Liverpool made things a lot harder for themselves than they needed to be with a slow and sloppy start, gifting Villarreal a pair of goals and not really getting going themselves until they were two behind and thirty minutes had elapsed. In the end, though, they got where they wanted to go and ended the night with a hard-fought win and three more points in the Champions League—even if they again got loose and sloppy at the end, allowing Villarreal to make things nervy.
It wasn’t perfect, then—far from
it, in fact—but when it mattered it was resilient and determined, and given that’s not something we could have ever really said about the Reds last season we’ll take the win and move on. Let’s dig into it…
Winners and Losers
Rio Ngumoha
Rio seems to be figuring out playing on the right and gave left back Sergi Cardona a very hard time of it from the opening whistle. For the opening thirty minutes at least he was Liverpool’s best player on the pitch, launching constant dangerous raids and forcing Villarreal to double and even triple up in defence to stop him even as Liverpool as a whole looked short of their best.
Away from the right, he set up Araujo’s leveller in stoppage time from a scrambled corner, and as the game wore on he never stopped causing Liverpool’s La Liga opponents difficulty down the flank. It’s taken a minute, but it’s beginning to look as though training to play on the right wing isn’t just getting Rio used to playing on the right wing—it’s helping with his development and making him a better player.
Alexis Mac Allister
Ngumoha also set up Mac Allister’s second of the night, with a memorable headed goal from Ronald Araujo sandwiched in the middle and their fourth through Florian Wirtz. To focus on Macca, though, both of his goals the kind of scrappy, close-in conversions you’d expect from the Argentine when he’s at his combative best.
It’s perhaps flown under the radar a bit just how much improved he looks under Andoni Iraola in a more front-footed system, and much of the focus until now has been on Cody Gakpo’s renaissance, but if Macca can start popping up with a few more goals like tonight’s his improved overall play is going to get plenty of attention.
Virgil van Dijk
On the less positive side of things tonight, nobody let the Reds down more early than their captain. Iraola has embraced rotation, but rather than a youth or fringe player struggling it was the stalwart Van Dijk letting the side down with a lazy, sloppy header in the vague direction of Alisson that instead landed in the path of Villarreal’s Georges Mikautadze, who gratefully collected and slotted home.
It wasn’t the captain’s only error in the opening minutes, either, and it added up to giving the Reds a quite unnecessary hill to climb. Liverpool managed to climb it in the end, though, and Van Dijk certainly looked better as the game moved along. Still, it was noteworthy (and rather concerning) just how much of a liability he was in the early going.
Talking Rotation
Speaking of rotation, Liverpool were playing their fourth game in ten days, and Andoni Iraola continues to embrace rotation in a way that’s a little bit surprising. Not in a negative sense, it should be noted. But this is a manager who’s rarely had to deal with more than about 40 games in a season. He’s never managed a top flight side that’s cracked 50.
One of the big question marks when he was hired was how he’d deal with suddenly having to play two games a week every week—along with the risk of the wear and tear leading to an exhausted, likely injury-ridden side come the new year. The answer to that has been rotation, rotation, and more rotation.
Lewis Koumas was back in the nine instead of Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo returned on the left wing in place of Bradley Barcola, Trey Nyoni started in midfield with Dominik Szoboszlai unavailable and Florian Wirtz on the bench, Kostas Tsimikas was at left back instead of Milos Kerkez.
None bar perhaps Nyoni seemed the obvious or predictable calls, and it’s worth acknowledging perhaps that they didn’t all work as Iraola might have hoped, but it’s clear he believes in rotating his players in a way you rarely see from a manager until they’ve run their starters into the ground and paid the price for it a few times.
How Macca Reacted
“Last year was a really difficult year for all of us. It’s clear that I wasn’t at my level and I’m the fist one to say it. Something wasn’t right with the group but the manger has come in and changed it, and that’s what’s important. The way we play now is quite different, and I don’t like to compare but I’m feeling good now and we’ll see what happens.”
What Happens Next
For the first time since club football returned after the September international break, the Reds will get more than two days off before their next match, with a full four-day break before the Reds face Brighton at Anfield on Sunday. Then, it’s Chelsea in the League Cup at Anfield before Arsenal come to town to end an unheard of stretch of four home games in a row.
