Daniel’s Debrief: Liverpool 3-0 Aston Villa

If you needed any further confirmation of this, the Reds are serious this season.

There was all manner of reasons that Liverpool could fail to win that game. Virgil Van Dijk out. Ibrahima Konate out. Third and fourth-choice centre-backs. A week after a heroic effort. Absolutely mafting conditions. Playing against a good side, by the way, who’ve had a few good results against us recently.

Yet the fact is, Liverpool never for one moment look like not winning it. They were in control from minute one to ninety and this, for me, was the most complete home performance in some considerable time.

I don’t think we play that well at home all season in the one just gone. And yes, I include the 7-0 against United and the 9-0 against Bournemouth. For 43 minutes, United is an even game, and Bournemouth don’t show up basically.

Here, Liverpool are resolute and punishing at both ends of the field, they are menacing in attack and ruthless in defence, they are bursting with individual quality but are also sewn together with a team ethic and a unit mentality.

I think the manager surprises a few with his team selection. I fancied Cody Gakpo or even Diogo Jota would start this one - Jota based on his pressing ability against a back three - but Jurgen Klopp rewards Darwin Nunez for his rescue mission in the North East last weekend with his first start of the season and he repays him handsomely.

In the midfield, Curtis Jones comes in for Wataru Endo. Given how pre-season went, it felt to me that Jones would play as the six, but that role went to Alexis Mac Allister, with Jones and the world’s greatest ever footballer Dominik Szoboszlai just in front of him. 

Joe Gomez comes in for the suspended Van Dijk, while the game comes too soon for the recently-acquired Ryan Gravenberch.

Unai Emery sticks with the three-at-the-back system that suited them well at Burnley last weekend and had the boost of Emiliano Martinez returning. His time-wasting at 0-1 in May at Anfield was among the worst I’ve ever seen yet at 2-0 today he’s taking quick goal-kicks like there’s no tomorrow. Funny, that.

Liverpool start on fire and open the scoring inside three minutes. What a strike. Oh my fucking God. What a strike. Jesus Christ.

A rocket. A bullet. An arrow.

The ball breaks for Szoboszlai at the edge of the box in space and rather than take a touch and shoot, like most players would, he just steps forward and thunders it, first-time, straight as an arrow, into the corner. It’s an unbelievable strike. The purchase and the direction on it is world-class.

Is anyone going to mention the fact that that goal was on his left foot, by the way?

What’s good about Liverpool after the goal is that they’re relentless, they go hunting for the second goal. And it soon comes when Trent Alexander-Arnold plays a delicious ball to Mohamed Salah, who tees up Nunez. The striker smashes his shot off the post before it deflects in off the backside of Matty Cash.

I wish Nunez had scored this as he played well enough to deserve a goal but he can take so much confidence from his all-round performance, and from this moment specifically, where he makes a great run and is in the right place again. Salah and Nunez have such an understanding. 

Because their raw attributes (pace, physicality, ability to play on the shoulder) are quite similar, they always seem to link up well. Salah plays to Nunez the type of passes he’d like to receive himself.

And there’s more on that later on when Liverpool nearly score the best counter-attacking goal in the history of football when an outrageous Alexander-Arnold pass to Salah results in him producing a gorgeous cross with the outside of the boot, before Nunez heads just wide.

At 2-0, Liverpool have chances to put the game to bed. Szoboszlai (yep, him again) floats in a delicious free-kick which Joel Matip somehow manages to not score from. Nunez also hits the bar after some glorious build-up play. The quality and pace of the football in the first half was top drawer.

Central to that were Szoboszlai and Alexander-Arnold. Szoboszlai was, and I use this word to its fullest extent, everywhere. He was winning duels on the edge of his own box one minute, and then playing an incisive killer pass the next. 

It’s only four games but I’ve been so impressed with him in all four of them. I struggle to think when a new signing had a better first four opening games. Maybe Sadio Mane. Before that, I think it’s Fernando Torres.

Szoboszlai’s desire to involve himself in the dirty side of the game as well as being a chief creative influence makes him a rare beast. 

He goes mental at himself for not successfully retrieving a ball going out for a throw-in at 3-0 on 89.

I love him. 

Dare I say that in everything he does… his commitment, his drive, his changes of pace, his precision passing, his vision, his distance-shooting… it all feels very reminiscent of someone else who once adorned the Liverpool number eight shirt.

And I’m not talking about Naby Keita.

Alexander-Arnold’s best performance of the season. Some sensational passing all game through, really, and on another day, would’ve been a dead cert for man of the match. 

What’s interesting is that tactically, Klopp makes a minor adjustment with him for this game. Still playing a hybrid role, but using him as a deep-lying playmaker rather than one in the heart of midfield. I think this was probably opponent-specific (looking for space in Villa’s high line) and it worked very well.

After scoring from one set-piece, and somehow conspiring not to from another, the third goal again comes from a corner when Nunez’s glancing header is turned home by Salah for the easiest goal he’ll ever score.

Nunez has four assists for Liverpool. All four of them have been for Salah.

It’s now ten Premier League games in a row that Salah has scored and/or assisted in. The last player to do that was… Salah, in 2021.

I get why the money might be tempting. It’s colossal money for a 31-year-old with two years left on his contract. But Liverpool look like serious challengers this season and selling their best player would put a swift end to that, you feel.

A couple of other really good performances. 

Andy Robertson. Immense in that first half. Was defending like a man possessed at times, against a tricky player in Moussa Diaby, who ends up having very little joy. Robertson and Matip end up very wide in possession but were alert enough to come compact when needed.

Mac Allister. What a fine footballer. He might not do too much of the fancy stuff, but every single thing he does is effective and useful. His usage of the ball is second to none. You feel like no matter where abouts in the midfield Klopp plays him, he knows that he’ll produce a top performance. Delightful player to watch.

Let me get onto Gomez and Matip. And particularly Gomez, who was imperious. I still think Liverpool should’ve signed a centre-back. I think already we’re looking threadbare there (especially if Gomez will have to play right-back if Alexander-Arnold is out). That stance hasn’t changed.

What I will say though is that our third and fourth-choice centre-backs put in performances that Van Dijk and Konate would’ve been proud of. Matip is intelligent. Ollie Watkins is quicker than him but Matip uses his body well to limit his influence and see him wide on a few occasions.

That’s Gomez’s best performance in a long time. He won stuff in the air, he used the ball brilliantly and he took on the role of the aggressor, he was the centre-back playing on the front foot and he was proactive, decisive and a contender for Liverpool’s best performer. Massively impressive.

Of the starters, Luis Diaz and Jones were the only two who perhaps don’t have their best days, but Diaz is still a livewire in the first half, and Villa’s back three have to deal with him, leaving Salah and Nunez less attended to. 

Jones was solid enough without seeing a great deal of the game. I really felt he would be the one playing as the deepest but I think Mac Allister has surprised Klopp with how good he’s been there. I do still maintain that he’s a bit wasted there though and for me, Liverpool’s natural progression with the personnel they’ve got is to move to 4-2-3-1.

Alisson has a very quiet day, all in all, but makes a great reflex save from Cash’s header in the second half. 

Harvey Elliott looks bright from the bench, while Jota goes on one mazy dribble before losing his bearings. Gakpo is quiet, as is Endo, and Jarell Quansah makes his Anfield debut. At 3-0 with ten minutes left, I wouldn’t have minded seeing Endo or Stefan Bajcetic at centre-back, how good are they as options there? 

Liverpool control the game so well. I think it’s the most control we’ve had in a game in over a year. They manage it brilliantly and snuff out any Villa chances by just looking after the ball so well. The conditions weren’t conducive to breakneck football for 90 minutes but the Reds choose their moments wisely.

Last season, our last home game was that 1-1 draw with Villa in May. We were lucky to draw that day. We were coming off the back of a winning run but were stopped in our tracks by a Villa side that played around Liverpool and exploited a team that looked goosed, especially in the middle of the park. 

Here, they looked energised, bursting to the brim with firepower and dynamism, led around the pitch by a midfield of Mac Allister, Szoboszlai and Jones. 

Just five games on from that draw in May, Villa simply couldn’t live with Liverpool here.

They identified Pau Torres as a pressing target and regained the ball seven times in the final third, just in the first half. Liverpool managed that just once in the entirety of last season.

It’s the most routine win we’ve had at home in a long time, against a team you don’t expect to have a routine win. 

Unbeaten in fifteen games now. No losses since we got arseholed at City on April 1st. Some run we’re quietly going on.

Ten points from twelve is something you’d be very happy with in any circumstance.

But this isn’t any circumstance.

Liverpool have played three sides that you’d expect to be in the top eight this year, two away from home, they’ve had two red cards to contend, they’ve had to come from behind twice and they’ve played just 115 minutes with an actual DM.

Given the combination of those circumstances, you’d have been happy with six points from twelve. We’ve got ten.

The Reds aren’t messing around this year.

Daniel