Liverpool vs Aston Villa reaction: Watkins and Slot leave the same warning

Liverpool's 4-2 defeat at Aston Villa was bad enough on its own. The more revealing part came after the final whistle, when Ollie Watkins called them "disjointed" at the back and Arne Slot admitted his side "crumbled" after going 2-1 down. Those are not fringe complaints, they match the state of Liverpool's season.

Watkins picked out the space Liverpool keep leaving

Watkins did not dress it up. "They play a high line and they don't play offsides so they're disjointed at the back and I feel like there's a lot of space for me to run into," he told givemesport.com. He added: "I feel like I'm always going to get opportunities against them, that's no disrespect to them. The two centre-backs are world-class at the end of the day, but I think I spot opportunities and spaces in between them."

That is a striker talking about a defensive line he already expects to beat. He backed it up again with: "When it's a high line like that I like to run in behind and create some danger for them." Watkins has 8 Premier League goals against Liverpool in his career, with only Andy Cole on 11 and Harry Kane on 9 ahead of him in the Premier League era list noted in the brief.

He was also in form on the day. Watkins' 8.3 match rating and Virgil van Dijk's two goals, which were only consolations, sum up how open the game became once Villa got control.

Why the numbers make the pressure harder to shrug off

Slot's own words were blunt. "after 2-1 we crumbled, we struggled," he said, and later added, "We have conceded far too many but we also didn't score enough goals." That is the blunt version of the problem, and the numbers back it up. Liverpool have conceded 52 Premier League goals this season, the first time they have gone over 50 in a 38-game Premier League season, and 77 in all competitions.

The table situation is still not resolved either. Liverpool's record sits at 17W-8D-11L, on 59 points from 36 Premier League matches, which leaves their Champions League place still to be secured. The final-day trip to Brentford is not a formality.

The criticism around Slot is already loud, with Paul Joyce describing the Dutchman's annus horribilis and Dominic King saying fan pressure is reaching intolerable levels. Whether you think the high line is the core issue or just one part of a wider defensive mess, the evidence from Villa Park leans heavily towards the same conclusion. Liverpool are still leaking goals, and the next test comes against Brentford.