Liverpool 3-0 Aston Villa: How the Villans Ruined Houllier's Anfield Return
Aston Villa's Premier League plight continues after they were treated to an Anfield annihilation by Liverpool.
The rampant Reds won 3-0 with goals from David N'Gog, Ryan Babel and Maxi Rodriguez, filling the temporary gap left by the absence of talismanic figures Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Fernando Torres.
Villa, on the other hand, couldn't manage as much as a goal or even just a couple of decent shots on target, despite fielding a near full-strength side in a fixture they won 3-2 last season.
The result pushes Liverpool up to eighth in the table with 22 points, 10 points off leaders Arsenal, which is an improvement for the Anfield outfit considering at this stage last campaign they were 13 points off the top.
Meanwhile, Villa stay rooted in 16th, just two points of the relegation zone and lower than all the teams that got promoted to the Premier League last season.
A damning statistic for Houllier and his men, the highest ranked team in the league Aston Villa have beaten this season is Blackpool, who currently sit 13th in the table.
The Villans have just four wins from 16 league matches so far, and it was clear why with their lacklustre showing on Merseyside.
Here's how Aston Villa, who were backed to beat Liverpool, ruined Gerard Houllier's seemingly romantic return to Anfield.
Watch Your Man, Not the Ball
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The photo here shows David N'Gog's opener for Liverpool, after Martin Skrtel played the ball back across the penalty area following Raul Meireles's right-wing corner.
It was a relatively simple goal for the Reds, as largely unchallenged Skrtel headed the ball onto the completely unmarked N'Gog, who had the easy task of finding the back of the net from less than six yards out.
Had the ball gone over N'Gog's head, it still wouldn't have been a problem for the hosts as Dirk Kuyt would've been on hand at the back post to tuck it home for a 1-0 lead.
He wouldn't have even been offside either, thanks to the two men on either post for the away side.
A crashing reality-check for dreamy Gerard Houllier, who's Villa players were more slack in defending a simple set-piece than this writer's hometown club Gillingham FC, who play in League Two. And that's saying something.
As can be seen, Liverpool had two men unmarked even after the second phase of play, with Stephen Ireland caught looking at the ball and not David N'Gog for the duration of that set-piece, which as everyone knows proved to be a deleterious mistake.
Once the technical staff and players at Aston Villa go through the video analysis of the match, they'll see it gets worse. Stephen Warnock and Ciaran Clark do the same as Ireland and simply ball-watch, allowing an unchallenged Kuyt to tuck home an opener should the ball not reach N'Gog or he misses it altogether.
Houllier can also take some flak here with his two men on the line policy, which despite preventing a fourth goal later in the match, probably meant N'Gog was free to make it 1-0, as their static guard on the goal line created a three-against-one situation in Liverpool's favour inside Villa's own goal area.
Same Old Stuff
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In every win and great performance Aston Villa have put on this season, goals always seem to come from the Stewart Downing—Marc Albrighton combination.
The pair have managed eight goals between them, five for Downing and three for Albrighton, following pacy forward runs, pinpoint crosses and expert finishes.
If only it could work against Liverpool. With an attack-minded Glen Johson, a slow Paul Konchesky and a central defence missing Jamie Carragher, Villa must've thought they'd be in for a mountain of goals.
Problem is, when they've then got no Plan B and are facing an in-form right-back and central defence, that mountain of goals very quickly disappears.
As the picture shows, Albrighton's cross is seeking out Downing at the back post to slot home, or nod back to a striker or on-rushing midfielder.
But against Roy Hodgson's defence-minded Reds, that penalty area is always a fully marked-up zone, with Downing and Ireland marked out of the attack altogether.
And the striker? Gabriel Agbonlahor, as the image shows, is close to Albrighton and looking for the ball, having been frustrated the whole match with a lack of action and a forward tactic which sees him get very little of the ball until it is played towards the goal area.
That therefore results in a lack of a threat inside the box, more players for the hosts back defending and a bigger chance the ball will be cleared out of danger with another attack ruined.
And that actually happened all game for Aston Villa, even when Houllier tried to go more attacking in the second half with a 4-4-2.
The picture above shows the best the Villans could come up with all game attacking-wise, as no intricate short passes and quickfire forward runs, or counter-attacking one-twos were even tried.
In fact, no attempt at any creative forward play was made by Villa, even when they were 3-0 down.
Striker Becomes Winger
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In the second-half, Houllier tried to spice things up attacking-wise and go for a 4-4-2 formation, bringing on striker Nathan Delfouneso for holding midfielder Ciaran Clark, in an attempt to grab goals and at least restore some parity into the game.
But it was too late, the damage had already been done. Aston Villa were already 2-0 down, frustrations were at a high, and confidence was at an all-time low.
Partly to blame for such a calamity was lone striker for the first-half, Gabriel Agbonlahor, who for much of the game went looking for the ball in an attempt to be involved after his team were finding no luck attacking down the centre.
This meant he often got dragged out of position, leaving nobody in attack to actually run at the opposition defence, which is evident in the picture.
A regular occurrence throughout the first-half, Agbonlahor's costly lack of positional sense meant Villa could not claw back their two-goal deficit or even get a shot on-target.
Lose-Lose For Houllier
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With his team showing nothing attacking-wise in the first-half, Gerard Houllier tried to remedy the situation by going on the all-out, care-free offensive in the second-half.
At 2-0 down, it was worth a try for Houllier and his Villa charges, who could regain momentum and push for an equaliser if they could just get that all-important goal to halve the deficit.
A good plan in theory, it actually turned out to be a lose-lose situation for the Villa manager, as his players failed to conjure up anything of note going forward, despite having both strikers, both wingers and Stephen Ireland camped in Liverpool's final third, with the two full-backs loitering just ahead of the half-way line and holding midfielder Jonathan Hogg edging in the attacking side of the centre circle.
Not only that, but they managed to lose a further goal following a lack of concentration and a misplaced pass, allowing the home team to break and score with a five-against-four situation.
A game plan which only required creativity and full concentration, two things Premier League footballers are paid millions to do for only 90 minutes or less each week, the Villans couldn't keep to it and immediately faced the consequences.
No goals scored and a further one conceded wasn't what Gerard Houllier had in mind in the second-half when he chose Plan B for the clueless Villa players.
Pool Got Villa's Number
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If the Aston Villa players ever wonder why they had no luck whatsoever in the goalscoring department against Liverpool, this picture will reveal all.
Every time Villa went forward, they were completely outnumbered.
Here, Ciaran Clark has the ball. He has five players to pass ahead of him, and he has to pass soon because he's getting closed down on quickly by two players.
All five are marked, including out of the picture Albrighton, kept cosy by Konchesky. Clark eventually passes to Stephen Ireland just ahead of him, who is immediately challenged when he receives the ball and soon loses possession, from which Liverpool break and N'Gog sees his effort to the bottom corner creep just wide.
Courtesy of Villa's slow tempo, negative passing, and lack of forward movement, the above situation arises time and time again.
Therefore, Aston Villa get nowhere near scoring, Agbonlahor drifts out of position, Downing's and Albrighton's crosses are met only by Liverpool defenders and the team just gets frustrated and lose confidence.
And that's exactly how the Villans shot themselves in the foot, ruining their manager's romantic return to the home of his glory days.
