ASTON VILLA VS. LIVERPOOL

| Friday, May 15th |
Premier League | Villa Park
8PM GMT/3PM EST

Liverpool’s long numbing nightmare of a season is nearly over and barring an anti-miracle, Arne Slot’s tired and tactically ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ side will manage to finish in the Champions League places. It sets up a situation where nobody is happy but the team will have met minimum requirements and so we’re going to run it back next season.

Trust in the process, believe in the project, just ignore the part where your eyes have been telling you for 18 months now that this group is heading in the wrong direction. But enough about the months to come, we’ve got the penultimate match of the 2025-26 Premier League season to concern ourselves with.

Aston Villa are opponents here, currently in fifth, level on points with Liverpool and also a near certainty to finish to qualify for the Champions League next season, so that’s nice for them. With two games to play, Bournemouth are four points back and Brighton are six points back in sixth and seven, respectively.

Liverpool play Villa then Brentford. Villa play Liverpool and Manchester City. Bournemouth play City and Nottingham Forest. And Brighton play Leeds and Man United. Add in some goal differential finger math and there are some convoluted scenarios where the Reds don’t finish top five, but given current standings and with City in the future for Villa and Bournemouth it’s hard to see things realistically shaking out that way.

Predicted Liverpool Lineup (4-3-3)

Mamardashvili; Jones, Konaté, Van Dijk, Kerkez; Szoboszlai, Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Frimpong, Isak, Gakpo

Both Mohamed Salah and Alisson Becker are close to a return but neither is likely for Friday—though Slot has suggested Salah might be able to come off the bench for a few minutes if the game sets up for it. Florian Wirtz meanwhile has been ill and on a heavy dose of antibiotics this week. He might be fit in time, then, but seems unlikely to be match fit and also seems likely to cap out at a spot on the bench.

The question, then, may boil down to whether Slot continues his experiment of playing right back Jeremie Frimpong on the wing while deploying attacking midfielder (and youth attacker) Curtis Jones at right back while Joe Gomez sits on the bench. Slot seems to love getting cute playing players out of position and has been leaning into Jones behind Frimpong of late. It hasn’t worked so far. Like it’s been a bit shit, actually. But we keep doing it so hey maybe against Villa is when it clicks.

Hopefully, whatever the lineup, we see some signs of a tactical identity we can latch on to over the summer, especially if the club are determined to stay the course with Slot while a shunned Xabi Alonso makes the best of it and grudgingly accepts Chelsea are the biggest open job on the market. A coherent press, some link-up play that makes it look like the players know each other, a defensive structure that isn’t hilariously fragile, players avoiding stupid individual errors, and maybe even getting the ball to Alexander Isak in dangerous areas.

We would like to see all of those things. Might be too much to hope for at this point, but fingers crossed.

The Managers Have Their Say

Arne Slot: “One reason they are in the final of the Europa League and doing well in the Premier League is they have a big squad with many very good players. If you don’t have that, you’re not able to go all the way to the final in the Europa League and do well in the Premier League.”

Other Manager: “I am so motivated, so excited for the match. It is going to be test against them for which team is, in this moment, better than the other. In the table we have the same points of course, but it’s Liverpool and it’s going to be very difficult, it’s a huge challenge.”

Referee: Chris Kavanagh Assistants: Dan Cook and Lee Betts Fourth Official: Andy Madley VAR: Neil Davies

If you haven’t done so already, we’d love if you signed up for an SB Nation account and join the community at TLO. We’ll bring you and your fellow Liverpool fans from around the world full coverage of every match from the 2025-26 season in the Premier League, Champions League, and domestic cups along getting you breaking news, insight and opinion, tactical discussion, and post-match reactions as the new season plays out. Hopefully you’ll join us for it!