Rio Ngumoha produced an exciting performance as Liverpool won 4-3 against Villarreal in the Champions League, with Virgil van Dijk impressed by the 18-year-old winger

It tells you something about Villarreal left-back Sergi Cardona's performance against Liverpool that even though he scored, he was still only given a 5.6/10 player rating by the statistics site FotMob.

There was only one reason for that: Rio Ngumoha. The Liverpool winger ripped his marker to shreds at times, dribbling left and then right. A few days after outlining to reporters that he wants to become even more "unpredictable", the England forward took another significant step forward in his development.

"Outstanding and well-deserved man of the match," Reds skipper Virgil van Dijk told reporters at Anfield. "Very important for us today, like he was at the weekend. Really good to see. He's pretty electric at times and he showed it again. He was a complete threat constantly and their defender had a tough time.

"A few senior players (have taken him under their wing), but I would say Cody (Gakpo) is definitely part of that. But everyone has that role in order to help the youngsters in the group, the players who have not had so much experience.

"Everyone is chipping in, but for him to work with Mo (Salah) last year was obviously massive, as Mo was one of the best wingers at the club and experienced everything, so why not soak in all the information and show it on the pitch and show your own qualities? I think he has shown it this season, but there is still much more to come."

Liverpool rotated heavily amid a hectic schedule, making six changes — the first time since April 2024 that it has made three or more swaps in seven successive fixtures.

While it was a tough start for Liverpool, with Van Dijk and Kostas Tsimikas making errors that led to Villarreal being 2-0 up, the Reds turned it around in the end to maintain their 100 per cent European record under Andoni Iraola.

"What the manager wants us to do is something which resonates with Liverpool and it is down to us to show us each and every game," Van Dijk said.

"It’s not easy — it’s demanding — but if you want to win games and win games in the Liverpool way then we have to do it. The first half was obviously not good at all and the second half was solid and we turned it around and that’s a good sign.

"It’s an important run for sure. We are also coming to a period now, especially November-December, when I think you can see who will be challenging for certain places.

"But our full focus is on the game ahead of us, that should always be the case. Brighton are flying high and it will be a tough one. We have some injuries, unfortunately, and you need everyone as fit as possible and quickly back as well."

Liverpool has now won each of its three games since the heavy loss to Manchester City at Anfield, emerging victorious against LASK, Brentford and then Villarreal.

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That makes it five wins in six games in all competitions, with the visit of the La Liga side the first of six games in a 19-day period before the November international break.

"If you look at it from that perspective, it is like that; it is only October," Van Dijk added. "We train a lot, tactically as well, but because there are so many games you learn playing games.

"This was a test in that sense because Villarreal were good on the ball and also they rotated a lot so you have to find moments when you can press them.

"When you can win the ball high it can be dangerous and it showed in the second half especially but when you don’t win the ball it can be very dangerous, that’s how they scored the second goal as we were all a little bit too late."