Taylor Hinds scored two goals in her first game back for Liverpool after making her international debut for Jamaica last week
Aston Villa's first-half performance in their defeat by Liverpool was described as "terrible" by manager Robert de Pauw as they remain winless after six games of the Women’s Super League season.
Taylor Hinds’ double earned Liverpool victory at Villa Park as the visitors dominated the first 45 minutes.
Liverpool took a deserved lead after 26 minutes, a low cross from the right finding Hinds in the box.
The Reds captain had time and yards of space on the left to finish high past Villa keeper Sabrina D’Angelo.
The second goal saw Hinds run onto Grace Fisk's ball across the box and strike a low shot through the legs of D’Angelo.
Having lined his side up in a new-look 3-5-2 formation for this game, De Pauw made a triple half-time change after a lifeless first 45 minutes.
"That first half we didn't show up," he told BBC Sport. "That's terrible to see as a coach, as you feel you did everything in the week to prepare.
"The first half we looked a little stressed, insecure on the ball, not exact in passing. Liverpool were opportunistic, if you don't do your job and track back then you concede two goals.
"Then you have to take risks, in the second half the players looked like, we can go all or nothing. Then suddenly we start to play football like we normally train."
Those half-time changes made an immediate impact as Villa pulled a goal back five minutes after the break, Gabi Nunes bundling in from close range.
The hosts were much more coherent after the break, Liverpool keeper Rachel Laws making a good save with her left leg to deny Kirsty Hanson.
But Liverpool held on to move fifth in the WSL, while Villa remain on two points from six games. They are only above bottom side West Ham on goal difference.
It means De Pauw, who replaced Carla Ward as Villa manager in the summer, remains winless in English league football.
"Of course there is pressure, but what frustrates me is that the first five games were good in the way we played, but we didn't kill the games off," he added.
New formation fails to work for de Pauw
With Villa without a win from their first five WSL games for the second successive season, De Pauw changed things up, going with three at the back, rather than the 4-3-3 used in the opening fixtures.
Winger Adriana Leon replaced full-back Noelle Maritz, with Dan Turner moved into the back three alongside Anna Patten and Lucy Parker.
It meant Rachel Daly, who has been deployed in a less familiar wing role in recent games, could be moved back to centre-forward and partner summer signing Nunes.
The theory was sound, but in practice Villa looked unimpressive and disjointed.
Neither Daly nor Nunes offered real attacking threat, while in defence there were huge gaps which Hinds exploited for her two goals.
Leon and Katie Robinson were the only players wide for Villa, and both are much more comfortable attacking.
There was no sign of Robinson tracking back down the right or keeping tabs on Hinds for either Liverpool goal - something Reds manager Matt Beard said they had pinpointed as a Villa weakness.
"They build with a three [at the back], and they always tend to do it down one side," he said. "It made it a little easier to stop them playing as they like to switch it out, but we pinned them in.
"Second half they built with a two [player defence] and pushed the full-backs on so we had to adapt to that.
"You look at both goals, both our centre-backs got off the shoulders of their front two and their midfielders couldn't cover the ground. It was something we worked on to exploit throughout the week."
Player of the match
After the opportunity to rate players has closed, the score displayed represents the average from all the submissions by BBC Sport users.
