Liverpool 3-0 Aston Villa: In game and Post Match Satisfaction

A thoroughly professional job from the redmen tonight, going 2-0 so early on reminded of how we did against West Ham and simply knocked the stuffing out of them.

Going through man for man reasonably quickly:
Reina had a quiet night, good save from Agbonlahor early in  the second half.
Skrtel & Soto: The centre backs were good, won all their headers, did feel though they were far too hands on in tussles but then again if you can get away with it why not?
Johnson was impressive again, his link play between the midfield and attack was flawless and he weighed in when needed at right back.
Lucas (and I won't say this too often) was fantastic, running round putting out fires, controlling play from deep and supply Maxi and Raul Meireles.
Speaking of whom RM shone yet again in the absence of Stevie G, a central role enables him to dictate pace, show off his range of passing and drive forward when possible and shoot - could even have scored late on.
Kuyt looked off the place but hey ho he can't keep that energy up every single week he's allowed an off day here and there.
Maxi was solid, nice passing triangles with Konchesky and the central players - his goal was great.
Babel was full of beans really made his case for a starting place which is exactly what we've been willing him to do for 3 years! Excellent goal.
Ngog seems to be developing into a really good front man, there are those in the mould who'll lead their own line i.e. Kevin Davies, Andy Carroll and Ngog looks to be going down that route, took his goal well fair play to the lad.

The only drawback and I don't want to pick on him too much because he was decent - Konchesky, sorry but this man is not good enough, time and time again Downing switched over or Delfuenso cut him inside out and got their cross in. Carew should have got a toe on one of the crosses to pull one back at the mid point in the second half.

Looking forward - I made the point on here last night that Woy must must must keep Meireles in the centre and push Gerrard either into the hole behind Torres or out to the right side, people make the point he "doesn't like it" excuse me but who exactly is in charge? We support Liverpool FC, not Steven Gerrard FC! I love the man for what he's done for this club but he has to go where he best suits the team, Lucas is coming on rightly and it is conceivable that he and Raul can form an understanding - something which will only come through minutes on the pitch in the league - not training or the stupid Europa league.

Looking at the next 3 games I think 9 points is all we'll accept, those moronic Geordies are at it again they should be in disarray come Saturday, hopefully Soto can cancel out Andy Carroll and the lads will do the business up front. Fulham are a class below us as are Blackpool so like I say 3 points in each and we'll somehow miraculously go into 2011 on the cusp of the CL places.

YNWA

Did i see Xabi Alonso watching the game?  How long is he going to be in Liverppol till?  People's get him to come back to Liverpool. 

Some good link up play last night. Watching it again now actually. Maxi's snood has grown on me. Good result. I'll temper it with two things. That was a reserve CM pairing we played against. Kuyt's touch has been shocking. Loved Ngog's Superman header

Did I see Xabi Alonso watching the game?  How long is he going to be in Liverppol till?  People's get him to come back to Liverpool.  

Yeah, he was, thinking the beanie and all will be a good disguise

as long as we keep the momentum up....
We need to keep playing 4-4-2 even away from home instead of leaving 1 striker to be left isolated up front.

Lucas is coming along nicely and good to see that Hodgson rewarded Babel with a start after his performance in Europa.

And even better to see us winning without our so called spine, maybe it will instill belief in  the rest of our team.

Early days yet but CL spot looks a bit more realistic now!!!

Think we look pretty decent at the moment,  Lucas and Raul are getting better and better every game they play together and its beginning to look like a great partnership. Meireles is quality, always composed on the ball and his one touch passing at times is first class.

Pleased for Babel that he has now played the last two games in what he says is his best position and has played well in both. Hope he keeps it up so Roy doesnt go back in for that useless tw*t Carlton Cole.

Not sure whats happened but the last few games including away at Spurs we have been quite adventurous going forward and i know we lost to Spurs but surely against Newcastle and Blackpool away coming up this has to be the way forward.

Well done redmen and congrats to Pepe, for me the best ever goalkeeper to play for the reds!

Lucas was just showing Xabi that he is better

I love Xabi come back please!

Was watching the highlights and some guy doing the commentary said 'N'gog in the absence for the injured Fernando Torres' when Torres was with his wife!

Great first half performance to get the 2 goals. Then as usual really an average, sluggish second half performance. Lucas had a sound game though. Only seen highlights so can't comment too much. We just need to keep up the good home results and start playing better away from home, hopfully Roy will change his tactics away from home. Nice to see Xabi over in Liverpool, Would love it for him to come back.

Liverpool vs Benfica Full Highlight - 2010 Europa HD 2/2

The 3rd goal reminded me of this play we did in Benfica around 1:00 minute mark

3-0, made up with that. Still getting the usual moaners in here though. Of course the 2nd half wsn't going to be the same, Villa had to go for it a bit and they held the ball aimlessly in their own half for the most of it.

I think Roy finally realised that Liverpool style is pressing, not waiting deep and counter-attack.

Even more than against the spurs, we pressed in the two halves, with just about 15mn of  more defensive play in the very end of the first half/beginning of second when Villa had some kind of an high time. The possession Villa got in half two is just due to them keeping the ball in their 40m feared by the high pressure as soon they tried to go closer to our half.

And in the 20 last minutes, once victory was sure, there was even some pressure in this area (we have been unlucky not to score one more, I think, as several first passes by their defenders were intercepted).

Villa came out in the second half and through some good wide play began to open us up. They then got caught out by Pepe and Maxi for the third and lost the edge they had. Comfortable for us in the end

Very much improved performnce last night, and I see others share my views on Lucas! was there a patch of grass he didn't cover last night? he was superb! it's good to see him show that there is still bags of talent left in him yet, and that the performance against the Chavs was not a one off! now hurry up mr director of football strategy and get this lad a contract extension!

I also think Babel played really well too and even looked like he was part of the team out there (shame the goal was offside) but the finish was el classico! Maxi looked sharp too and I felt he would score another with the positions he was getting in.  The only big problem for me last night was the back, I think we got off lightly TBH (even with Reina things looked shaky) let's hope Carra comes back sooner than expected, we need him!

On a positive note though, same team @ St James Park anyone?

Positives

3 nil win. 3 without Torres and Gerrard in the team. Another positive is not having them or Carragher and winning. N'Gog scoring Babel scoring and Maxi scoring for the 3rd game in a row. Major positive was ther perfromance of Lucas and Raul in midfield.

Negatives.

We seemed to drop off again when we could have pushed on and scored more. Koncheskey still in side.

Negatives.

Koncheskey still in side.

If i am honest Brian mate, he had a fairly good game last night. He made very few mistakes and any time he did, he usually made-up for it with hard work in winning the ball back. At the start of the 2nd half, i thought he sat off a bit and allowed Villa to hit a few crosses in but all-in-all, he had a decent game.

Great game last night. We took full advantage of the situation infront of us, i.e. a sh*t Villa team. Skrtel had Agbonlahor in his back pocket, Johnson looked sharp on the attack and i seem to remember him making one very good slide tackle in particular, Maxi was very good, Lucas was linking the play brilliantly and uptop, Babel and Ngog impressed me a lot. However, lets not get too excited. Villa were awful, looked inexperienced and at the start of the 2nd half, had a few of their crosses been better, we could have been pushed back a bit.

I am delighted we got the win and ecstatic for Pepe in his achievement but we have got to go forward and take that form into the next game. More of the same Reds!

So our two-man team didnt do bad then?   

Aahh that Benfica game is the first time i saw Lucas in a new light!!

The most satisfying thing about the game was that finally I got a prediction right.

The least satisfying was that I was bl**dy freezing.

Where's all this global warming stuff?

Back in The Kop after 27 years.Loved it.(Nobody sat in their seats atall)where I was.Loved the singin and scouse humour.
Not much to add on the game (in 2nd gear throughout).Villa were terrible.
MOM for me has to be Lucas,with Raul M a close second.
Don't know if GH or Gary Mac responded to the'yre salutations!
Roll on 18th (Fulham game )Back up for this one yay.

Glad you had a good time at the game Joey B....that passion is back with a vengeance 

Made up we won, disappointed with Villa's performance, thought they'd have given us a better game.

Also shows we are not a two man team, with Gerrard and Torres out, we easily swept aside Villa without to many problems.

Massive congrats to Pepe Reina, I though Ray Clemence was a cracking goalie, but Pepe wins hand down  Good lad Pepe.

Lucas playing out of his skin as well at the moment, keep it up lad, you're going great guns, nice to see some aggression in his play.

My fellow Aussie reds anybody know who the wankers calling the game on Fox Sports were? Was rubbing the sleep off my eyes and just tuned in at kick off. Point being how F***ing annoyed, sad and depressed did they sound when we went 2-0 up so early?

Its seems much more fun for these people to have Liverpool struggling than being succesful.

I was just thinking how well Johnson played going forward and How bad Kuyt was. Play Johnson RM at the Toon and Kelly RB. Why not? It could give us a what we are laking away from home, Goals.