Liverpool vs Aston Villa: Match Preview with George Priestman

LiverpoolWorld

LiverpoolWorld's George Priestman previews Liverpool vs Aston Villa from the AXA Training Centre.

Transcript

00:00This is George Priest from Fort Liverpool World reporting after Arnie Slott had just

00:03spoken to the media ahead of their game against Aston Villa in the Premier League this weekend.

00:08It's been an extraordinary run of form for Liverpool under Slott, topping the Champions

00:12League format so far and topping the Premier League as well, currently having a two-point

00:17gap over Manchester City and they'll be hoping to maintain that gap with a victory against

00:21Aston Villa this weekend.

00:22There wasn't any new team news to come out of today's press conference, the only thing

00:27we got was Diogo Jota will be back at some point in the first one or two weeks after

00:32the international break and the same is likely for Alisson Becker who's been out since October

00:37and Javier Leite who's been out since late August and obviously Federico Chiesa as well.

00:42Short injury problems across the last few seasons, he's been out since making his first

00:46start in the EFL Cup win over West Ham in September and it's likely we'll see him back

00:50after the international break but again, there is no date for him at the current time.

00:54Of course, fans are still extremely happy since the win over Bayer Leverkusen in the

00:59week.

01:00Liverpool were absolutely sensational in the 4-0 win, scoring all four goals in the second

01:03half and handing Xabi Alonso's side only their third defeat in 69 games.

01:09It's such a brilliant achievement to take it to a team like Leverkusen and make them

01:13look in the end fairly ordinary and Liverpool at Anfield was incredible, what an atmosphere,

01:19what a night and now they go into this Villa game as heavy favourites given the Unai Emery

01:23side are struggling for form at the moment.

01:26One player absolutely starred in the win over Leverkusen was Curtis Jones.

01:31He's currently on the best run of form that we've seen across his career so far.

01:35He's forced his way into the Liverpool team now, ahead of Dominic Sobisai who has probably

01:39been the only Liverpool player to really struggle you would say with this brilliant start to

01:44the season but Jones is flying right now and Slott was asked about him and he claimed that

01:49maybe him becoming a father might be the reason why his form has turned around.

01:54He knows that he's a fantastic player, he called him brilliant on the ball,

01:58has plenty of technical qualities and Lee Carsley said the same as well,

02:01claimed he was one of the best players that he's ever worked with,

02:04the current England interim manager and Jones will be off with England for the international

02:10break after the game against Ville this weekend which he should expect to start

02:15given the form that he is currently showing in midfield.

02:18One player who obviously stole the headlines on Tuesday night was Luis Diaz with that second

02:23half hat-trick, the first of his senior career and he has been absolutely sensational this

02:28season, really raising his quality in front of goal and his tactical tweak that saw him

02:35sort of play between left wing and centre forward, Arnie Slott spoke about it in the press conference,

02:39that's a new addition to his game but obviously that quality in front of goal

02:43is far improved. His goal conversion has gone from 9% last season in the league to 29% this

02:48time around so it's a huge difference and Liverpool are reaping the benefits of his form.

02:53In terms of Aston Villa, they find themselves in pretty poor form, losing

02:56three games on the bounce, that included an AFL Cup defeat to Aston Villa, a heavy 4-1 defeat to

03:02Tottenham and of course the defeat to Bruges during the week as well. They were rotated in

03:07the week with a couple of changes, it's likely we'll see the likes of Paul Torres come back in,

03:12Jacob Ramsey and there's a question mark again with the strike force, will John

03:17Durant come in after his early season form but Villa are definitely wounded at the moment,

03:22losing three on the bounce which is a rare poor run of form for them under Unai Emery

03:27and it's going to be interesting to see how they cope with Liverpool at Anfield because

03:30they're absolutely thriving right now and they could well be blown away given the current form

03:35of both sides. For Liverpool though, they just want to maintain this winning run and go into

03:40the international break with a win and maintain themselves at the top of that table ahead of

03:44Manchester City. Of course, there's seven points clear of Arsenal as it stands and they want to

03:48keep that lead for as long as possible but given current form,

03:52they stand as heavy favourites to win this weekend against Villa.

Category

Transcript

Recommended