Aston Villa will entertain Liverpool at Villa Park on Friday night hoping to secure a victory and qualify into the FA Cup’s fourth round. The Villans suffered a hard-fought 2-1 loss away at Manchester United last weekend, which has somewhat dampened their spirits ahead of this game versus Jurgen Klopp’s men.
Dean Smith could once again set up his team in a 4-2-3-1 formation and is expected to make a lot of tweaks to his first-team for this cup clash at home. However, the Villa manager might choose to keep players such as Jack Grealish, Tyrone Mings and Ollie Watkins in his starting XI for this highly anticipated contest later this week.
4-2-3-1 Aston Villa Predicted Lineup To Face Liverpool
Defence
Emiliano Martínez will operate in goal for the Villans after he shipped in two goals versus the Red Devils in his last outing. Ahmed Elmohamady is expected to get the nod to function at right-back while Neil Taylor fills in on the other side as the left-back.
Kourtney Hause will lineup alongside Tyrone Mings at the heart of the Villans backline as they try to stop the Liverpool attackers from scoring on Friday. Matty Cash, Ezri Konsa and Matt Targett will all be rested on the bench.
Midfield
Conor Hourihane and Marvelous Nakamba will anchor the midfield for the West Midlands outfit as they focus on working hard towards disrupting Liverpool’s rhythm at the centre of the park. The promising trio of Anwar El Ghazi, Jack Grealish and Jacob Ramsey will play just ahead of them as part of Dean Smith’s attack. Both El Ghazi and Grealish will carry most of the creative and goal-scoring workload up top.
John McGinn and Douglas Luiz will get a well-deserved rest on the bench but could come on to influence the game in the second 45 minutes if required.
Attack
Ollie Watkins will lead the line for the West Midlands giants in the final third. The last time the English striker faced off against the Reds at Villa Park, he got himself a hattrick, so he will be confident about finding the back of the net when he laces up to face off against a depleted Liverpool defence on Friday night.
