Pre Match - Aston Villa (H) - Sun 14:00

[Hansern]

I thought Villa were very toothless. The press and control they have played with before were non existent. The early goal might have knocked them a bit, but I thought we had control for the entire game. Diaby was a bit lively for about 15 mins.

10 points after 4 games and unbeaten is lovely. Just lovely.

 

[tombrown]

Frankly I thought Villa was disappointing - with that high line they were playing and all 3 of our forward being so quick and comfortable running in behind, their only chance was to make sure Trent had no time on the ball - and they completely failed in that. In fact Trent had so much time and space even he looked surprised at times - and of course his quarterback-like balls over the top to Salah and co. destroyed the Villans.

They failed to test MacAllister at #6 too; he had his easiest game of the season by far and also failed to try to run at Matip and Gomez all game. It was so one sided, it made me think of how it must have been in the late 1970 when Liverpool dominated the league and teams stepped onto the Anfield grass expecting to get beat and just wanted to get it over with quickly. So overall, I would not make too many judgments based on this game - for whatever reason Villa couldn’t make it a contest, but there will be tougher tests ahead. 10 points from first 4 games is lovely.

I wasn't too disappointed

 

[Judge Jules]

Frankly I thought Villa was disappointing - with that high line they were playing and all 3 of our forward being so quick and comfortable running in behind, their only chance was to make sure Trent had no time on the ball - and they completely failed in that. In fact Trent had so much time and space even he looked surprised at times - and of course his quarterback-like balls over the top to Salah and co. destroyed the Villans.

They failed to test MacAllister at #6 too; he had his easiest game of the season by far and also failed to try to run at Matip and Gomez all game. It was so one sided, it made me think of how it must have been in the late 1970 when Liverpool dominated the league and teams stepped onto the Anfield grass expecting to get beat and just wanted to get it over with quickly. So overall, I would not make too many judgments based on this game - for whatever reason Villa couldn’t make it a contest, but there will be tougher tests ahead. 10 points from first 4 games is lovely.

Those games in the 70s, at some of which I was present, were often not this entertaining. Teams were parking the bus at Anfield long before Mourinho came up with the expression and quite often we were shut out till late in the game - I recall a stat from around that time that we won about a quarter of our home games in the last quarter of the match.

Interestingly there's a parallel from that time with what others have said above about Citeh and the right way to win Prem games nowadays. It didn't happen often, but teams which did well against us at our place tended to be those few which went toe to toe with us and refused to be overawed.

 

[moron]

Frankly I thought Villa was disappointing - with that high line they were playing and all 3 of our forward being so quick and comfortable running in behind, their only chance was to make sure Trent had no time on the ball - and they completely failed in that. In fact Trent had so much time and space even he looked surprised at times - and of course his quarterback-like balls over the top to Salah and co. destroyed the Villans.

They failed to test MacAllister at #6 too; he had his easiest game of the season by far and also failed to try to run at Matip and Gomez all game. It was so one sided, it made me think of how it must have been in the late 1970 when Liverpool dominated the league and teams stepped onto the Anfield grass expecting to get beat and just wanted to get it over with quickly. So overall, I would not make too many judgments based on this game - for whatever reason Villa couldn’t make it a contest, but there will be tougher tests ahead. 10 points from first 4 games is lovely.

Thanks for that, I kept on wondering why it all turned out so easy given the shit we went through with them at home only a few months ago. I saw the analysis on MOTD, and it don't make sense other than to think that maybe Villa are just not tough mentally and that early goal just gets into their head, and they just lose it in terms of a focussed game plan. Yet another game where we cannot judge our team fully because the opposition played shit / did not have their full time defenders. I just want to see how our team may have improved since that terrible 2nd half against Chelsea where we could not get the ball. I also cannot judge if it was our general play that made Villa look shit yesterday by controlling the midfield. So many unanswered questions about this team of ours, I guess we will know when coming up against Arsenal/City and Chelsea again !!!

 

[doctor_mac]

Those games in the 70s, at some of which I was present, were often not this entertaining. Teams were parking the bus at Anfield long before Mourinho came up with the expression and quite often we were shut out till late in the game - I recall a stat from around that time that we won about a quarter of our home games in the last quarter of the match.

Interestingly there's a parallel from that time with what others have said above about Citeh and the right way to win Prem games nowadays. It didn't happen often, but teams which did well against us at our place tended to be those few which went toe to toe with us and refused to be overawed.

Yeah, especially Utd. In our absolute pomp and when Utd were winning nothing they went on an extraordinary run at Anfield between the 70s and 80s where we didn't beat them in the league at home for around a decade.

 

[ibromurph]

Compare last year vs this years Anfield match.

A couple of things stand out:

• TAA didn't push up into the midfield and become surrounded by players (and make a mistake again). Him dropping into RCB looks a much better strategy.
• He played the role like an NFL quarterback.
• Villa pushed their entire line up, condensed the space between their units, but with a lack of a press, with the passing of TAA and the pace of Nunez/Salah, we killed them.
• If TAA continues to drop off and do this quarterback role thing, teams are eventually going to cotton on, and either drop off completely as a team, which will mean we'll have an easy way to play out of the back, but will have to break a lot of low blocks down.
• Or more likely, they are going to keep their defensive line high, and press us so fast and aggressively that TAA and Matip/RCB don't have the time to make the switch, with TAA in a quarterback role. They'll also encourage the ball to get played out of the back on Robbo's side of the pitch.
• In either scenario, it's going to be very useful having 2 CMs who are good with running with the ball, rolling players in tight spaces and combining with our forwards. This is where I expect to see Jones and especially Gravenberch being very useful.

 

[LeTallecWiz]

So much for Martinez not being able to see the shot b/c of Salah

 

[bluebell]

Compare last year vs this years Anfield match.

A couple of things stand out:

• TAA didn't push up into the midfield and become surrounded by players (and make a mistake again). Him dropping into RCB looks a much better strategy.
• He played the role like an NFL quarterback.
• Villa pushed their entire line up, condensed the space between their units, but with a lack of a press, with the passing of TAA and the pace of Nunez/Salah, we killed them.
• If TAA continues to drop off and do this quarterback role thing, teams are eventually going to cotton on, and either drop off completely as a team, which will mean we'll have an easy way to play out of the back, but will have to break a lot of low blocks down.
• Or more likely, they are going to keep their defensive line high, and press us so fast and aggressively that TAA and Matip/RCB don't have the time to make the switch, with TAA in a quarterback role. They'll also encourage the ball to get played out of the back on Robbo's side of the pitch.
• In either scenario, it's going to be very useful having 2 CMs who are good with running with the ball, rolling players in tight spaces and combining with our forwards. This is where I expect to see Jones and especially Gravenberch being very useful.

What's an NFL qtr back and what does he do? All I know is they are the ones that hit long from the the 30 yard mark. I was M.o.D 2 and that's what one of the pundits said, I was wondering what does that even mean?

 

[Raz]

So much for Martinez not being able to see the shot b/c of Salah

Tell ya what, if the game descends into any more shit like 'the keepers view was obstructed' I will start watching the Saudi League.

 

[Woland]

Those games in the 70s, at some of which I was present, were often not this entertaining. Teams were parking the bus at Anfield long before Mourinho came up with the expression and quite often we were shut out till late in the game - I recall a stat from around that time that we won about a quarter of our home games in the last quarter of the match.

Interestingly there's a parallel from that time with what others have said above about Citeh and the right way to win Prem games nowadays. It didn't happen often, but teams which did well against us at our place tended to be those few which went toe to toe with us and refused to be overawed.

Fairly significant thing was the back-pass law being introduced in the early 90s. Before then we could go one up, pass it round at the back, give it back to the keeper, rinse and repeat. We didn't do that all the time, but we were better at it than most.

 

[ibromurph]

What's an NFL qtr back and what does he do? All I know is they are the ones that hit long from the the 30 yard mark. I was M.o.D 2 and that's what one of the pundits said, I was wondering what does that even mean?

An NFT Quarterback essentially dictates the team's plays from deep, and hits long passes, similar to what TAA is doing right now.

 

[KopRed]

I don't have a clue what the management team is doing with Trent. It's just tiresome to constantly see him "reinventing" himself.

Inverted full back, hybrid defender, NFL quarter back, yada yada. Why can't he just play the game as per his designated position like what every other player is doing?

 

[King Binny]

[article]
But the most important stat was that Liverpool had seven final-third regains in the first half – they managed that in just one first half in the entirety of last season. In fact, only in the first half of four of their 193 Premier League games since 2018-19 have they bettered that.
[/article]

 

[bluebell]

So like Xabi Alonso, but back then, we were calling them Deep Lying Playmakers

 

[King Binny]

 

[Modo]

Aha...moving in Rorschach patterns. No wonder Villa looked confused

 

[Dreambeliever]

Was Dom’s goal going wide before the deflection?

 

[tombrown]

You can stick your deflection up your hole

 

[Woland]

Aha...moving Rorschach patterns. No wonder Villa looked confused

Why's he making a heatmap of my old geography teacher whacking off?

 

[Woland]

Very promising all these stats. I just thought villa were shit.

 

[Markeh]

Why's he making a heatmap of my old geography teacher whacking off?

i thought it was my old PE teacher watching us shower

 

[Dreambeliever]

You can stick your deflection up your hole

Ha,

 

[ibromurph]

So like Xabi Alonso, but back then, we were calling them Deep Lying Playmakers

Similar, yes. A deep lying playmaker is often in front of the defence though and plays both long and short passes, between the lines and switching play. TAA was dropping deeper into the RCB position and hitting Gerrard-like 40 yard passes from there. It's an ever-so slight change to the DLP role and he's not really dictating tempo as Alonso would, but instead, looking to exploit the space in behind the defensive line, over the top. Pretty direct.

 

[rurikbird]

Similar, yes. A deep lying playmaker is often in front of the defence though and plays both long and short passes, between the lines and switching play. TAA was dropping deeper into the RCB position and hitting Gerrard-like 40 yard passes from there. It's an ever-so slight change to the DLP role and he's not really dictating tempo as Alonso would, but instead, looking to exploit the space in behind the defensive line, over the top. Pretty direct.

One of the Twitter tacticos said a pretty interesting thing the other day; that the skillset and the mentality of a “midfield controller” (i.e. Veratti or Xabi) is quite different from someone like De Bruyne who always looks for a killer pass and it’s rare to combine both in one player. Trent is definitely in the latter category; he is good when allowed to be direct and purposeful with his passing. MacAllister is much more like a classic “controller” in that regard, so the two of them is a good combination.

 

[ibromurph]

One of the Twitter tacticos said a pretty interesting thing the other day; that the skillset and the mentality of a “midfield controller” (i.e. Veratti or Xabi) is quite different from someone like De Bruyne who always looks for a killer pass and it’s rare to combine both in one player. Trent is definitely in the latter category; he is good when allowed to be direct and purposeful with his passing. MacAllister is much more like a classic “controller” in that regard, so the two of them is a good combination.

Absolutely.

Trent is more Gerrard, than Alonso with both his passing and his mentality. Which is why, in my opinion he simply cannot play in crowded areas, specifically DM/CM.

His touch under pressure isn't actually that good either, as we've seen in the first few games. He needs time and space on the ball to think, when deep. Although in the final 3rd, he's very good with instinctive crossing/cut backs.

We don't need to follow Pep/Arteta's innovation of having TAA push into CM (with the ball), because we don't have the same players as City/Arsenal.

I think the best thing we can do is what we did on Sunday. Our own spin on innovation with TAA switching with Konate/Gomez in our own third, when in possession of the ball.

 

[Modo]

Absolutely.

Trent is more Gerrard, than Alonso with both his passing and his mentality. Which is why, in my opinion he simply cannot play in crowded areas, specifically DM/CM.

His touch under pressure isn't actually that good either, as we've seen in the first few games. He needs time and space on the ball to think, when deep. Although in the final 3rd, he's very good with instinctive crossing/cut backs.

We don't need to follow Pep/Arteta's innovation of having TAA push into CM (with the ball), because we don't have the same players as City/Arsenal.

I think the best thing we can do is what we did on Sunday. Our own spin on innovation with TAA switching with Konate/Gomez in our own third, when in possession of the ball.

It'll be interesting to see how he does for England

 

[ibromurph]

It'll be interesting to see how he does for England

I don't see the need to play him in midfield for England?

They have better players in that role, who have played in midfield for years and understand the role even better than him.

Who does he displace? Rice? Bellingham? Maddison? Foden? Heck even Eze, Phillips and Henderson are more suited to midfield than TAA.

 

[Modo]

I don't see the need to play him in midfield for England?

They have better players in that role, who have played in midfield for years and understand the role even better than him.

Who does he displace? Rice? Bellingham? Maddison? Foden? Heck even Eze, Phillips and Henderson are more suited to midfield than TAA.

He did well last time around and his name was among the midfielders in the England squad. I wouldn't be surprised if he starts alongside Rice and Bellingham for England.

 

[Hansern]

Thought live that Darwin should have scored there, but the touch from Martinez is very good and makes it near on impossible.

 

[ibromurph]

He did well last time around and his name was among the midfielders in the England squad. I wouldn't be surprised if he starts alongside Rice and Bellingham for England.

I don't rate Southgate.

Playing TAA in midfield against Malta and North Macedonia isn't really a good test of his ability to play the role. You and I could play this position and probably do OK.