With the senior squad preparing for the Club World Cup semi-final, Liverpool were forced to field their Under-23 side in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday.
In a match where performances provided far more value than the result, Liverpool fell to a 5-0 defeat away to Aston Villa.
As strange as it seems, the scoreline hardly tells the tale of this match.
This was the youngest side Liverpool have ever fielded – the fact that the organisers could not have foreseen an outcome like this, let alone found a solution to avoid the need to use an U23 side, hardly enhances calls to take the Carabao Cup more seriously.
Villa are not to blame for playing a side to advance to a semi-final, but still, this was an academy team competing against an experienced one.
After Liverpool could not capitalise on a bright start, Villa benefited from a bit of luck and pulled away.
By the time the home side got their second goal from a freak deflection off Morgan Boyes, the Reds were unlikely to recover.
Neil Critchley’s youngsters never lost their heads and continued to graft, though, and there was plenty to admire in these players.
Here are four findings from the match, on a proud night for an emerging group of players.
