Watford 3 Liverpool 3 -- Motion and Futility

Pregame Notes & Formations

Watford: 4-2-3-1.

• Will fullbacks press forward on the counter -- and imi they do, how far will they go? Will they pay for it?
• Can Cleverley provide enough as a CAM? How will he define his role in center of midfield?
• Chalobah forcing his way into the center of the pitch
• Set pieces -- can Watford sneak quick players past hulking Liverpool CBs?

Key: Set pieces, both in attack and defense. Cleverley as outlet in attack and as midfield presence.

Liverpool: 4-3-3.

• Playing balls in behind/getting through Watford's three-man midfield line of Cleverley, Pereyra, Amrabat, exposing the Watford CDMs to Liverpool pace/numbers.
• Alexander-Arnold (A-A) -- a new face. How aggressive will he be/will he be targeted by Watford?
• Who will tire first? And how will Klopp substitute/adjust when they do?
• Wijnaldum/Can cutting in as ~false wingers with Salah and Mané going wide -- leaves Henderson exposed when Watford break. Will Mané settle for wide role, or will he venture inside? Will attack clump as a result?
• Is 4-3-3 mere lip service to a 4-1-5, or even a 2-3-5 with the fullbacks up and Wijnaldum/Can serving as attackers above all?

Key: Stamina. Fullbacks' role. Tandem work of Wijnaldum/Mané and Can/Salah.

First Half

Liverpool fullbacks permanently pushed up on the flanks. Salah out wide, Mané drifting inside more than he. Similar to how Arsenal set up on Friday's opening night v. Leicester, but with an extra man in the midfield/in attack due to their employing two center-backs rather than three. 

Watford, 8th minute: Okaka near post header (set piece: corner, Cholevas taking), goal. Okaka unmarked by Firming, sneaking in behind larger players at rear of near post. Kaboul's run distracts Liverpool defenders -- powerful, from 12 yards out to near post's fore. Watford appear unnerved by threat of Liverpool's incessant pressing. Watford forcing passes -- but the Hornets hold a fair amount of possession, nevertheless. Chalobah strong.

Salah sweeps to the left side, 11th minute. Free-roaming Salah has mandate to wander in the name of the attack, especially when midfielders/fullbacks fill his nominal position on the right, leaving him essentially positionless  (for if he stayed on the right, "where he belongs," the area would be overcrowded).

Watford well-organized, "double-stacked" defense. Janmaat off through injury in the 18th minute. Femenia on.  Liverpool gegenpressing/"dog-hunting" style compromises their formation -- the strategy wins the ball well, yes, and forces pressure -- but it renders their ability to form a coherent attack weakened. Liverpool pressure well -- but it's as if the purpose of the Liverpool game is to pressure rather than to string together an attack/maintain positive energy aimed towards controlling the match. Unbottled chaos serves nothing but chaos. Liverpool slow off-the-ball -- as if while on attack the players are resting, having expended much energy pressing while in defense. Klopp's decree: "press them to win the ball back" -- yet after the ball is won, and the goal is achieved, what for the attack? What for control, knowing what and how you need to move in order to score? Liverpool selling Watford high -- treating them as world-beaters capable of bossing the ball. No visible plan to Liverpool's motion -- haphazard, reliant on pace at the expense of intelligence.

Goal, Mané, 29th minute. Mané a bright spot, mobile off the ball. First controlled offensive pressure of the match yields curling ball, slotted into far corner. Flick by Can sets Mané free, gives credence to Mané's run. Liverpool's attack not "stranded" as Arsenal's was versus Leicester -- but it is wild-haired, with no eye for an endgame. Liverpool addressing fear of Watford counterattack with pressure, hard pressure. Yet through the center of the midfield Watford have life. Cleverley in space -- a scramble in the box. A-A rough clearance attempt. Goal, Doucoure, 33rd minute. Liverpool relying on longer passes than necessary. 

Announcer calls Liverpool's first half performance "sleepy" -- nay, rather it was frenetic, frantic. To no end beyond freneticism. 

Halftime Needs

Players: Cleverley, Cholevas, Kaboul strong. Mané strong & mobile for Liverpool. Chalobah testing the waters. Salah present but toothless: a run-maker, a distracter, not a finisher. Can solid but not providing, aside from the assist. Henderson invisible. Mignolet acceptable.

• Watford: Stay aggressive, stay at home in formation. Don't get dragged into Liverpool's ineptitude/frantic trickery. Allow the dog to bite its own tail.
• Liverpool need Milner on. Team playing with lack of situational knowledge; attack needs pragmatism, defense/midfield needs structure and control. Positive that Liverpool's fullbacks/midfield are able to hold forward and maintain area of play towards the Watford half rather than in their own. Yet Liverpool FBs are as good as not defending. Matip/Lovren are alone to hold fast -- on set pieces they do their job marking, but Firming et al. are slow/frozen when called upon to defend. Everyone does his own job -- unless in an unfamiliar area of the pitch, in which case it's rest time from the frantic approach employed otherwise. 
• Liverpool: Cut down on necessary energy expenditure -- because it hurts the team, and Watford have not taken the bait and entered into the frantic fray. Such shall facilitate more off-ball movement in attack and open lanes for Mané/Salah, and decrease the need for A-A/Moreno to overcommit forward.

Klopp's strategy is dependent upon the opponent tiring and/or his team not tiring. Through one half, the factors upon which Klopp depends -- one of which is ever out of his control -- have not turned in his favor.

Second Half

Pereyra hurt, 46th minute. On, Richarlison. Liverpool begin second half slowly, with structure that was heretofore lacking. Watford begins with a back-pass. Positive sign for Liverpool. First half Liverpool played rugby. Second half, playing chess. Watford settling back -- away team "Prevent" approach only strategy that can ruin them today. Foul committed by keeper Gomez on Salah. Penalty kick. Taken by Firmino, hard to bottom left. Goal, Firmino. No need for the foul; Salah was bailed out -- touch was taking him away from goal, never had an angle if Gomez had stayed stayed tall and trusted his size.

Firmino beautiful control and diagonal run. Britos plays him onside. A chip to the back post. Salah streaking, finishing. Liverpool patient, structured -- playing the match their formation facilitates, which victory demands. Nothing more or less. Goal, Salah, 58th minute.

Andre Gray on, 63rd minute. Watford being made to chase the ball. Obverse approach by Liverpool relative to first half. Allowing Watford to beat itself; forcing Watford to "make the difference," leading to Liverpool chances and Liverpool difference-making. Salah makes great runs -- both sneaky (weak-side savvy) and incisive. Capitalizing on them is another story. Salah has stayed at home on the right side since changing once early in the first half. 

Milner on for Salah. Possession, work, control more valuable than threatening pace (a mostly empty threat) with a late lead. Gomez on for A-A.

Corner -- near-post. Mignolet fails to hold. Ball caroms off underside of the bar. Britos pushes it over the line. Goal, Watford. 3-3, 94th minute. Final.

Postgame Points

• If a Liverpool opponent tired itself out in the first half, and if Liverpool corralled its own freneticism, the scoreline of that match could be 7-0. Yet a clean sheet and/or a high goal total is too dependent upon Liverpool's opponent's buying into a style of play that exposes them -- too dependent upon the opponents tying its own shoelaces together. Liverpool need  ball control and certainty in possession. Liverpool need to maintain formational discipline. Liverpool players need to trust teammates to cover each's own area of the pitch, each taking care of each's own role. Liverpool need to play not to avoid stress, but to flow.
• Watford need for Will Hughes to be a calming presence in midfield -- and for him to work in tandem with a Cleverley who settles for the foolish play too often (out of a desire to boss the pitch -- which he can do, insofar as his teammates allow him the license and all thought of repercussions for forcing forward are foreign to him in his moment of attack). Watford need to maintain. Marco Silva's tactics are there; the attacking spirit is there. When that attacking spirit cedes to desperation, the team's carbonation goes flat and the attack, though not lacking in linkage/planning/support, removes its own teeth.
• The structure which saved the match for Liverpool lulled them into false security, led to the third goal. Conceded a free kick, then a corner, then failed on multiple clearance attempts. The actions, regardless of formational discipline, must be converted. "All seems OK" -- until it's not. Liverpool need control. Liverpool need more Henderson. Liverpool need Wijnaldum to strive.
• Watford's injuries (2) -- Janmaat and Pereyra. Though signings waiting in the wings.