Houllier returns to his former club where he won five trophies in six seasons. Carragher and Gerrard are the only Liverpool players still there from when he was a manager, however they are both injured so won’t face their former boss.
Liverpool have some good home form winning their last three at Anfield and keeping a clean sheet in their last two. I think they should win and control possession against a young Aston Villa side. I will be going with 4/5 Liverpool players in my BG team.
Lucas is one of the better Liverpool players on Picklive and should benefit without Gerrard – the only time he hasn’t scored more than 50 when starting was when he got sent off at Stoke, he averages 57 when he starts and is pretty consistent. Meireles seems to do well on the game and his 94 in the 3-0 win at home to West Ham is a good indication that he could put in a good performance tonight. Rodriguez seems to be finally getting used to the PL and his highest two Picklive games were his last two against West Ham (94) and Tottenham (63). Liverpool full-backs seem to do well especially at home and when they can go forward more – Glen Johnson averages 63 in his 3 matches at home and Konchesky 59. If you think Aston Villa will cause Liverpool some problems then Kyrgiakos and Skrtel should be considered. Kuyt and Torres will do well if there are goals.
Six of Aston Villa’s last nine goals in the league have been scored by players aged 21 or younger – says it all really. They seem to be struggling at the moment losing their last two and have lost five of their seven away matches. If Liverpool are as dominant as I think then Dunne and Collins could put together some scores like they did against Arsenal (66 and 62). Warnock and Young could do ok but are prone to a yellow card. Bannan is a doubt so I will give him a miss tonight. Clark is a nice pick and can find the net as he showed against Arsenal, he has scores of 78, 61, 51, 31, 29 but again is a yellow card risk.
I am tempted to go with all Liverpool players, a choice between Lucas, Meireles, Rodriguez, Konchesky, Johnson and Kuyt. If I go with an Aston Villa player it will be one of the back four or Clark.
Few stats to finish with….
- Aston Villa’s only win in their last 17 PL matches against Liverpool was 3-1 at Anfield last season.
- Liverpool have scored in each of their last ten PL home matches against Aston Villa, since a 0-0 draw in March 2000.
- Hodgson has won three of his four PL home matches against Villa – his only defeat was a 2-0 in his last meeting on January 30.
- Pepe Reina is on 99 PL clean sheets - he can become the ninth goalkeeper to reach this milestone in the division.
- Aston Villa have conceded 10 goals in their last four PL matches and 24 in total this season.
- Villa have picked up four PL away points – only Wolves (1) and West Ham (3) have fewer points this season.
- Only one of the last seven meeting between Liverpool and Villa have been won by the home side.
Simon G (grunny27)
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