Steven Gerrard will gather masses of headlines in the upcoming week as attention will turn to his return to Anfield but how will the game pan out?
Speaking exclusively to Empire of the Kop, former Liverpool forward Stan Collymore gave his thoughts on what will happen in the game.
The 50-year-old said: “In that dressing room [Gerrard] will say to the claret and blue clad men, win!
“I’ve seen a lot of Liverpool fans say ‘Surely he’ll want Liverpool to win secretly’, or ‘Surely they won’t try as hard’ but this will be for Steven Gerrard as important to get a result … as playing for Liverpool against Manchester United or Everton.
“That’s why Liverpool should want him as their next manager”.
It will be an emotive day for many inside the stadium but there will be a football match played in full professional effort, no matter what happens.
When it comes down to competitive spirit, for the 22 athletes on the pitch and all within each dugout, everyone will want their team to win.
Jurgen Klopp’s side’s will be favourites but it won’t be an easy task.
You can watch the full clip via our Twitter account @empireofthekop:
🗣️ "Villa have been good against Man City and Leicester in the second half, but can't sustain it for 90 minutes. If they have a poor spell for 15/20 minutes, I would expect Liverpool to exploit that".@StanCollymore on #LFC vs. Villa 💬 pic.twitter.com/4FCPI9J0fX
— Empire of the Kop (@empireofthekop) December 6, 2021