Aston Villa – Liverpool: Watkins The Cause of Liverpool’s Woe (4-2)

Liverpool’s possession structure looked somewhat unbalanced against Aston Villa’s compact defensive block while the home side were dangerous in attack, exploiting the space in behind Liverpool’s defense. The resulting four-goal haul was enough to see off Liverpool and mathematically secure Villa’s place in the top five.

Tactical analysis and match report by Josh Manley.

Aston Villa and Liverpool were level on points coming into this game, and a win for either would mathematically secure their top five spot. Villa had other things to think about too though, as they look forward to their Europa League final against Freiburg in midweek.

Unai Emery set Villa up in a 4-2-3-1 shape here, with a back four of Matty Cash, Ezri Konsa, Pau Torres, and Lucas Digne. Victor Lindelöf was deployed in a midfield role alongside Youri Tielemans, while John McGinn, Morgan Rogers, and Emiliano Buendía formed the attacking midfield trio behind striker Ollie Watkins.

Liverpool manager Arne Slot also set up in a nominal 4-2-3-1 shape here, with Joe Gomez, Ibrahima Konaté, Virgil van Dijk, and Milos Kerkez in defense. Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister partnered centrally, with Dominik Szoboszlai as number ten. Curtis Jones played a right-sided role, while Rio Ngumoha and Cody Gakpo completed the attack.

Liverpool lacking balance

A look at Liverpool’s teamsheet already reveals a potential issue in their lineup for this game: the lack of natural width on the right. With Gomez and Jones – both central players by trade – in these positions, one might expect a slightly unbalanced attacking game . . .