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Watford vs Liverpool a few quick thoughts

  • The season may have started on Friday night but everyone knows really that the Premier League season should start on the Saturday
  • And the first offering yesterday continued the goalscoring streak from the night before as we treated to a six goal thriller at Vicarage Road
  • Watford boss Marco Silva keeps his unbeaten record against Liverpool going after masterminded a win while in charge of Hull last season
  • This time around he had to settle for just a point but I doubt there will be too many complaints from the former Olympiakos boss this time around
  • If they were to be any complaints they would have to come from Jurgen Klopp as a combination of poor defending and fortutious offside calls combined to cost Liverpool an opening weekend defeat
  • They do however only have themselves to blame for Watford’s opener
  • Just a minute or so Stefano Okaka already showed what a nuisance he could be in the build up to the move which led to a corner
  • And now he would be a real problem for Liverpool as he headed Watford in front
  • Completely unchallenged in the area, zonal marking once again showed it’s ugly side as the Italian had the freedom of the six yard box to head home
  • Had their been man marking then I doubt he would have scored but four Liverpool players took no responsibility for tracking the forward’s movement and they were duly punished
  • Before the half hour Liverpool would restore parity as Sadio Mane opened his account for the season
  • He received the ball after neat work from Emre Can and flashed the ball past Huerelho Gomes to level proceedings
  • But for all their endeavour to get back into the game, there hard work would be undone just two minutes later
  • Liverpool were caught ball watching on the right hand side of their own half and again the fact that they were caught napping would see them punished
  • This time a speculative ball was fired low into the box and although Okaka may well have been offside it eventually fell to Abdoulaye Doucouré who was left with a simple tap in to put Watford ahead for the second time
  • The half time break would have seen the Watford dressing room certainly the happier one and Jurgen Klopp would have had to fire up his men to turn the game around
  • Something that within the space of three second half minutes looked like it would happen
  • 10 minutes restart, a rush of blood from Watford’s Gomes saw him bring down Liverpool debutant Mohamed Salah giving Anthony Taylor no other choice but to point to the spot
  • Roberto Firmino who has been given penalty duty duly obliged to level the game at 2-2
  • The turn around then looked complete just two minutes later
  • Once again it was a Firmino/Salah combination of sorts
  • This time though it was the Brazilian who lofted the ball towards goal with the intention of a shot and although it looped over his compatriot Gomes, it still needed Salah to nudge the ball over the line
  • A first for the Egyptian and a third for Liverpool
  • Job done…..or was it?
  • Watford did have options off the bench and used both Richarlison and record signing Andre Gray after going behind
  • They may not have got on the scoresheet for Liverpool but they continued to cause problems for the travelling defence
  • And Liverpool would become unstuck deep into injury time
  • A corner was lofted into the box and Georginio Wijnaldum‘s weak header only created more panic in the Liverpool area
  • After Mignolet failed to claim the ball from Richarlison’s half chance, it eventually fell to Miguel Britos who stabbed the ball home on the line
  • Liverpool will have every right to complain about offside but if they had got the ball clear in the first place then it would have not been an issue
  • Honours even at Vicarage Road
  • Watford will be delighted with their performance and the fact that they are off the mark
  • For Liverpool it is two points dropped and they go into Tuesday’s game with Hoffenheim knowing that they are going to have to defend a lot better otherwise the outcome could be worse

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