Taylor wary of revival by Liverpool revival

Graham Taylor has warned his Aston Villa side to beware of the "wounded tiger" when they take on the out-of-sorts Liverpool in tonight's home Worthington Cup quarter-final.

Liverpool have taken one point from their last six Premiership matches and also went out of the Champions' League in a period Gérard Houllier has described as the worst of his managerial career.

It would appear to be an ideal time for Taylor's side to face Liverpool and breathe some life into their own season, which to date has been a major disappointment. But Taylor, whose side were beaten 1-0 at home by Liverpool in August, knows that Villa will have to be at their best to stand a realistic chance of progressing into the semi-finals.

"If someone said to you: 'when do you want to play a team?', then it's not a bad time if they have lost four or five games on the trot," Villa's manager said. "But you are talking here about Liverpool as a club with a big squad of players, who have operated at the top end of things and won trophies. That 'wounded tiger' mentality does spring to mind in the sense that they could now be at their most dangerous, looking to put recent results behind them."

Taylor will be without midfielder Ian Taylor (thigh) again while the defender Ronny Johnsen is a slight doubt as he is suffering with a virus. Steve Staunton is likely to captain the side against his old club despite his sending-off on Saturday for elbowing the West Bromwich Albion striker Danny Dichio.

Houllier has pledged to field his strongest possible side but he will be without the midfielder Dietmar Hamann, who will be out for a fortnight after the recurrence of a shin problem. Emile Heskey is set to return after an ankle knock.