Opposition Corner: Aston Villa (A)

14th February 2016. Valentine’s Day, Divock Origi gets the scare of his life. He’d just put Liverpool 4-0 up against a rank Aston Villa side, and as a reward, he got a Valentine’s Day smooch from a Liverpool supporter. He looked unsurprisingly visibly shocked following his necking, and the only thing that was as close to that surprising was the result. Liverpool won 6-0 that day, a scoreline you very rarely see involving teams not called Manchester City. The truth is, whilst we were very good, Aston Villa were incredibly poor; not something we will see on Saturday.

Both sides went in different directions following the Valentine’s Day massacre. Villa were ultimately relegated with a poultry 17 points, culminating in a three year stay in the Championship before last season’s promotion. Liverpool obviously went on to become champions of Europe, and are currently sitting very pretty at the top with 28 points from a possible 30, still six clear of Manchester City.

Aston Villa are just six points shy of their relegation season points haul, and look solid enough in the Premier League, so there will be no repeat of that 6-0 in 2016. Liverpool may be without Fabinho as he walks a disciplinary tightrope, a yellow card against Aston Villa would result in a suspension for the upcoming game against City, so he may not be risked. Gini Wijnaldum would be the one dropping back into the number 6 position, with Oxlade-Chamberlain and Milner vying for a midfield spot next to skipper Jordan Henderson. Mo Salah will be fit to start with Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino, as the Reds look to make it 10 wins out of 11.

To help preview the game, we spoke to Jamie Yapp (@jeryapp87) from Aston Villa fansite Heart of the Holte (@HeartOfTheHolte) to get the opposition’s perspective of this weekend’s game.

Hi Jamie, thanks for helping out. How would you sum up Villa under Dean Smith, and how well do you think your first 10 games back in the Premier League have gone?

Dean Smith has been great for us, he’s been a unifying presence reconnecting fans with the club we love after a succession of disconnected owners and coaches. Now there’s a togetherness that runs throughout the club and the football we play has so much more direction and purpose. All of this has built a collective belief that we are building in the right direction is back.

Our first 10 games have been a mixed bag results wise, but our approach has been pretty consistent and but for a bit more luck and some more than contentious VAR decisions against us our points tally might be even healthier than it is. But as a newly promoted team it’s been a pretty promising start especially with so many new players and Premier league debutant together.

We all know how good Jack Grealish is and how influential he can be. Who else should be of concern to Liverpool?

Grealish is obviously a talisman for us and the captain living out all of our dreams by playing for and captaining his team (something Liverpool fans understand with Gerrard). But John McGinn will also cause plenty of problems. He’s been like a man possessed this season and will never stop running, popping up all over the pitch, and pitching in with goals and assists. He will seek to be a constant nuisance to the opposition and he’s already something of a legend amongst the Villa faithful.

There seems to be a different mood around Villa than when you were relegated a few years ago, what’s changed?

In short. Everything. In 2016, everything was broken. An owner who wanted out, three managers and no direction on the pitch, a number of players with no belief or desire, and no identity visible anywhere, since then we almost went into liquidation when our owner could no longer fund any aspect of the club. But last Summer we were saved by wealthy owners with an ethos, a methodology and a plan who brought about the on field change through hiring one of our own, Dean Smith who changed our footballing philosophy, unified the club and shifted the mentality, and now we are back here. The change in just over a year has been night and day. Where once there was only bleak despair now there’s optimism and a real belief that we can build something special again.

What sort of setup are we likely to see, against City you looked to sit in and break at every possible opportunity. Will it be more of the same or will you try and get in our faces a bit more?

Smith’s preferred formation is a 4-3-3 and there’s nothing to suggest he’ll change that for the Liverpool match. Going away to Man City we were always likely to be forced to defend more and play more on the counter, but we still tried to play our game where we could. I imagine we’ll seek to attack more against Liverpool as we’re at home and the onus will be on us to try and take the game to you a bit more. A sell out crowd will demand it. But we’ll have to be obviously aware of the myriad of threats you possess in attack and you’re marauding wing backs in particular. It will be very difficult for us to express ourselves, but Smith doesn’t want us to just play for draws or make up the numbers, so expect us to try and get at you whenever we can.

Tyrone Mings made his England debut in Bulgaria and got a lot of praise for both his performance and reaction to the awful abuse he received, just how good has he been?

Since Mings arrived on loan in January, he has become a crucial component to our team. Signing him permanently in the Summer was one of our most important pieces of business. Some balked at the fee, but he is already demonstrating just how justifiable that fee was in the current market. He’s a natural leader on the pitch, a commanding physical presence and a big character in the squad. He’s calm on the ball and reads the game very well. His England call up came sooner than most of us (himself included) expected, but how he carried himself in the challenging environment of that Bulgaria tie was no surprise to us as Villa fans and is testament to his character. He has had a couple of errors in games that he’ll be annoyed with, but his determination to improve with every game means we’ve got a centre back we can be very proud of.

Realistically, do you see you guys having a chance against a side that has picked up 28 points from a possible 30?

On paper, we’re massive underdogs of course. Liverpool are current European champions and have been in almost untouchable form, so realistically it will be very difficult to get a result, but we’re a team who back ourselves to play and we can cause problems. We’ll have to be at our absolute best everywhere on the pitch and hope that we can keep some of your key threats as quiet as possible, but nothing is beyond the realms of possibility, that’s why we love football! Norwich beat Man City whilst decimated by injuries, so there’s always some hope to cling to.

There’s obviously plenty of talent in the Liverpool side, who do you fear the most?

Liverpools threat comes on multiple threats that’s why they’re so hard to beat. Obviously the trio of Salah, Mané and Firmino can punish you in any number of ways, but you’ve got goal threats from Oxlade-Chamberlain and Wijnaldum in midfield and non-stop supply from Robertson and Alexander-Arnold. To isolate one strength is to underestimate the team ethic and strength of your whole 11.

Finally, what would your score prediction be?

Again, I’ll aim for optimism. I would hope to get something, so my heart wants to say 1-1, but the realist in me thinks, maybe 2 or 3-1 Liverpool. Whatever the score, I’m happy if we give a good account of ourselves.

WHAT WE SAY

I personally can’t see anything other than a Liverpool win. Klopp has a good record against promoted side and the players know how much three points means. We play at the same time as City so there won’t be any distractions, so I’m going 3-1 to Liverpool, and hoping that Southampton can improve to get something against City. That isn’t happening, though, so the objective is to stay 6 points clear before next week’s crunch match at Anfield, where we could potentially be able to dream about that elusive Premier League title.