Liverpool vs Aston Villa
by James Nalton
at Anfield

AS THE sun shone on Liverpool’s almost-complete new stand at the Anfield Road end of the stadium, the team playing in front of it showed their own rebuild was also taking shape with a convincing 3-0 win.

New midfielders Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister give this team a completely different feel to the one of Jordan Henderson and Fabinho.

With local, club-produced player Curtis Jones flanking them in the middle of the park, it’s an exciting prospect.

If it works out its defensive responsibilities, this midfield could be among the best in the division, and they have the luxury of being able to add new signing Ryan Gravenberch to the mix in future games.

Szoboszlai showed what he brings to the table with a left-footed shot that cruised into the far corner to open the scoring after Trent Alexander-Arnold’s corner had made its way through traffic in the box.

Alexander-Arnold’s long passing from the back, often from the right centre-back position, combined with the pace and strength of Liverpool’s forward line troubled Aston Villa’s defence all game.

It was a very productive route to goal for the home side.

One such pass from Alexander-Arnold found Mohamed Salah breaking the Villa back line, and he fed Darwin Nunez whose shot hit the post and deflected in off Matty Cash to make it two.

Aston Villa had pace of their own up top but couldn’t quite work things out to make the most of it as Liverpool were doing.

On the occasions the visitors did advance into the opposition area, half chances were wasted or players couldn’t work things out between them to make those chances more clear-cut.

The best sight at goal fell to Cash from a Lucas Digne cross, a chance to add his name to the right side of the scoresheet from his perspective, but his close-range header was saved by the ever-well-positioned Alisson in goal for Liverpool.

Liverpool made sure of the win when Andy Robertson’s corner was headed on by Nunez with Salah pouncing at the far post to make it three.

Villa have turned into a handy Premier League side under Unai Emery, but Klopp’s new-look outfit made easy work of them here.

As the top half of the Anfield Road stand remains empty, the rebuild visibly incomplete, but also giving an idea of how grand it might look when full, Liverpool’s team showed their own reconstruction might already be good enough to challenge for honours this season.