Monday, December 6, 2010

Liverpool 3- 0 Aston Villa: Match Report

by Paul Doward - Zone Contributor - UK/I


Photo: John Powell/Getty Images



With the news that Fernando Torres was standing at the goal end of his Missus' impending birth rather than in front of the goal at the Kop end left me a little cold. It wasn't the minus temperatures that were currently wreaking havoc in Liverpool that made me feel so glum, neither was it the fact that our beloved Nando had chosen to be at his wife's bedside rather than on the hallowed turf at Anfield, it was to do with the fact that I felt a frontline of Ngog and Babel would leave me holding my head in my hands come the final whistle; lamenting on what could have been rather than celebrating the much needed 3 points. Whilst we already knew that Stevie G and Carra would be missing through injury it still meant that the starting eleven seemingly lacked the star power that is required to galvanise the side on a freezingly cold Decembers evening.

So the teams lined up as follows :-

Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Kyrgiakos, Skrtel, Konchesky, Kuyt, Meireles, Lucas, Maxi, Babel, Ngog.
Subs: Jones, Aurelio, Cole, Jovanovic, Poulsen, Shelvey, Kelly.


Aston Villa: Friedel, Luke Young, Dunne, Collins, Warnock, Albrighton, Clark, Hogg, Downing, Ireland, Agbonlahor.
Subs: Guzan, Pires, Carew, Delfouneso, Cuellar, Lichaj, Herd

It was evident from Liverpools starting line up that they would employ an attacking 4-4-2 but would it be Kuyt or Babel that would lead the line along with David Ngog? From the evidence of the opening few minutes it appeared it would be the younger of the Dutch internationals. This was the chance that Babel has been chomping at the bit for and he along with Ngog and Kuyt both looked lively in the opening exchanges. As early as 3 minutes Liverpool found themselves with a good opening from a set piece as Kyrgiakos was his usual thorn in the side self causing the Villa defence to not get rid of the ball properly and as the ball spilled to Kuyt his half volley sailed wide of Friedels goal, but it was a good early threat from Liverpool. The Reds continued to dominate the early stages as Villa found themselves defending progressively deeper as Liverpool push forward, this meant that Gabriel Agbonlahor was already cutting an isolated figure in Villas attacking third of the pitch.

With the ever increasing pressure on Villa it was surely a matter of when not if Liverpool would find the opening goal and it duly came on 13 minutes. Dirk Kuyt did very well to harry Stephen Warnock and the ex LFC fullback had no option to put it out for a corner. From the resulting set piece Martin Skrtel rose unmarked just inside the area to nod a ball back across the six yard box and David Ngog pounced with a diving header which left Friedel with no chance. The Redmen were on top! But would they now sit back and defend their lead? Would they hell! Straight from the kick off an increasingly unconfident Villa gave the ball back to Liverpool and Lucas Leiva lofted a beautiful ball over the top of the Villa backline where a suspiciously offside Ryan Babel was waiting but the Dutchman wasn't going to hang about to check the linesman's flag; he ran through on goal and finished a lovely half volley on the turn into the bottom corner of Friedel's goal. Two Nil and it's all very impressive by the Reds, they're playing with refreshing confidence and even Ryan Babel looks like a changed man with him enthusiastically chasing every ball down .

Villa's first real threat came on the 18 minute mark when Stuart Downing's break down the Villa left and he seemingly left Johnson for dead only for the England right back to make a great recovery and his covering tackle forcing a corner that Villa failed to take advantage of. That seemed to signal a spell of decent pressure for Villa though and the next ten minutes or so was the Midlanders' best spell of the first half. A few passes began to go astray from the LFC defence and Liverpool would need to stamp their authority in midfield if they would be to retain their 2 goal lead. Luckily in Meireles and Lucas Liverpool had two men whose improvement over recent games are there for everybody to see. Both sprayed passes around the pitch that would have Xabi Alonso (who was watching from the stands incidentally) watering at the mouth and Lucas again appeared to revel in the leading Midfield role he'd been given in Gerrards absence; he got stuck into every challenge and the talented Stephen Ireland was unable to make any impact on the game from the centre of Villas midfield. The first half was brought to a close by Phil Dowd and Liverpool were clear and deserved leaders at the break.


'The Better Than Andy Gray's Half Time Analysis Half Time Analysis Report'  - Lucas and Meireiles are head and shoulders above their Villa counterparts. With Lucas' gritty determination and Meireles' classy distribution Liverpool have hardly missed their talismanic captain in the centre of the park. Ryan Babel is having his best game in a red shirt in recent memory; the Dutchman looks hungry and in love with football again. Johnson and Konchesky are pushing forward and linking up great with Kuyt and Maxi on the wings and as for Maxi, what the bejeezus is that snood all about?!?! Pepe Reina has had very little to do, he must be freezing his bits off out there!! An interesting factoid gets thrown up at this point too, the last time LFC surrendered a two goal lead was back in September of 2002 against another side from the Midlands - Birmingham. The Liverpool Manager on that occasion? one Gerard Houllier.....Hmmmmmm.

The second half began and for the first 9 minutes Villa were definitely in the ascendency. They had made a substitution at half time with Nathan Delfounso replacing Keiron Clark and the change in formation seemed to reinvigorate The Villains. Liverpool had to take control of the game again and not allow any complacency to creep into their game because with Agbonlahor on the pitch his pace would always be a problem for Liverpool's less mobile centre backs to deal with, a third goal is what Liverpool needed most and when it came in the 54th minute it was as simple as it was beautiful. Quick distribution from Reina saw a ball picked up by Maxi in the centre of the park, he found David Ngog and the Frenchman rolled it back to Maxi just inside the area and the Argentine finished sublimely with a side footed effort into the top corner of Friedels net. A devastating breakaway as Villa were pushing further up the pitch. Game Over!

The rest of the game belonged to the home side. Ryan Babel continued to terrorise Villas backline with Richard Dunne especially looking lost. Babel ran at them like an enthusiastic whippet; his touch and control were perfect and he displayed all the characteristics LFC fans have known he possesses but he so rarely shows. Villa attempted to get back into the game with a couple more substitutions but the towering John Carew did little in Villas final third. Glenn Johnson found himself in a couple of great goalscoring positions in quick succession as he continued to skin Stephen Warnock on Villas left, the first of Johnsons strikes stung the hands of Brad Friedel and the second just went over the bar but this was certainly a return to form for the English right back.

Liverpool made gave a rest to Dirk Kuyt, Maxi Rodriguez and Soto Kyrgiakos who had gone down with cramp just before his change, he'd also seen his a header from a corner cleared agonisingly off the line in the minutes leading up to his withdrawal. Fabio Aurelio, Joe Cole and Martin Kelly were sent on to gain some game time but the game was dead and buried a longtime ago. David Ngog so very nearly added a fourth late on when he linked up fantastically with Glen Johnson but the Frenchman was unable to control Johnsons inventive return ball in the area.

So that was that, a comfortable victory but taking nothing away from the side they played very very well. We won the battles all over the pitch, Meireiles looks settled, Lucas continues to get better and he really is a great midfielder these days. Johnson and Konchesky pushed forward and tackled back in equally good measure and Skrtel and Kyrgiakos were very rarely troubled. Pepe Reina collected his 100th clean sheet; the quickest in our history and babel and Ngog lead the line impeccably. I'm one happy man this evening!

Man Of The Match :- 1. Glen Johnson 2. David Ngog     3. Raul Meireles.   Lucas and Babel could've also easily figured in this list though!

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