Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp waxed lyrical about "machine" Dominik Szoboszlai following the Hungarian's first goal for the club in Sunday's 3-0 Premier League win over Aston Villa.
The 22-year-old had already hit the ground running at Anfield following his arrival from RB Leipzig, albeit without directly contributing to a goal in his first three appearances.
Szoboszlai needed just three minutes to break the deadlock during the visit of Villa, through, drilling a clean strike into the far corner after Trent Alexander-Arnold's delivery found its way to him on the edge of the area.
Following Szoboszlai's strike, Liverpool added a second before the break through Matty Cash's own goal, as the right-back was in the wrong place at the wrong time when Darwin Nunez's shot struck the post.
The Lions did ask some questions of the Reds' backline, but Klopp's team put the game to bed in the 55th minute, as Mohamed Salah poked home from Nunez's flick-on to steer Liverpool to their third successive win.
© Reuters
Addressing the media in his post-game press conference, Klopp hailed Szoboszlai's goal as one of the "cleanest" strikes he had seen in a long time, while he also labelled Liverpool's overall performance their "best" in recent memory.
"A machine, huh? That's now all four games. Pretty impressive, absolutely impressive," Klopp said of Szobozlai. "Tactically smart, absolutely ready for the dirty part of the game – meaning hard work where it's not the fancy stuff where they are shooting, crossing, running forward, stuff like this.
"No, he is really closing down opponents. So important how Curt and Dom defended the half-spaces next to Darwin, super-important.
"And what a goal! I saw it directly from behind. That was the cleanest strike I saw for a long time. And that was his slightly lesser-good foot. That was, again, a top performance.
"It was a top game, the best for a while, a long time. I don't know the last time we were that convincing, and we had a few good games obviously now – especially the end of last season and these kinds of things. That was really good.
© Reuters
"And you're right, in both departments, offensively like defensively. You cannot do one step less against this Aston Villa team, then you struggle immediately. But the early goal might have helped, I'm not sure, we don't know how the game would have looked without scoring, but we looked really, really good. The mix in possession between control and direction was close to perfect. That's how it felt."
However, one sour note to Liverpool's victory was Alexander-Arnold's enforced withdrawal due to a hamstring injury, as the right-back immediately headed down the tunnel following his 71st-minute substitution.
Klopp has confirmed that Alexander-Arnold will soon undergo scans to determine the severity of the issue, but the defender - who is due to represent England later this month - is not too concerned.
"I don't know exactly. I asked him, he said it's [his] hamstring. 'Not too serious' is his opinion, but we obviously have to wait for the scans and then we will know more," Klopp added.
Liverpool occupy third place in the Premier League table with 10 points from their opening four games and return to action away to Wolverhampton Wanderers for the September 16 lunchtime kickoff.
Ben Knapton
