Report by
Dave Usher at Anfield
It was important to bounce back after last week and that’s exactly what we did. A 5-0 win without ever coming close to top form provided further evidence of this team’s quality and ability to respond to setbacks.
Last week’s loss was a painful one and might ultimately be the difference between finish second or third (or even fourth), but it was vital that the players didn’t allow one setback to undermine the good work they’ve been doing. They needed to respond and they did. Especially Mo, who was arguably the worst of a bad bunch at Old Trafford but produced the performance of the season far in this one.
Part of me couldn’t help thinking “why couldn’t he have done this last week?” I don’t mean score four goals (although that would have been nice), just one or two would have done. I don’t want to come across as ungrateful as I was made up with what he did in this game, it’s just that last week is still bothering me because we let them off the hook. We’re better than them but we just didn’t show up. What makes it even more frustrating is seeing how Sevilla turned them over. That should have been us, but we blew it.
I know I need to let it go and I have for the most part, but it’s hard not to feel frustrated. Against Watford this was the team we’ve been watching most of the season. I don’t know who that was that got turned over at Old Trafford bit let’s hope we don’t see them again for a while. And by a while, I mean ever. I highly doubt we'll ever see Mo that ineffective again.
I know this was 'only' Watford but that doesn’t really matter. There are at least six or seven teams worse than them, probably more actually. So being able to handle them so easily is always cause for optimism as that’s how you challenge for the top places. You have to beat the Watfords of this world and if we hadn’t dropped two points to them on opening day (not to mention the frustrating draws we’ve had with similar level clubs) we wouldn’t be sweating as much on securing a top four spot.
I don’t think we ever got out of third gear and yet we still murdered them. It’s easy to say that was mostly because of Mo, but it wasn’t just him. He got the goals but both Firmino and Mané more than played their part too. I felt sorry for Sadio, he was completely overshadowed by Salah again and Firmino got himself a goal. Mané contributed though. He was directly involved in three of the goals and some of his passing was top drawer.
Mo was just on another level though. The Messi comparisons are hard to ignore but ignore them we should because he’s nowhere near Messi. He is arguably as good as anybody currently playing that isn’t named Messi though, and there’s no doubt that some of the things he does are ‘Messi-like”, but comparing him with probably the greatest footballer of all time (my heart still says 'Diego' but the overwhelming weight of evidence is in Messi's favour) is just silly.
What we can say is that there has been three or four goals he’s scored this season that no-one other than Messi could have scored. Two of them came in this game actually. The first goal was the kind of thing you see Messi do as a matter of routine. The low centre of gravity, quickness while dribbling, subtle changes of direction and a defender ending up flat on his arse watching the ball hit the net.
Lovely goal that was and it gave us the perfect start. We didn’t immediately build on it though, and maybe losing Can so early didn’t help. Not that he’d done much. He looked to be playing within himself and it was no surprise when it emerged afterwards that the back injury that forced him off had been bothering him earlier in the week.
Milner came on but it took him a little while to completely pick up the pace of the game. After that I thought he was very good once again but we definitely had a lull midway through the first half which might have been partly due to the enforced change, as Wijnaldum also had to switch positions after the substitution.
For the most part not much was happening but there was one terrific move that really deserved a goal. Milner was involved in it, playing a nice ball into space for Mo to chase. He reached it before the defender and held onto it long enough for Firmino to get up in support. The pass was inch perfect and Firmino’s first touch was great. The shot was decent too but it was too close to the keeper who parried it over the bar. Some goal that would have been, and the ground Bobby covered to get up there was admirable. He was on the edge of his own box defending when that attack began.
Mostly though the first half was fairly low key and we eventually became so sloppy that Watford started to see a little bit of hope. Hendo was the biggest culprit, he had a ten minute spell where it looked like he had forgot how to play football. That co-incided with the whole team becoming a bit careless, but they snapped out of it quickly enough and then re-established their dominance, adding a second goal just before half time.
Great goal it was too, a real team goal with several players involved. Mané did really well with the pass to Robertson and his cross was just fucking delicious. He did the same thing last week only for Ashley Young to reach it ahead of Salah. I was critical of Mo for that, arguing he should have been getting across the front of him instead of coming in behind. He did the exact same thing here and scored, but I’d still rather he tried to get in front because not every ball will be as inch perfect as this one was.
That goal effectively killed off Watford. If they could have hung around at 1-0 they might have had a chance but we were not going to blow a two goal lead against them this time. In fact, at half time I think we all knew that we were about to see Mo’s first hat-trick, as there was not a chance in hell they could keep him out. Even aside from the two goals he scored in the first half, he was just running them ragged. Every time the ball went in his direction he was causing havoc.
It only took a couple of minutes after the restart for him to pick up where he left off. He wriggled away from Britos and then delivered a pinpoint ball for Firmino to score. The cross was good but Bobby had a lot to do to convert it and he made it look a lot easier than it was.
Made up he got his goal as I feel like he deserves to score every game as he’s so fucking good. The work he does defensively as well as linking play for the team is great every week and any time he doesn’t get on the scoresheet I feel bad for him.
He was involved in the funniest moment of this game when he chased back deep into his own half, waited for the right moment and then just mugged the Watford player in possession. It was brilliant the way he did it and Kloppo went nuts, celebrating it like a goal and then turning to the crowd to try and get them all whipped up.
Bobby got a cheer and a round of applause, but it wasn’t quite what Klopp wanted, but to be fair we were 3-0 up and everyone was fucking freezing, so what does he expect? Give us a break, Jurgen.
Mo bagged his hat-trick with an utterly ridiculous goal that he had no right to score. You’ve all seen the still shot of him in possession, surrounded by defenders and with absolutely no path to goal. When you see that, it’s impossible for him to score from there, yet score he did.
The way he did it was so clever and so hard to defend. It was the extra little touch he took that put three defenders out of the game. Very few players would have been able to take that touch and then still been able to get a shot away, but he’s got such quick feet that he managed to do it and that’s why the keeper was beaten. He wasn’t expected a shot, it looked so unorthodox but that’s because it was. Just brilliant improvisation and I almost felt sorry for Watford’s defenders.
Mo is a right slippery bastard, and strong too. Holobas and Britos won’t ever have a worse day than this. It was just brutal for them both as Mo repeatedly made them look stupid and they were utterly shellshocked by the end. I lost count of the amount of times one or the other just passed the ball straight into touch. They were completely frazzled. It was painful to watch, a real ‘Greek tragedy’ if you like.
I bet Mo even felt guilty about it because he’s just so fucking nice. He actually said sorry to the keeper when he shook hands with him afterwards. Compare his humility with that Harry Kane cockwomble strutting off the same pitch giving it the “can’t give me two chances” just because he scored one of two penalties. Big chinned cunt.
The Egyptian King went four goals clear of Kane after this in the race for the Golden Boot and let’s hope he extends that lead because fuck Harry Kane and fuck Spurs. It’s going to be interesting to see if Mo can beat De Bruyne to the Player of the Year award too. He won’t get the PFA one as for some daft reason they vote for that in January or something, but the writers award is defo up for grabs.
De Bruyne has been incredible and I’d find it difficult to argue against it too much if he wins it, but Mo has to be right in there with him now and a couple more eye catching displays like this (perhaps even against City) might be enough to swing it for him.
He added a fourth goal late on but he seemed almost disappointed to score it as he’d desperately been trying to set up Danny Ings. You can see how much all the players wanted Ings to get a goal and he’s just been so unfortunate really as every time he comes on he seems to make things happen.
I don’t think I can remember a player who makes as much out of every second he has on the pitch. He looks so lively any time he gets on and I think Klopp could and should have used him more than he has done in recent weeks. I’ve got the Goodison derby circled as the game when I think he’ll make his mark, as there’s no excuse for not starting him in that one.
H looks so hungry and desperate to make up for lost time and I want to see more of him between now and the end of the season because my gut instinct is that he’s far better than people realise. Before his initial injury he’d surprised people by how good he was, and in the limited opportunities he’s had this season he’s looked razor sharp.
His movement is great and he’s a real livewire. He was denied twice by the keeper but on the second occasion Mo smashed in the rebound. Four goals and an assist isn’t a bad day’s work like is it? Probably the best individual display we've seen since Suarez against Norwich.
Watford didn’t pose too much of a threat but you have to give credit to our players for that. It’s too simplistic to just say they were crap or disinterested. I just think they were overmatched and weren’t really allowed to play. Apart from that 15 minute spell in the first half when we became really sloppy in possession they never had a look in.
I don’t think Karius had to make a single save. Not even a routine one. He came for a couple of crosses and had to deal with some things with his feet, but did he have even one shot to save?
The back four all played well. Gomez was strong defensively and had some lively forays forward too. He’s probably edged ahead of Trent again now and I’d be surprised if he didn’t start against City. Robbo was Robbo, he puts in virtually the exact same performance every week now. 7 or 8 out of ten without fail.
Van Dijk just cruised through the game making it look easy and I thought Matip did well, especially late on when Watford were hunting a consolation goal and he did his bit to preserve the clean sheet. Lovren missed the game through injury. Not the first time he’s been nowhere to be seen after a game in which he was heavily criticised. Just sayin'.
The atmosphere was a lot better than it would usually be, and that's almost completely due to the new song. Personally I don't like the song itself. I don't like the tune or the lyrics, but it's got people signing and that's clearly a good thing. Besides, every successful European campaign has to have an anthem and if we reach the Champions League final I'll be singing it as happily as anyone.
The international break comes at a terrible time because obviously we’d rather be playing and building on this win, but more importantly there’s also the risk of players getting injured while they’re away. With the games against City coming up we could really have done without handing our players over to international coaches who tend to not give a fuck about being careful with them. *glares menacingly at Gareth Southgate*
All we can do is hope they return unscathed and that we can get through the Palace game without any casualties because I’ve got a feeling those games with City are going to be fucking epics and we’ll need all hands to the pump if we’re going to get past them.
Star man is… don’t even need to say it really as who else would it be?
Team: Karius; Gomez, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Wijnaldum (Oxlade-Chamberlain), Can (Milner); Salah, Firmino (Ings), Mané:
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