Manchester City supporters and fantasy football players once coined the term “Pep roulette” to describe Pep Guardiola’s habit of constantly rotating his attackers, a strategy that repeatedly produced devastating results.
There is no polished nickname yet for Andoni Iraola’s selection dilemmas – “AI Bingo” and “Iraola tombola” remain works in progress – but Liverpool’s manager has an extraordinary collection of attacking options. If they reach their full potential, the Reds could rise to remarkable heights.
That optimism comes with an important qualification. Liverpool still have a number of early-season flaws in other parts of the team and remain a work in progress. Those concerns can wait for now, because Iraola’s attacking arsenal deserves attention first: a squad packed with match-winners, emerging stars and a few unpredictable wild cards.
Almost £500million worth of attacking talent was left on the bench for this dramatic comeback against Villarreal. That created an opportunity for the next players in line to make their mark, and nobody seized it more impressively than the relatively understated Rio Ngumoha.
Ngumoha is only 18 but has already earned three England caps and attracted the attention of manager Thomas Tuchel. Even so, a regular starting place at Liverpool is not yet assured. Fierce competition for places, along with Iraola’s decision to move him to the opposite flank following the arrival of left winger Bradley Barcola, has required patience from the teenager.
Liverpool signed Ngumoha from Chelsea in 2024, a move that sparked considerable anger at Stamford Bridge. The deal could ultimately cost just £6.8million, yet his potential is every bit as significant as that of the club’s headline signings: £125m Alexander Isak, £123m Barcola and £116m Florian Wirtz.
Liverpool overturned a chaotic Champions League contest to defeat Villarreal 4-3 at Anfield on Tuesday
Alexis Mac Allister delivered the decisive contribution, scoring twice in Liverpool’s comeback victory
Rio Ngumoha was the standout performer, producing a display full of confidence and attacking quality
Although Ngumoha is still waiting for his first goal of the season, he emerged as Liverpool’s brightest spark with two assists. His dazzling performance helped swing the match in the hosts’ favour, an outcome that seemed anything but certain after a sloppy and unusually troubling opening half-hour.
Alexis Mac Allister is also worthy of vast praise as the Argentine struck a brace to continue his resurgence and stellar season after a year-long dip, while Ronald Araujo and substitute Wirtz also scored.
As the scoreline suggests, Liverpool’s defence was all at sea and that will provide a headache for Iraola in the coming days, especially given they have conceded 10 in their last four games, also shipping three to Manchester City and Austrian side LASK.
But while the boss agonises over fixing the defence, he knows he has cracked it at the other end. Ngumoha can trouble any defence, Isak can win any game with his instinctive poacher-like finishing, Wirtz and Barcola are starting to show signs they can unlock stubborn sides.
Then there is Cody Gakpo, who returned from injury and showed signs he is picking up where he left off, and the energetic Victor Munoz, who missed this game but was described as a ‘Formula One car’ in these pages yesterday. And don’t forget £79m injured striker Hugo Ekitike.
Liverpool’s array of weapons in attack were needed to help them get over the mess of the first half an hour, as Iraola was being taught a lesson by his former right-hand man, Inigo Perez, who was the No 2 during the Basque’s formative years at Rayo Vallecano.
Perez 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 35 minutes at least, his team played six-time European kings Liverpool off the park.
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
Villarreal were magic, Liverpool tragic. 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.
No excuse on this occasion, 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 to 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 shellshocked.
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.
But out of nowhere, his team found something and started the comeback, through a Mac Allister header on 36 minutes. 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. Ngumoha made the equaliser with a fine ball that was headed home by Ronald 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 once more, but at least they can follow the old mantra of ‘you can score, we will just score more’.
How long that will last, who knows, but it is certainly not going to be boring this year.
