on the ground and aerially last night and gave the ball away seven times. Think he won 1 out of 7 duels vs Arsenal too. Shocking start to the season he's had.

[Shaggy]

Another player that seems lethargic is VVD imo.

Or is it complacency? I don't know, but everything is so easy for him it looks a bit like he's started believing his own hype and he's become overly nonchalant, just strolling around.

[Exiled_red]

Or is it complacency? I don't know, but everything is so easy for him it looks a bit like he's started believing his own hype and he's become overly nonchalant, just strolling around.

I mentioned at the end of last season that having waited so long to win the league title and having won the CL the year earlier that the attitudes of the players might change, and they become less hungry. No matter what you think about the players being a good bunch of lads with the right attitude etc I think that this was always a risk and IMO this is what we are seeing now.

[Venton]

Or is it complacency? I don't know, but everything is so easy for him it looks a bit like he's started believing his own hype and he's become overly nonchalant, just strolling around.

That little back flick he tried in the match before that led to a goal had that written all over it. Third year blues written all over a few of our players this season. It's understandable but really frustrating.

[Mark79]

Yeah I think it could be mental exhaustion. We’ve seen 2 to 3 years of relentless and intense focus from this group of players. A drop off in consistency at some point is almost inevitable.
Similar pattern with City last season.

[SB]

We are living under strange times. I’ll put this down to that and move on. 4 of their goals have been deflections and one I think should have been offside. We should have had a penalty.

That gives me an excuse to pack off football for a couple of weeks.

Glad of the break after that tbh.

[Buzzo]

Hopefully this is our 'you don't win anything with kids' moment and a massive kick up the arse to all who played.

Losing is one thing, but that was total humiliation, so I'm expecting a big reaction.

Shame about the International break because you'd want to get to work on sorting last night out immediately.

Agree on VVD, needs to relocate his drive and focus and just do the simple things well lead like he did when he first signed. When both he and Gomez are playing with a level of complacency we are going to really struggle.