The Birmingham club lives and dies by the performances and defensive cohesiveness of Guzan, Senderos, Vlaar, Westwood, and Delph. Vlaar is the heart while Delph is the engine and Westwood is the brains of the operation. Senderos is there just to take care of the leftovers and Guzan is the mouth, his job is to keep everyone talking. So if you want to stop Villa from initiating attack, take Westwood out of the picture. If Westwood can't get the ball out to Richardson or N'Zogbia or is unable to break into the Liverpool's third by himself, the Villans will curl up and die a slow death. Delph will occasionally make a dangerous run forward, but that leaves his side thoroughly exposed on the counter, something in which Liverpool are quite adept, so he'll probably be cautious to do so on Saturday.
For Liverpool to score, they are going to have to penetrate the invisible fortress maintained by the five aforementioned Villa players. Our best bet is to have Sterling or Coutinho or Markovic or even Suso bring the ball up on the left and go straight at Alan Hutton, if he's not already behind them after a futile attempt at defence or attack. They are going to have to draw out Senderos and pass the ball back across in the middle to whomever is rushing forward or, God forbid, play the cross game, attempting cross after cross hoping to find Balotelli or Lambert in a welcomed spot in the box. The latter isn't really Rodger's approach so hopefully we won't resort to such mindless Van Gaalish/'European' tactics.
Villa will rely more on Delph's athleticism to stop Liverpool's attack, which means Westwood will be relied even more on attack. I highly doubt he'll score, but he is their best 'specialized' passer, though no where near the class of a Gerrard. Still Liverpool need to respect his abilities and with Skrtel out, hopefully Sakho won't make too many of his runs into the opponent's half. Lucas cannot continue his horrible form so far this season either, but at least he's more likely to stay back. In the end. I think Liverpool will prevail, but a nice old fashion whipping would be a much-needed comfort.
