Aston Villa v Liverpool - Match Thread - FA Cup

[MomoWASright]

Rhys Williams is doing far better than he should be considering the level of football he was used to. His problem and the teams problem is that with Fabinho in central defence it means we're missing Fabinho from defensive midfield as Henderson and the rest of the midfielders just don't play the position as well as he does.
They are all good players but Fabinho is just better at anticipating danger rather than reacting to it when it's too late. Our defence looks more vulnerable when the opposition has the chance to play dangerous passes to their forward players and Fabinho normally stops that at source. I think we'll get better when Fabinho is back at defensive midfield even though he's been phenomenal in defence. That's the knock on effect of Van Dijk being injured and Matip and Gomez being injury prone.

This is it. Buying a centre half won’t fix this. Anyone coming in will just replace Williams as Matip will break down again in a few weeks. Fabinho will still play at the back.

 

[davud graham]

This is it. Buying a centre half won’t fix this. Anyone coming in will just replace Williams as Matip will break down again in a few weeks. Fabinho will still play at the back.

When Fabinho is playing well in that defensive midfield role he wins the ball back or forces the opposition to go backwards so high up the pitch it's ridiculous. His reading of the game is excellent which I think is why he's looked mostly unfazed playing centre half.
It's not that he's lightning quick or dominant in the air but his ability to spot where the danger will come from that makes his special defensively and in midfield he plays quick simple passes but for the most part they're forward because he trusts himself to make the pass. Wijnaldum is a really good player but he doesn't play many passes to the forwards as he looks like he scared to give the ball away and Curtis Jones has been a bit like that recently too. They're happy to not give the ball away.

Henderson is a bit different as sometimes even when a forward pass isn't on he might still play the ball into an area and hope that someone will get on the end of it but he's much more effective at this when he's not playing defensive midfield. Him being on the right of the three midfielders gives him a much better angle to put crosses in or play through balls to Salah or Trent. Hopefully Thiago being back in the team will help us play the ball quicker and more accurately into the forwards or full backs which is where we're more dangerous.

 

[moron]

We played like we have been recently im that first half. In the 2nd half we played like we should do against deep lying defences, which was absolutely fuck with them by moving the ball around at speed to get those spaces we need, and snap at them straight away when we lose the ball. I dont care what team you are and how deep you defend, if you face a team that is just attacking every bit of space then that defence will crack up, that was an example of how we should attack others, whats been happening in recent PL games was too many pauses and the odd second thinking amd waiting, we lose the advantage doing that.

 

[ctlovesred]

when he plays our team metronome beats at 120 instead of 70. It was so refreshing to see how quickly he takes the ball into his control and looks to move while searching for the right pass.

 

[Alan Hardaker]

An overreaction about an overreaction because overreaction is normal? Okay, thanks for clearing that up, Al.

Your welcome..

No charge..