Aston Villa 2-2, and the Reds’ Fortnight of Warrior Spirit

This schedule is crazy-tough

Paul Tomkins, Andrew Beasley, Daniel Rhodes and other TTT regulars will give their thoughts on the match for 24 hours after the game, so the article received via email is unlikely to be the final version. There's statistics from the match and videos too.

Post-Match Thoughts

Paul Tomkins

I wasn’t going to write anything tonight, but I don’t think people realise how good Aston Villa are (especially at home), and how even the mid-tier Premier League teams are now better than most teams in Europe.

Villa are incredibly obdurate and hard to beat when they raise their game, just as the final away derby, just a week ago, was another time when a team raised its game beyond all recognisable limits. Even Wolves have about a dozen players who are far too good for Wolves.

Newcastle are another team who are better than most teams in Europe. The Reds went there and battled for a draw, and to me it’s a season where away draws may be par for the course against about half of the league. Tonight, Liverpool battled for a draw, when trying to win. It’s been battle after battle, and the fight has been there. Sometimes the composure in front of goal has not.

This was Liverpool’s 18th game against a really good team this season and the Reds’ average xG Difference in those games was actually exceeded. Villa scored from almost nothing, and the VAR was some new guy who appeared to have shat his pants at his first big gig. (At least Craig Pawson was decent, as usual.)

See my recent piece about how dominant the Reds are against the better teams:

In Games Against Better Teams, Arsenal are Average; Liverpool are Elite

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Liverpool missed sitters, but if you create 2.5xG and concede less than 1xG and you will be fine the vast majority of times.

This is the toughest run of games I can remember, in terms of timing, opposition strength, plus the majority being away.

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