Liverpool v Aston Villa 5.30 KO

Harry Palmr

The game is on Sky Sports 1

Villa have not lost at Anfield since 06/12/10 when the home side ran out 3-0 winners thanks to goals from N'Gog, Babel and Maxi which is a pretty shocking thing to realise!

This game last season was almost handed to the visitors as Rodgers had one of his rare tactical off days - playing a high risk 4-2-4 against Villas 4-3-3 Weiman, Benteke and Agbonlahor having plenty of freedom to run at a creaking back line. Things only looked more equal when Rodgers switched formation and brought on Lucas for Coutinho at half time the game ending 2-2.

Liverpool WLW
Villa WDW

Liverpool's injury list is suddenly twice was it was with Sturridge, Can and Allen joining Johnson, Flanagan and Škrtel on the sidelines. Given the rush of games to come over the next few weeks rotation will come in to play at some point - maybe tomorrow? Lallana and Balotelli will surely both make their Anfield debuts.

Meanwhile Villa apparently have doubts over Vlaar with Benteke, Kozák out while ex Liverpool loaner Ali Cissokho should start for Villa and Joe Cole might be on the bench!

OwaynOTT

Could be a disaster if Sakho starts for us n

ush

One nil. Mighty Red from the peno spot.

googled eyes

ush wrote: »

One nil. Mighty Red from the peno spot.

They're resting him for the CL match. He's just doing a walk on tomorrow

Augmerson

2-1 Villa.

Vicxas

Augmerson wrote: »

2-1 Villa.

They were our bogey team last year, hoping for a win tomorrow.

GavRedKing

Vicxas wrote: »

They were our bogey team last year, hoping for a win tomorrow.

Ye beat them in August and drew in January, 4pts from 6.

Hardly a bogey team.

Theres probably other teams who took more than 2 pts off ye all last season.

Tom Cleverly for MOTM and Balotelli to miss a heap of chances again

googled eyes

M!Ck^ wrote: »

Tom Cleverly for MOTM and Balotelli to miss a heap of chances again

Cleverly MOTM? You must be tripping like David Guetta !

kfallon

1-1 draw, Paul Walsh to net past Nigel Spink with Derek Mountfield replying for the visitors......

GavRedKing

M!Ck^ wrote: »

Tom Cleverly for MOTM and Balotelli to miss a heap of chances again

This part is written in the stars....not sure about Balotelli having another off day as bad as that against Spurs.

Knex*

kfallon wrote: »

1-1 draw, Paul Walsh to net past Nigel Spink with Derek Mountfield replying for the visitors......

Well, I'm lost.

Hangballlouie

5-0 win for Liverpool. Balotelli hat-trick, Lovren header and peno from Gerrard.

kfallon

Knex. wrote: »

Well, I'm lost.

Sorry, I'm that old and I've been doing these match thread predictions for so long that I often get my years mixed up

Hangballlouie

GavRedKing wrote: »

This part is written in the stars....not sure about Balotelli having another off day as bad as that against Spurs.

Do you genuinely believe he was bad against Spurs? Apart from the 2-3 misses he had he overall play was very good.

GavRedKing

GavRedKing wrote: »

This part is written in the stars....not sure about Balotelli having another off day as bad as that against Spurs.

No Sturridge; So there's massive pressure on him to deliver.

OwaynOTT

hangballlouie wrote: »

Do you genuinely believe he was bad against Spurs? Apart from the 2-3 misses he had he overall play was very good.

Yes exactly. I'm not getting where this negative view of his debut is coming from. Could have scored but didn't and his overall play was good. It was hardly an outstanding performance but it was by no means a poor display either.

Cjs21

Balotelli scored 4 goals in his last 2 games against Villa, last one being a hat-trick!

Let's hope this trend carrys on

gimli2112

M!Ck^ wrote: »

No Sturridge; So there's massive pressure on him to deliver.

Doesn't strike me as someone that cracks under pressure. Could see him having a stinker, calmly walking out to his car, tearing up his parking ticket and driving off, without a care in the world.

JPA

Predict a 442 diamond formation from Villa.

Guzan
Hutton
Vlaar
Senderos
Cissokho
Sanchez
Westwood
Delph
Cleverley
Weimann
Agbonlahor

Sanchez to man mark Sterling while Cleverley will play in an attacking role.
Villa seem to to have matched Liverpool in recent matches but if Vlaar is out we're screwed.

hangballlouie

hangballlouie wrote: »

Do you genuinely believe he was bad against Spurs? Apart from the 2-3 misses he had he overall play was very good.

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Yes exactly. I'm not getting where this negative view of his debut is coming from. Could have scored but didn't and his overall play was good. It was hardly an outstanding performance but it was by no means a poor display either.

Overall play for 60 minutes equated to him missing 2 clear cut chances. For a striker I would call that a poor game.

GavRedKing

hangballlouie wrote: »

Do you genuinely believe he was bad against Spurs? Apart from the 2-3 misses he had he overall play was very good.

Well as a CF those misses were poor. Its similar to what we used to say over in the Chelsea thread about Torres after a game, his link play and everything else was good but his finishing was terrible.

Not that Balotelli is going down the Torres road, hes very far from it, I'm just making a comparisson to what I'm used to the last 3 1/2 years. Main thing is it his misses didnt cost ye.

Fitz*

JPA wrote: »

Predict a 442 diamond formation from Villa.

Guzan
Hutton
Vlaar
Senderos
Cissokho
Sanchez
Westwood
Delph
Cleverley
Weimann
Agbonlahor

Sanchez to man mark Sterling while Cleverley will play in an attacking role.
Villa seem to to have matched Liverpool in recent matches but if Vlaar is out we're screwed.

I don't think Sterling will play. We've a lot of fixtures coming up and he has played every game for club & country recently. I would say every minute, but I'm not 100% sure on that.

Can see us lining up as:

---

Mignolet

---

Manquillo Lovren Sahko Moreno

---

Gerrard

---

Henderson

---

Lallana

---

Coutinho

---

---

Balotelli

---

Lambert---

Hangballlouie

GavRedKing wrote: »

Well as a CF those misses were poor. Its similar to what we used to say over in the Chelsea thread about Torres after a game, his link play and everything else was good but his finishing was terrible.

Not that Balotelli is going down the Torres road, hes very far from it, I'm just making a comparisson to what I'm used to the last 3 1/2 years. Main thing is it his misses didnt cost ye.

His overall play added to our easy win. His play both on and off the ball allowed Sturridge and Stirling the space to hurt Spurs. His misses were bad, no disputing that, but overall it was a good debut.

ciaranmac

kfallon wrote: »

1-1 draw, Paul Walsh to net past Nigel Spink with Derek Mountfield replying for the visitors......

Go forward a few years in your results book there Biff...

ike

Mario to score...and CELEBRATE!!!

NukaCola

Draw written all over this

Morzadec

Bit worried about Weinmann in this one.

He's had a great start to the season, and has the pace to hurt us as we are quite vulnerable to counter attacks.

He will be Villa's main weapon I feel.

Could be a tricky game but you have to have Liverpool as favourites at home

Super-Rush

GavRedKing wrote: »

Ye beat them in August and drew in January, 4pts from 6.

Hardly a bogey team.

Theres probably other teams who took more than 2 pts off ye all last season.

We were lucky to win at their place last season and even luckier to snatch a draw at Anfield.

Season before they destroyed us at home.

NukaCola

M!Ck^ wrote: »

Overall play for 60 minutes equated to him missing 2 clear cut chances. For a striker I would call that a poor game.

Well it was his first competitive game since 24th of June. And a debut also. Overall I think he did quite well all things considered. I would expect better in the coming weeks obviously.

JPA

FitzShane wrote: »

I don't think Sterling will play. We've a lot of fixtures coming up and he has played every game for club & country recently. I would say every minute, but I'm not 100% sure on that.

Can see us lining up as:

---

Mignolet

---

Manquillo Lovren Sahko Moreno

---

Gerrard

---

Henderson

---

Lallana

---

Coutinho

---

---

Balotelli

---

Lambert---

Maybe it depends on the opposition but I'd imagine Sterling starting as much as physically possible. He'd be better off rested in the CL.

COYVB

Villa lineup will be unchanged from the Hull game apparently, which means Vlaar is fit and no starting place for Cleverley or Sanzhez

breghall

i can see Sterling starting in this one. Just hope Balotelli puts in a performance just to silence his doubters.

JPA

COYVB wrote: »

Villa lineup will be unchanged from the Hull game apparently, which means Vlaar is fit and no starting place for Cleverley or Sanzhez

Where did you see that?

Have a feeling Villa will grab something from this

citytillidie

Going to this game traveling from Boro in the morning come on you red men

rebelomar

Was at the game at Anfield two seasons ago for the 3–1 win.

Pity Benteke is still injured for this.. His record there is decent.

Weimann and Villa in general always seem to cause Liverpool problems.

When ye beat us at Villa Park last season ye went a goal up and sat back made us try and play through ye. This is our Achilles heel.

If ye throw bodies forward from the get go 2moro I fancy Villa's chances of scoring a goal or two again. The pace in our side on the break is unreal.

Can't see Rodgers being outfoxed tactically three seasons in a row at Anfield however. Don't expect Liverpool to be as cavalier as normal 2moro.

OwaynOTT

3-0 to Liverpool, it's time to bring back those classic 90s results. Fowler to get at least 2.
Looking forward to this, absence has been the heart grow fonder.

greendom

breghall wrote: »

i can see Sterling starting in this one. Just hope Balotelli puts in a performance just to silence his doubters.

I don't think 1 game will do that. Everyone knows he's capable of brilliance. Doubters won't be silenced unless he maintains that for an extended run.

Bounty Hunter

I feel Liverpool fans are rating villas chances and the past few years encounters more so than villa fans who despite seeing their team unbeaten after 3 (only conceeded 1 goal in those 3 via a cissokho og) .

Having said that taking something even 3 points isn't unbelievable in this tie but getting anything from it to add to the good start would be huge especially considering the run of games villa are starting now.

Supposedly Vlaar is fit which is huge as the rest of the back four need him as despite being labelled error prone previously they have all looked very good this season so far beside him.

Looking forward to a villa side with options too been a while since players like cleverly, Sanchez, bent, Grealish etc were all expected to be on the bench hopeful of making an impact

delw

Going for a draw on this one

Rayne Wooney

4-0 Villa

Cleverley x4

Knex*

Sakho to score against his old Club.

1 nil to Villa.

Fescue

Villa have proven to a be a difficult obstacle at Anfield in recent years so I don't see Liverpool winning this by more than 13 or 14 nil.

xerces

Go on da Pool.

5starpool

Liverpool FC ‏@LFC 33s
Confirmed #LFC team v @AVFCOfficial: Mignolet, Manquillo, Moreno, Lovren, Sakho, Gerrard, Henderson, Coutinho, Markovic, Lallana, Balotelli

@LFC Official Subs: Jones, Enrique, Lucas, Toure, Sterling, Lambert, Borini

5starpool

Interesting team, Borini and Sterling on the bench.

Harry Palmr

Voetbalzone.nl @voetbalzonenl · now

XI Liverpool - ?????????

---

Mignolet,
Manquillo ,Lovren, Sakho, Moreno,

---

Gerrard,

---

Hendo---Lallana

---

Coutinho--

---

Markovic,

---

Balotelli

Jones, Enrique, Lucas, Toure, Sterling, Lambert, Borini

matrim

Guzan, Hutton, Baker, Senderos, Cissokho, Westwood, Delph, Cleverley, Richardson, Agbonlahor [c], Weimann.

Fescue

Vicxas