Liverpool 3-0 Aston Villa: Dominant Reds sink passive Villans

Liverpool's first comfortable win of the season came against strong opposition, and ten points out of twelve is not to be sniffed at

This was by far the most convincing performance of the season so far, and indeed, the whole year, on a par with the win at Leicester; but this was against a much stronger opponent in contrastingly confident form. Villa have been scoring goals for fun, yet despite both of Liverpool’s first choice centre backs out of action, and fresh off an entire midfield rebuild, Emery’s side barely posed a threat.

A fast start, no sloppy errors, an early goal (and a great one, more on that later), no bullshit decisions (the referee was almost faultless) and crucially once in the lead, a feeling of control.

Liverpool did all the right things, but we also mustn’t get too ahead of ourselves, because Villa did a lot of the wrong things. They were far more passive than I expected, and I don’t mean to take anything away from how well Liverpool’s footballers did, and while I do think this was a huge step up from the drab performance against Villa in May, I do also think there was an element of the away side just not playing as well.

Maybe they missed Mings (who should have been sent off early on in May, of course), or Ramsey, who put them ahead and celebrated like a tit. They weren’t bad this time, but they were mediocre, and Liverpool were top quality. I said the start against Bournemouth was straight out of the 22/23 handbook, but this entire performance was out of the 19/20 handbook. Dominant, packed with quality, a normal balance of luck, and *hopefully soon to be* routine.

Ollie Watkins, who always seems to cause The Reds a handful of problems, was completely anonymous, which Jurgen Klopp rightfully credited Joel Matip for. Watkins was then replaced by a simpleton who decided to send the ball into row z with a woeful attempt, before trying the same shot again, with the same outcome, before finally squaring up to Joe Gomez for no reason whatsoever (or maybe it was because he was frustrated at being trapped in his back pocket). At least he scored against Everton though, which tell us how bad they are.

It feels as though having a proper midfield has massively helped both those in front and behind, who seemed to be underperforming last year, but that was an illusion caused by key midfielders dropping collective stinkers on a regular basis.

I’m prepared to give the likes of Gomez and Matip another chance with a new midfield in front of them, as well as Nunez, who I can say on the record is my favourite player, so he was already getting another chance, but he is another play who I think was a victim of a poor midfield surrounding him, who already looks better this season.

You just have to look at the individual performances; Dominik Szoboszlai, probably all round, Liverpool’s best player so far this season. A 22-year-old with no Premier League experience waltzing in and running the show in his first four games should not be underestimated. He just gets better and better. I don’t normally overhype new signings but I have not seen someone hit the ground running like this since Mohamed Salah.

So far, Szoboszlai looks like he could become the best midfielder at the club since Steven Gerrard. I know these are bold claims, but I highly doubt he’s suddenly going to turn into Charlie Adam. You would expect he is only going to get better. He is clearly a massive upgrade from Jordan Henderson (that interview can get to fuck by the way. Henderson isn’t addressing the elephant in the room which is that he’s not good enough anymore, and instead gaslighting fans into thinking it was only the club that knows that).

The goal literally seemed too good to be true. I thought it must have been deflected. Or a fluke. A mishit. But I’ve watched it back many times; it was fully intentional, a super strike, on his weaker left side. Straight off the training ground as well, he said post-match. No fluke in that. We have been crying out for that kind of technical ability for so long, and finally, we’ve got it.

Thiago is still technically the most gifted in the squad, and indeed, that goal reminded me of the Spaniard’s strike against Porto. But unless I’m mistaken, that was his last goal for the Reds, and by the time he’s back from injury, it might be two years since that goal.

Mac Allister also deserves a mention again, because to me he’s been the unsung hero so far, with a lot of his great work going unnoticed. Whereas Fabinho stood out like a sore thumb many times last season, Mac Allister’s defensive work is going under the radar, as he isn’t being constantly skipped past with ease; and on the ball, he is incredibly composed and tidy (Fabinho was fine on the ball, but I still consider Mac Allister an upgrade).

Nunez got the start he deserved and I thought he repaid Klopp’s faith; Villa’s backline looked petrified of him, and rightly so. The Uruguayan got an own goal assist (where he was unlucky not to score) and a proper assist, and hit the bar again. And tried to score with a header which…well I’ve never seen someone head the ball whilst diving in feet first.

I hope Salah stays at least until January because I’m enjoying seeing the provider role he’s now taking up to compensate for his decline in pace and power in his shots, and Nunez seems to be the main beneficiary, as does Szoboszlai when he overlaps.

Robertson had his best game for a long time, with Bailey and Diaby not getting any joy down Liverpool’s left hand side. As for the other full-back, Alexander-Arnold was back to his absolute best, with a world class pre-assist for the second goal. No other right back is capable of that ball, and he played several of them throughout the game as well; a proper captain’s performance.

It is only four games, but there is a sneaky feeling that The Reds might be back. The revamped midfield is proving that lack of legs in the middle of the park was indeed the key issue all along last season. The last time we went into an international break, Liverpool had just lost 1-0 to Bournemouth. What a contrast this is. Ten points from four tough games (made tougher by difficult circumstances, like playing half the games with ten men), whereas last season it took seven games in easier circumstances.

This time, I look forward to seeing the Reds back in action in two weeks’ time.