Having put in a much better performance against Burnley at the weekend in our 2-0 victory, few Aston Villa fans knew what to expect as we welcomed Steven Gerrard’s old Liverpool side to Villa Park for our scheduled clash.
It was a frightening start to the game though as Douglas Luiz gave us an early advantage three minutes into the game and we were playing like we were taking the game to them.
Sadly, they equalised three minutes later, but it didn’t knock the players off their stride and we largely matched them when it came to chances. Jurgen Klopp’s side did finish the half stronger, largely helped by some ridiculous calls by Jonathan Moss, but we were still more than in this.
But was that our good half?
Well, the second period was pretty mixed and both teams had decent chances, but from an unforced error – they broke quickly and made it 2-1 in the 65th minute. Danny Ings had a gilt-edged chance to have us back on level terms minutes later but the touch was woeful and it was wasted. If we were going to get anything from this – it felt like that was the moment.
Ings had another chance and did bury the ball in the back of the net, but he was clearly offside, so no complaints with that decision. At least we had kept going though and hadn’t folded.
It might have been a defeat, but a number of fans will see clear positives from the performance – but equally unaddressed negatives.
Liverpool MotM
Douglas Luiz
Lucas Digne
Matty Cash
Ollie Watkins
Villa Park
Premier League
10/05/2022 9:00 pm
Attendance: 41919
Referee: Jonathan Moss
| Aston Villa | Liverpool | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Douglas Luiz (3) | Matip (6), Mane (65) | ||||||
| Martinez | Alisson | ||||||
| Cash | Alexander-Arnold | ||||||
| Konsa | Matip | ||||||
| Mings | van Dijk | ||||||
| Digne | Tsimikas | ||||||
| Douglas Luiz | Keita | ||||||
| Nakamba | 62 | Fabinho | 30 | ||||
| Coutinho | 70 | Jones | 62 | ||||
| McGinn | Diaz | 72 | |||||
| Watkins | 81 | Mane | |||||
| Ings | Jota | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Sanson | Konate | ||||||
| Buendia | 70 | Thiago Alcantara | 62 | ||||
| Traore | 81 | Milner | |||||
| Chambers | Firmino | ||||||
| Young | Salah | 72 | |||||
| Olsen | Gomez | ||||||
| Carney Chukwuemeka | 62 | Henderson | 30 | ||||
| Chrisene | Origi | ||||||
| Iroegbunam | Kelleher | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 9 | Goal attempts | 17 |
| 4 | On Target | 6 |
| 2 | Corners | 3 |
| 10 | Fouls | 12 |
| 0 | Yellow Cards | 0 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 39 | % | 61 |
Clearly Liverpool one of the best two teams in the PL so can’t be too unhappy with that result, I thought that we might have given Buendia more time having been MOTM last game but onwards and upwards.
Missing a guilt edged chance should have one gelded rather than gilded. Missing a gilt edged chance on the other hand is just football, it happens all the time.