Unai Emery has identified a Liverpool threat who is not Mo Salah.

Unai Emery has identified a Liverpool threat who is not Mo Salah

Unai Emery believes Trent Alexander-Arnold is the main Liverpool threat to his Aston Villa side this weekend, despite Mo Salah scoring 12 goals in his last 16 games.

Last week, the 24-year-old scored his second goal of the season, a sublime free-kick in Liverpool’s 3-0 thrashing of relegation-threatened Leicester.

However, in recent weeks, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has allowed Alexander-Arnold to join the team’s midfield when they have possession. The England star’s form has been outstanding over the last six weeks, with six assists in his last eight games.

Emery is most concerned about Alexander-Arnold’s passing ability, especially given Villa’s strong defensive line. Villa have caught their opponents offside 92 times since Emery’s first game in charge in November, more than any other team in the Premier League.

Emery said of Villa’s high line and the threat Liverpool poses knowing they’ve only lost once at home this season: “We’ve had to be very clinical in analysing how to get the best defensive performances.” From my experiences since arriving here, it is critical to work defensively with the players.

“It’s critical to stay connected with the players on the line – higher and lower.” But, of course, when the opposition analyzes us, they will work and try to beat that line and score goals, so we must always be on guard.

“We’ve been doing extremely well in this. That was excellent work against Tottenham. We had a difficult time keeping the line open with Son, Richarlison, but we were still connected.

“Saturday, on the other hand, is a completely different challenge.” However, we have discussed in training how we can be alert to them if they are preparing to threaten us. Someone like Arnold could pose a threat to us.”

“I think [Liverpool] are playing better,” Emery added. I’m not sure if that’s because they’re working with Arnold inside to get a different shape with the ball.

“However, I believe Arnold is playing his best football and making excellent passes, both short and long, right and left, and with pinpoint accuracy.

“They have very good players to run behind, get the ball, and do one-on-ones with.” They are very confident and pleased with the shape and tactical changes they made.”

With Brighton expected to beat already-relegated Southampton this weekend, it appears to be a shootout between Brighton and Tottenham for the Europa Conference League spot. In their final two games, Villa (Liverpool, Brighton) must outperform Spurs (Brentford, Leeds).

“We are going to try to impose our shape well, our positioning, but we have to adapt and not let them play with Arnold’s qualities,” Emery said of the game plan at Anfield.

“We must avoid their individual qualities and skills and work as a team.” We must work as a team to build the strong structure we are attempting to build. We must maintain ball possession and attack the open spaces.

“I followed Liverpool when they played the final with Klopp against Sevilla when he first arrived here in 2017.” We won the Europa League final with Sevilla, and they were out of Europe with no Champions League or Europa League, and they started the process. The coach, the club structure, and the players have made tremendous progress over the last six years.

“It’s a way I want to see and take something away from, trying to take some reference of what they’re doing.” At Aston Villa, I want to forge our own path by being strong and attempting to learn from other teams.”

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