There were moments where Liverpool looked themselves in Birmingham, but far more that reminded us all of the horrors we’ve sat through all season. This year’s version of Liverpool are very easy to play against, and Villa would have gotten quite the confidence boost given the ease of tearing the Premier League champions apart. Hard to determine exactly why this team has gone so wrong, but they travel back to Merseyside as deserving losers tonight.
Talking Tactics
Aston Villa have been struggling somewhat in the league
with their attention squarely on European football, and yet the first choice XI made Liverpool look like pretenders on Friday night. Liverpool’s tactics are remarkably weak in defense, both when it comes to defending set plays (even if the Liverpool captain also scored from two as well).
There’s a lack of defensive vision and especially a lack of pressure in how Liverpool play at present, with opponents allowed a lot of time and space on the ball around the edges of the Liverpool box especially. The first Villa goal underscored all of these shortcomings: The Reds were slow to react to a short corner routine and failed to react effectively to the opposition’s ball movement. The Reds are relatively easy to score against, which is worrying when it’s unclear exactly what a Liverpool goal looks like.
Liverpool scored two and could perhaps have had a couple more, and it’s worrying that such an attack is not enough to come away with a win against a team who could perhaps been convinced not to care about the game as much as the final on their horizon. Instead, the Reds gave Villa nothing but hope with soft, slow defending. It was a forgettable affair, but one that showed all of this season’s shortcomings in 4k view.
How The Manager Reacted
After the match Arne Slot was asked just how “damaging” the loss was for his side, and helpfully broke down the ways:
Damaging because we needed either a win or maybe, maybe, maybe two draws would have been enough as well. But now we know one thing for sure – that we need a win next week if we have to do it ourselves. As we all know, other teams, of course, need to pick up points as well for us to need a win. So that’s really damaging that we were not able to get a result, let alone a win here today. There were parts in the game where I felt a result could have gone our way. But I think what people are mainly focused on is the period after the 2-1 where we couldn’t find any momentum anymore and we conceded two other goals. That was the most difficult period in the game.
Further, he noted how “frustrating” it is to make the same mistakes every game:
It’s frustrating because as a manager you’re also responsible for if things happen time and time again. You are hired to try to prevent that for the next time. We scored two set-pieces over here, so usually you think if you go to an away game or any game where you score two set-pieces, usually you’re quite sure of a result – unless you concede three set-pieces, what we did.
So against [Manchester] United, against Chelsea, in this game again, we have a negative balance in set-pieces and that makes it really hard if you play against equal teams – which United, Chelsea and Villa are – to win a game of football, and again that was shown today. And the manner, of course, in which we conceded the 2-1, I think we’ve thought we’ve seen a lot this season – this one we haven’t. But, of course, Dominik [Szoboszlai] has had and has a very good season and he doesn’t do it on purpose and he’s the first one who feels [bad] about it. But it happens and then afterwards we really, really, really struggled to find any momentum again.
Though the Reds have a lot to play for on this season’s final outing, there’s hope that a summer reset can fix the issues at the core of the side:
I can understand at this moment in time that they don’t have a lot of confidence or a lot of feeling that things can be much better next season, but I think they are then underestimating what a window can do, what a new start can do. I think we know quite well what to improve; I think one of the things we also have to improve is also very, very, very obvious and I would have preferred not to talk about it here, but you’re actually almost forcing me to.
If you miss nine players that can start a game of football and almost all of them are starters for us, or have been for large parts of the season starters for us, then if you add that to what you can improve in a window and add that to players that are playing for the second season in the Premier League – and I think we saw the adaptation to the Premier League for a few of them took some time, but that’s now better and better – that will automatically lead to much more, but that’s my opinion and no-one has to agree with me.
Even today, for large parts of the game we were close to a result but then when you are the better team you need to generate more chances, and if you have the chances you need to score them. We cannot concede as many set-pieces as we’ve conceded this season. I don’t think the difference is so big, only doing in a few situations the right thing can already have a massive upwards possibility.
What Happens Next
Qualifying for Europe becomes that much harder now, with both Brighton and Bournemouth still to play and with an outside chance of pipping the spot from the Reds. Liverpool need both to drop points this weekend, and will need a win on the final day. Even in a season lacking things to play for, the Reds have managed to add challenges when it could all be done and dusted by now.
Brighton travel to Leeds on Sunday and Bournemouth host Manchester City on Tuesday, and the Seagulls sit seventh on 53 points while Bournemouth are in sixth with 55. Neither can leapfrog the Reds with wins this week, but should one or both win their matchday 37 ties the final day of the season will be quite a bit more stressful.
Should Aston Villa win their Europa League final match on the 20th then whoever is in sixth place will also qualify for Champions League football, which would take the stress off somewhat depending on how the rest of the weekend play goes.
