Virgil van Dijk hailed the "outstanding" Rio Ngumoha after the 18-year-old delivered a man-of-the-match display against Villarreal at Anfield.

"He's pretty electric at times and he showed it again. He was a complete threat constantly and their defender had a tough time," said Van Dijk.

Ngumoha got two assists as Liverpool came from behind to win 4-3 against the Spanish side.

Asked who has taken Ngumoha under their wing since the departure of Mohamed Salah in the summer, Van Dijk added: "A few senior players - 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."

Van Dijk's early error led to Villarreal taking the lead and the Liverpool captain admitted that it was an uncharacteristically poor performance from him.

"It was a terrible start. I think the saying is you fight an uphill battle and as a defender it is pretty difficult to come back from it," he said.

"I tried but it was a bad day at the office personally but we do it together with 11 players. We turned it around and that's the main thing.

"Unfortunately in life these things can sometimes happen. Fortunately it didn't happen too many times in my Liverpool career but tonight I wasn't the best. But we won and it's not about me - it's all about us. We got the three points."

And the 35-year-old praised Liverpool's character as they came from behind to win for the second time in four days after their win at Brentford on Saturday.

"Obviously we don't want to put ourselves in a position where you have to come back from anything and that's what I did from the start," he added.

"But then there was the fightback and the moments we created because we have to remember they are very good team on the ball and they showed that with a lot of movements and rotations on the ball.

"It's not easy to find the space. It wasn't a great first half but we got it turned around and now we have to get ready for Brighton - a super team - which is coming."