Goals are the greatest currency in football.
Goals are what everything boils down to, rendering every other aspect, facet and wrinkle of the game futile. If you score goals, results tend to follow.
Aston Villa’s 2-2 draw with Liverpool provided a timely reminder. Villa lived dangerously at times, following a theme of Unai Emery becoming braver in his plans against better teams. This, along with the 3-3 draw when the two sides met at Villa Park last season, are apt examples.
Villa pushed high — a return to the dramatic high line of yesteryear — broke quickly and played fast and loose, sometimes losing the ball spectacularly but sometimes cutting through Liverpool wonderfully.
“Sometimes we weren’t holding the line like we planned,” said Emery. “But Axel Disasi and Andres Garcia are new players and we have to practice at this level; with Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz. Sometimes we weren’t holding the line like I want, sometimes a little too up.”
They defended with a characteristic vulnerability yet, crucially, carried the power to put a dent in Liverpool. Two goals from two shots in the first half and an xG of 0.54 underlined that when Villa are clinical, fortunes can be transformed.
Before Liverpool’s visit, Villa’s league campaign had been lukewarm. Emery spoke on Tuesday, performative in his mannerisms and assessed Villa’s progress in each competition. “Champions League? FA Cup?” Emery slapped his palms together, pretending to wash his hands. “Fantastic,” he said.
As for his team’s league form, Emery’s tone and body language changed. “If we watch the Premier League, it’s not enough.”
“Unai Emery is demanding of us and we haven’t been performing as well of late,” Ollie Watkins told TNT Sports.
The harsh truth is Villa are middling across most areas this season, highlighted by a data size which is now large enough to be considered reliable. The defining statistic — goals — showed that Villa are an average side. They were the 12th-highest scorers before Liverpool arrived.
After 25 league games last year, the same stage Villa would hit after Wednesday’s game, they had scored 17 more goals.
There are wide-ranging caveats. Villa have suffered unrelenting injuries, a congested schedule and, naturally, opposition analysis has more examples of Emery’s side and therefore the knowledge to negate their strengths.
A deficit of goals, points (11 fewer this season) and defensive resolve weakened Villa’s position. The first has moved the needle the wrong way most dramatically; remove Watkins’ league goals before Liverpool (11) and Morgan Rogers’s (six), Ross Barkley was Villa’s third-highest scorer (three) despite starting just three games.
Watkins’ supporting cast has remained in the background this season. Villa’s success was previously defined by goals from multiple areas, complimenting Watkins’ tally of 19 last term. Now-departed Douglas Luiz scored nine, John McGinn is yet to score after six the season before and Emery is without Moussa Diaby (six) and, latterly, Jhon Duran (five).
The idea of Villa being greater than the sum of its parts is a common thread in how Emery constructs attacking patterns. On Tuesday, the Spaniard acknowledged he did not have forwards who were “huge scorers” with the onus instead on the collective.
While sources close to Watkins, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, believe he can hit twenty goals and better last season’s total by one, he is a contributor to the broader profligacy in front of goal.
Before Liverpool, Villa had underperformed their xG by 9.5, with Watkins sharing a third of the total. In other words, they should have scored somewhere between nine to ten more goals. Had they come close to that figure, their league position would be a lot more positive.
Watkins led the line expertly on Wednesday night, locked in constant duels with Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate. He ran off shoulders, combined with Marcus Rashford and the nature of the game — transitional and against a high line — suited him. His goal capped a magnificent move, with Rashford rotating with Rogers and the ball finding Lucas Digne, who crossed for Watkins to net his 12th league goal.
The spotlight on Watkins has intensified due to defensive frailties. These have got worse across the previous two years and have recently been aggravated by a slew of injuries. The defence was not as much of an issue last season when it was compensated for by supreme efficiency upfront.
Three clean sheets in 26 matches is a big crater inhibiting progress. In essence, Villa have to score three goals just to feel some semblance of assurance. Before Liverpool and at the same stage last season, they had conceded five fewer goals but, unlike then, do not possess the same power to outscore teams.
Before half time, Watkins cranked his neck and headed into the far corner, putting Villa 2-1 up and rediscovering the goalscoring edge from last season. They had come from behind after Garcia’s blind pass straight to Diego Jota was ruthlessly punished by Salah.
Villa’s toils at the back were obvious; Garcia’s mistake was the 12th error leading to a goal this season, with only bottom-placed Southampton having more.
“We have to avoid mistakes, but accept them by getting better through it,” said Emery. “Maybe concede one goal like that, but never punish the players. Maybe we can have three or four mistakes like Garcia last season but we always moved forward.”
More encouragingly, on the two occasions they did concede, Villa refused to give Liverpool possession or ground. Instead, they hunted for goals and though chalked offside, had the ball in the back of the net a further two times in either half.
When Trent Alexander-Arnold’s deflected strike unfortunately deviated from Emiliano Martinez’s grasp to equalise, Villa kept the ball, beating Liverpool’s press and having two big chances to win the match. The old adage of attack being the best form of defence rarely rang truer.
Liverpool’s trips to Villa Park have tended to elicit high-scoring games and this one was no different. The previous seven league meetings had produced 33 goals, an average of 4.7 per match. It was four goals this time, with Liverpool extending their run of scoring at least twice in each fixture.
Considering Villa have lost just once at home and Liverpool are yet to lose away, a frenzied draw felt like a fitting result. The hosts flew by the seat of their pants at times, imperfect though entertaining. Goals make a world of difference to the mood, external perception and, come May, where Villa end up.
(Top photo: Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)
