Liverpool 2 Watford 0 (Dec 14 2019)

[tlw content]

 

 

 

Report by

Dave Usher

 

This reminded me of some of the games in the first half of last season - unconvincing performance but a clean sheet and three points. Even the switch to 4-2-3-1 with Shaqiri coming into the side put me in mind of a year ago. Under normal circumstances we’d smash Watford but an early kick off after midweek European action can be a great leveller.

 

Watford having a new manager didn’t help either, so all in all this was a great three points even if it was “top versus bottom”. You get strange results at this time of the year. Even this weekend Chelsea lost at home to Bournemouth and Leicester were held by Norwich. We used to specialise in fucking up this kind of game. Not any more.

 

Klopp said afterwards that we didn’t have “an off day” and that it was just a tough game. I’d say it was both. It would be unfair to Watford to suggest that the only reason this game was close was because we didn’t play well. but obviously it was a big factor and even Nigel Pearson would concede that.

 

There are a number of reasons why we didn’t play well, but Watford’s performance is high on the list. They played very well and looked nothing like a bottom of the table side, but whether they stay there or not depends entirely on whether they can raise their game like this when they play the teams around them. They didn’t just come here to defend and I was impressed with the way they were able to play their way through us. Thankfully their finishing was like Mo in Salzburg (minus the one cracker he scored, obviously).

 

It’s all well and good putting in a shift at Anfield and clinging to a moral victory, but let’s see if they can do it when they play Burnley and Everton. If they do that they'll stay up. If not, then it's bye bye Harry the Hornet & co. Actually, why isn't their mascot 'Marvin the Moose' or something? And why aren't they known as the 'the Mooses'. Is Mooses even a word, or is the plural of Moose 'Moose'?

 

No matter, they gave us a tougher game than most have and at the final whistle the over-riding feeling was of relief more than anything. We never really got going for some reason. I thought we’d blow them away when I saw the team Klopp had picked. Shaqiri being brought in to play with the regular front three ought to have been enough to take Watford apart, but what looks good on paper doesn’t always translate to being good on grass.

 

 

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[bossy]

Another good report Dave and yes VAR is bollocks. In sports where there are breaks, like cricket, rugby, tennis etc, it can make sense, but football is about the flow. It’s shite and needs binning. We didn’t play well but again we won so up the reds!

[dave u]

The other thing is we're having to endure all of this and it's not like the decisions are always right anyway.

[Guest Pistonbroke]

I keep hearing from other fans that we'll go through a bad patch and drop a shit load of points. I have bad news for them, as I reckon we have gone through a bad patch the last 4-5 weeks but have carried on winning regardless. Klopp and this team will pick up the pace and move into a higher gear after the busy period is out of the way. 

[The Guest]

The thing is with offside that there’s always going to be a line where you have to say yes or no.  What if the VAR ref rules it to be 31cm instead of 30cm?  No matter where you put the line there’s always going to be an argument if that was the right place.  I think we should do what you say about the furthest foot forward though but just keep doing what they’re doing with the lines as they are.  It’s not perfect but it’s the best system we’ve got and it’s better than not having it at all I think.  The other stuff they should just fuck off and leave to the ref unless there’s some snide violent conduct he hasn’t seen.

[bigal]

Origi's disguise was genius it must be said.

VAR you're spot on, it is supposed to be level you're ok and the timing of when they stop the video is just too open to abuse for these slide rule decisions to be anything but the brainchild of idiots

[Guest]

 

[buster69]

Have been away the last few months and have not seen as many games as I would have liked. Saturday was the first game in a while and I was shocked by how poor we were. Either we're hanging on and we're going to get our comeuppance soon or this is our actual blip period and we're going to go into overdrive in the new year. 

[Guest]

42 minutes ago, buster69 said:

Have been away the last few months and have not seen as many games as I would have liked. Saturday was the first game in a while and I was shocked by how poor we were. Either we're hanging on and we're going to get our comeuppance soon or this is our actual blip period and we're going to go into overdrive in the new year. 

[rb14]

9 hours ago, tlw content said:

There are a number of reasons why we didn’t play well, but Watford’s performance is high on the list. 

 

This. 

[rb14]

How come this report lost its usual 'top of the page' status so quickly Dave? Is <24 hours a record? 

[johnsusername]

VAR is shit. No way was Mane offside in the way we've always known an offside to be. All that messing round with lines to make it look offside. Is it used this badly in other countries?

[Guest Pistonbroke]

1 minute ago, johnsusername said:

VAR is shit. No way was Mane offside in the way we've always known an offside to be. All that messing round with lines to make it look offside. Is it used this badly in other countries?

 

It has been in the Bundesliga since 2018/19 season and initially it was every bit as bad as it is in the PL, probably a lot worse in fact. Things improved after a while but not without many problems still remaining. I doubt that completely fair football will ever exist, VAR will hopefully improve things as the system becomes more transparent and technology improves the way they implement it. 

[StevieMax]

On 17/12/2019 at 01:51, rb14 said:

This. 

The swirling wind was a factor.

Neither side could compete with full confidence for any headers and most bouncing balls.

Andre Marriner was another - allowed loads of time wasting by Foster and various throw-in takers.

[Mark M]

VAR is here to stay unfortunately. 

Anfield needs to look at a way of installing screens so the fans at the match actually know whats happening though. 

 

There was the decision we got at palace recently where VAR showed a replay of the push on Lovern even if the fans don't agree with the decision at least they know why it was made and they feel involved. 

[Guest Pistonbroke]

1 minute ago, Mark M said:

VAR is here to stay unfortunately. 

Anfield needs to look at a way of installing screens so the fans at the match actually know whats happening though. 

 

There was the decision we got at palace recently where VAR showed a replay of the push on Lovern even if the fans don't agree with the decision at least they know why it was made and they feel involved. 

 

That can't happen mate. Either every ground ups its technical stuff and the powers that be agree to decisions been shown on monitors for the crowd, or it doesn't happen. It has to be a decision that involves every single team in the league.