Aston Villa: View from the opposition
Ahead of today's Anfield encounter with Liverpool, we speak to Aston Villa hero and current club ambassador Ian Taylor for insight into Tim Sherwood's team.
A brilliant win over rivals Birmingham City in the Capital One Cup in midweek. How much of a boost was that for everyone at Villa Park?
It was a massive boost. It was a big week for us because having lost to West Bromwich Albion last Saturday, if we had lost to Birmingham as well I think Mr Sherwood would have been up against it. We ground out the win, it’s not easy to beat your local neighbours when you are not in good form and low on confidence, so we dug deep and got the result.
Rudy Gestede was the hero with the goal against Birmingham. He was a handful when Liverpool played Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup last season, so do you expect him to start on Saturday?
I would think he will be a start for definite. Scoring the goal against Birmingham as well, he will have to start, for me. We just need to get some decent crosses in for him because we haven’t been doing that up to now.
In terms of the early-season league form, how would you assess Villa so far?
It’s been up and down. We have struggled to have a settled side due to injuries to key players. At the moment, Tim is struggling to get the team he wants on the pitch because I don’t think he’s had his strongest XI out on the pitch at the same time. We will go to Anfield with a little bit more confidence after the Birmingham game and we think it’s a good time to play Liverpool at the moment.
Villa have had a good record at Anfield in recent years - what have you made of Liverpool so far?
Brendan [Rodgers] is having the same problem as we have had at Villa. He’s brought in a lot of new players and is trying to bed them in. With the size of the club and expectancy it’s not an easy place to come and settle straight away, because it is quite daunting. It is a great place to play, though, but people don’t seem to give players time to settle these days.
Christian Benteke misses the reunion through injury, but how do the Villa supporters remember him?
He was a fantastic player for us. He came to the club and nobody had heard of him but they soon began to know who he was because he scored some great goals for us. He literally kept us up a couple of seasons back. He was a great player for us. Players come and go and Christian left the club with his head held high. We got good money for him and every Villa fan wishes him all the best.