Jurgen Klopp said Liverpool were ‘close to perfect’ in beating Aston Villa 3-0 on Sunday at Anfield, with the German manager praising his team’s performance as ‘the best in a long time’.
Summer recruit Dominik Szoboszlai opened the scoring after three minutes and put in a mercurial midfield performance, before Darwin Nunez forced Matty Cash into an own goal and much-discussed Mo Salah added a third in the second half.
After sub-par overall performances against Chelsea, Bournemouth and Newcastle, the Reds registered their first clean sheet of the season in an all-round fine display, which Klopp described as a ‘top game’.
Absolutely, it was a top game (from us),’ said the German boss. ‘The best game for a long time, we had a few good games obviously but this was really good, we were right in both departments offensively and defensively, you cannot do one step less against this Aston Villa team.
‘The early goal might have helped but we looked really good. The mix in possession between control and direction was close to perfect. That is how it felt, we used the formation properly, everybody wanted the ball, it was as good as could be.’
Klopp singled out Hungarian captain Szoboszlai for praise after the match, with the £60m addition looking like one of the signings of the summer. ‘That is now four games, pretty impressive,’ said Klopp on the 22-year-old.
‘He is tactically smart, absolutely ready for the dirty part of the game, really hard working – not the fancy stuff, not shooting, passing, running forward, no, closing down opponents. And what a goal, I saw it from behind, the cleanest strike I saw for a long time!
Klopp also noted the individual performance of Joe Gomez, who had big shoes to fill with Ibrahima Konate injured and skipper Virgil Van Dijk suspended. ‘Both centre halves played an exceptional game with different jobs,’ said Klopp.
‘Moussa Diaby (Aston Villa forward) is hiding in midfield so Joe had to step in there, leaving Joel (Matip) in one on one with Ollie Watkins, we know Watkins might be quicker than Joel. But top performance and Joey I am pleased with him. Today we were really together and compact.’
Villa boss Unai Emery was disappointed with his team’s ‘weak’ defending. The Spaniard said: ‘After the first goal we conceded we were not bad, we had chances. We were weak defensively and they were clinical.’
