Aston Villa 1-2 Liverpool - TalkSoccer

**andy villa** · 12-08-2007, 10:51 AM

atmosphere was electric from the holte end... was really buzzing about the game...

we started well and looked good going forward, then liverpool found their rythm and they started to dominate the centre of midfield... hardly surprising when we pretty much only had one player in there actually doing any work as petrov was absolute dogshit for the entire 90 mins...

after liverpool scored, a very fortuitous goal, the liverpool fans woke up and so did the liverpool team and they were the better side until the break....

after half time, we worked hard, but couldnt find any rythm, and our day was summed up in two instances... one where we had a shot and it deflected off carew and out for a goal kidk... when compared with the flukey own goal socred at the other end, you start to get the feeling its simply not your day... and secondly, and most importantly, the best liverpool player on the pitch was wearing an all black strip....

the referee had an absolute nightmare... time after time, he gave decisions to liverpool for either us getting fouled, or their players falling over... absolutely shocking display from a referee and if thats the standard we have to look forward to again this season, then we might as well call it a day now...

disgraceful decisions all over the pitch in favour of liverpool, and thats not even with the decison for the free kick from which gerrard scored a sumptuous winner from... pennant should also have been sent off for raising his hands to bouma yet he didnt even get a yellow card, which would have been his second after an earlier foul on young.... in the end, he gave a free kick to liverpool!!

shocking doesnt even begin to describe this refs performance...

villa finished the stronger out of the two sides as we pushed for an equaliser at the end and when we were amazingly given a decent decision by the ref for the penalty we all thought that was a point gained and with our momentum, we might even sneak a win...

but the ref had other ideas and the rest is history... even after that, we still pushed forward and looked the most likely to score, but it wasnt to be and the day ended in frustration and disappointment...

wasnt a great performance, or even a good one in reality, by either side, but i can take heart from the fact that we fought all game, had two sick players playing, yet there still wasnt much difference between the two sides (liverpool marginally scraping the better of the play), yet we only lost narrowly to a fortuitous own goal and a beauty free kick from a shitty refs decision...

taylor - 5 - jekyl and hyde best describes his performance... brilliant saves one minute, couldnt catch a cold the next...
gardner - 6 - performed admirably at right back, but isnt a right back and was often out of position...
laursen - 4 - was ill and taken off at half time... looked and played like it too, scoring an own goal in the process...
mellberg - 6 - got stuck in, and worked hard...
bouma - 5 - worked hard defensively, but his crossing when going forward was abysmal...
reo-coker - 6 - worked hard, made a lot of tackles, got forward, but didnt have much help from his central midfield partner... his passing wasnt the best either...
petrov - 3 - worst player on the pitch... passing was awful, didnt support the attack, dallied on the ball, and generally gave it away a lot.... really poor...
barry - 6 - worked hard and offered some composure when he cut into the middle, but then that left us exposed on our left... when he moved to left back, he got forward and put in some good balls, but again, we were exposed at the back...
young - 7 - when moved back out wide, he ran at players and frightened them so much they had to triple up on him... unfortunately, the poor movement from his team mates meant that we couldnt take advantage of this....
agbonlahor - 5 - worked hard but no real end product..
carew - 4 - poor performance.. was ill apparently, so shouldnt have been on the pitch... didnt hold up the ball well, flick ons were poor and he just wasnt at the races....

subs
cahill - 6 - nothing spectacular... did his job well enough...
moore - 7 - held the ball up, made some clever runs and looked dangerous...

ref
riley - 0 - piss poor... might as well have come out wearing a liverpool shirt...

one last comment for those who are commenting on the game from the motd highlights...

how they missed off half the action, in favour of liverpool, il never know... not showing several of our chances, the pennant "red card" incident, or our play near the end, was piss poor from the bbc who have shown themselves to be far from impartial on more than one occasion when it comes to certain clubs....

so if youre commenting purely from motd highlights, you will have to excuse me if i ignore your view....

**Olzy** · 12-08-2007, 10:55 AM

Sadly the latter part is true. I swear Watford are the worse victims of this last season.

**Mighty T.A.L.** · 12-08-2007, 05:46 PM

Quote:

ref
riley - 0 - piss poor... might as well have come out wearing a liverpool shirt...

haha...he gave you a cheap penalty kick...

**andy villa** · 12-08-2007, 07:44 PM

moving your hand towards the ball and touching it with your hand, anywhere on the pitch, let alone inside the box, is a handball in anyones eyes...

apart liverpool fans eyes.. well, this weekend anyway.... im sure when it happens at the other end of the pitch, you will all be whipping out your black armbands and having a minutes silence at the injustice....

tbh, that decision was the only one he got correct all game...

do you remember at any point during the game, was carew actually allowed to win a header without the ref blowing up for a foul against him?

what about barry being kicked by a triangle of liverpool players, before he blatantly dived as a desperate last resort in the hope that he would get a decision out of the inept biased ref?

and please advise me how it wasnt incorrect when carew was 'fouled' by the last man back, just outside the box, which is a red card offence, but amazingly, an offside decision was given against him... despite the ball coming off YOUR player when played forward?

what about the gerrard free kick where petrov, in front of gerrard, tackled him, but a free kick was given for gerrard running into petrov... which under the rules, IF an obstruction, which it wasnt as petrov clearly got to the ball, but if it had been an obstruction at the very worst thats an 'indirect' free kick....

the ref had a shocker, and tbh, im sure youre going to come back and disagree with me, like many other liverpool fans have today... amazing how, the very same ones are then stating how biased the ref at the utd game was, despite that ref only really giving small decisions in utds favour apart from the red card....

**unitedfan** · 12-08-2007, 08:05 PM

The ref deserves his 0 rating, but I don't think he was biased, well, not exactly. I think he was weak. He did everything he could to avoid making any sort of decision that might affect the result, so he kept penalising attackers with any sense of work, or who showed strength. He was also completely bowled over by Gerrard - all he has to do is throw his hands in the air and the ref does his bidding. The ref clearly had no intention of giving a freekick, untill Gerrard was appealing.

**Mighty T.A.L.** · 15-08-2007, 08:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andy villa

moving your hand towards the ball and touching it with your hand, anywhere on the pitch, let alone inside the box, is a handball in anyones eyes...

apart liverpool fans eyes.. well, this weekend anyway.... im sure when it happens at the other end of the pitch, you will all be whipping out your black armbands and having a minutes silence at the injustice....

tbh, that decision was the only one he got correct all game...

do you remember at any point during the game, was carew actually allowed to win a header without the ref blowing up for a foul against him?

what about barry being kicked by a triangle of liverpool players, before he blatantly dived as a desperate last resort in the hope that he would get a decision out of the inept biased ref?

and please advise me how it wasnt incorrect when carew was 'fouled' by the last man back, just outside the box, which is a red card offence, but amazingly, an offside decision was given against him... despite the ball coming off YOUR player when played forward?

what about the gerrard free kick where petrov, in front of gerrard, tackled him, but a free kick was given for gerrard running into petrov... which under the rules, IF an obstruction, which it wasnt as petrov clearly got to the ball, but if it had been an obstruction at the very worst thats an 'indirect' free kick....

the ref had a shocker, and tbh, im sure youre going to come back and disagree with me, like many other liverpool fans have today... amazing how, the very same ones are then stating how biased the ref at the utd game was, despite that ref only really giving small decisions in utds favour apart from the red card....

Okey, so you didn't won the match all because of the ref who seemed to be a huge Liverpool fan...

**Mighty T.A.L.** · 15-08-2007, 08:28 AM

Quote:

The ref clearly had no intention of giving a freekick, untill Gerrard was appealing.

If you analyse the ref's reaction you can see he was real unsure if it was a free kick or not and maybe he got influence from Gerrard to ref a free kick but it isn't always easy to ref in the heat of the game.It was a 50-50 resolve.Anyway, it was a fair win in my eyes.Liverpool should have won with couple of goals.

**andy villa** · 15-08-2007, 08:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mighty T.A.L.

Okey, so you didn't won the match all because of the ref who seemed to be a huge Liverpool fan...

we didnt win the match because we didnt score enough...

that wasnt helped by a very biased referee...

you however, won the match because of the referee and gerrard cheating...

a draw would have been a fair result..