10 Points from Liverpool vs Villa
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- Posted by pst at 7:06 PM IST
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- Filed under Match Reviews
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- Tagged with Albert Riera, Andriy Voronin, Anfield, Aston Villa, Brad Friedel, Jamie Carragher, Javier Mascherano, Kristian Nemeth, Liverpool, Lucas Leiva, Pepe Reina, Rafa Benitez, Ryan Babel
I don’t have time for a full blown rant today so some points from last night:
1. Lucas and Mascherano together in the middle is not going to work no matter how long we persevere with it. Lucas is too lightweight to play in any kind of enforcer type role. Is there any need for the both of them sat in front of the back four at home?
2. Jamie Carragher, pardon the pun, needs to sort his head out. He’s looked out of sorts so far this season – I don’t know whether his head injury is effecting him or what but he’s looks rattled and a bit out of shape. We need him back to his best.
3. Substitutions – should it really have taken 65 minutes to realise that a substitution might have been a good idea? Which leads me on to…
4. Voronin and Babel – what was the point of introducing these two wastes of space? Voronin has never looked like a Liverpool player and Ryan Babels flashes of promise are far too infrequent and ineffective. We should have taken any money offered for either in the summer.
5. Having said that, the Reds bench last night was Cavalieri, Voronin, Riera, Ayala, Dossena, Kelly, Babel. Albert Riera still isn’t playing for whatever reason and he’s the only one out of that line up you’d think would have any sort of impact on the game. Lack of squad depth strikes again – on a side note, at the moment we can’t finish our dinners so why has Nemeth been allowed to go out on loan? Torres – Voronin – Ngog are our first team strikers (ignoring Babel or Kuyts claims to be strikers any more) so an injury or suspension to one or more would have allowed Nemeth to step up? Seems like an odd move.
6. If you’re two nil down at home, surely it’s not really necessary to keep a defensive midfielder on the pitch?
7. Torres needs to man up and stop throwing himself around so much. Having already been warned by Rafa about his mouth, he got booked last night for dissent. He’s spending too much time arguing with opposition players and the referee.
8. The curse of the ex-player strikes again – Friedel had the game of his life last night, several outstanding saves and one he didn’t even know he’d done. Robbie Keane had a mare against us so we were due one of these!
9. At the other end of the pitch, Pepe Reina had very little to do, aside from stand helpless for the first goal, dig the ball out of the net for the second and dive the wrong way for the third. The stats show that this was not a battering, more of a case of three well-taken chances.
10. After all that negativity, a positive finish – let’s not get carried away, we’re three games in to the new season. There’s a long way to go yet and nothing is decided at the end of August. The media are already crowing about us having lost as many games already this season as we did for the duration of the last, conveniently missing the point that they all made over the summer & in their pre-season predictions – it wasn’t losing games that cost us last year, it was drawing them.
A more positive attitude, the hopefully soon introduction of Aquilani and maybe a last minute signing or two and we’re not far away. Robben from Real Madrid on loan has been rumoured today – a reprehensible character for sure but an effective player – which is more important to us at the moment, moral high ground or a wide player who can deliver? Personally I’d rather have Van der Vaart or Schneider if Real are letting their surplus players leave on loan (or both if they’re feeling particularly generous!) as our main problem seems to be creativity – our next game is Bolton away, a side likely to pack the midfield as Villa did last night.
There’s a bit of a gap until we play them – time for everyone to take stock and come back focused and a little sharper. The ‘senior’ players went missing last night – let’s hope last nights defeat galvanises them into stepping up.
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