As a Liverpool fan, I look ahead to Sunday’s FA Cup Semi-Final mainly with confidence but with the knowledge that it won’t be an easy game. Aston Villa are on a decent run of form at present, and will cause us problems. Having said that, we’re still a good side and I’m confident that we can hurt Villa too.
After an absolute nightmare start, we managed to put together a real run of form, but that slowed down with consecutive league defeats to Man United and Arsenal. Since then we’ve had two victories – against Blackburn and Newcastle – and have played pretty well in both, despite missing a lot of players through injury and suspension.
Looking ahead to our team for Sunday, it’ll be interesting to see how we set up. Our run of wins came using a 3-4-3 formation, but due to the aforementioned injuries and suspensions, we’ve reverted to a 4-3-3 in the last couple of games. I personally think we’ll go back to the 3-4-3 at the weekend, but that’s pretty much a wild guess!
Martin Skrtel will come straight back into the side, that’s a given. He’ll be tasked with matching up physically with Christian Benteke, and whoever gets the better of that match up will go a long way to winning the tie for his team. Despite what various pundits and analysts will tell you, Mamadou Sakho has been our best defender and he’ll be a miss. Emre Can and Dejan Lovern will both start either side of Skrtel if we play 3-4-3, with one missing out if we go with a back four.
If I was Tim Sherwood, I’d look to get Benteke against either Can or Lovren. Can has been great for us, and has dealt with physical strikers fairly well in truth, but there’s still questions about him when the ball is in the air. Dejan Lovren for the most part has been absolutely atrocious. We spent £20m on him, which looks ludicrous right now.
The midfield battle will be interesting. Henderson will start, and he’s in good form too. He’s added goals and assists to his game, and he looks to be turning into a top player. Lucas and/or Joe Allen will be tasked with winning the ball back, and feeding it to our attacking players, who are the real shining lights of our team, and the reasons why I think we’ll win the game.
Daniel Sturridge is seemingly made of cheese, and if I was Brendan Rodgers I’d have him on the bench to start with. He’s a top class striker but we’ve suffered from using him at times this season. It’s been tough because he needs minutes under his belt, but playing a half-fit striker has really stifled us at times.
I would go with a front three of Raheem Sterling, Philippe Coutinho and Lazar Markovic, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sterling up front with Couthino and Steven Gerrard behind him.
While the big Wembley pitch isn’t ideal for us in terms of defending, it’ll suit us going forward. It’ll allow Coutinho the pockets of space to pick the ball up and carry it, and in that situation he can be devastating. He’s been our best player this year, and Villa will need to keep him quiet if they want to get through to the final.
Sterling is a phenomenon. He’s been in the news recently for the wrong reasons, but that doesn’t take away from him being a star. He provides us with a goal threat that we desperately need, and I’d be happy to see him one-on-one with any defender.
Jordon Ibe is the new kid on the block but he’s cup tied having played for Derby County earlier in the competition. He’d have played if eligible. However, as he is unavailable, Markovic is probably the next best options Adam Lallana is still injured too. Markovic is a very good young player. He’s quick and has the skill to beat a man, but he’s still lacking a bit of physicality, which is why I think Rodgers will select Gerrard
We all love Stevie, but I’m not sure I’d start him. He still has his qualities, but he tends to slow us down in attack, which is counter-productive.
Tim Sherwood has done a very good job with Villa so far, he has his critics and his faults, but what he can obviously do it put his strikers in positions to succeed. He did it with Emmanuel Adebayor at Spurs and looks to be doing the same with Benteke.
He’s the main worry for me. He’s battered us at times in the past and he’ll be full of confidence after scoring four goals in his last two games. Tim’s tactics should focus on getting the ball into him whenever possible and get players around him. If that’s what Villa do, we’ll need to defend really well, which on the whole we have done.
It should be a fascinating game, but I fancy us to just come out on top (sorry!), but that’s not to say Villa won’t cause us problems. They look a different side since the change of manager – they’re actually scoring goals! With confidence high and a striker bang in form, they’re a dangerous side that will punish us if we aren’t at the races.
