They weren't outplayed in the first half. The pressure in the second half doesn't mean shit if it doesn't result in anything meaningful. Teams can deserve wins without dominating.
We only lost two games all season last year...We are about to match that three games into the season. What does that say about this team at this point?
I think you're both right. Villa have not played great football, and Liverpool just haven't played. But bottom line is Villa have played well enough to score 3 goals and Liverpool have only just woken up.
wow - I don't know what to say - that's as poor a performance - minus the 20 minutes if pressure - I've seen in a long long time.
If they play smart, Italian-like counter attacking then I'd agree. I just can't with a straight face say that about this match. The game was defined by a fluke play and a stupid penalty on a play that wasn't going to have resulted in even a shot on goal. We'll just have to agree to disagree.
Shit like that happens in football, what matters is what happens after a fluke goal or a stupid penalty. Make no mistake, Villa worked their asses off to protect their lead and then even try to extend it away to a team that didn't lose one game at home last season.
It says Liverpool still have 35 matches to go and need to get it into gear sooner rather than later. Not time to panic yet.
Yes, I thought he milked it pretty good. Not taking anything away form Villa, we've been beaten fair and square, but that wasn't the first time tonight he went down like a pint of Guiness in Dublin.
True, but that doesn't leave a lot of room for error in those 35 games. Sure, we manhandled Chelsea & Scum Utd last year but who thinks we can pick up all 12 pts again?
Well FT 3-1 Villa. Congrats M'ON and Villa supporters, you deserved this win. Very troubling to say the least, 1 win from 3, conceding 5 goals already, underwhelming predictable performances. What bothers me the most is that we needed to go down 2 goals to show any kind of urgency. What the ********? This is going to be a loooong season.
So given that we only lost two games in the entire season and have now already equalled that record, and seeing the transfers that we made in the off season when would be the appropriate time to panic? I feel like I'm seeing the team start all over again. Just when I felt Liverpool had found some cohesiveness and a level of communication on the pitch Rafa goes and sells the best crosser we have, and our distribution seems to have dried up somewhat. So when should people start to wonder? We haven't even faced the likes of United, Arsenal or Chelsea yet.
The players looked as if they quit today. I'm surprised the Kop didn't let them have it. The effect of Xabi's departure is more than evident. But now, Rafa has no else to lay blame on at this point. It is all upon his head.
Really disappointing. I thought we started pretty well. We had lots of chances early on and Gerrard missed a sitter. The goal was unfortunate, and after that we lost our heads. The 2nd goal is the most troubling. Reina was bitching about a correct call. Rafa was complaining about the time, but had no argument. Of course the referee was going to let them take the corner after Reina had just kicked the ball away. I thought in the 2nd half we played well and created a lot of chances. Friedal made some good saves. When Torres scored we had an excellent chance to get something out of the game. However, Gerrard's challenge on Reo Coker was complete stupidity. Gerrard had a very poor match. He gave the ball away, wasted some chances, and failed to show any urgency. After we conceded the 3rd goal our team accepted defeat. Really, really disappointing. You can't win the league in August, but you can lose it. However, I think its way too early to hit the panic button. Sure we only lost 2 games last season, but we had 50,000 draws. Its turning those draws into wins that will improve our point total. Horrible start, but 35 games left.
The two losses have been over played -- we had a shitload of draws. Turning them into wins would make a difference. What's really wrong is that we are playing very poor football. We did so in the pre-season and its carried over. They scored three goals from set pieces. Pks you can do nothing about but conceeding the other two was just shit. No one did well. Although I can't remember much that Insua did wrong. Lucas, Beniyoun and Gerrard all played poorly. Aw hell everyone did. When we are reduced to having Mash try to pick a pass we are done. Nothing is over but damn it could be a very long season.
Every ass hole and his brother shows up at times like this -- don't feed them. On the day Villa deserved it.
Is Riera not fit? He'd be starting most games for me if I were Rafa. Benayoun is a good player but more suited to a substitute role IMO. Babel is just... crap.
it's been mentioned that we need about 5 games or so to click....I'd like to believe that - but I'm really concerned about the completely disjointed play. - Lucas was the Lucas of last season. - Gerrard was anonymous. Is he still injured? - Torres is getting mauled - but letting it affect his game. Too much fancy stuff. Still - the man can score. - Benayoun - mixed bag today. - Reina was fine - but he is to a degree responsible for the last goal. Shouldn't have kicked the ball away and lost his concentration. - Masch was good - but is trying to play 2 roles now. - Johnson was good again. - Insua was pretty good. - Kuyt was a mixed bag. - Carra and Skrtel seemed to play well. - Voronin - I don't know what to say - he keeps seeming to play in the midfield instead of as a striker. - Apparently Babel was subbed on (my feed went out) - no idea how he played.
You show up here regularly. So you can be a bit of a kidder. These others are simply trolls. By the way, I never go to Arsenal, Chelsea or ManU to gloat or bait.
Well, it looks as if we are still in pre-season with all its big, black failings. And a heavy dose of complacency, too. The defending at set-pieces was awful then. It was awful at Spurs. It was awful tonight. Work on that Benitez; that is what you get paid to do. Give credit to Villa because when the chances came, they were gobbled up. The biggest worry for me was that our big players did not stand up to be counted when it came to the crunch. One or two players think we are playing in last season's formation. And they almost all lost their collective heads when called upon to do a bit of thinking. They need to pull up them bootstraps. And the atmosphere was dreadful
That's how I see (and tonight saw) it, too. For what it's worth, I thought Johnson again played well. But what the hell were Skrtel and Carragher pusing up for? We then had to leavde Johnson and Insua back