It’s Aston Villa, isn’t it? Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers did his absolute best to banish the myth of the “bogey team” last year by downing pretty much each and every one of the sides that the Reds have traditionally struggled with, but the Villains have continued their amazing run of form at Anfield to keep their unbeaten start to the season going.
Full credit to Villa boss Paul Lambert — his side came with a plan and they executed it to near perfection. Contain, stifle and counter-attack was the name of the game and when Liverpool leaked an early one, there was no need to deviate from it. Kopites everywhere don’t even have to watch Gabriel Agbonlahor’s early goal to understand that it was born not so much out of the visitors ingenuity and work rate as it was out of the Reds terrible record on the backfoot. It killed us last year and it’s starting to do it again.
That’s not to say that the Midlands club didn’t full deserve their lead or played a part in its making; that’s far from the truth, but you can certainly forgive me for not wanting to expand on it at this late, and admittedly inebriated, hour. That story is getting old for us lot and you have your own blogs to read if you want a congratulatory pat on the head and a “job well done”.
I suppose it’s a bit easy to forget that despite spending a bushel of money over the summer and bringing in just under a whack load of new faces — a “whack load” being a completely subjective, but still extremely scientific term — that football is never as easy as throwing a group of players together and expecting them to produce from day one; these things take time.
There were touches of brilliance, don’t get me wrong, but for every clever flick and darting run there was that split second bit of garbage defending that hung like a foul stench over every offensive flourish. There mere fact that Philippe Senderos — a player seen clashing like a naughty boy with Mario Balotelli off the ball on more than one occasion — should have had an easy brace is enough to infuriate — now just imagine how Reds boss Brendan Rodgers feels.
Deploying a brand spanking new front three and seeing them continually stifled by a well drilled Aston Villa team that, let’s face it, defended for their lives after being gifted a goal, is not the way you want to present an attack that cost a combined £61mil to the home faithful. If that bit of nonsense — who the hell was supposed to be marking Senderos anyway? — didn’t happen, then we would have seen an entirely different 90-minutes. But should ofs, could ofs, would ofs don’t jive here — not after a couple of pints and a shot for good measure.
Forget the injury crisis. Toss Daniel Sturridge into the mix alongside Balotelli and he doesn’t make much difference at all since no one is getting him the ball through eleven Villa players. Partner Martin Skrtel with Dejan Lovren and Agbonlahor still scrambles it in. Don’t give Raheem Sterling any rest after his jaunt with England and Adam Lallana makes about the same amount of impact off the bench as he does being put in the starting eleven. Continue on ad nauseum until I’m done writing and you’re ready to find something worthwhile to read.
Hiccups. Growing pains. Stops and stutters. More cliches. Less crap. Morrissey said “these things take time” and despite his prior leanings towards a certain Manchester based side, I’m going to brush this one off and listen to Mozzer’s advice to let cooler heads prevail. The revolution isn’t over — we had six new players in the starting eleven and three of them were making their home debuts. Move on.
Champions League. Tuesday. Be there.
–Steven
