Fielding a starting XI full of new faces, Liverpool lost 1-0 against a well organised Aston Villa side, recording their first home game lost in the campaign, and losing important ground in the fight for the Premier League.
Defensive Set Pieces were too problematic for Liverpool yesterday and Villa got their goal in the ninth minute with a ball that came from a corner kick, after Lovren lost an aerial challenge with Senderos. Some minutes after that, Senderos ran free into the area off a long free kick cross that almost ended in a second goal for the Villagers.
On the offensive, Liverpool seemed disconnected and Coutinho especially seemed to miss a lot of Suarez' mobility in and around the area and his through balls were almost always wayward. This didn't seem to have been correctly judged by a confused Rodgers who’s substitutions were late and inaccurate: Lallana was performing much better in the second half than Coutinho, and Markovic and Balotelli were not playing at all bad. In addition, Lambert and Borini seem to be the kind of player that needs more minutes to perform, and their 70 minute ingress were absolutely insignificant.
Finally, Liverpool didn't have the luck enough to score when Coutinho’s shot heated the post, or when Henderson got in the way of Sterling’s shot to the goal.
Source: DSG
