Aston Villa vs Liverpool

Result : 0-0
Man of the match : Carragher

Sometimes I just wonder what is in Rafa’s head. Chelsea played earlier against Spurs and drew. That was our chance to get to the top of the league. That was how I see it, but obviously not Rafa. He went to this game thinking ‘great, Chelase drew so we don’t have to take risk to win. A draw would be enough because that means we would still be on level with them. If we got a win it would be a bonus but we don’t have to win.’

That sucks! For me we should always play to win. I can understand if we play cautiously against the top 3 teams but against the rest we should really go for the win regardless of the situation.

Rafa started with 3 central midfielders, Alonso, The Chief and Lucas. The back 4 was as usual and Torres started upfront with Kuyt & Keane supported him on the flanks. The team actually started the game playing 4-4-2 with Lucas on the left and Keane partnering Torres, but 5 minutes into the game they changed it to Keane on the left and Torres upfront alone. 20 million worth of striker played on the left is just rubbish for me. What a waste.

We struggled in the game. Keane was ineffective on the left and when Torres got injured things got worse. Ngog, Torres replacement is a decent player but it was too much to expect for a 19 year old making his debut to play on his own. We really struggled. Thankfully 10 minutes before halftime Rafa did change the formation with Keane back at playing in the center along side Ngog, and we instantly played better. Keane has to play in the center, other than that is unacceptable.

We improved in the 2nd half but with no natural wide player we were always going to find it hard to score. And when Rafa took Keane out and replaced him with Benayoun, I just gave up. Keane was one of the better players today but that just showed Rafa's intent that is not to lose the game, instead of trying to win it. And that was what we did for the last 10 minute. Ngog isolated upfront with the rest of the player back defending. We ended the game without a single shot on target. Ridiculous!

It was only Villa, Rafa. Only Aston fucking Villa!

I have no doubt Rafa see the result as 1 point gained. He will point out to Gerrard’s absence and Torres pulling a hamstring. He will say ‘look we got 7 points from the first 3 games, with 2 of it being away games. We kept another clean sheet and we stay level at the top still unbeaten.’ I disagree Rafa, we should have gone for broke today and try to get a lead on Chelsea. We wasted a great opportunity to build a lead on Chelsea.

We played Aston Villa and played negatively. How are we going to square up with Chelsea Arsenal and Man Utd? Admittedly Villa is one of the better sides outside the top 4 but if we need to be cautious against all the teams that have a hint of troubling us we will never challenge for the title.

The man of the match was again Carra. It’s pretty embarrassing when we keep having a defender as the man of the match. That just show how pathetic we were.

Please change your mind set, Rafa. It is getting depressing…