Analyzing what happened in the midfield for Liverpool vs. Aston Villa

Liverpool drew 3-3 to 4th place Aston Villa at Villa Park yesterday. The draw marks a continued run of poor form for the Reds as they strive to continue Klopp's farewell tour.

Our defense was, for the most part, solid. However, there was an apparent lack of motivation from most of our players as we conceded two goals late in the game.

Our midfield play was simply not good enough nor was Alexis Mac Allister. Normally, he has such an influential presence on the pitch that can only be compared to defensive midfielder Wataru Endo.

Mac Allister gave away a really bad ball to allow for a Villa counter attack and goal, which is very unlike him, and I hope to see him come back stronger for the final game of the season against Wolves.

This heat map shows Mac Allister was pretty stationary right below the midfield line on the left side. As this is his position, that shouldn't be surprising, however, there was entirely too much space open in the midfield to allow for quick counter attacks from Villa wingers.

In terms of our other midfielders, Harvey Elliott had a great game, hustling harder than just about anyone else on the pitch.

His free kick to land Quansah his first ever Premier League goal was phenomenal, as he continues to prove just how good our youth development is.

The following heat map shows him wide on the right side, as most of the play went up through him and Mo Salah. The link up between those two players is extremely dangerous for our opposition, and when Darwin Nunez is shooting well, we look unstoppable.

Finally, Wataru Endo had a pretty average performance, and I honestly wanted to see more from him. He stayed central right around the midfield line for most of the game, occasionally drifting out right to assist in the build up play.

Overall, he was pretty solid defensively, putting in 4 tackles, which was the most out of any other Liverpool player. Endo has been amazing this season and I hope to see him continue to build on his performances in the future.

There was also some evidence of Endo needing to drop deeper to cover a lot of space on the right-side of the defense. This is probably because one Trent Alexander-Arnold was constantly floating inside as often as he could.

This heat map could be a sign of the dangers of having a hybrid player like that.