Five Things We Learned as Liverpool Edge Villarreal in Seven-Goal Anfield Thriller

Liverpool emerged with three points against Villarreal, beating the European regulars at Anfield in a game that put on full display the good and the bad of this Reds team under Andoni Iraola.

Here are five things we learnt from this seven-goal thriller.

The Spanish coach made six changes against the Yellow Submarine, compared to the side he tasked with beating Brentford three days prior.

Players who came into the starting XI were Lewis Koumas, Rio Ngumoha, Kostas Tsimikas, Ryan Gravenberch, Cody Gakpo and Trey Nyoni.

While some of these alterations were enforced due to injuries picked up in West London, and others were needed to keep players fit and fresh for the weeks ahead, it very nearly went wrong for Andoni Iraola.

When his side went 2-0 down, it looked like he had changed too much, and it would have been something that people fixated on after the game had LFC not turned it around, but they did.

Winning the game 4-3 and putting on a display more befitting of the quality advantage that Liverpool should have over their La Liga opposition, Iraola will feel vindicated that the changes he made were just right.

Too often this season, a lot of the criticism that the Merseyside club have faced has been centred around Florian Wirtz.

At every single press conference or interview, Andoni Iraola has been asked about the German’s form and apparent lack of output for a player that the club paid £116 million for.

But Iraola has been consistent throughout; he has been pleased with the majority of Wirtz’s performances and believes he brings more than just goals and assists to the side.

Against Villarreal, he came off the bench at half-time and was the missing piece in the Liverpool puzzle.

Creating chances, pulling defenders out to allow others space to shine and capping it off with a quality finish to get himself on the score sheet.

By far and away the best player on the pitch, Rio Ngumoha was sensational.

At 18 years old, he ran the show, causing defenders issues all game, and no matter the changes Inigo Perez tried to implement, he and his side couldn’t live with Ngumoha, with former Red, now Villarreal goalkeeper Peter Gulasci even highlighting just how good he was after the game.

The fact that he got two assists undersells just how good he was. Every time he got on the ball, the crowd rose to their feet, waiting for something magical to happen, and at one point it even looked like the players around Ngumoha were just giving him the ball and letting him do his thing.

The club have got to tie the LFC “star boy” down to a new long-term deal, securing many more nights like this.

All three of the goals conceded by the Reds' backline came from either individual errors or positional issues.

The first one was a misplaced Virgil van Dijk header; the second was Ronald Araujo being massively out of position, leaving the entire left flank free for Villarreal to exploit and score.

And the third goal was Joe Gomez being caught too far forward, leaving a gap behind him that was capitalised on.

If the Yellow Submarine had scored from all the errors Liverpool made, they could have run away with the game, which will concern Andoni Iraola with strong opponents on the horizon.

As previously mentioned, despite the amount of space at times behind the backline, and the series of individual errors, Villarreal didn’t really punish us as a more clinical side would, but Brighton will.

The top scorers in the Premier League so far this season need zero invitation to find the back of the net at the moment, and it needs to be something that not only Liverpool are aware of but are actively trying to avoid.

Because Brighton have dispatched some of the top teams in the country, scoring three past Arsenal, for example, Andoni Iraola’s side need to be on it from minute one; otherwise, Fabian Hurzeler’s squad will run riot at Anfield.

Comment Below: What Was Your Main Takeaway From This Game?