Barry was certainly on the top of his form against the club who were not prepared to match Villa's £18million asking price throughout the summer.
The England player, however, drifted out of the game as did many star names as the match failed to live up to expectations.
The animosity between Villa boss Martin O'Neill and his counterpart Rafa Benitez over the Barry affair was evident, although the Irishman made a point of walking to the opposition dugout before the match to shake the hands of the Liverpool boss.
Obviously much of the spotlight fell on Barry's performance with the England player showing rich talent which could easily have been utilised in the star-studded Liverpool side in which skipper Jamie Carragher was a stalwart.
He was the midfield maestro as Villa's confident team more than matched the might of Liverpool, who obviously missed the influence of Steven Gerrard.
O'Neill has stressed that it is his intention to encourage attacking football at every opportunity and this was the feature of the early play when Villa attempted to pressurise the visitors.
Liverpool sat back to absorb the pressure with Javier Mascherano breaking up attacks and setting up some smart moves to remind Villa of the threat posed by snappy breaks.
In this period, Villa's shaky defence, which is not noted as being particularly water-tight, was not exposed.
Sadly Robbie Keane continued to fire blanks and has now gone five games without scoring since his expensive move from Tottenham to the Merseyside club.
His best chance came in the 72nd minute following a long through ball from Mascherano, but he was foiled by a late tackle from Nigel Reo-Coker.
There was a significant change in Liverpool's fortunes in the 28th minute when they lost the services of Fernando Torres with a hamstring injury.
However, he had been very placid and unable to make an impact, which made Villa's task considerably easier than expected in the vital opening 30 minutes.
The cat and mouse game was laced with good football from both teams with the best move coming in the 35th minute when Ashley Young set up Gabby Agbonlahor, who attempted to guide his shot home only to see the ball hit Pepe Reina and bounce clear.
This was the first direct attempt on goal from either side and the pattern was quickly re-instated as both teams struggled to find a cutting edge.
Liverpool's best chance was carved out by Keane when he set-up substitute David N'Gog, who watched his dipping shot skim the crossbar.