Sort of a Homecoming for Stewart Downing, who was bought by the Reds for £20 million from Villa. Makes you wonder how much Clint Dempsey is really worth. Bellamy puts 'pool up 1-0 in the 11th minute.
0-1 Terrible defending on a corner. The ball is flicked on to Suarez who tries a backheel, Guzan does well to save it, but it goes right to Bellamy who taps past a prone Guzan.
Suarez back heels a flicked on corner into a sprawling Guzan's chest at point blank range. The rebound finds Bellamy who scores. 1-0 Liverpool Not too much Brad could do on that.
More embarrassing defending on a corner. Poor Brad. 0-2 Skrtel header goes top corner, no chance for Brad there.
This may be my poor eyesight, but I am pretty sure I saw Shay Given handing our rolexes and range rovers last night to the AV backline...
AV is the kind of team that is completely incapable of coming back from 2. Mcleish plays high percentage football. I think many supporters are bored out of their minds, but they are not for example in relegation trouble despite not really stock piling in the off season.
Half time 2-0 Liverpool Other than the goals and the toe save Guzan has not had much else to do. Downing hit a shot straight at him early that he gathered at the second attempt with no one around. Villa briefly got back into the game after the second goal firing some long distance shots and winning some set pieces, but the attack has since fallen apart.
Suarez chips the ball over Guzan from just outside the box, but his shot hits the posts and bounces out. Suarez also hit the cross bar earlier in the half on a break away after a turnover. Guzan then beats away a Shelvey strike from a tight angle.
At least the Browns have a front office with some history of success...Villa just have McLeish as their entire football operation.
It's a shame what McLeish is doing to Villa. I'm not a fan of the club, but I used to enjoy watching them play. They used to be fast and stylish - and not too long ago - now they are pretty dire most of the time.
Contrast this match with the Liverpool Fulham match, where Fulham attacked Pool and made for a very entertaining match. Fulham are currently one point back of AV. You can tell what McLeish is trying to accomplish, but it's a tough sell to say, I am going to take this team over and really bore the hell out of you in hopes we reach 8th next year in the league.
Liverpool win 2-0 There were a couple of times in the second half when Guzan came for corner kicks, but a teammate cleared them ahead of him. All in all I though he was fine today. Not much he could do on the goals, and he took care of everything else he needed to including a fine save on Johnson.
He won't last the season. If we continue on the run that we are currently on we will be in the bottom 3 by Febuary. I, like most Villans was bitterly dissapointed to see him hired but I gave him a chance and withheld judgment for a long time. I am now firmly against him, he lost me after the Spurs performance and it hasn't gotten any better since. He is killing our club and any hope or enthusiasm anybody has for it, attendance has dropped dramatically and if he is still at Villa Park next year we will struggle for 30,000 (down to 34-35k this year from around 41,000 during the MON era). Long story short eventually Lerner will fire him or start to face Gillett/Hicks resentment (on a smaller scale of course) from the Villa fans. As somebody has mentioned, its incredible how a team that accomplished 3 straight 6th place finishes has become so poor so quickly. I'd say out of the current squad the only ones i would keep are: Clark, Dunne, Nzog, Bent, Albrighton, Gabby and possibly Lichaj, Herd, Delfouneso, Bannan and Delph if they continue to improve. Everyone else needs to be shipped off and replaced. Im just praying Randy doesn't give Eck any money to spend.