Richard Hughes gives Liverpool enormous £250m problem

Liverpool are in a difficult position - one worth £250m. Arne Slot will have a headache on the back of this.

Liverpool ended their awful Premier League run on Saturday as they beat Aston Villa 2-0 at Anfield. It's a win that felt unbelievably important after four consecutive defeats in the top flight - and it's only the Reds' second win in their last eight across all competitions.

It was a good one, though. Liverpool largely felt like the team that walked to the Premier League title last season, keeping a clean sheet and maintaining a high-intensity press for the majority of the game.

Now, it wasn't perfect. In fact, Villa largely played into the Reds' hands by constantly attempting to play out from the back. Mo Salah's opener came from a ridiculously poor pass by Emiliano Martínez, while most of Liverpool's chances were on the back of Villa losing it around their own box.

But there's also no need to downplay the win too much. Liverpool were sharper and they were able to finally keep a clean sheet - the first of Giorgi Mamardashvili's Anfield career.

The win does, however, ask some interesting questions. The Reds have found themselves with a £200m problem and it's not an easy one to solve.

Liverpool's £250m problem

Richard Hughes didn't really do all that much in his debut summer transfer window. A few players were sold, Mamardashvili was signed a year in advance, and Federico Chiesa arrived as a squad player.

Year two was very different. Liverpool spent over £450m on new players, including twice breaking their transfer record.

The deal for Florian Wirtz was the first time Liverpool ever spent nine figures on a player. Alexander Isak would then become the second player with a transfer fee above that line - but that deal broke the British transfer record, too.

And here's the problem: Liverpool won this game 2-0 against Villa, their first in a while, and neither started. Wirtz did come off the bench for the last 20 or so minutes, but the game was essentially done by that point.

So right now, Liverpool's 'best' performance of the season came without either of the new superstar signings. In fact, it also came without Milos Kerkez or Jeremie Frimpong - the new record arrivals at full-back.

That's comfortably over £250m worth of new talent out of the team and suddenly things look more 'normal'. It's not exactly a great look and suggests that Arne Slot has a much bigger job on this season to blend things together.

Hugo Ekitike has hit the ground running and played a key role on Saturday but he's the only player to hit the ground running. Everyone else is a little lost at Liverpool.

Slot has to find a way to get the others up to speed while also maintaining a group that actually works together. That's incredibly difficult to do, especially with so many big games coming up.

A £250m problem, then. And one no one really saw coming.

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