Andy

Villa are class btw, they are absolutely in the top 4 race, confidence and momentum are huge things at this stage of the season and they have both in buckets.

Making Watkins look like prime Pele.

I have to admit, I said myself that I didn't see him as an out an out lone striker "number 9" type, but he's proving me wrong. Still think he's better with Wilson alongside him like.

This guy was outstanding in the second half alongside Bruno I thought, in pretty much every regard.

Loved seeing him absolutely raging at the players at 2-0 up, great to have a manager that demands such high standards

Their shit fans deserve that for leaving while they were still in the match, embarrassing stuff from them.

Seen him getting pelters in the match thread, but I thought the goal was just bad luck tbh. Slipping at that moment is obviously just massively unfortunate. If Pope gave him a shout then it's more of an error I guess, as he shouldn't have been swinging at it in the first place. On the other hand, if Pope didn't give him a shout, then that's the actual error that caused the goal, given how much he'd committed himself.

If you expect rational, composed, measured takes during a match, you've come to the wrong place

He isn't a lone striker, which is how we play. He struggles in that role imo.

He isn't a number 9, so I don't think the answer is to drop Wilson for him. I want to see him, Wilson, Max, Joelinton and Bruno all on the pitch together. That would give teams something to think about, I reckon, as we're too predictable at the moment.

Tried to allow my thoughts to digest a bit before posting in this thread post-match. The game pretty much went how I expected tbh - good effort but we ultimately lacked quality and, most importantly, big game experience. Thought Joelinton and Bruno were good, Isak as well when he came on. Max was frustrating but bright in patches. There were certainly positives, just a lack of end product, which is the recurring theme lately. Given where we were 12 months ago, we don't really have any right to be in and amongst it yet, so the fact that we gave a good account of ourselves and lost it to two "moments" is reason to be proud. We're still bringing the likes of Murphy, Ritchie and Anderson off the bench. They're bringing on the likes of Wan-Bissaka, Sancho and Sabitzer. Talents like Garnacho sat in reserve. There's a gulf there that we need to narrow in the summer, but we all knew that coming in. It's easy to forget how far we've come, and the work that still needs to be done. This is just the beginning.

Infuriating as ever at times, but it's obvious he needs to start. The criticism of his lack of "support" for Burn is really frustrating tbh. You don't pick a winger to accommodate your full back's weaknesses, you pick a full back to accommodate for your winger's weaknesses. I've defended Burn at full back, but it's time for MT to come back in with ASM in front of him.

Taller keepers probably save it, or those with ridiculously strong hands, but I think it's beating most keepers.

Aye. The way he whips them, you're gonna see a lot of them go straight to the keeper, particularly the in-swingers. There's at least one a game lately that is postage-stamped though, but Schar and obviously Burn in particular are terrible at attacking and directing the ball, they mistime their jump or close their eyes frequently. Indirect free kicks are a bit more of a problem, we don't know how to break a high defensive line.

Not sure he's the answer as a back up, but it was a good performance today, and he can hold his head up. Second goal, probably half the keepers in the league save it, half don't. Suspect all of them don't if they haven't played a competitive game for so long.

He had a couple of dodgy ones, but we still should have scored one or two today from his set pieces. We are shite at attacking the ball - that is the biggest problem, not the delivery.

Isak needs to come on at half time, would probably take Miggy off, they've got him sussed. Early second half goal changes the game entirely, just go for it.

It's Hatem Ben Arfa/Laurent Robert syndrome. Our fans have always loved to blame a winger for a fullback having a shitter.

Burn and Wilson chances were huge, either of those go in and I think Liverpool would've crumbled.

Don't really know where to start with that. Shite defending for all three major incidents. Pope should've just let Salah score like, we'd have been capable of coming back with 11 men against their defence, and a defeat isn't the end of the world anyway. Obviously just instinctive from him though.

Rubbish by VAR again, was blatantly offside by eye after seeing one replay.

Fuck, had stopped checking this thread. I assumed he was okay after the sheer confidence in the updates that were posted the other day; journos obviously rushing to get the news out there first without fact-checking, like it's just a transfer story or something. Useless cunts.

Amazingly, he looks a better footballer when he has players from his own team in front of him. Lad had no chance in that Everton setup.

Sick of coverage cutting to replays/crowd shots while the ball is in play and missing the action. Seems to happen far more often these days.

The tackle is just one of those things - no malice, mistimed; if it's a split second earlier his foot just catches their player's toe at worst. Not going to berate him for it, or the niggly fouls before that. If you take away the aggressive side of his game, you kill him as a midfielder.