Cross Game Multi Tips: Back Mac Allister to pepper the Villa goal
Leicester go into Saturday's clash with Liverpool 3 points clear of their top 4 rivals and have a chance to put real daylight between themselves and the title holders, neither side can afford to lose here and that normally suggests a tight, dull affair but with the defensive injuries both sides have I wouldn’t be surprised to see attack deemed the best form of defence.
Leicester have switched between a back 4 and back 5 formation this season but with Liverpool’s troubles playing against back 5s this term I’d expect Rodgers to go down that route. Liverpool have played 7 games against a back 5 and only won 3 of those matches so far this season, in those games the 14 full backs they’d played against have managed 11 shots between them (4 on target) which is an impressive amount.
With Pereira Evens for 1 shot and 7/2 for one on target I think that’s my preferred play, he’s one of the best attacking full backs in Europe and is finally back up to speed after his injury trouble. Liverpool’s wide forwards don’t offer much defensive protection which is why attacking full backs seem to have a decent amount of success against this Reds outfit.
It’s tough to find too much to get excited about before a Crystal Palace v Burnley match but sometimes the less entertaining affairs can throw up decent bettering opportunities and there are a couple of angles I like here. In the Whoscored Man of the Match market, Nick Pope is a huge 16/1; he won this market 6 times this season, the rest of the Burnley squad have only won the award 4 times between them, so if it is a 0-0 as quite a few are predicting then he may only need to make a few saves to be in with a great chance of winning once again.
Another angle I'm keen on is Burnley corners, with McNeil and Gudmundsson starting together out wide they are both incredibly direct and will run at full backs and get plenty of crosses into the box, they’ve managed 13 corners in the past 2 games they have started together. Palace on the other hand have been conceding a lot of corners of late - 42 in their past 6 matches at an average of 7 per game.
So I’m happy taking Burnley over 4.5 corners at Evens and Burnley over 7.5 corners at 7/1
Brighton v Villa is a game of opposites, Brighton matches are often very tight with few chances for either side, Villa games tend to be wide open and end to end with plenty of chances, so it’s tough to know the patten of the game will pan out.
Only Chelsea and Man City have conceded less shots on target per game than Brighton this season whereas Aston Villa have conceded the most of any top half side, so looking at the shots market I think I’d much rather side with Brighton and there’s one player in particular that stands out and that’s Mac Allister. He’s averaging a shot every 45 mins this season which is the most frequent of all non strikers at the club, he remarkably had 7 shots against Spurs in Brighton’s most recent home game and if he gets played in that number 10 position again this weekend I’m hoping he can have a similar impact.
The Argentine is 17/10 for 3 shots and 6/5 and 13/2 for 1 and 2 shots on target respectively; given Villa's weakness has been conceding shots on target I think I'll go down that route here.
