They used to call it ‘Pep roulette’ at Manchester City, when Pep Guardiola would throw a surprise every weekend by changing up his front line to devastating effect.
We don’t have such a snazzy phrase for Andoni Iraola – ‘AI Bingo’ or ‘Iraola tombola’ are the early drafts – but the Liverpool boss has an elite depth of attacking talent who, if they all fulfil their potential, can take this team to dreamy heights.
With the best part of half a billion pounds worth of forwards not starting this victory against Villarreal, it was up to the supposed backup brigade to assert their authority and no one stood out more than the potential world-beater Rio Ngumoha.
Still just 18, the three-time England cap will cost Liverpool a maximum fee of £6.8million after they poached him from Chelsea two years ago, but this teenage prodigy’s ceiling is as high as £125m Alexander Isak, £123m Bradley Barcola or £116m Florian Wirtz.
Ngumoha has not found himself on the score-sheet again but he was the shining light of many in a thumping comeback win that could have unfolded very differently after an uncharacteristic and shoddy first half an hour.
Alexis Mac Allister continued his fine season with a brace either side of Ronald Araujo’s header, with substitute Wirtz adding a fourth to put the game to bed.
Liverpool beat Villarreal 4-3 in a chaotic Champions League encounter at Anfield on Tuesday
Alexis Mac Allister was Liverpool’s hero, scoring twice as the Reds came from behind to win
But it was Rio Ngumoha’s display that was most impressive as he showed all of his quality
Iraola will spend the coming days agonising over the slapdash first 30 minutes but will also know that, with his long list of attackers, the sky is the limit.
Isak, Wirtz and Barcola all came on but it was Ngumoha, academy star Lewis Koumas and the returning Cody Gakpo who led the line as Liverpool turned this game on its head.
This is not to mention Victor Munoz, described as a ‘F1 car on a pitch’ in these pages on Monday, and £79m Hugo Ekitike who is entering the final stages of a long recovery from a ruptured Achilles.
Iraola locked horns with his former right-hand man, Inigo Perez, who was the No 2 during the Basque’s formative years at Rayo Vallecano.
Perez, who sported a polo shirt and box-fresh white trainers – but notably braved the inclement Merseyside weather without a jacket – could not move to England when Iraola did because some wise cracks at the Home Office said he was not skilled enough for a work permit.
The 38-year-old has made a mockery of that since, leading Rayo to the Conference League final after taking over from Iraola as head coach and now managing in the Champions League, where, for 45 minutes at least, his team played six-time European kings Liverpool off the park.
Villarreal were magic, Liverpool tragic. The Reds were playing like a rabble who had met each other 10 minutes before kick-off and at the tempo of a charity match, while the yellow shirts of their Spanish visitors swarmed around them and exploited many gaping gaps.
This was by far the worst half hour of the Iraola era, more worrying than the capitulation against Manchester City. At least that time they had the defence of going down to 10 men. This time they had no excuse, apprentice Perez was simply schooling master Iraola.
Villarreal, nicknamed El Submarino Amarillo or The Yellow Submarine, were enjoying themselves in the land of the Beatles – whose song inspired that tag and is played before games at Estadio de la Ceramica. They were ahead after just four minutes.
Virgil van Dijk made a honking error to head a long ball straight into the path of Georges Mikautadze, who could not believe his luck and scored. Van Dijk barely makes one wrong step, never mind a catastrophic mistake like this, and everyone at Anfield looked shell-shocked.
That feeling strengthened when Nathan Saliba pulled a shot wide, then Mikautadze started showboating with kick-ups after 27 minutes. It was only 1-0 at this point but the Spaniards’ supremacy was as obvious as Liverpool’s tardiness.
The 1,500 or so away fans and sea of vibrant yellow shirts were soon jumping for joy again on 29 minutes when Sergi Cardona sprung through a shoddy offside trap and waltzed through on goal to slot past a helpless Alisson for 2-0.
Iraola was left scratching his head and probably regretting the six changes he made from the team that fought from behind to beat Brentford on Saturday. The attack was offering nothing and looked exactly what it was: a front four that had £400million worth of talent taken out of it.
Bradley Barcola, Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak sat on the bench, while Saturday’s energetic goal-scorer Victor Munoz was also missed and is nursing an injury suffered in the heat of battle at Brentford.
Liverpool fought back after a dreadful first 30 minutes that saw Villarreal go 2-0 ahead
Ronald Araujo scored his second goal in a week and celebrated by jumping into the stands
Florian Wirtz (right) was also on the scoresheet to cap off a good few days for the German
Out of nowhere, Liverpool found something and started the comeback, through a Mac Allister header. The Argentine may be small but is as good as most in the air and connected well with Kostas Tsimikas’s corner to score.
Anfield found its voice and the Reds responded. Somehow, after the horror show of the first 35 minutes, they went into half-time level. Ngumoha made the goal with a fine ball that was headed home by Araujo for his second goal in a week after scoring at LASK.
The Uruguayan loanee, here for the season from Barcelona, is quickly becoming a cult hero and is being affectionately referred to as ‘Big Ron’. He jumped into the Anfield Road End and made the night of one lucky lady, who received a bear hug.
There was never any looking back from there, and Mac Allister put Liverpool ahead on 65 minutes after a dancing run from Ngumoha, before Wirtz came on and put gloss on the victory with a fine finish to continue an eye-catching week for the much-criticised German.
Tani Oluwaseyi made it a nervy finish with an 87th-minute goal which highlighted Liverpool’s defensive issues – but Iraola knows his attackers are trending upwards and, after an uninspiring season, Liverpool once more possess a number of players who can win any game.
