- Alex Keble (@alexkeble) is a football journalist who specialises in tactical understanding, analysis and predictions of all aspects of the game.
Scroll down for Aston Villa vs Tottenham match-ups.
Injury-hit midfield vs Constant pressure
- Liverpool vs Man City
- Sky Sports Main Event: 15:45 GMT, Sunday
- Home 19/10 | Draw 14/5 | Away 6/5
The reverse fixture back in November didn’t quite live up to the billing. It was a claustrophobic 1-1 draw defined by Liverpool’s caution and their new-look midfield unable to connect sufficiently to build out of the Manchester City press.
Injuries mean this could be a similar sort of game.
Best case scenario for the hosts, Dominik Szoboszlai and Wataru Endo will be available to start alongside Alexis Mac Allister but neither player will be match sharp, potentially giving Liverpool the same disjointed and weary feel in the middle of the park.
Worst case scenario, they end up Mac Allister, Joe Gomez and Bobby Clark – and Man City overwhelm them.
Jurgen Klopp is likely to be far less cavalier than in the past, then, compressing space in a more conservative midblock and allowing City to hold most of the ball.
That might prevent Liverpool from being cut open, but nevertheless Rodri, John Stones, Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden might swarm this area to the extent that Liverpool cannot play their way up the field.
If that happens, the big issue is what Man City do once they are in command of central midfield.
Rodri loves to ping long balls out to Jeremy Doku, who will be in huge amounts of space should a deeper Liverpool get sucked into that central maelstrom, and Doku versus Conor Bradley is a potential issue.
Trent Alexander-Arnold struggled badly against Doku in the 1-1 draw at The Etihad, the winger completing 11 dribbles in total. Bradley has been a revelation deputising for Alexander-Arnold but Doku is a unique challenge, and the young right-back won’t necessarily get adequate midfield support.
On the other hand, Liverpool could benefit from a deeper starting position.
First of all, that curtails the out-of-form Erling Haaland, who can be shepherded more easily by Virgil van Dijk with limited space behind him, and second because Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz present an attractive counter-attacking threat – as does Mohamed Salah, if he is fit to come off the bench.
Darwin, peeling to the right, will avoid confrontation with Kyle Walker in favour of Nathan Ake.
He can win that battle and Liverpool, in the most un-Klopp-like of ways, could spring forward on the break to victory.
Torres & Luiz v High press
- Aston Villa vs Tottenham
- Sky Sports Main Event: 13:00 GMT, Sunday
- Home 7/5 | Draw 29/10 | Away 8/5
Unai Emery’s side were outplayed in the first half at Spurs back in November only for half-time changes to turn the game on its head, a pattern that is instructive ahead of Sunday’s reverse fixture.
Villa started in a 4-4-2 in which Matty Cash was on the right wing, meaning there were only two players centrally to receive passes from the centre-backs.
Tottenham’s high and hard press penned Villa in, only for Emery’s change to a 4-2-3-1 – with Youri Tielemans between the lines, plus John McGinn shuffling in from the right – to give Villa the midfield options they needed to play through the pressure.
That 4-2-3-1, with Tielemans in a starring role, is now Villa’s default formation and with Pau Torres ready to start in defence the hosts have the personnel and the shape required to pass intelligently around the Tottenham pressure.
By doing so they can unlock Ange Postecoglou’s team, expose the high defence, and attack in straight lines.
Put simply, that is what Emery always wants to do. He is the master of the artificial transition, baiting the other team into pushing forward only for his players, with their choreographed moves, to spin behind and set Ollie Watkins away.
The obvious head-to-head is between Watkins and Micky van de Ven, but while there are interesting match-ups all over the pitch - Alex Moreno versus Dejan Kulusevski should worry Villa, as should Destiny Udogie popping up in the gaps between McGinn and Leon Bailey - the most important is the configuration of central midfield.
Douglas Luiz, receiving possession from McGinn and Torres, should be able to find the space he needs to pierce the Spurs line and put Watkins through.
It happened at Luton last weekend and, in the second half at least, it happened at Tottenham back in November.
More from Sporting Life
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org