No pressure on the ball and no reaction, Liverpool betray who they are in humiliation to Aston Villa

Everything you would associate with Jurgen Klopp's side was absent in the most alarming way at Villa Park

Liverpool were humiliated at Villa Park (PA)

When Mohamed Salah scored Liverpool’s first, with the scoreline then reading 2-1 in Aston Villa’s favour, the sentiment that the Premier League champions had finally been switched on and could end up swamping the hosts coloured commentary of the match at Villa Park.

In the aftermath of a rub-eyes-and-repeat night, Dean Smith admitted that even when his men had stormed into a commanding 5-2 lead, he stood in the technical area wondering if it would be enough against such an explosive force.

“You’re not sure because of how good they are,” he said.

Such confidence in Liverpool was understandable, but completely misplaced on a night where everything you would associate with Jurgen Klopp’s side - tenacity in the press, focusing on protection for their offensive play, a strong reaction to setbacks, adjusting to win by whatever means necessary, making the opposition work ridiculously hard to carve opportunities - was absent in the most alarming way.

As Virgil van Dijk put it, Liverpool “weren't 100% at it from start to finish” and Klopp rightly furthered that assessment with “we lost the plot. All the things we shouldn’t do in a football match, we did.”

To pinpoint where it all went wrong for the visitors is to also underscore where it went right for Villa: they were armed with a solid game plan, showing confidence and aggression from the first whistle.

Before Adrian’s howler for the opener, they had generated a spell of pressure and worked on Liverpool’s right channel, promoting indecisiveness and making the evening supremely uncomfortable for Joe Gomez and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

When the goalkeeper erred for the fifth time directly leading to an opposition goal across 21 appearances for Liverpool in all competitions - Alisson reached that figure after 92 matches - shoulders dropped, heads went and Villa were encouraged that their approach was spot on.

Klopp’s men shook off their cold start in an offensive sense and started to threaten, with bemusement as to why a penalty wasn’t awarded when John McGinn clattered into Salah. Liverpool, though, were in danger every time they ceded possession and atypically were most vulnerable when they had scored.

Within six minutes of the Egyptian’s first, John McGinn’s deflected strike from distance was followed up with Ollie Watkins clinching a deserved hat-trick to put Villa 4-1 in the ascendancy.

Another two goals promptly followed Salah’s second, both converted by Jack Grealish.

Liverpool started on the back foot, never recovered from Adrian’s gaffe and weirdly continued to play into Villa’s hands in a failure of both change from the dugout and discretion from the players.

The psychological effect of conceding the opener in the manner they did betrayed Klopp’s label of his squad as “f***ing mentality monsters,” a title he had bestowed on them in this very fixture last season.

“That was a big mistake by Adrian, yes, but how we reacted to the goal was an even bigger mistake,” Klopp said.

“We have to take risks when we play offensively, that’s absolutely clear, that’s completely normal and that’s football. But you have to protect your risks, that’s normal as well, these situations. And we didn’t do that tonight. Each ball we lost, wherever it was, was a massive counter-attack and directly a real problem.”

The failure to shrug Adrian’s blunder off and turn the defensive screw will be all the more concerning as Alisson faces a six-week absence due to a shoulder injury with an in-form Everton up next at Goodison followed by a Champions League trip to Ajax.

Villa will not be alone in seeking to profit from the lack of complete trust in Liverpool’s last line of defence.

Losing a world-class goalkeeper is bad enough, but surrendering the fundamental tenets of your play is unforgivable. The issue wasn’t with Liverpool’s high-line at Villa park, but the complete lack of pressure on the ball. Not deciding to drop off as that was the case was defensive suicide.

Even Smith, who revealed Villa “reversed the ball to the opposite side to exploit the space,” seemed puzzled by Liverpool’s passiveness. His charges were sublime, never easing off but they were certainly aided on a historic night.

Ross Barkley had three efforts on goal and yet the welcome mat was rolled out for him to have another crack to open his Villa account. The non-attempt to remotely stifle the hosts in possession was so ridiculous it led to Jamie Carragher laughing in disbelief.

Tracking runners, closing down, winning duels and even blocking shots with intent was beyond Liverpool. For all the fume at Adrian and while his early mistake did shape the design of the game, his team-mates were of no help. It wasn’t just the right side that was an issue either.

The midfield may as well have been part of the TV audience and bar Salah, Diogo Jota and Andy Robertson’s showing in the first half, no Liverpool player can feel like they actually made an appearance for the club.

As Klopp summarised: “If you lose the decisive challenges, you will lose football games. We did that.

“If you don’t protect your offensive stuff properly, you will get in trouble. And we got in trouble. You could see in moments – and I don’t think I had to say that a lot – in different challenges Aston Villa definitely wanted it more than us.”

Liverpool failed to react in the right way in the West Midlands, but now have to ensure this was an off night rather than feeding into a wider picture.

The 11 goals they have conceded is the most for the club after four games of a league season since 1937-38.

Liverpool are the first reigning English top-flight champions to ship seven in a league match since Arsenal against Sunderland in September 1953.

A strange occurrence in strange times, but the most shocking element of it all was just how much they betrayed who they are and what they do.