The night Rio Ngumoha cemented his status as a future world-beater: Liverpool had a £400m attack at their disposal but it was the 17-year-old who shone brightest in chaotic comeback win, writes LEWIS STEELE

DAILYMAIL.COM • 55m ago

By LEWIS STEELE, FOOTBALL REPORTER 22:24 20 Oct 2026, updated 23:12 20 Oct 2026

They used to call it ‘Pep roulette’ at Manchester City. A phrase coined by fantasy football nerds about Pep Guardiola’s tendency to chop and change his front line every week to devastating effect.

We haven’t refined our snazzy phrase for Andoni Iraola yet – the working drafts are ‘AI Bingo’ or ‘Iraola tombola’ – but the Liverpool boss has a devastating depth of attacking talent that, if they all fulfil their potential, can lead this team to dizzying heights.

That is caveated with a reminder that Iraola’s Reds are simultaneously plagued by many teething problems in other areas and are far from complete. We will discuss that in due course but first, a word on Iraola’s deck of cards that contains multiple aces and jokers.

With the best part of half a billion pounds worth of attackers not starting this comeback victory against VIllarreal, it was left to others to step up and no one caught the eye more than the potential world-beater but lesser-heralded Rio Ngumoha.

At just 18, Ngumoha already has three England caps and is well on the radar of Thomas Tuchel, but he is not yet guaranteed a starting berth at Liverpool and has had to bide his time due to competition and having been asked to swap wings by Iraola after the arrival of left-winger Bradley Barcola.

The teenager, who was poached from Chelsea in 2024 to much fury at Stamford Bridge, will cost a maximum of £6.8million but his ceiling is just as high as £125m Alexander Isak, £123m Barcola or £116m Florian Wirtz.

HOLT: Man City facing HUGE points deduction that guarantees relegation40.3K viewing now Liverpool beat Villarreal 4-3 in a chaotic Champions League encounter at Anfield on Tuesday Alexis Mac Allister was Liverpool’s hero, scoring twice as the Reds came from behind to win But it was Rio Ngumoha’s display that was most impressive as he showed all of his qualityNgumoha is yet to score this season but was the shining light here with two assists in a spell-binding performance that helped tilt the game in Liverpool’s favour. That was far from guaranteed after a shoddy, uncharacteristic and worrying first half an hour.

LIVERPOOL (4-2-3-1): Alisson 6; Araujo 7 (Wirtz 46, 7), Jacquet 6 (Gomez 74, 6), Van Dijk 5, Tsimikas 6; Nyoni 7 (McConnell 81), Mac Allister 8; Ngumoha 8 (Barcola 74, 6), Gravenberch 6; Gakpo 6; Koumas 6.

Subs not used: Mamardashvili, Woodman, Kerkez, Isak, Chambers, Danns, Laffey.

Scorers: Mac Allister 36, 65, Araujo 45+2, Wirtz 68.

VILLARREAL (4-2-3-1): Gulacsi 5; Mourino 5, Navarro 5, Veiga 6, Cardona 6; Saliba 7 (Oluwaseyi 46, 7), Gueye 6; Buchanan 5 (Freeman 60, 6), Comesana 6 (Moreno 78), Moleiro 6 (Foyth 54, 6); Mikautadze 7 (Perez 60, 6).

Subs not used: Luiz Junior, Akhomach, Costa, Diatta, El Jmili, Gaitan, Macia.

Scorers: Mikautadze 4, Cardona 29, Oluwaseyi 87.

Alexis Mac Allister is also worthy of vast praise as the Argentine struck a brace to continue his resurgence and stellar season after a year-long dip, while Ronald Araujo and substitute Wirtz also scored.

As the scoreline suggests, Liverpool’s defence was all at sea and that will provide a headache for Iraola in the coming days, especially given they have conceded 10 in their last four games, also shipping three to Manchester City and Austrian side LASK.

But while the boss agonises over fixing the defence, he knows he has cracked it at the other end. Ngumoha can trouble any defence, Isak can win any game with his instinctive poacher-like finishing, Wirtz and Barcola are starting to show signs they can unlock stubborn sides.

Then there is Cody Gakpo, who returned from injury and showed signs he is picking up where he left off, and the energetic Victor Munoz, who missed this game but was described as a ‘Formula One car’ in these pages yesterday. And don’t forget £79m injured striker Hugo Ekitike.

Liverpool’s array of weapons in attack were needed to help them get over the mess of the first half an hour, as Iraola was being taught a lesson by his former right-hand man, Inigo Perez, who was the No 2 during the Basque’s formative years at Rayo Vallecano.

Perez could not move to England when Iraola did because some wise cracks at the Home Office said he was not skilled enough for a work permit.

The 38-year-old has made a mockery of that since, leading Rayo to the Conference League final after taking over from Iraola as head coach and now managing in the Champions League, where, for 35 minutes at least, his team played six-time European kings Liverpool off the park.

Villarreal were magic, Liverpool tragic. This was by far the worst half hour of the Iraola era, more worrying than the capitulation against Manchester City. At least that time they had the defence of going down to 10 men.

No excuse on this occasion, apprentice Perez was simply schooling master Iraola.

Villarreal, nicknamed El Submarino Amarillo or The Yellow Submarine, were enjoying themselves in the land of the Beatles – whose song inspired that tag and is played before games at Estadio de la Ceramica. They were ahead after just four minutes.

Virgil van Dijk made a honking error to head a long ball straight to the path of Georges Mikautadze, who could not believe his luck and scored. Van Dijk barely makes one wrong step, never mind a catastrophic mistake like this, and everyone at Anfield looked shellshocked.

The 1,500 or so away fans and sea of vibrant yellow shirts were soon jumping for joy again on 29 minutes when Sergi Cardona sprung through a shoddy offside trap and waltzed through on goal to slot past a helpless Alisson for 2-0.

Iraola was left scratching his head and probably regretting the six changes he made from the team that fought from behind to beat Brentford on Saturday.

But out of nowhere, his team found something and started the comeback, through a Mac Allister header on 36 minutes. The Argentine may be small but is as good as most in the air and connected well with Kostas Tsimikas’s corner to score.

Anfield found its voice and the Reds responded. Ngumoha made the equaliser with a fine ball that was headed home by Ronald Araujo for his second goal in a week after scoring at LASK.

The Uruguayan loanee, here for the season from Barcelona, is quickly becoming a cult hero and is being affectionately referred to as ‘Big Ron’. He jumped into the Anfield Road End and made the night of one lucky lady, who received a bear hug.

There was never any looking back from there, and Mac Allister put Liverpool ahead on 65 minutes after a dancing run from Ngumoha, before Wirtz came on and put gloss on the victory with a fine finish to continue an eye-catching week for the much-criticised German.

Tani Oluwaseyi made it a nervy finish with an 87th-minute goal which highlighted Liverpool’s defensive issues once more, but at least they can follow the old mantra of ‘you can score, we will just score more’.

How long that will last, who knows, but it is certainly not going to be boring this year.

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