(Credit: Imago)

Jacob Raw

Fri 15 May 2026 21:57, UK

Aston Villa thoroughly earned a 4-2 victory over Liverpool this Friday, with multiple top performances.

The Villans are fully focused on their Europa League final against Freiburg next Wednesday, but they still had a job to do at Villa Park.

Unai Emery named a strong starting eleven that indeed got the job done, as Morgan Rogers‘ stunner opened up the scoring before the break.

Virgil van Dijk’s headed brace wasn’t enough for the visitors, as Ollie Watkins‘ double wrapped up Champions League qualification, with John McGinn’s beauty putting the cherry on the icing on the cake.

Villa now head to Istanbul to play Freiburg in the Europa League final full of confidence and in high spirits.

Morgan Rogers dazzled vs Liverpool

Morgan Rogers grabbed a goal and an assist to take his attacking output to 16 overall in the Premier League this season.

His first-half screamer had an expected goal rate of 0.05, but his all-round game proved his brilliance.

As seen in the table above, the 23-year-old was everywhere against Arne Slot’s side, winning 75 per cent of his ground duels and making 10 defensive contributions in total.

He also had a 100 per cent dribble success, creating four chances in the final third, two of which were big opportunities.

Rogers has been criticised for performances in recent games, but there will be none of that after this one.

However, the Englishman picked up an 8.8 FotMob rating and looks to be in red-hot form ahead of the flight down to Istanbul next week.

Victor Lindelof experiment has run it’s course

Emery surprised many fans when starting Victor Lindelof in midfield against Nottingham Forest last week, as the Swedish international kept his spot in the 2-2 draw to Burnley.

The natural centre-back was hooked after 45 minutes by the Aston Villa boss this time, and showed a lack of ability when up against a real top side.

• Lindelof was taken off for Ross Barkley
• He won zero ground duels and zero aerial duels

Lindelof won zero per cent of either his ground or aerial duels, making zero tackles, too. The 31-year-old did complete 16 of his 17 passes successfully, though only three of them were into the final third.

When the press was on, Lindelof froze and passed backwards, as this game was the real litmus test of his ceiling as a defensive midfielder.

Emery should know that now, and end the experiment of playing him out of position.

Aston Villa player ratings vs Liverpool

Emi Martinez – 6

Lucas Digne – 7

Pau Torres – 6

Ezri Konsa – 7

Matty Cash – 6

Victor Lindelof – 4

Youri Tielemans – 7

John McGinn – 8

Morgan Rogers – 9

Emi Buendia – 7

Ollie Watkins – 9

Substitutes

Ross Barkley – 6

Ian Maatsen – 5

Jadon Sancho – N/A

Douglas Luiz – N/A