LIVLiverpoolClub page
VILVillarrealClub page
Squad value€1.09bn
Squad value€368.05m
Key playerAlexander Isak
Key playerAlberto Moleiro
Head coachAndoni Iraola
Head coachIñigo Pérez
Liverpool press high and Villarreal insist on playing out through it. Expect the ball lost in dangerous places.
Liverpool and Villarreal both come after the ball high up the pitch, so it keeps changing hands in dangerous areas.
Villarreal commit to keeping the ball and Liverpool are waiting to break the moment they lose it.
Liverpool's squad is valued at €1.09bn, Villarreal's at €368.05m: about three times as much. Gaps like that tend to settle games rather than make contests.
Slight favourites: Liverpool.
Villarreal are likely to have more of the ball, and Liverpool will look to hit them on the break.
Win it high, go straight at you before you are set: that is the plan.
“His teams press high, win the ball quickly, and attack before the opposition can reorganise.”Iraola does not need the ball: his Liverpool go direct.
“The Liverpool manager is not obsessed with his team dominating possession, which allows his side to be more direct.”They control games by going forward, not by keeping the ball.
“Es un equipo vertical que controla el juego sin amasarlo, y esa distinción explica casi todo lo que se verá en Anfield.”It is a direct team that controls the game without hoarding the ball, and that distinction explains almost everything you will see at Anfield. our translation
Unlike his Rayo side, this Villarreal try to control games by keeping the ball.
“Sorprendentes intenciones si uno vio al Rayo la temporada pasada, por la sorpresiva sorpresa de intentar controlar el partido desde el balón y no desde el juego sin él.”The weakness is the other direction. When they lose the ball after a good spell, they are slow to get back and chase, and that is when they concede — their own coach says so.
“Y cuando tienes que acelerar para defender al rival, hay cierto letargo.”And when you have to get up to speed to defend against the opposition, there's a certain sluggishness. our translation
A new coach is still bedding his ideas in, and when things stall he tells them to make the game messy — so expect long stretches of controlled football broken up by deliberate chaos.
“En la segunda, hemos buscado generar más caos, aunque por momentos demasiado”In the second half we looked to create more chaos, though at times too much our translation