'Not what we would expect': Arne Slot shares how Aston Villa surprised him in 2-0 defeat against Liverpool

Arne Slot guided Liverpool five points clear of Manchester City in securing a 2-0 win over Aston Villa on Saturday evening.

Goals from Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah moved the Reds even further ahead of the Citizens in the Premier League table – having remarkably won nine of 11 outings so far this season.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	LiverpoolLiverpool	11	9	1	1	21	6	15	28
2	Man CityManchester City	11	7	2	2	22	13	9	23
3	Nottm ForestNottingham Forest	10	5	4	1	14	7	7	19
4	BrightonBrighton	11	5	4	2	19	15	4	19

Liverpool would have presumably been wary of affording Aston Villa many attacking opportunities at Anfield – given the talent of Ollie Watkins, Morgan Rogers, Jhon Duran and others – although Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate marshalled the backline superbly throughout.

Van Dijk even praised Watkins before the game – clearly more than aware of the England international’s brilliance.

However – speaking in his interview after the 90 minutes had ended – Arne Slot shared what he expected Unai Emery to do which never actually happened.

Arne Slot says he expected Aston Villa to be more aggressive

Speaking to TNT Sport, the Dutchman said: “It wasn’t easy like most of our games have been now. Aston Villa were maybe not as aggressive as we thought they would be. We were patient. One thing they are very good at is set-pieces. In general we had control over the game and scored from two counter-attacks which is maybe not what we would expect.”

Emery and Austin MacPhee, Aston Villa’s set-piece coach, must have been pulling their hair out after seeing the Villans concede from not one, but two of their own corners, allowing Salah to break on them twice.

It was strange of the Spaniard to leave so few players back to defend, given how rapid the likes of Nunez, Salah and Luis Diaz are when surging forward, so it doesn’t surprise us to hear that Slot was taken aback by the space afforded to his side and a lack of aggressiveness.

Why Liverpool can win the Premier League

The main problem when attempting to remain on top of the pile is being found out tactically by opponents.

We witnessed exactly that when Arsenal led the Premier League by eight points heading into April during the 2022/23 campaign, only to throw it all away when opposition sides suffocated their attempts to play out from the back.

However, we do not envisage such a collapse happening under Slot, given how many tactical dimensions the 46-year-old has displayed so far.

Liverpool can dominate possession and tire opponents out by toying with them, but the Reds can also adopt a more defensive style and absorb pressure thanks to the pace and alertness of Konate, who Lucy Ward feels Slot has improved, and Van Dijk, before utilising a counter-attack through Salah, Nunez and Diaz.

With this many strings to their bow, it would surprise us if Liverpool were found out at all for the remainder of the 2024/25 campaign – only a case of complacency could cost the Reds.