Exclusive Dean Saunders Interview on Aston Villa and Liverpool

Aston Villa will find it difficult to keep head coach Unai Emery at the helm if they struggle to match his ambition and Liverpool are capable of winning the Premier League title during Arne Slot’s first season at the helm, Villa Park and Anfield icon Dean Saunders has exclusively told GIVEMESPORT.

Although the Villans fell to their first Champions League defeat of the campaign thanks to suffering a 1-0 loss at the hands of Belgian outfit Club Brugge on Wednesday, they have put themselves in a promising position thanks to already bagging three wins as they look to reach the knockout phase of the new-look competition.

Liverpool are also catching the eye on the European stage, with the Reds comfortably sweeping reigning Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen aside earlier this week, while they are sitting two points clear at the top of the Premier League after enjoying a memorable start to the post-Jurgen Klopp era.

Villans Face Tough Challenge to Keep Emery

Villa fans have been in dreamland since Emery succeeded now Al-Ettifaq head coach Steven Gerrard in the dugout two years ago, with them returning to European football’s elite tier thanks to finishing in the Premier League’s top four last season and registering standout results against the likes of German heavyweights Bayern Munich.

The Spanish tactician headed to the Midlands with a stacked CV, having won the Europa League four times and lifted silverware on seven occasions during his time in charge of Paris Saint-Germain, and he has silenced any doubters who raised questions over his capabilities on English soil after a brief spell at the Arsenal helm.

Saunders, who made 130 appearances in a Villa shirt and was a key component of the 1994 League Cup-winning squad, believes that Emery deserves enormous credit for making his side a force at a time when the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal have not been afraid to splash the cash on big-name signings.

But the former striker has warned that the Villans’ hierarchy need to back the 53-year-old in the transfer market if they want to take the club to the next level and ensure his head is not turned by potential job offers coming in from elsewhere as his stock has risen tenfold thanks to his exploits.

In an exclusive interview with GIVEMESPORT, Saunders said: “Unai Emery is managing to compete with the biggest clubs. He has got good players, but he has got them organised, motivated and there is a good culture within the club. The players work their socks off and know what they’re doing. He has also condensed the pitch by getting the back four further up.

“Emery has got all of the players trying to find Ollie Watkins and playing to his strengths. They’ve got their hands full because of competing in every competition, but they’re doing great.

“Villa have got a difficult job trying to hang onto him because there are clubs looking for the top managers, and he is up there.”

“He looks intense, and it comes across that you may as well go play for someone else if you are not as intense as him. He is doing a good job, and now you’re looking at the owners thinking ‘come on, how much money are you going to give him in the next window?’ because he definitely needs to add to the squad.”

Nunez Set to be Pivotal in Reds’ Hunt for Title

Striker under pressure to show prolific streak amid Jota injury

Saunders knows a thing or two about finding the back of the net, having got his name on the scoresheet 187 times over the course of a distinguished senior club career, and he is adamant that Darwin Nunez has a vital role to play if Liverpool want to end Manchester City’s dreams of winning a fifth Premier League title on the spin.

The Uruguay international became the Reds’ club-record signing when he completed a £85million switch from Portuguese giants Benfica in June 2022, but he has been guilty of missing a number of presentable opportunities when he has been handed the chance to make himself one of the first names on the team sheet.

With fellow frontman Diogo Jota currently on the sidelines through injury, Saunders insists the onus is on Nunez to become more deadly in the final third of the pitch, and an upturn in form could prove to be the difference between Liverpool being crowned champions or narrowly missing out on glory.

“Liverpool can win the title if Nunez produces the goods,” added Saunders. “I think all of us watching Nunez like him because of the effort he puts in. He is good in the air, can finish with his right and left foot, shoots from long range and is capable of going around the goalkeeper when he goes through on goal before slotting it in.

“He has got all the tools, but he manages to conjure up a miss too often. He did struggle at first when he was at Benfica, but he then caught fire in the second season. We’re now into his third campaign with Liverpool and we’re still asking the same questions. Diogo Jota is obviously injured, so I think a lot of Liverpool’s season relies on Nunez.

“If Nunez gets 20 goals this season, I think Liverpool have got a great chance of winning the Premier League.”

Saunders feels that Slot needs to get the best out of Nunez as the likes of Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah, who has uncertainty hanging over his long-term future thanks to preparing to enter the final six months of his contract, have proven that Liverpool can cause defenders endless problems from the flanks.

“Luis Diaz got a hat-trick against Bayer Leverkusen earlier this week and is doing great, but I still don’t think we talk about Mohamed Salah enough,” admitted the 60-year-old, who won the 1992 FA Cup and scored 25 goals in 61 appearances during a successful spell at Anfield.

“He is a freak of nature. He has an amazing amount of assists and goals even though every full-back knows what he is going to do, but they still can’t stop him. His speed of thought is just too good for everyone.”

Slot Profiting from Following Klopp’s Methods

Merseyside giants have only failed to win two fixtures this season

Having walked away from Eredivisie outfit Feyenoord in order to take over at Liverpool during the summer, Slot has seamlessly built on the foundations put in place by predecessor Klopp, with a 4-0 thumping of Bayer Leverkusen earlier this week meaning he has registered 14 wins from his first 16 matches on Merseyside.

The Dutch tactician was frustrated in the transfer market, as Federico Chiesa proved to be the only outfield signing thanks to completing a move from Juventus, but that resulted in him being forced to place his faith in members of the squad he inherited and it has paid off handsomely.

In fact, Saunders is certain that Slot refusing to make significant alterations to the system Liverpool utilised under Klopp during his trophy-laden reign has been a stroke of genius and resulted in him being able to steer his side towards a Premier League title challenge instead of being made to contend with a period of stability.

The Welshman confirmed: “Slot has come in and the biggest thing he has done is not change anything. As a manager – and I have managed five clubs – you go in there with your ego and principles. You put your stamp on it and say, ‘this is how I work. This is how I do it’. It worked for me in the past, so it must be really difficult to go in and not make changes.

“He has walked into a great job because you couldn’t pick a better situation than going to Liverpool after Jurgen Klopp. But not messing it up is a really good skill because he has just carried on from the previous manager. If I were him, I’d be collecting all the information from the players on what Klopp did in different situations.”

“I know people are looking for little changes that he has made but, for me, he has not changed anything he didn’t have to. For example, people are saying that Liverpool don’t look as hectic. What was wrong with hectic? Under Klopp, being hectic was what they were good at. That means not allowing the opposition to have a slow game of football.

“They would be challenging teams, saying ‘we’re going to press you from all angles and if you kick it over the top, we have two quick centre-halves in Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate’. That was Liverpool’s strength and I think coming away from that would be a mistake.

“You would end up with a situation like Manchester United, where half of the team presses and the other half doesn’t. I think what he has done is genius, and he is doing a great job.”