LIVERPOOL 2-0 WATFORD
Goals: Mohamed Salah x2 (£12.2m)
Assists: Sadio Mané, Divock Origi
Bonus Points: Salah x3, Joe Gomez x2, Virgil van Dijk
The difficult autumn of Mohamed Salah (£12.2m) is most definitely over after scoring both goals in Liverpool’s 2-0 win, his third and fourth of the week.
A troublesome ankle injury made him sit out three of the last seven league matches, blanking in two more as Sadio Mané (£12.3m) accumulated four goals and four assists. Yet one of each at Bournemouth last Saturday, his goal from a tight angle in Salzburg and this brace against Watford suggests that it’s now the Egyptian’s time to shine.
Of their front three, Salah started as the liveliest. He twisted through the defence after 25 minutes but chose to shoot rather than look up and find a team-mate. Soon after, he fell in the box but the push wasn’t deemed bad enough to give a penalty.
Not long after that was the first goal – another example of Liverpool’s blistering ability to counter-attack. A Watford corner was soon up to the halfway line, at which point Mané fed the ball forward to Salah down the left. The Egyptian cut inside onto his right foot before curling the shot past Ben Foster (£4.8m).
“You have to score in different situations. A few days ago we scored two from set-pieces, this time we scored from two counter-attacks pretty much, which is good in a game where you have a lot of possession.” – Jurgen Klopp
Then, late on, Mané was played down the right, before pulling the ball back to a Divock Origi (£5.2m) shot that was scuffed into the path of Salah. A cheeky flick through Christian Kabasele’s (£4.3m) legs from two yards out meant he was the 17th player to record a double-digit score against Watford this season – more than any other club.
If it wasn’t for VAR, Liverpool could have wrapped the game up even sooner. A beautiful left-footed cross from Xherdan Shaqiri (£6.3m) was headed home by Mané but then chalked off because of the latter’s marginally offside hip.
In truth, it was a difficult lunch-time for Liverpool. In the top versus bottom clash, the first half-hour was quiet for the hosts as Watford created the best half-chances. Shortly after Jordan Henderson (£5.4m) blazed over the bar, Will Hughes (£5.4m) ran through the centre only to drag his shot wide of Alisson (£6.0m).
Abdoulaye Doucouré (£5.6m) exploited space behind Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.3m) after 33 minutes and squared the ball into the box, only for Virgil van Dijk (£6.4m) to clear. And two big Watford misses sandwiched the opening goal – firstly, Doucouré wasted an Etienne Capoue (£4.8m) cut-back near the penalty spot.
Then, Gerard Deulofeu (£6.1m) beat Alexander-Arnold down the right-hand side and had a shot pushed away by Alisson, only to land at the feet of Ismaila Sarr (£6.2m). His miss-kick wasted a glorious opportunity.
“We had chances, we scored goals, but they had chances as well which they didn’t score from – and that’s for sure one reason why they are in the situation they are in. Two or three balls they missed. This time maybe now I can speak about, but the wind helped us today from time to time – I am pretty sure Sarr would have at least had a finish in the situation when he didn’t hit the ball without the wind. It made the game tricky for both sides.” – Jurgen Klopp
Considering Watford’s previous three trips to Anfield had been heavy 5-0, 5-0 and 6-1 defeats, new manager Nigel Pearson will have been pleased with the troubles they caused at both ends. He asked his defence to sit deep early on to prevent the pace of Salah and Mané and it worked for a while.
From his five previous Liverpool appearances against the Hornets, Mané had five goals and three assists. He was fairly bright this time around but couldn’t add to his assist and disallowed goal, apart from a half chance where he took the ball around goalkeeper Foster but was outmuscled by a recovering defender.
Roberto Firmino (£9.3m) was fairly anonymous up-front. An attempt after 35 minutes won a corner and he shot across goal in the 62nd minute but it was easy for Foster to handle. His big chance came after Andrew Robertson (£7.1m) came off the bench, whose cross brought hesitation from the Brazilian in a promising position.
“Rotation in a moment when a player maybe doesn’t need it is the best way to do it. So I’m not 100 per cent sure about Robbo, he looked good, but in the end, it’s a question of being sensible from time to time – at least I try! So that was the reason for Robbo.” – Jurgen Klopp
Robertson was the latest victim of Jurgen Klopp’s rotation – following recent rests for Salah, Mané, Firmino and Alexander-Arnold – but began his cameo appearance when replacing Georginio Wijnaldum (£5.4m), who went off with a muscle injury.
Almost immediately, the Scot was providing the advanced runs that were lacking when James Milner (£5.3m) was at left-back although, as with Alexander-Arnold last week, he didn’t play enough minutes to receive clean sheet points.
Klopp will be relieved to collect his first home clean sheet of the season and that is now two successive shut-outs for last season’s best defence. This was their fourth game of a hectic December that will potentially see them play ten matches, depending on whether the Club World Cup Final is reached. Any managers looking to bring Salah in or go for a defensive double-up need to be aware that Liverpool won’t be playing at all in Gameweek 18.
Alexander-Arnold wasn’t able to do his usual cross-field passes to Robertson and struggled to make an impact when going forward, although a deep cross early in the second half was begging for a touch from the front three. He also slipped a promising pass through to Salah in the 84th minute but the offside flag was raised.
However, despite no assist, owners will be relieved that he was finally involved in a clean sheet and avoided picking up his fifth yellow card of the season, despite a late foul on Deulofeu that could easily have brought a booking.
One of four changes to last Saturday’s side saw Joe Gomez (£5.4m) slot in alongside van Dijk as a replacement for Dejan Lovren (£5.3m) after the Croatian limped out of both the Bournemouth and Salzburg outings.
Both centre backs collected bonus points here, although van Dijk almost scored an own goal after greatly over-hitting a pass to Alisson. The stopper had to rescue his side with further good saves from Sarr and Deulofeu.
“I thought we also made life difficult for Liverpool and we created some unbelievable goalscoring situations. We were unable to convert them today and it’s of scant reward that we leave here with nothing for our efforts in terms of points, but I was very pleased with the collective work ethic today and that’s hopefully a shift in what we’ve looked like at times this season. We’ve got to play with that intensity in every game.” – Nigel Pearson
Pearson won’t be upset with how the match transpired. He will have expected a defeat to the league leaders but there is some hope to be gained from such attacking threat and a defence that, although they had to wait until Gameweek 8 for their first clean sheet, went into this weekend knowing that 12 sides had conceded more shots than them.
From a Fantasy viewpoint, only Foster and Deulofeu are selected by over 1.3% of managers and even their ownerships are just 2% and 2.1% respectively. After facing Manchester United next weekend, fixtures turn better with a run of Sheffield United (away), Aston Villa (home), Wolves (home) and Bournemouth (away).
Those looking for a differential over the festive period may look at Foster, Deulofeu or penalty-taking Troy Deeney (£6.2m) as good options for a cheap striker.
Liverpool XI (4-2-3-1): Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, van Dijk, Milner; Henderson, Wijnaldum (Robertson 59’); Salah, Shaqiri (Oxlade-Chamberlain 70’), Mané; Firmino (Origi 88’).
Watford XI (4-2-3-1): Foster; Mariappa, Kabasele, Cathcart, Femenia; Doucouré (Quina 87’), Capoue; Sarr, Hughes, Deulofeu; Deeney (Gray 75’).
