Aston Villa V liverpool [All Pre/during/post match discussion here]

Guy:Incognito

PHB wrote: »

If I was picking Liverpools team I'd go with
[keeping in mind the international break is coming up, so risking players on niggles is ok]

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Reina

---

Arbeloa

---

Carra

---

Skrtel

---

Dossena

---

Masch

---

Alonso

---

----El Zhar

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Keane

---

Benayoun----

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Torres

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Mascherano will make Liverpool much better at the back.

Theres noting to suggst that El Zahr will perform from the start. He's doing well coming on late against tireing players, like Babel last season. Rafa should stick to that for the moment and gradually work him in. He's coming on, playing well and building his confidence. Nothing a couple of anonymous starts couldnt fix mind so best leave well enough alone.

Malice

This will be a tough match for Liverpool. Villa will be keen to get back to winning ways and will be roared on by a crowd no doubt still angry over the Gareth Barry transfer saga. With no Gerrard to bail us out the last few minutes like last season, the pressure will be on the likes of Keane, Alonso (if he plays) and Babel to step up and show that they can be match-winners.

I would expect something like this for the line-up given that Mascherano is back:

GK: Reina

LB: Aurelio
CB: Carragher
CB: Skrtel
RB: Arbeloa

CM: Mascherano
CM: Alonso

LM: Babel
AM: Keane
RM: Kuyt

CF: Torres


I'm hoping for a better Liverpool performance than they have produced so far this season but if it takes a scrappy goal in off Kuyt's knee to grab the three points I won't be complaining .

PHB

Stekelly wrote: »

Theres noting to suggst that El Zahr will perform from the start. He's doing well coming on late against tireing players, like Babel last season. Rafa should stick to that for the moment and gradually work him in. He's coming on, playing well and building his confidence. Nothing a couple of anonymous starts couldnt fix mind so best leave well enough alone.

Its not about El Zhar for me, its about the shape of the team. El Zhar gives you good shape, even if he does nothing in the game. Kuyt is quite clearly a better player than El Zhar, but he doesn't offer the same shape to the team, and the shape has been the problem in the last 3 games.

G

Pool should be for the taking today but Villa are so leaky. I think it'll be a good game 2-2

G

spockety

G wrote: »

Pool should be for the taking today but Villa are so leaky. I think it'll be a good game 2-2

G

I love the assumption that Liverpool should be for the taking, presumably based on their performances of the last couple of weeks. Does it not occur to you that it was THOSE games in which Liverpool were for the taking, and the opportunity may have passed?

LuckyLloyd

ajeffares wrote: »

Sky 1
4:00



Any one read theIrish mail on Sunday?
Total bull. Heres the headline:


Stadium stalled, Rafa feuding, Kean of the boil, Gerrard injured...
Liverpool are in...
TURMOIL

Way ott

Yeah with six points from six and champions league football to look forward to. ZOMG - DISASTER!!

PHB wrote: »

I think you lose the right to complain about the press over-reacting by reading the mail.

Haha, clever. I loled.

SantryRed

Big chance for Keane today with Gerrard not playing. He has that space to drop off now.

Gonna be an interesting game.

Karmafaerie

I can't remember the last time I was this excited for a Liverpool/Villa game!!!:D

Come on the Babel!!!

G

spockety wrote: »

I love the assumption that Liverpool should be for the taking, presumably based on their performances of the last couple of weeks. Does it not occur to you that it was THOSE games in which Liverpool were for the taking, and the opportunity may have passed?

Er, it is precisely BECAUSE of Liverpool's performance over the last couple of weeks that I make this assumption. Add the fact that gerrard, your best player who regularly carries the team, is on the missing list and I would say Villa are jusitified narrow favourites to win. Has it occured to you that without gerrard, Villa at full strength could find form and give Liverpool the beating you are owed today?

I'm not convinced this will happen based on Villa's atrocious record against Liverpool home and away and their tendency to leak goals.

spockety

I just think a lot of Villa fans on here are spouting off in such a way that there could be a justifiable backlash come 6pm if it turns out that Liverpool have stuffed them! Dangerous game

Karmafaerie

G wrote: »

Er, it is precisely BECAUSE of Liverpool's performance over the last couple of weeks that I make this assumption. Add the fact that gerrard, your best player who regularly carries the team, is on the missing list and I would say Villa are jusitified narrow favourites to win. Has it occured to you that without gerrard, Villa at full strength could find form and give Liverpool the beating you are owed today?

I'm not convinced this will happen based on Villa's atrocious record against Liverpool home and away and their tendency to leak goals.

Javier.................Mascherano!!!

mayordenis

G wrote: »

Er, it is precisely BECAUSE of Liverpool's performance over the last couple of weeks that I make this assumption. Add the fact that gerrard, your best player who regularly carries the team, is on the missing list and I would say Villa are jusitified narrow favourites to win. Has it occured to you that without gerrard, Villa at full strength could find form and give Liverpool the beating you are owed today?

I'm not convinced this will happen based on Villa's atrocious record against Liverpool home and away and their tendency to leak goals.

cry me a river

LuckyLloyd

Karmafaerie wrote: »

Javier.................Mascherano!!!

Javier....Mascheranoooo!!!

Savman

spockety wrote: »

I just think a lot of Villa fans on here are spouting off in such a way that there could be a justifiable backlash come 6pm if it turns out that Liverpool have stuffed them! Dangerous game

Yeah, likewise.

Villain

Most Villa fans would take a draw I think, we aren't near a top 4 side yet. But the very fact that this game is getting so much press and interest shows how Villa have progressed since the Doug Ellis days, I don't see how Villa fans could get a backlash, Liverpool are a better side, bigger club and are a top 4 team led by a world class striker, if Liverpool want to seriously think about competing with United they should be winning games like, you'd never see a Utd - Villa game get so much attention because United would be outright favourites.

Villa are improving but it takes time for new signings to gel and the manager to get them playing the way he wants, we have 3 and possibly 4 new players at the club starting in our back 4 and keeper so obviously we'r going to leak goals for a while.

Up the Villa

invincibleirish

spockety wrote: »

I just think a lot of Villa fans on here are spouting off in such a way that there could be a justifiable backlash come 6pm if it turns out that Liverpool have stuffed them! Dangerous game

this is jive talk pure and simple, Villa are at home, possess some lethal players that Liverpool want but cant have and are favourities because we've shown this season we are capable of scoring more then one goal a game on a regular basis and at least playing as a team, rather then being lumping long ball merchants to Fernando Torres.

Someone will find Liverpool out eventually, with their dull football they are there for the taking, Boro & Liege almost did, and if Villa dont do it this week then i bet Utd will next week;).

spockety

invincibleirish wrote: »

this is jive talk pure and simple, Villa are at home, possess some lethal players that Liverpool want but cant have and are favourities because we've shown this season we are capable of scoring more then one goal a game on a regular basis and at least playing as a team, rather then being lumping long ball merchants to Fernando Torres.

Someone will find Liverpool out eventually, with their dull football they are there for the taking, Boro & Liege almost did, and if Villa dont do it this week then i bet Utd will next week;).

Oh dear god, I hope Liverpool absolutely destroy Villa today.

No reason to believe they should, but expect some serious lording if they do.

Villain

spockety wrote: »

No reason to believe they should, but expect some serious lording if they do.

LOL No reason? How about having a better team?

You have to love Glory hunting Liverpool fans, they talk every year about challenging for the title then say there is no reason to believe they should beat Villa!!!

spockety

Villain wrote: »

LOL No reason? How about having a better team?

You have to love Glory hunting Liverpool fans, they talk every year about challenging for the title then say there is no reason to believe they should beat Villa!!!

You can beat without destroying. I expect Liverpool to win. But for the purposes of coming back on this thread after the match, I hope they absolutely destroy them. Coming back on here after winning by a jammy goal, or small margin, would be no great thing, but coming back on here after putting Villa firmly in their place, now that would be nice.

Having never met you , or had any conversation with you, I'll ignore the "glory hunting" remark, whatever it means.

Melion

Very worried about today. We are due either a hammering or we are going to stuff a team soon. Hopefully the latter today just to see MoN's face. Great to have Monster Masch back, a massive plus for the team

Karmafaerie

invincibleirish wrote: »

this is jive talk pure and simple, Villa are at home, possess some lethal players that Liverpool want but cant have and are favourities because we've shown this season we are capable of scoring more then one goal a game on a regular basis and at least playing as a team, rather then being lumping long ball merchants to Fernando Torres.

Someone will find Liverpool out eventually, with their dull football they are there for the taking, Boro & Liege almost did, and if Villa dont do it this week then i bet Utd will next week;).

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!

No.
Seriously?

Villain

spockety wrote: »

Having never met you , or had any conversation with you, I'll ignore the "glory hunting" remark, whatever it means.

It means people in Ireland who have no real connection to a team in the Premier League pick a team that has a history of winning and choose to support that team in the hope of them winning trophies as opposed to a fan who picks to support a team for reasons other than simply because they think the team will win trophies. You see?

bUILDERtHEbOB

Liverpool will win by 3 or 4 goals, although this is based on absolutely nothing, we just will, I hope.

Villain

Just showed pictures from Villa Park Milner is in the dressing room, probably make his proper debut today.

Karmafaerie

Villain wrote: »

Just showed pictures from Villa Park Milner is in the dressing room, probably make his proper debut today.

He'll do well for ye.
Just hope he doesn't have a good debut!;)

Melion

Villain wrote: »

It means people in Ireland who have no real connection to a team in the Premier League pick a team that has a history of winning and choose to support that team in the hope of them winning trophies as opposed to a fan who picks to support a team for reasons other than simply because they think the team will win trophies. You see?

What year were you born? Any reason to support Villa? Did them winning the european cup have anything to do with it?

LuckyLloyd

Villain wrote: »

You have to love Glory hunting Liverpool fans, they talk every year about challenging for the title then say there is no reason to believe they should beat Villa!!!

Glory hunting eh. In October 1991 I was seven when my dad took me over to Anfield for my first live Liverpool game and I've stuck with them ever since. 17 years largely filled with pain and disappointment interspersed with relatively fewer incidences of pure joy.

I'm sorry that the club you support is a small irrelevant club that will never reach the highest echelons. That isn't my fault or the fault of any other Liverpool fan however.

Chardee MacDennis

i am almost sure the reason Skrtle has started ahead of Agger is due tot he fact that Masch wasnt there and Gerrard was in cm with Alonso. now with masch starting i fully expect agger to start. not sure why this combination but maybe its to do with skrtel being more no nonsense and agger likes to attack space in midfield while masch would provide cover for him but gerrard alonso wouldnt.

Villain

Melion wrote: »

What year were you born? Any reason to support Villa? Did them winning the european cup have anything to do with it?

When I started supporting Villa I didn't even know they had won the European Cup, I started supporting them because of all the Irish players that were playing at the time, i.e. McGrath, Townsend, Houghton and Staunton.

spockety

Villain wrote: »

It means people in Ireland who have no real connection to a team in the Premier League pick a team that has a history of winning and choose to support that team in the hope of them winning trophies as opposed to a fan who picks to support a team for reasons other than simply because they think the team will win trophies. You see?

oooo-kay.

Well as I say, never met you, never had a conversation with you, you don't know me from Adam, and you have no idea when I started supporting Liverpool, or why I support Liverpool, and I have no intention of helping you out there either.

Villain

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Glory hunting eh. In October 1991 I was seven when my dad took me over to Anfield for my first live Liverpool game and I've stuck with them ever since. 17 years largely filled with pain and disappointment interspersed with relatively fewer incidences of pure joy.

I'm sorry that the club you support is a small irrelevant club that will never reach the highest echelons. That isn't my fault or the fault of any other Liverpool fan however.

Why did your DA bring you to a Liverpool game and not a Wigan, Derby or West Ham game etc etc, I have no problems if people choose to support a team because they have a history of success I do have a problem when those fans start slagging off people for supporting teams that aren't as good, I think some times fans of the top 4 think there should only be 4 teams supported in the league because anyone that supports a lower team is wasting their time and being stupid.

I'm not sorry I support Villa, I choose to support them for my own reasons none related to glory hunting, my two older brothers are glory hunters to support Liverpool but at least they accept their glory hunters and actually respect that I choose a team for other reasons

Villain

spockety wrote: »

oooo-kay.

Well as I say, never met you, never had a conversation with you, you don't know me from Adam, and you have no idea when I started supporting Liverpool, or why I support Liverpool, and I have no intention of helping you out there either.

Cool

LuckyLloyd

Villain wrote: »

Why did your DA bring you to a Liverpool game and not a Wigan, Derby or West Ham game etc etc, I have no problems if people choose to support a team because they have a history of success I do have a problem when those fans start slagging off people for supporting teams that aren't as good, I think some times fans of the top 4 think there should only be 4 teams supported in the league because anyone that supports a lower team is wasting their time and being stupid.

I'm not sorry I support Villa, I choose to support them for my own reasons none related to glory hunting, my two older brothers are glory hunters to support Liverpool but at least they accept their glory hunters and actually respect that I choose a team for other reasons

What reasons? We can't choose what games we are brought to as kids or what kits we are given right? What are your reasons. If you are going to be holier than thou you may as well try to convert the masses.

Villain

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

What reasons? We can't choose what games we are brought to as kids or what kits we are given right? What are your reasons. If you are going to be holier than thou you may as well try to convert the masses.

Have a read back a few posts and you'll see

mike65

Stop it, you're looking silly all of you!

Mike

spockety

mike65 wrote: »

Stop it, you're looking silly all of you!

Mike

He started it!

LuckyLloyd

Villain wrote: »

Have a read back a few posts and you'll see

Oh yeah, fair enough. During the 80s Liverpool had Heighway, Walsh, Whelan, Houghton, Aldridge, Staunton which was why my Dad (not a huge football fan by any means) kept a passing interest in their fortunes. As I got a little older during the 90's I'd watch videos of Liverpool during the 80s and Liverpool in Europe and would see how Irish players played their part which made things easier. Then we had the likes of Babb, McAteer and Kennedy at the club during the Evans days.

I guess that up until I was 12 or 13 one could have switched alleigances because of a specific player, etc - but the Irish link at Liverpool definitely did help me to deepen my fanaticism for them.

So yeah, your reasons seem solid.

EDIT: And now we have Keane who grew up down the road from me!

ibh

Villain wrote: »

When I started supporting Villa I didn't even know they had won the European Cup, I started supporting them because of all the Irish players that were playing at the time, i.e. McGrath, Townsend, Houghton and Staunton.

Pretty much the same reason i started supporting Liverpool. Local lad Steve Staunton moves to pool so most young kids in Dundalk picked up on this and started following them. It was also when we lost the league to Arsenal on the last day of the season so Arsenal would have been more of a glory hunting move for me at the time.
s your reason more noble cause for the most part villa have been average since you were supporting them..

Villain

Teams announced, Milner only on the bench no Cuellar,at all.

spockety

Holy cr@p, all three of Masch, Alonso, and Lucas are starting for Liverpool today.. as are Keane, Kuyt, and Torres..

4-3-3??

Melion

Reina, Carra, Skrtel, Dossena, Arbeloa, Kuyt, Lucas, Masch, Alonso, Keane, Torres

Cant make any formation out of that tbh. I hope to christ Lucas isnt on the left, looked terrible out there in one game last year. He's a central midfielder, not a winger.

internelligent

Lucas starting, Agger still on the bench. Babel on the bench too

LuckyLloyd

Melion wrote: »

Reina, Carra, Skrtel, Dossena, Arbeloa, Kuyt, Lucas, Masch, Alonso, Keane, Torres

Cant make any formation out of that tbh. I hope to christ Lucas isnt on the left, looked terrible out there in one game last year. He's a central midfielder, not a winger.

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Reina

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Arbeloa

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Carra (C)

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Skrtel

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Dossena

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Masch

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Alonso

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Kuyt

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Lucas

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Keane

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Torres

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Melion

Id like to see

.....Alonso...Masch.....

Keane...Lucas...Kuyt

.........Torres...........

ibh

Melion wrote: »

Reina, Carra, Skrtel, Dossena, Arbeloa, Kuyt, Lucas, Masch, Alonso, Keane, Torres

Cant make any formation out of that tbh. I hope to christ Lucas isnt on the left, looked terrible out there in one game last year. He's a central midfielder, not a winger.

Surprised at this. Dossena will be expected to provide width on left, but with Young playing i can't see Arbeloa getting forward on the right.

Possibly a 3 man narrow midfield but with Kuyt helping out on the right.

really worried about where keane sits in this. I would rather have lucas lw than keane tbh.

I have to admit, this is when i question Benitez for trying to be too fcuking clever. Why not just pick the best team (and formation).

Any chance Alonso will fill the gerrard role with Keane and Kuyt wide of him. Can't see it working anyway.
Where the fcuk is Babel.

LuckyLloyd

ibh wrote: »

Where the fcuk is Babel.

On the bench.

ibh

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

On the bench.

it's bullsh't tbh. i hope i'm wrong but i don't think its a good move..

LuckyLloyd

ibh wrote: »

it's bullsh't tbh. i hope i'm wrong but i don't think its a good move..

I don't know - good to have something in reserve that can change the makeup of the team if required.

mike65

Interesting. Possibilities, no?

(Spurs hold Chelsea)

Mike

~Rebel~

what do you mean wher the fuk is babel?! He's clearly not fit to start yet, has been poor in his two sub appearances so far. Wouldn't expect anything from him from the start, at least there's some chance of him changing the game from the bench.