Liverpool played well in spurts, getting a brace from captain Virgil van Dijk, but they fell victim to bad luck and had some struggles defensively in a 4-2 loss to Aston Villa. Here are three man talking points after the defeat.
Using Your Head
Virgil van Dijk’s brace was the second of his career. The other came in 2019 vs Brighton, also both on headers. Van Dijk now has 38 career goals with Liverpool, 30 of which have come from headers. As a result, he earned our Man Of The Match.
Lack Of Pace
Speaking of defensive struggles, Liverpool have now allowed 77 goals this season, the most since the 1993 season. It seemed that the back line had trouble keeping pace with the long balls over the top to Ollie Watkins and others. Joe Gomez played well, but says mistakes by the group cost the Reds.
“Yeah, in so many ways,” We cost ourselves a big opportunity today. We know that. It sums up our year, with it being in our hands and errors that are avoidable at pivotal points in the game where we could have got momentum. At the end of the day, it’s still in our hands [qualifying for the Champions League], the goal remains the same. We’ve just got to do the job next week now.”
One Game To Rule Them All
A few weeks ago, Champions League qualification seemed all but assured. Now the Reds need to win on May 24th vs. Brentford at Anfield to secure a spot. There are a few other possibilities outside of victory for the Reds to qualify, but they are contingent on other results.
“We needed either a win or maybe, maybe, maybe two draws would have been enough as well,” Arne Slot said. “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.”
LFC Globe Verdict
This was not necessarily a bad game. Liverpool looked excellent at times, but it sure was a bad result. There is now even more pressure from outside the dressing room regarding Arne Slot’s future, but I think the Reds put that behind them and get the job done at Anfield next week.
Have Your Say
What was the most frustrating part about the game? Drop a comment below.