Liverpool fielded their youngest ever team against Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup.That was inevitable with the senior team in action tomorrow in the Club World Cup thanks to some ludicrous scheduling. The Reds' XI that took to the field had an average age of 19 years, six months and three days, with 16-year-old Harvey Elliott the youngest of the lot. For many of them, it was a rare chance to impress Jurgen Klopp, presumably watching from afar in Qatar. However, nobody can have expected too much from this fresh-faced inexperienced side and inevitably, Villa were far too much for them. 

Conor Hourihane opened the scoring before Morgan Boyes' own goal suggested it was a mountain too far for Liverpool's teenagers. 

Jonathan Kodija then scored a brace to make it 4-0 by half-time. 

Obviously, to all except the Villa players themselves, that meant little. It was a case of men against boys, in the most literal sense. 

That didn't stop them from celebrating as though they'd scored in the game of their lives, though - especially Ahmed Elmohamady. 

The awkward thing was, the Egyptian hadn't actually scored at all - it was an own goal. 

Has anyone told them this isn't *actually* Liverpool? 

The bigger question is why the game couldn't be rearranged. 

There's no guarantee that Klopp would have played a strong team at any stage of the season in the competition - he did his best to lose against Arsenal in the previous round after all. 

But on another day, surely Liverpool would have put out a team that could have stood a fighting chance. 

While in reality, the result means little, it won't have done these youngsters' confidence any good at all.