Having dropped points at Anfield for the first time since October in their match-up with Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool couldn’t afford any slip-ups as they faced club legend Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa.
Jürgen Klopp made five changes to the side that drew with Spurs, replacing Ibrahima Konaté, Andy Robertson, Thiago Alcântara, Jordan Henderson and Mohamed Salah with Joël Matip, Kostas Tsimikas, Curtis Jones, Naby Keïta and Diogo Jota. Liverpool set up in their usual 4-3-3 formation.
Gerrard made two changes to the team that beat Burnley, as Calum Chambers and Emiliano Buendia were replaced by Marvelous Nakamba and Philippe Coutinho. Villa lined up in a 4-3-1-2 shape.
Both sides scored before the game could even settle into any pattern. At a cross, Tsimikas and Ollie Watkins clashed, causing them both to fall to the ground, which in turn saw the back-pedalling Matip trip over the striker instead of jumping for the aerial ball. This allowed Douglas Luiz a free header at goal, which Alisson Becker saved, but Luiz was on hand to tap home the follow-up.
Liverpool equalised from a free-kick just minutes later though. Villa’s defenders managed to get to the ball first thanks to some gratuitous holding, but they repeatedly failed to get the ball away, with the loose ball falling to Virgil van Dijk and Matip scrambling it across the line. A messy goal was answered with another messy goal.
Back on level terms, both teams were struggling to create real chances.
Villa aimed to block up the middle, with the forwards each taking a centre-back, Coutinho picking up his compatriot Fabinho and John McGinn and Luiz picking up Keïta and Jones respectively. This would leave the Liverpool full-backs free out wide though, and so Liverpool found an easy way to play around this set-up. They would pass wide to Trent Alexander-Arnold, causing Danny Ings to move wide to close him down, then pass back inside to Matip, who now had space to advance through the middle due to Ings getting pulled wide.
Similar moves were also used to create space in midfield for Liverpool. Keïta would drop in next to Fabinho to double up on Coutinho, as McGinn was reluctant to follow the Guinean and leave Alexander-Arnold free. McGinn and Luiz positioning themselves relatively wide in case they needed to move wide regularly left gaps between the midfielders for Liverpool to poke the ball through into attack.
In attack Liverpool were primarily looking to take advantage of Villa’s narrowness. Having just three men in midfield meant they had to cover a lot of ground and so Alexander-Arnold switched play to Tsimikas on the opposite flank, while Liverpool would frequently pull the Villa players inside before spreading the ball wide to the full-backs in space on the flanks to cross.
The main problem with this approach was that Liverpool would have to send the ball back into the middle in order to actually score, so, while they could stretch Villa, they would inevitably be whipping crosses into a crowded area, making it hard to create clear-cut chances.
Villa generally tried to play directly. Sometimes this was simple long balls in behind for Ings and Watkins to chase, but equally it was quick forward passes out wide between the full-backs, midfielders and strikers, looking to draw Liverpool out then attack the space behind.
Their narrowness did create space out wide for their full-backs, with Villa’s four midfielders forcing Keïta and Jones into narrow positions and often drawing them up-field, away from the flanks to leave Lucas Digne and Matty Cash in space. Villa rarely took advantage of this though, either failing to use them as options or simply passing back inside when they did, rather than getting forward to stretch the Reds backline and whip in crosses.
Liverpool ended up taking the lead in the second half, when substitute Thiago pressured Luiz at a throw-in. Liverpool immediately pounced on the opportunity, breaking forward before Villa could get back into shape. Luis Diaz sent a quick cross past Tyrone Mings directly onto Sadio Mané’s head to give the Reds the lead. It was a goal that showcased the individual quality of Liverpool’s attackers: one little mistake and they squeezed out a goal with a perfectly-placed cross and header.
Liverpool managed to hold out to claim the three points needed to keep the title race going, but it hadn’t been a particularly impressive performance on their part.
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