Aston Villa: Pack The Midfield, Target Cissokho And Look To Play Lobbed Through-Balls vs Liverpool

This season has seen Aston Villa establish themselves as an away side, and what I mean by that is they are a squad suited to playing teams away from home. They have won four of their 10 away games in the Premier League drawing three and losing three of the others, and have averaged only 45% possession on average in general. This weekend though they travel to Liverpool, who are exceptionally strong at home.

Villa have allowed sides to enjoy possession this season before trying to hit them on the break, but to try that against Liverpool would be a very dangerous game to play.

If I was Paul Lambert I would set up in a 4-5-1 formation and look to hassle the Liverpool players at every opportunity.

When going forward, I would target left-back Aly Cissokho, who has been shaky at best this season. He looks as though when he goes forward he isn’t too fussed about getting back, so there could be a lot of space to be found behind him if that’s the case.

Lastly, to get the best out of striker Gabriel Agbonlahor, who has scored two in his last three, I would look to play balls over the top. Martin Skrtel and Daniel Agger aren’t the quickest of players and he could exploit that with his pace.