03 September 2023 , 21:54
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Jurgen Klopp hailed the performance of Dominik Szoboszlai after scored his first Liverpool goal in their 3-0 victory over Aston Villa.
Szoboszlai, who arrived in a £60million deal from RB Leipzig earlier in the window, netted the opener for the Reds as they breezed past Unai Emery's Villa at Anfield. It was an excellent finish from the Hungarian, who lashed the ball first time beyond Emiliano Martinez from the edge of the area.
Liverpool doubled their lead when Darwin Nunez's effort struck the base of the post, only for the ball to cannon straight off the unfortunate Matty Cash and fly into back of the net. Mohamed Salah added gloss on the scoreline with his first of the season for the Reds in the second-half.
But Klopp was quick to highlight Szoboszlai after the match. He said: "He's a machine, eh? That is now four games, pretty impressive, absolutely impressive, tactically smart, absolutely ready for the dirty part of the game, really hard work, not the fancy stuff.
"It was so important how Curt [Jones] and Dom closed the spaces. What a goal, I saw it from behind, the cleanest striker I saw for a long time."
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When asked about his team's overall performance, Klopp said: "It was a top game, best for a long time, we had a few good games obviously, It was really good, we were right in both departments offensively and defensively.
Dominik Szoboszlai celebrates after scoring for Liverpool against Aston Villa (Getty Images)"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 because the opponent is extremely strong."
Klopp also heaped praise on Joe Gomez and Joel Matip after the duo both came back into the Liverpool starting XI to face Villa. He added: "Both centre-halves played an exceptional game. With different jobs, to be honest. Diaby hiding in midfield on a nine-and-a-half, 10 position. So Joey had to step in there.
Joe Gomez in action against Aston Villa"Leaves Joel in a one-v-one with Ollie Watkins. As much as I love Joel, I think we know that Ollie Watkins might be a bit quicker than Joel and he did that really, really well. The boys in front of them knew about that fact so they were really in the situation in the counter-pressing moments.
"Until the 2-0 it was outstanding, then because of the intensity of the way we played, stuff like this, you could see the front line settled slightly higher. That is human but not helpful in these moments so we didn’t have exactly the same grip. But top performance really.
"And Joey – I’m really pleased for him. Against Newcastle, by the way, it was like that already, to be honest, when he came on. It looked really like that. It's very helpful when you have strong centre-halves, but if you leave them alone then the pitch is too big to defend. Today we were really together, really compact, the commitment was top-class and that’s why we played the way we played."