Liverpool travelled to Vicarage Road to lock horns with Watford earlier this evening hoping to continue their relentless march towards the Premier League title. The Reds made a lacklustre start to the match and experienced a few nervy moments at the back with Troy Deeney causing all sorts of problems towards the latter stages of the first half. However, both teams went into the half-time break with nothing to show for their efforts.
The Hertfordshire outfit capitalised on some uncharacteristic mistakes from the Liverpool defenders and scored three goals in the second half with Ismaila Sarr bagging a brace and Troy Deeney also getting his name on the scoresheet. The match ended with the Merseyside outfit suffering their first league defeat of this campaign by a 3-0 margin.
Let’s take a look at how each Liverpool player fared during the match against the Hornets.
GK: Alisson Becker – 5/10
The Brazilian keeper made an unfortunate error just before half-time which went unpunished. However, he was left shell-shocked after the Hornets scored three goals past him in the second 45 minutes.
RB: Trent Alexander-Arnold – 3/10
The English full-back couldn’t find a telling ball in the final third. He also gifted the home side their third goal of the day when Sarr intercepted his back pass before the ball was perfectly placed into the empty net by Deeney, who scored with a clinical finish. It was a miserable day at the office for the young Scouser.
CB: Dejan Lovren – 2/10
The Croatia international got bullied by Deeney throughout the 90 minutes and made some catastrophic mistakes at the back. Lovren’s shortcomings highlighted how much Liverpool missed Joe Gomez in defence today.
CB: Virgil Van Dijk – 5/10
The Dutch centre-back was far from convincing during the game. He seems to have lost a bit of form in recent weeks. Klopp will be worried about Van Dijk’s recent performances ahead of the crucial Champions League second leg versus Atletico Madrid next month.
LB: Andrew Robertson – 7/10
The Scottish full-back was defensively solid and was by far Liverpool’s best player on the field. He whipped in some inviting crosses from the left flank but was unfortunate that none of his teammates showed the desire to get to the end of them. Robertson also had the only shot on target for Liverpool when he tested Ben Foster from a tight angle.
CM: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – 5/10
He was poor when in possession of the ball and failed to contribute anything meaningful going forward.
CM: Fabinho – 5/10
The Brazilian midfielder has not been at his best since his return from injury, and it showed in his performance today.
CM: Georginio Wijnaldum – 6/10
The Dutch midfielder was working hard to get to the loose balls but didn’t do enough to stop Watford from creating chances on the counter. He ran out of gas in the second half, which is why Klopp decided to sub him out.
RW: Mohamed Salah – 4/10
The Egyptian winger struggled to create anything of note in the final third. His recent form will be quite worrying for the Liverpool fans.
ST: Roberto Firmino – 4/10
The Brazilian forward failed to get into the rhythm of the game and was mostly a frustrated figure up top.
LW: Sadio Mane – 4/10
The Senegalese speedster looked like a player out of energy and lacked invention on the rare occasions when he got on the ball in the attacking third of this pitch.
Substitutes:
CM: Adam Lallana – 6/10
Despite his team’s struggles, Lallana put in a lively cameo in the second half and went close to scoring with his powerful shot that saw the ball rattle the crossbar before going out of play.
ST: Divock Origi – 5/10
The Belgian offered very little going forward.
CAM: Takumi Minamino – 5/10
He played some neat passes but lacked the creativity to carve open the Watford defence.
