Dominik Szoboszlai opened his account after only three minutes with a sweeping first-time shot on the boundary of the area.Midway through the first half, Matty Cash turned the ball into his own net while attempting to stop Darwin Nunez’s effort.Mohamed Salah scored his third goal of the game early in the second half after Nunez flicked on an Andy Robertson corner.Anfield’s primary talking points were as follows:
Gerrard’s spirit is summoned by Szoboszlai.
Comparisons with Steven Gerrard were inevitable for Dominik Szoboszlai. Liverpool’s summer signing not only chose the no.8 shirt made famous by the legendary former captain but also had his words used in a personal tattoos. Those parallels are set to run deeper after Szoboszlai opened his account for Jurgen Klopp’s side with an eerily familiar strike in the third minute on Sunday. A sweeping first-time finish on the edge of the area could just easily have been plucked from Gerrard’s showreel from his time as Anfield’s talisman. Yet it was more than the goal which Szoboszlai embodied against Aston Villa as his willingness to dig in also evoked memories of the ‘Huyton Hammer’. Well-timed sliding interceptions, hunting down possession and even taking corners were just some of those hallmarks which he brought to the table. Szoboslai may not be Liverpool’s everyman quite in the same way Gerrard became but he certainly embodied the Anfield legend’s spirit on this outing.
Salah’s price remains too high.
To sell or not to sell? That’s currently the question plaguing Mohamed Salah. Liverpool’s all-time Premier League top scorer has been the subject of an unrequited courtship from the Saudi Pro League throughout this summer. A tentative offer totalling £150 million was submitted by Al Ittihad merely hours before the European summer transfer window closed earlier this weekend. Although the approach was firmly rejected by Anfield officials, that figure loomed large on Salah’s first outing since interest in him finally crystallised. The Egyptian delivered an emphatic response of his own by adding a touch of gloss on this victory to score in consecutive home outings this season. More pertinently, Salah emulated a personal record of scoring or assisting in each of his previous 10 Premier League appearances since last term. A deserved assist should preceded his latest strike after a surging run and cross to the far post that required a far better finish from Darwin Nunez. The cruel irony of Salah’s continued brilliance is that it will only drive his Saudi suitors to test the water further with a £200M follow-up already being touted. Time will tell whether that proves too great to resist but if the consensus from The Kop counts for anything in this matter, the answer is still a resounding no.
Reds 2.0 already appears to be the real deal.
Klopp promised that fans would see a ‘reloaded’ version of his team this season after a summer of overdue if slightly unexpected upheaval to midfield. Four games into the new campaign, those wholesale changes in the engine room have become the focal point of why Liverpool 2.0 has taken flight. But it is more than new arrivals that have transformed a side which fell short of its basic Champions League qualification aim at the end of last season.. Their manager’s adaptation to somewhat unforeseen early-season issues highlighted the steps that have been taken during the summer period. Denied Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate through suspension and injury, Klopp had no option but to deploy Joe Gomez and Joel Matip in defence. At different times, the pair have fallen out of favour in the Anfield backline’s pecking order yet acquitted themselves superbly against Villa’s attack. Even when Leon Bailey threatened to lay siege to Alisson’s goal during the first half, Gomez proved highly unflappable in warding off the visitors’ threat. In midfield, too, Curtis Jones showcased again why he merited an extended run of games during the previous campaign’s run-in with another solid display. It may not be enough to herald Liverpool as title contenders just yet, as was the case in past years, but the early indications are still highly promising.
