How Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch capitalised on Villa’s tactical blunder

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Liverpool deservedly returned to winning form on Saturday with a 2-0 win over Aston Villa that saw Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch key to exploiting a weakness. With help from FotMob, we’ve taken a look at how Villa’s approach – and the performances of Gravenberch and Szoboszlai in particular – helped the Reds restore form.

Villa’s approach played into Liverpool’s hands Full credit to Liverpool, as it was their hard-pressing play which forced Villa back and into trouble, but their visitors arrived with a game plan which entirely suited them. Brentford‘s direct approach – which also saw them focus on their delivery from throw-ins, with 23 compared to Villa’s 12 at Anfield – translated to 34 touches in Liverpool’s box as opposed to Villa’s 22.

In short, Villa’s tendency to sit back and look to play through the Liverpool press was considerably less effective than Brentford going long and taking the fight to them. Szoboszlai and Gravenberch were key Of course, to take advantage of Villa’s more timid approach Liverpool still needed to be sharper and more aggressive than they had been throughout their run of six domestic defeats.