Well it was Jurgen Klopp’s penultimate game as Liverpool manager and his final away game in charge. It wasn’t short of entertainment here as both sides provided goals, good football in periods and gave up chance after chance in this one. In truth, it had little impact on Liverpool’s overall season but it’s always nice to see a few goals on a Monday night. Villa look like they were feeling the effects of a tough season and whilst they’ll be ruing the chances they missed, the travelling kop sang their hearts out and were in truth deserving of all three points. We look at the lessons learned from a Monday night share of the spoils.
Two Who Don’t Want It to End
If there’s two players who’ve enjoyed their run-in more than any others it’s the attacking duo of Harvey Elliott and Cody Gakpo. The Dutchman has been central to all the attacking joy in recent games and another strike from a start here saw him take his seasons tally to 17 goals in all competitions. Elliott is now starting to turn starts into contributions and it was from his set piece delivery that Quansah scored Liverpools third from. Jurgen Klopp mentioned both these players in the press conference for different reasons and they’re the two that are shining at the moment. They maybe different from their team mates in the sense they don’t want this season to end.
Quansah Glory But On A Learning Curve
Nothing will change the fact that Jarrell Quansah has been superb for Liverpool this season and has star quality. His goal in this one felt a reward more for his overall contribution, rather than the performance in this one. Whilst it was a superb leap, it’s been a tough few games for the young centre half and having struggled against Richarlson after his introduction last weekend, he was done all ends up by Ollie Watkins for Villa’s goal in this one. Along with the United mistake, it’s been a steep learning curve at the end of the season for Quansah. Let’s hope he’s the better for it next season.
Defensive Disasterclass
The story of the season only altered slightly in the sense that Liverpool scored first in this one. However, the old frailties were soon evident and the greater surprise was that Villa were a wasteful as we’ve been. How Diogo Carlos managed to rival Ronnie Rosenthal for that miss is anyone’s guess and even late on Mac Allister was still worthy of an assist at the wrong end. The first goal was poor, Diaby regularly went past Gomez and it really was end to end stuff. Maybe it’s the end of season feel to the whole thing, but Liverpool have to change so much defensively next season. No clean sheets in the last ten games tells its own story and we were slightly lucky it was only three.
