Aston Villa: The view from the opposition

The Birmingham-born former midfielder joined his boyhood side in 1994 and went on to forge a strong bond with the home faithful, scoring 43 goals in 296 appearances.

He departed in 2003, but maintained close links to the club by appearing regularly on the Villans' in-house TV channel as a pundit and writing a column in the matchday programme.

In 2011, Taylor returned to Villa Park to take on the role of ambassador - and prior to today's match, we caught up with him, in order to analyse the key talking points. 

Firstly, Ian, just one win in the last seven games for Aston Villa - no win in six league encounters. What's been going wrong?

It's been a difficult time. Obviously it's been well documented that we've struggled to score goals and even though Benteke is back in the team, we have struggled. We've struggled all season to score and we haven't made chances or created enough. The club has just made a new signing in Carles Gil from Valencia and we're hoping that he can be the catalyst that can get us some goals.

On the new signing, what have you heard or seen of him?

From what we've heard in Spain, he's a promising young player. He is young, but we're hoping that he can come in and hit the ground running and be that link between midfield and the strikers that we have been missing. We have got a proven goalscorer in Benteke, but he's been starved of a supply line so far this season and so, hopefully, the aim for Gil is to refresh that.

You mention Benteke there, John Aldridge wrote in his Liverpool Echo column this week about the dangers of the Belgian and how the Reds have failed to deal with him in the past. He has four goals in four games against us...

He's done well against Liverpool. He's a good player, he really is. But we've not been able to get the ball into him in recent months and that has been our major problem. We've gone from a team that has struggled to gain possession, to a team that has plenty of possession, but just not able to create the chances. So we've got to try and turn that domination of the ball into meaningful chances.

Villa had a great start to the season - they claimed victory at Anfield in September - at what point did that momentum start to trail off?

We did have a string of games where we played Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City - and that came just after the win at Anfield. So if we hadn't have got the result against Liverpool, we would have been in desperate trouble. We got the three points at Anfield and I think we played quite well on the day. But those performances have been few and far between since then. We then went on that aforementioned difficult run, struggled in the games and then struggled with confidence on the back of that.

What would you say are the key strengths and weaknesses of this Villa side?

We can keep the ball better than we have done in the earlier months of the season. But stats mean nothing. Possession of the ball doesn't mean a lot. I think you've seen that with Liverpool this season, where the Reds have had plenty of possession, but they've still gone on to lose games. For me, it's about making opportunities to score and about playing at a high tempo. I think we've played much too slow a tempo in recent months. We need to inject a bit of pace into our team. In Benteke up front, we've always got someone who can score out of nothing. So he's always going to be a threat. I think we're fairly solid at the back - only the top four teams in the division have conceded fewer goals than us. So I don't think that's the major problem, the issue is getting the ball over the line.

Aside from Benteke, is there another danger man there who Liverpool should be worried about on Saturday?

I think Gabriel Agbonlahor on his day can trouble any defence. He's been doing that in recent months, but not been hitting the heights that we know he can. But he'll always be a threat. I think a lot of defences in the division would look at Agbonlahor and think that he is a dangerman. I think Fabian Delph might be back for the game as well and he's a good ball carrier, who can go by people and has a good shot on him. He's somebody that I would look at and think he can score a lot more goals from midfield.

Who is the one Liverpool player you would like to see wearing claret and blue on Saturday?

Steven Gerrard, of course. Even now. He's always been a world-class player. It's just the aura of Steven as well and that fear-factor of having him in the team. Apart from him, right now, there's young Raheem. He's one of the most promising youngsters, if not the most promising in the division. And obviously there's Daniel Sturridge, who won't be fit, but I know him quite well, with him being a Brummie lad. He was at the club when I was there. A fit and firing Sturridge is always going to be a big asset. He was only a youngster when I was at the club. It was only later on that I found out he was there when I was there, because he was only in the U10s or U11s at the time. But he's a hell of a player. He's quick and he's a great finisher. He's got that bit of inventiveness about him as well, that off-the-cuff improvisation that you like to see in a player. He'd be an asset to anybody on the field.

Have you got a prediction for the game?

We're desperate for a win and it would be great to get a win against Liverpool. I've got some really fond memories of paying against Liverpool - scoring the winner at Villa Park. It will be a difficult game for us, there's a lot of pressure on us. But I'm hoping for a draw at the end of the day.