All reports of Liverpool's defeat to Aston Villa have two things in common - all mention Xabi Alonso and all make Brad Friedel the man of the match. Come on fellas, you can't have it both ways. Either Liverpool were missing a creative presence in midfield or they were thwarted by a goalkeeper in ridiculously good fettle.
The truth is that the Xabi stick is a very convenient weapon to wield at Rafa Benitez, but this particular defeat to Aston Villa owed nothing to the Spaniard's absence. Liverpool had 68% possession and 19 attempts on goal (11 of them on target) - this is not a side struggling to create chances, but a team who either scuffed those chances or saw them clawed away by the inspired Friedel.
Neither can this defeat be laid at the door of negative tactics because Liverpool were on the front foot from the opening whistle and Villa barely left their own half in the opening 15 minutes. Had that goalmouth scramble ended in the goal their early endeavours deserved then it could easily have been a repeat of the 5-0 drubbing of last season.
'Liverpool were woeful and Villa wonderful,' writes Phil Thomas in The Sun. Absolute piffle, Phil. Villa set themselves up to defend for their lives but were breached time and time again, only for Friedel to save them. With a different goalkeeper, Liverpool would have been out of sight long before they decided to gift them three goals.
And they were gifts - Lucas can barely take the blame for scoring the own goal (anyone who has never scored an own goal or at least notched a near-miss has not defended enough set-pieces) but he can take the blame for giving away a needless free-kick.
Slack defending at a corner cost them the second, sending pundits into incandescent 'zonal marking' related rage. It was nothing to do with zonal (Liverpool's defensive record tells you that's not the problem), but everything to do with really rubbish defending. We saw similar from Everton against Arsenal and that was man-to-man marking.
The third gift was the most generous. At 2-1 and in the ascendance, Liverpool looked nailed on for at least a point. Quite what Steven Gerrard thought he was doing with a ridiculous slide through Nigel Reo-Coker only he will know, but the penalty ended the game as a contest.
That's the story of the game - missed chances and three individual errors. Against Tottenham on the opening weekend of the season, Liverpool were outplayed. They were not even close to being outplayed by Villa, who were understandably happy to be handed victory on a platter.
'Reds have now lost as many games as they did in WHOLE of last season' screams the headline in the Daily Mirror. And? We all agreed at the end of last season that drawn games were the problem for Liverpool. Turn just three of those 11 draws into wins and that's six points right there. It's hardly ideal to start with two defeats out of three games, but neither is it a crisis.
Have we learned nothing in the last 12 months? Man United started last season with four points from their first three games and we all know how that story ends. This is not to say that Liverpool will do the same - I didn't tip them at the start of the season and I'm not tipping them now - but to write them off now with just a point less is plain daft.
Sarah Winterburn
Your Comments
buddhabay1981
"Brad Friedel has been one of the best goalies if not the most consistant keeper anywhere in the world for over 10 years now. Anyone who is critical of his play just needs to watch his game against Liverpool. Congratulations Brad on another fantastic game!!"
LISTEN_MUPPETS
"Quite possibly this is the first intelligent article i have ever read on this excuse for a football website."
bradmaung06
"comparing Man U and Liverpool on their poor starts last season and this season is wrong.Man U started as a defending Champion last season with high moral without much to prove to the crowd how serious they were but when was the last time Liverpool won the EPL.It's like a horse race,there's a red hot favourite and there's an outside chance..only at a small percentage (very small percentage) the outsider will win and for that reason with other red hot favourites like Chelsea,Man U,Arsenal,Man City i'll write off Liverpool already..Anybody want to take my bet???? i'll be gladly..."
Mad_Dave
"mk06 - not wanting to get into a big debate or anything but stats mean absolutely nothing (or were you oblivious to the Ashes this summer?) Controlling midfield is not just about when you have possession; it is also about how you defend, where you let the opponent have the ball, and what you let them do with it. We crowded the middle and pushed Pool out wide, where the only attacking threat came from the full backs (Insua- led to their goal, and Johnson got forward as well.) This allowed more potential for us to counter-attack. So yeah, we controlled it without the majority of possession, and when we had the ball we pushed forward to attack. We kept Liverpool playing the ball near the halfway line, we also nullified the threat of Gerrard, and the midfield supported our defence. To give an perfect example look at Man U - Barca; 2008 compared to 2009. In both games Barca had the lion's share of possession. But in 2008, Man U harried them, closed down quicky and did not leave gaps between the midfield and defence. Like Villa, they congested the middle and pushed Barca out wide, where they were less dangerous. In 2009 they couldn't do this, Barca just kept on walking through their midfield. Control does not aways equal possession. I know that it's easy to say this with hindsight, but after 20 mins (when we had weathered the initial storm), and knowing that we stil could get thrashed I was already ten times happier with the performance than against Wigan. We were already in control at that stage, breaking up possession in dangerous areas and keeping it when we needed to. "
Pumpstar
"Gobias- United had Ronny come back from injury & Hargreaves was mising all season,but Pool were at full strength(bar Aquilani who is a perma-crock)..
how can you possibly say that Aquilani is a perma-crock yet you say that Hargreaves was just 'missing'?!?!?!?!"
mrbong
"whereas it's true that only a fool writes off Liverpool, it is only sentiment and nostalgia that stops them being called "sleeping giants". the heart and soul of the club are being eroded by lunatic American mismanagement and a deranged Spaniard who, more often than not, just squanders whatever money he gets and complains that he's not getting more. it's a shame, really - loved or hated, Liverpool were always respected, that's going with each passing season.
"
treblerebel
"VIVKEKLFC, you are truly a tool, "if we had the money you did", the reaon you haven't is because you've spent all your money on substandard pieces of sh*te you t*sser, Rafa has spent the deficit of a small 3rd world country since he came to Liverpool, he hasn't got the brains to buy a player that he can develop and sell on for 80 mill a few years later after numerous trophies, most of the players he has brought in apart from Alonso usually get sold on the cheap for next to nothing after he realises what a mistake he has made, so shut your f**king cake hole and think about what you're saying. We have that money because we buy well the majority of the time and have built up a huge fan base. Rayne, good on you son, keep speaking the truth, and don't listne to this to**er, this is not having ago at you other Liverpool fans that actually make valid points."
leftcoastred
"what a sensible article, my faith has been restored! It is early days and obviously this is a huge set back we played probably as well as we played against Boro at the start of last season. Just today we didn't convert the chances and to Villas credit (and Lucas') they did. But our lack of width continues to be an issue, Johnson and Kuyt looked dangerous on the right but with no threat coming from the left Villa shut that down pretty quickly camped just outside their box and dared us to break them down which which is exactly how we ended with so many draws last year, thats the worrying part! "
treblerebel
"That first statement of the article is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard, are you saying that there can only be 1 reason for why Liverpool lost and that it cannot be a combination of both things? Fait enough Liverpool had more possession, but they rarely had the killer ball to create the chance that could not be missed that would have finished Liverpool off, something that could not be said last year, and also Brad Friedel did have another stunning game to add to his large collection."
rafamuggin
"Agree with banksy69 - most folk I've spoken to who have laid in with the usual comments, didn't watch the game. I did, and I along with others in the pub were shell shocked that Villa scored two in that first half. That did for us then. And although we went at them until we got the goal, Gerrard's tackle did for us. Yes, we still lack something in the middle of the park, with Lucas and Masch doing a similar role. But I've watched (and been to) so many games at Anfield in the last few years that our performances rarely differ - quick out of the blocks (if goal comes, easy win - see Madrid last year), lots of possession, but if goal doesn't come, missed passes, lack of ideas seep in, and frustration grows. This was the same when (oh how he turns into a great in media's eyes now he's gone) Xabi was there for the countless draws at Anfield last season. BUT, we have looked a little off the boil this season (including pre season), Torres looks like he wants to fight the world. I actually like Lucas and in the first half hour he looked like a lad who could settle in to this team. However, with Rafa's obsession with formations and players merely being parts of that formation - this is where we are suffering. How about 4-4-2, with Kuyt, Gerrard, Masch and Riera (Yossi) in midfield, with Babel and Torres up front? Now that would give me hope. "
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