Liverpool will welcome an impressive Watford side as they look to maintain their pace at the top of the table. Liverpool along with City and Arsenal are joint leaders and with the North London derby scheduled for the weekend, the Reds have a good chance to pip Arsenal if the derby goes in their favour. And with that motivation strong enough, they should be taking Watford seriously and especially pay attention to their defence which has been pretty leaky for quite a while now.
Watford, meanwhile, are in the 7th spot and the appointment of Walter Mazzarri seems to be going according to plan. They have lost just thrice in the first 10 matches with two of the defeats coming against Chelsea and Arsenal. Liverpool, being at home, might find the job a bit easier but things won’t be straight-forward obviously.
With Liverpool out for a win and Watford out for another big scalp after Manchester United, we take a brief look at the key battles which can affect the outcome of the match.
PHILLIPE COUTINHO VS YOUNES KABOUL
Coutinho has been in exhilarating form for the Reds this season and is their joint highest goal scorer and has provided the most number of assists. He has almost been unstoppable on the left wing and if Watford are to have any chance of stopping Liverpool, they need to nullify Coutinho’s threat.
And with the Hornets playing with a three-man backline, Kaboul is likely to come up against the Brazilian on multiple occasions. His experience will come into play and although age is not on his side, he will be certainly up for the job.
HEURELHO GOMES VS LIVERPOOL ATTACK
Liverpool have been scoring freely and their all-out attacking approach has reaped rewards as well. It is no surprise that the Reds have taken this approach when they have the likes of Coutinho, Firmino and Mane in their ranks. And Mazzarri would be knowing his side will be faced with waves of Liverpool’s attacks and the barrage of shots that Gomes is potentially going to face will have to be dealt with by the keeper. He needs to be in top form for Watford to harbour hopes of nicking points from this fixture.
TROY DEENEY VS DEJAN LOVREN
Deeney hasn’t yet fired for Watford as such but remains a hard working player and always looks dangerous. Liverpool will be taking the Watford attack lightly at their own peril and Lovren will need to guide the defence and marshall Deeney and Ighalo to deny Watford a sniff of goal.
The Croat was at fault for the opening Crystal Palace goal last weekend and looked shaky at the back. Palace’s tenacious attack won’t let him a moment’s rest and he can ill-afford to be as lackadaisical as he was at Selhurst Park.
