With a hectic Christmas and New Year schedule around the corner, Liverpool need a good start to it when they meet Watford at Vicarage Road on Sunday.
Jurgen Klopp will still be wondering how is he still in work come the end of December, but that’s English Football for you. In fact the festive period is the most crucial part of every season here and teams have more points to play for in these 12-13 days than usual.
A tricky trip to Watford awaits Liverpool on Sunday and the Reds will need a good result ahead of their reasonable Boxing day (not exactly reasonable because of Leicester’s current form) and New Year’s eve games. Watford have been in good form lately and are a point ahead of Liverpool, so Klopp’s men will have to play well in order to get three points out of Vicarage Road.
Klopp opts for a 4-3-3 narrow formation and that should be the case for the coming games too. Flores opts for slightly wider 4-2-3-1 with Ighalo as his target man play.
These are expected line-ups for both the teams.
Latest injury to Milner means Klopp has Lucas, Can and Henderson as the only midfield trio option, whilst the front three should feature Coutinho and Firmino/Lallana with Benteke/Origi leading the line-up. Sturridge is still not fit enough for the bench.
Can, Lucas, Lallana and Coutinho have been key players when Klopp’s reign as Liverpool manager comes to mind, their vigorous closing down and pinning opposition in their own half being chiefly important. Henderson’s inclusion just adds that extra energy and depth in the midfield department which is very very crucial to Klopp’s style of play.
Watford like to play using fullbacks as their overlap options and wingers drifting wide with occasional cutting inside, whilst Liverpool play a narrow formation with pressing in numbers to close down opponents in their own half. The Hornets opt to sit back and play on the counter from wider areas or play out directly using Ighalo as their target man.
We have seen so far that the Reds have struggled when it comes to breaching deeper defenses, they have lacked extra depth in their creativity and preciseness in the final third of the pitch. Klopp will have to tweak thing a little bit in order to solve this problem and get Benteke in the game as much as he can, because their near future opponents consist of defenses that like to sit deep.The other major problem is set-piece defending, as the Reds have been awful in dead-ball defending situations. Mignolet has been in the limelight for not commanding the box and making obnoxious decisions at corners and free-kicks.
So, there are many things to look forward for Klopp and Liverpool as they travel to London to play Watford. A much-nourishing performance would be a catalyst for upcoming hectic schedule. Certain issues needs to be solved as top four is still up for grabs but more flat performances will make that a distant dream very quickly.
In all fairness, it should be a good game, Watford at home have been good, and they’ll surely test Liverpool to their limits. You could say it’s a clash of two teams who so far have been inconsistent in their league games until now. A goal-filled clash is expected at Vicarage Road.
