Player ratings: Aston Villa 7-2 Liverpool
I’ve had to write some pretty grim player ratings over the years but this one really is in a class of its own. Right, let’s get this over with…
Adrian (3) – Set the tone for the game in the opening minutes by giving the ball away on the edge of his six yard box, under no pressure and leading to a goal. Decent save second half but not before the damage had been done. You’re not Alisson, stop trying to be and just keep it bloody simple and if that means row Z then so be it.
TAA (3) – Grealish had him on toast the entire game. Offered nothing in an attacking sense and absolutely woeful defensively. Undoubtedly his worst display in a Liverpool shirt.
Gomez (2) – Speaking of worst displays in a Liverpool shirt, Gomez has the shame of being given a record low score in the ratings. As bad a display from a CB as you’ll see. Watkins absolutely ran him ragged all evening, the Titanic could turn quicker than he did in the build up to Villa’s second, his awareness of his surroundings was non existent, his passing was diabolical and messed up the offside trap on multiple occasions as well. Scored a point for turning up and another for passing his Covid test. That’s as good as it got for Joe yesterday.
Van Dijk (4) – If it’s Virgil’s role to organise the defence, then what the hell was he doing last night? Nutmegged for one of their goals, offside trap a shambles and ultimately conceded 7 goals!! Generous 4 for Virgil.
Robertson (6) – The only one of our defence to come away from the game with any credibility at all. Some nice link up play with Jota, hit the bar and the vast majority of our attacking threat came down our left flank. Must’ve looked on in horror however, as pretty much every time Villa switched the ball from our left to our right, it was in the back of the net moments later.
Fabinho (4) – Some games Fabinho looks like a one man wall, always in the right position to snuff out attacks. Last night however, he seemed incredibly slow and cumbersome. Looked like my old mum could’ve run around him with minimal fuss. No shield provided for the shambolic defence, no idea where the Villa runners were. Another who you could probably claim to have put in his worst display in an LFC shirt. Not much improvement when moved to CB.
Keita (3) – Brought nothing to the party. Our midfield would’ve been as well not bothering. So passive and easy to dispossess, slowed the game down in attack, no conviction in front of goal, offered Trent no support on the right flank, despite the fact he was getting destroyed every time Villa attacked and pressing almost non existent. Hooked at half time.
Gini (4) – Another guilty of offering absolutely nothing except poor passing. Dropped into a double pivot role with Fabinho at the start of the second half but made no difference and was all but invisible from about the 20 minute mark onwards. Only scored an extra point than Keita for completing the 90 minutes. Allegedly.
Salah (7) – Scored both our goals, one after a stroke of good fortune when the ball broke to him, the second was Salah in a nutshell. Released through on goal by Firmino, ran clear of the defender and a tidy finish. Only real criticism of Salah yesterday was that he could’ve dropped deeper to help Trent, given how much he was struggling, even if that wasn’t the original game plan. The result wasn’t Salah’s fault though, one of the view who did his job.
Firmino (4) – Scored an extra point for the nice assist to Salah for his second goal but other than that, woeful display from Bobby. His decision making in scoring opportunities has been diabolical for weeks and the trend continued yesterday. Early chance when played through on goal, just needed to finish with his left but took an extra touch to try and take with his right and the keeper smothered it. He did something similar the other week, granted it’s his weaker foot but on both occasions he was only 6 yards out. Another good shooting opportunity moments later which he chose not to take again. His confidence in front of goal looks absolutely shot to bits and I personally wouldn’t be against taking him out the team for a few weeks. Badly needs to discover some form.
Jota (6) – Looked lively first half as he and Robbo looked threatening and almost scored a wonder goal with an audacious chip from outside the box. Decent header too. Faded second half but no wonder.
Subs:
Minamino (6) – Did his best to make something happen from the 10 position after the break but that was a very difficult game to come on at half time in. At least he put a shift in. Did more defending than either of our CB’s anyway.
Jones (6) – I noticed almost immediately that Jones injected some aggression into our midfield, something that had been painfully lacking until that point. It was all he could do at that stage but at least he did it.
Milner (6) – Much like Curtis, at least he got stuck in and stopped it being quite as ridiculously easy for Villa.
Klopp-watch (5) – Pretty difficult to score Klopp on that one as it was impossible to foresee what was about to happen in the first half. At the end of the first half I called for Hendo to be brought on at half time and switch to a 4-2-3-1. Klopp did change to that formation second half but brought Minamino on instead of Hendo, when what the team really needed was leadership. If Hendo wasn’t fit enough to feature, he shouldn’t have been on the bench. That being the case, Milner would’ve been a better option than Mini. That midfield needed some steel in it from half time. We were creating chances, just couldn’t defend.
DaBandit (minus 10) – In a 4K first, one of the community and worse, one of the mods is getting a score and it’s not a flattering one. Not only did this Canadian halfwit fail to have his lucky LFC shirt on from the start of the game, he refused to put it on until we were not one but TWO nil down. By that time, Lady Luck knew he was taking her for granted and hosed all over us with three horrible deflections. Must do better moving forward.
Summary
What can you say to a game like that. It was an absolute disaster from start to finish. I wish I could say the deflections warped the score line but they didn’t, as Villa missed three or four sitters as well. It genuinely could have been double figures.
This high line we play has bothered me for a while. I’m all for playing a high line but does it have to be quite so high that both our CB’s are in the opponents half? For some time I’ve thought the way for attackers to beat that offside trap is to time your runs from inside your own half where you can’t be ruled offside and then you’ve got a clear run at goal. Something that was ruthlessly exposed by Villa. Any kind of through ball or ball over the top from their right to left and Villa were in every time. If you combine that high line with your midfielders not having a clue who the runners are and where they’re coming from then you’re likely to concede seven goals. It really was schoolboy stuff. In fact, if your school team was that bad, they’d probably disband it and give the egg chasing a try instead 🏉.
I said it towards the end of last season, I said it after the Leeds game and I’ll say it again. This team is starting to believe it’s own hype. When we play big games like Arsenal and Chelsea, the boys are on it, focused and we see how brilliant they are but they’re now starting to think they can just turn up and beat teams like Villa and they’ve had a result like that coming. Leeds could easily have stuck 7 past us the other week, if they’d had the same kind of luck in front of goal that Villa had in moments last night and with the exception of one or two games, our defence has been frighteningly easy to play through since we restarted after lockdown. Lots for Herr Klopp to think about.
Anyway, as if all that wasn’t bad enough, now we’ve got an entire international break to mull it over. Being a Scotland fan, the highlight for me will likely be seeing how many England players a day can breach Covid Protocols and keep embarrassing Shergar, erm, I mean Southgate.
With that, I draw the most painful of ratings to a close. Can’t believe I just had to relive that shambles in my head, I need a beer. Walk on!
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