Liverpool Must Learn from Aston Villa Failures to Keep Up Good League Start

Liverpool vs. Aston Villa: a heavyweight Premier League battle of yesteryear, but in more recent times a team battling to make ground at the top against one trying desperately to avoid the drop at the bottom.

With that in mind and Saturday's fixture being played at Anfield, a home three points would seem the most likely outcome—but Brendan Rodgers has seen his side struggle enormously against Villa in his two campaigns so far with the Reds.

In a tough league where every win matters, the lessons from those two slip-ups are paramount for the Reds to learn from this time around if they want to capitalise on the win at Spurs last time out and take a third win from four games at the start of the new season.

Villains

A 3-1 battering two years ago was one thing, but Liverpool were in the midst of a good run—which was about to become a great one—last season when they stumbled to a 2-2 draw against Villa, having initially gone two goals down.

The comeback showed mental resistance and the ability of the team to continue scoring in adversity, but Liverpool really shouldn't have put themselves in the position to begin with. Villa were better from the off, looked far more threatening and certainly deserved their point.

Big Problems, Repeatedly

Runners, and runners from deep.

This has been an issue for the Reds for a long time, but Aston Villa in particular have exploited it repeatedly. Not a star name perhaps, but Andreas Weimann has been one of the players to give Liverpool most trouble over the past couple of seasons, coming in off the channels and using his lightning pace to exploit gaps between the defenders and the fact that the central midfield don't track back enough.

Part of this stems from the alignment in the middle, as Liverpool used a flat double pivot both times.

This has often caused the Reds trouble with runners from deep, with no single individual taking responsibility to either block off the runs or at least track them.

Last season the Reds switched to a flat 4-4-2 for the Villa match and were undone, with Steven Gerrard and Jordan Henderson starting as a central pivot and not getting to grips with Villa overloading the middle and getting players forward from wide areas very quickly.

Gaps between full-back and centre-back, as well as nobody picking up the likes of Weimann running from deep, have cost the Reds five points from two home games against this opposition over the past two seasons.

Coping This Time Around

Liverpool were back in their diamond formation against Spurs and looked far better balanced at both ends of the pitch, while the centre-back pairing of Dejan Lovren and Mamadou Sakho was as solid as the back line has looked all season, even with the Croatian having a few moments of lacking awareness.

Assuming the back four stays the same, Liverpool have better pace in the wide areas now to cope with that movement behind the back line—Alberto Moreno and Javi Manquillo have both started well—but it is the midfield shape which should be the biggest improvement.

The Reds could move to a 4-3-3 to provide greater cover down the wings, perhaps with Adam Lallana getting his first start on the right for that reason. But playing Gerrard as the deepest point to protect the defence with his clearances and headers, with two pressers ahead—Henderson and Joe Allen—should be enough to repel what has been a strong and well-organised Villa outfit at the start of the campaign.

Along with keeping pace with the likes of Manchester City and Chelsea, a handy guide for Liverpool's own form is to try and match or improve on results of last season against the same team each time.

A win at the weekend will put the Reds firmly on the path to improvement against Villa and will cap an impressive overall start, results-wise, to the 2014-15 season—a nice boost ahead of the Reds' return to Champions League action next week.

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