Blog by dedlfc (David Douglas)
Watford 3 Ake 3',
Ighalo 15' , Ighalo 85'
Liverpool 0
Liverpool 0
Pre-game thoughts: Solid line-up for Liverpool, especially in the attack. Roberto Firmino starts up top in
the false number nine role and will be supported by Philippe Coutinho and Adam
Lallana. Lucas Leiva, Mamadou
Sakho and Adam Bogdan enter the team.
Bogdan replacing the injured
Mignolet – who had a hamstring injury.
The match starts
as poorly as possible for us. Bogdan attempted to catch from a corner...catches...and then drops...a simple cross.
Watford capitalised with Ake stabbing home which on replays looks like a foul but the goal is given and
it's 1-0 inside three minutes.
Further poor
defending by Skrtel out muscled by in-form Watford striker Ighalo who decisively shoots home makes it 2-0 within 15 minutes – this was
fast becoming an extremely bad day.
The out of form Skrtel
goes down after a tangle with Watford striker Deeney, we were struggling to cope with Watford's power and physicality. Not much positivity to mention apart from one shot on target by Coutinho and a
couple of nice diagonal cross field passes by Henderson, despite having more
possession we do not looked toothless.
Skrtel returned to the fray and we only look marginally better for a couple of minutes before
further chaos ensued and Watford should have a third goal.
Bogdan is an
absolute mess in his league debut for us. He is all over the place.
Watford play a rather aimless long pass forward and Bogdan charges out to gather it, before bizarrely attempting to punch it forwards. The ball smacked into Lucas and pops back behind the stranded keeper, but fortunately for Liverpool, Skrtel is on hand to thump it clear.
Watford play a rather aimless long pass forward and Bogdan charges out to gather it, before bizarrely attempting to punch it forwards. The ball smacked into Lucas and pops back behind the stranded keeper, but fortunately for Liverpool, Skrtel is on hand to thump it clear.
Shortly
afterwards Skrtel came off with a hamstring problem and Klopp gambled throwing
Origi into the attack, moving Lucas into the back four.
Half-time thoughts: Yikes. We are getting worse
with every game against another supposed lesser side. Leadership is nowhere to be
seen on the pitch for us. Need a really inspirational Klopp team talk to turn
this score around at halftime.
We at last look dangerous to start the second half. Origi's made an immediate impact.
Ultimately we lacked the cutting edge and creative spark throughout the game.
Ultimately we lacked the cutting edge and creative spark throughout the game.
Bogdan! Not
only does he make a save, but he makes a top class save after a one-on-one
following a major Sakho slip left him vulnerable.
Henderson came
close to cutting the deficit, only for an excellent save by Gomes.
Benteke and
Ibe came on for the ineffective pairing of Lallana and Firmino. But, their inclusion failed to stop rot. Ighalo wrapped
it up with his second and Watford’s third to make it 3-0.
One of the worst performances Liverpool have had since the end of the Hodgson era.
An absolutely terrible and unforgiveable performance by so called top level players. It was embarrassing and the type of performance which may make the manager think twice about many of these players with the initial upward curve of the Klopp era wearing off.
One of the worst performances Liverpool have had since the end of the Hodgson era.
An absolutely terrible and unforgiveable performance by so called top level players. It was embarrassing and the type of performance which may make the manager think twice about many of these players with the initial upward curve of the Klopp era wearing off.
Full time thoughts: Losing to Newcastle and
drawing to West Brom wasn't enough, apparently. Now a 3-0 defeat to Watford
and this team has some serious questions to answer. We have in Benteke (£32m) and Firmino
(£29m) and Lallana (£24m) three players totalling £85m which have not produced
the goods for us at all – hopefully Klopp will be shrewder in how he spends the
money in January because Rodgers rank poor signings have again come back to bite us. These three players have to really start producing the goods or they
will quickly be shown the door if it stays like this.
We seem to go into our
shells whenever we go a goal behind and then struggle to recover. Our character
tests have so far failed for me under Klopp – we therefore need more leaders
and fighters before we can seriously look to challenge.
The chances of at least obtaining a top four slot gets harder every week
with every dropped point with Spurs continuing to create a gap week in week
out.
As per usual Klopp's emotions on the sidelines told a different story ranging from anger, to exasperation, to resignation. No doubt his frustrations were aimed at the players on the pitch, but when he has time to reflect, he is likely to question those above who control the purse strings as frankly this squad is not good enough.
Liverpool’s chief executive Ian Ayre and his fabled transfer committee need to accept responsibility for leaving the former Borussia Dortmund boss with a group of players which, quite frankly aren't good enough to get us back to where we all want to get to.
That’s not to say they are bad footballers – there is plenty of talent at Anfield – but there is no sense of cohesion, direction or, dare I say it, a philosophy.
Mr Klopp should be allowed to mould the team totally in his image as it seemed like he was doing when you saw the performances away to Chelsea, Man City and Southampton but he is going to have to be allowed to make some tough decisions on players which some fans may not agree with in the short term but for the long term good of the club we need to now trust our manager's judgement totally.
Manager’s comments:- Klopp admitted his team did not react well to the early goal, but also felt Ake’s opener should have been disallowed with Bogdan appearing to have the ball knocked out of his possession after dropping a corner.
As per usual Klopp's emotions on the sidelines told a different story ranging from anger, to exasperation, to resignation. No doubt his frustrations were aimed at the players on the pitch, but when he has time to reflect, he is likely to question those above who control the purse strings as frankly this squad is not good enough.
Liverpool’s chief executive Ian Ayre and his fabled transfer committee need to accept responsibility for leaving the former Borussia Dortmund boss with a group of players which, quite frankly aren't good enough to get us back to where we all want to get to.
That’s not to say they are bad footballers – there is plenty of talent at Anfield – but there is no sense of cohesion, direction or, dare I say it, a philosophy.
Mr Klopp should be allowed to mould the team totally in his image as it seemed like he was doing when you saw the performances away to Chelsea, Man City and Southampton but he is going to have to be allowed to make some tough decisions on players which some fans may not agree with in the short term but for the long term good of the club we need to now trust our manager's judgement totally.
Manager’s comments:- Klopp admitted his team did not react well to the early goal, but also felt Ake’s opener should have been disallowed with Bogdan appearing to have the ball knocked out of his possession after dropping a corner.
“The
rule is really clear. The first one (mistake) is his fault, don’t let the ball
drop in a situation like this, but then both hands on the ball, no question any
more, it’s goalkeeper’s save,” he said.
“It
was the wrong decision but we made many more wrong decisions today. It was
a bad start to the game. It was 1-0 and our reaction was really bad
“We
didn’t play well in the first half. The start of the second half was absolutely
OK . If we scored one goal everybody knows the game is open again, but we
couldn’t do that and we have to accept this high, high defeat.”
Man of the match - For the first time I am not going to name a man of the match as that our team display was so poor all round that not one player can leave the Watford ground happy with that level of performance.
Watford (4-4-2): Gomes ; Nyom , Britos , Cathcart , Ake ; Abdi (Behrami), Watson , Capoue , Jurado (Anya ); Deeney ., Ighalo (Guedioura).
Subs not used: Arlauskis, Oulare, Holebas, Diamanti.
Scorers: Ake, Ighalo (2)
Liverpool (4-3-3): Bogdan ; Clyne , Skrtel (Origi ), Sakho , Moreno ; Henderson , Leiva , Can ; Lallana (Ibe , ), Firmino (Benteke , ), Coutinho
Subs not used: Fulton, Toure, Randall, Allen.
Watford (4-4-2): Gomes ; Nyom , Britos , Cathcart , Ake ; Abdi (Behrami), Watson , Capoue , Jurado (Anya ); Deeney ., Ighalo (Guedioura).
Subs not used: Arlauskis, Oulare, Holebas, Diamanti.
Scorers: Ake, Ighalo (2)
Liverpool (4-3-3): Bogdan ; Clyne , Skrtel (Origi ), Sakho , Moreno ; Henderson , Leiva , Can ; Lallana (Ibe , ), Firmino (Benteke , ), Coutinho
Subs not used: Fulton, Toure, Randall, Allen.
They are a joke at times. Awful day today on more ways than one. Weather and the useless result. Did they have their players party too early or what?
ReplyDeleteTo hear Troy Deeney say that they out powered us and that Skrtel didn’t fancy it was galling to say the least. We lacked power, pace and explosiveness and cohesiveness.
DeleteHenderson playing on the right was systematic of the unbalanced nature of our play. When I look at Emre Can this season I wonder how much better who would if he had a dynamic controlling midfielder playing alongside him.
The lack of wingers is killing us. We have a striker in Benteke who is at his best a formidable powerhouse who needs service, yet we have only one recognised winger in the first team squad and Jordon Ibe’s final ball needs plenty of work. Theirs is barely a player in the Liverpool squad a part from Brad Smith who looks capable of delivering a quality ball from out wide.
Granted Bogdan will have been nervous, but his display was appalling and while his he was unlucky with the ball kicked from his grasped his inability to catch the ball from a relatively unchallenged position led to the goal.
With Sakho returning and Skrtel way off the pace and Lucas looking woefully one paced we struggled throughout to get a grip on the marauding Watford especially when they counter-attacked.
It’s easy to be critical of the starting line-up, but it’s one that has worked before. The fact that we had two strikers sitting on the bench and one of whom in Oriji, was benched for the second time this season after scoring needs to be addressed.
This team lacks players who can take the game by the scruff of the neck and watching the way Suarez has gone up another level at Barcelona makes the void he left behind him at Anfield seems and feels like a chasm. If Daniel Sturridge had been fit all season we’d be comfortably sitting in the top four, but the fact is he isn’t and we are not and for me JK will have to make a decision on whether to go with Benteke or Origi or dispense of Benteke’s services because it can’t be great for the strikers to watch us get hammered as watched us start the game with a false no 9.
We are still only five points behind fourth place, but to get amongst the pack we have to start playing as dynamically as we were when Klopp first entered the fray. The dynamic nature of the play made up for the lack of power and raw pace throughout, but JK doesn’t sound and seems like a manager who suffers fools and some of these players will have to start looking over their shoulders particularly after his comments and the way the team collapsed after the two early goals.
As good as JK is he will have to be magician to keep Coutinho if we don’t make the Champions League and with rumours emanating that Barcelona are circling it won’t take very much to destabilise the jewel in Liverpool’s crown.
If truth be told we are short in a few areas.
We need a goalkeeper, a centre-half and a midfielder to start with.