Weekend Preview

It’s a limited Premier League schedule this weekend due to the FA Cup fixtures, but there are still plenty of games to get excited about both domestically and abroad. Leagues and knockout competitions alike are approaching the business end – the so-called ‘must-win’ matches are coming thick and fast.

One of the league games that does go ahead in England is Liverpool vs Watford. This should be well worth a watch. Notwithstanding the disappointing defeat to bitter rivals Manchester United, the hosts are in scintillating goal-scoring form. Salah continues to go from strength to strength in his debut season on Merseyside, and Sadio Mane appears to be emerging from his mini-slump just in time to help the team’s efforts to secure a place in the top four. Javi Gracia has steadied the ship at Watford since taking charge, but defensive frailties are still clear for all to see: Arsenal were able to expose these last weekend, putting three past the Hornets defence. It would not be a surprise if Liverpool were able to match or better this tally. However, the visitors are also capable of finding the net – Klopp’s men found this out in the 3-3 draw on the opening day. A repeat of such a scoreline is clearly unlikely, but a high-scoring fixture seems all but guaranteed.

The FA Cup also offers some interesting match-ups. The pick of these is probably Chelsea vs Leicester. The home side are looking to bounce back following the disappointment of being knocked out of the Champions League; Leicester are no Barcelona, but they might well fancy their chances of capitalising on the vulnerability of their opponents. Conte’s men actually played quite well against the Catalan side, but were undone by multiple moments of sloppiness at the back – few forwards are better-equipped to pounce on errors than Jamie Vardy. However, barring a rout against a woeful West Brom side last weekend, Leicester have not been in great form. Chelsea will undoubtedly feel they can at least manage to score against The Foxes; a performance anything like the one that they produced midweek would probably be enough to see them through to the semi-finals, potentially giving Conte a slight hope of redemption. Given Chelsea’s exit from all other competitions and unsatisfactory league position, a loss might prove to be the final nail in the coffin.

Further afield, Real Madrid vs Girona could prove to be a fascinating fixture. At the start of the season, such a statement would have sounded absurd – a walkover would have been considered essentially a given. This is still a possibility, of course: it was not long ago that the newly-promoted side were comprehensively dismantled by six goals to one against Barcelona. However, since then they have produced three straight impressive wins. Celta Vigo, Villareal and Deportivo have all been brushed aside, leaving Pablo Machín’s side in seventh place. Their opponents are only four places higher, in third; there is a danger of dropping down to fourth if Zidane cannot orchestrate a win in this match. This would leave a campaign that is already highly disappointing for Los Blancos on the brink of becoming disastrous. Girona, meanwhile, could move as high as fifth. To occupy a Europa League spot at such a late stage would be a huge accomplishment for the team playing their first ever season in the Spanish top flight. Real probably have enough to see off their challenge, but it is unlikely to be straightforward.

The final pick comes from Serie A, where Inter Milan travel to Sampdoria. The two teams are embroiled in fights for Champions League and Europa League qualification respectively, making this a massive game for both clubs. Inter are looking to capitalise on their game in hand over Lazio to move into fourth place – to do so, they must win. A victory for Sampdoria, on the other hand, would propel them above Inter’s city rivals into sixth place, just five points behind Inter themselves. The Milan side managed an impressive draw with high-flying Napoli last time out, putting a serious dent in Sarri’s title hopes, and will be confident of continuing that good form in this game. Sampdoria, by contrast, are looking to bounce back from a surprise drubbing at the hands of relegation-threatened Crotone, to whom they lost 4-1. Another loss here may well effectively end a campaign that had shown such promise. This may consequently be something of a cagey affair, and ultimately it seems likely that Inter will come out on top.

Watford 3-3 Liverpool: Now or Never For FSG

Last season ended on a relatively optimistic note. Liverpool finished fourth, securing a place in the Champions League playoff round. The squad looked happy together. Names of multiple top-level targets were emerging. Fast forward to the first day of the new campaign, and the picture is much less pretty. Mohamed Salah is roundly acknowledged as a good addition, and the left-back deficiency of last season has been partially addressed through the signing of Andrew Robertson, but the same old flaws were undeniably present as Liverpool limped to a 3-3 draw with Watford. Two set piece goals only reiterated the desperate need for an aerially dominant central defender, and yet no progress has been made on bringing Virgil Van Dijk to Anfield. FSG told Klopp that the funds would be made available for his key targets, and yet blunders in the approach have seen Southampton stubbornly double down on their stance not to sell to us. Similarly, RB Leipzig have remained unmoved in the face of the club’s attempts to get priority target Naby Keita. This issue is only exacerbated by Coutinho’s desire to leave – despite their statement to the contrary, some emerging reports suggest that FSG are preparing to sell the Brazilian talisman. Klopp’s post-game comments could be seen to echo this sentiment. Coupled with Lallana’s absence through injury, the loss of Coutinho equates to a horrendous dearth of creativity in the middle of the park – this was clear for all to see at Vicarage Road. I have been a staunch backer of the owners for some time, but anything short of keeping Coutinho and bringing in at least one of Klopp’s two preferred players would be a clear indication that they do not have the requisite ambition to take this club forward.

A common argument in favour of FSG is that it is not lack of funds that is leading to transfer failures. This is probably true to an extent; it would be naïve to assume that the situation is black and white. However, in the vast majority of cases, there will come a point where an offer is simply too big to be turned down. Particularly in the case of Keita, it appears as though FSG have been unprepared to find that point – they made funds available up to what they considered reasonable, but not beyond that. Had Klopp identified a variety of targets, this would be fair enough. As it is, only a few quality targets have been lined up: given this, FSG can reasonably be expected to spend as much as it takes to get the manager the personnel he seeks. Furthermore, it would be wrong to assume that FSG are only responsible for finances – they cannot escape all criticism that does not relate to the availability of funds. As such, even though the Van Dijk move has been jeopardised more by tapping-up blunders than by costings, FSG cannot come out of it with no blame attached. By and large, they decide the club staffing structure – they have consistently decided against a dedicated Director of Football, and the lack of specialisation with regard to player acquisition has repeatedly led to big names slipping through the club’s fingers. In this instance, it has led to the shambolic apology purporting to end all interest in Van Dijk in order to avoid investigation by the Premier League. Fans cannot be expected to watch two set-piece goals fly in against them on the opening day of a new campaign and still unquestioningly cheer the team on: they have a right to demand that the obvious deficiencies are rectified, and at the moment it looks as though FSG’s ownership is jeopardising that rectification process.   

The situation with Coutinho raises just as many questions about what is going on behind the scenes. Again, it would be wrong to place all of the blame at FSG’s door – Coutinho himself has clearly made things difficult with the timing of his transfer request, and Barcelona are probably also guilty of a bit of tapping-up. Nonetheless, there is clearly something odd going on: FSG’s definitive statement that Coutinho is not for sale actually preceded his formal transfer request. The natural inference is that there was a horrible breakdown in communication between owners, club and player: it seems likely that the hard stance was not adequately relayed to Coutinho himself, who duly took matters into his own hands following the release of the statement. Now there is the question of whether the request changes that stance; it would be a significant climbdown from FSG if the Brazilian was sold, but some reports are suggesting that this is exactly what they intend to do. Klopp’s cryptic comments about certain things being beyond his control reinforced this idea. There is no point attacking FSG for something they may not be guilty of, but if Coutinho does end up leaving then their position as owners becomes untenable. He is the best player at the club, and the lethal front line that has been assembled is crying out for creative service from deep: Coutinho is the man to provide that service, and if he leaves now it will undo all the good work that has gone into the front three.

It would be grossly unfair not to acknowledge this good work – Salah, Firmino and Mane are a trio all signed under FSG’s tenure, and they are up there with the best in the league. As the latest addition, Salah is the biggest pro-FSG argument out there at the moment: they parted with a fair amount of money to bring him in, and he fits the profile of what the club needed. For this, they deserve credit. That said, it is worth noting that Salah represented something of a bargain in the current inflated market – his goal and assist returns in one of Europe’s top leagues could easily have warranted a price tag far beyond the £35 million paid. This is obviously a good thing, and the club should of course look to be prudent, but the reality is that sometimes an astronomical sum has to be spent to bring in what is needed. It would be a cruel irony if FSG’s failures to strengthen the defence and midfield rendered the excellent attacking recruitment pointless. They have three weeks to ensure that this does not happen.

It is clear what needs to be done. Good as they are, the front three can only carve out so many chances for themselves – they need a creative midfielder behind them, and it is therefore of paramount importance that FSG do not sanction the sale of Coutinho. Equally, the defensive record of the last few seasons, particularly on set pieces, is not acceptable: Virgil Van Dijk must be signed, or we will keep on shipping stupid amounts of goals to teams such as Watford. Finally, as Klopp’s number one target, Naby Keita must be pursued with even greater determination –  if it is what the manager wants, FSG effectively need to go to Leipzig with a blank cheque. Achieving two of these three things would be enough to stave off my growing concerns about the owners; anything less, and I can no longer view their time in charge as acceptable.

- James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013

Liverpool 6-1 Watford: Post-Match Thoughts

Liverpool moved to the top of the table for the first time under Jurgen Klopp with a dominant win over Watford. The eventual scoreline of 6-1 did not flatter; in fact, there could easily have been more goals. Sturridge hit the woodwork twice after coming on, Coutinho and Lucas both spurned good opportunities and Firmino skewed a one-on-one wide with a strange outside-foot effort. Nevertheless, the hosts will undoubtedly be thrilled with their performance – Watford were utterly dismantled, and Klopp’s men will now go into the international break high on confidence and deservedly top of the league.

It was immediately apparent that Liverpool were going to put on an attacking masterclass. The movement of the forwards, always excellent, was perhaps even more fluid than it has been all season; the Watford back line looked helpless. Coutinho was once again instrumental, popping up in pockets of space and threading lovely passes around. Lallana, too, was a constant thorn in the Hornets’ side – he regularly pushed forward to turn the nominal front three into a front four. However, it took a frustratingly long time for the breakthrough to come. Klopp said after the game that some of the best chances were created before Liverpool managed to take the lead; at the time, there was a slight worry creeping in that it might be ‘one of those days’.  These fears were alleviated by Sadio Mane after 27 minutes: a nicely worked short corner allowed Coutinho space to cross, and Mane stooped at the near post to flick the ball brilliantly beyond Gomes and into the far corner.

From this point, Liverpool did not look back. Just three minutes after the opener Coutinho himself got in on the act, receiving a pass from compatriot Firmino before rifling it into the corner from outside the box. Watford were clinging on, but with Can and Henderson beginning to push up a little more there were simply too many players for the visitors to deal with. It was Can who notched the third goal before half time: his run was not tracked by Amrabat, and he was left free in the box to head home Lallana’s inch-perfect cross. Things continued in much the same way after the break – Firmino’s performance had warranted a goal, and he managed to get one after 57 minutes. He lurked in the box, waiting for Lallana’s delivery, and when it came he was on hand to steal half a yard on his man and knock it home. Firmino was involved once again minutes later: he held up the ball brilliantly in the box, then squared it for the rapidly arriving Mane to tap into the empty net. This made it 5-0 inside the hour mark – Watford fans were probably just hoping that it didn’t reach double figures!

Liverpool briefly took their foot off the gas after the fifth, however, and Watford started to play some fairly nice football going forward. Karius was called upon to make a couple of good saves before Janmaat eventually beat him with a placed shot into the corner. In fairness it was probably deserved – the Liverpool back line will nonetheless be frustrated at yet another failure to secure a clean sheet. This frustration translated into a renewed attacking vigour up the other end: Sturridge, who had been introduced shortly before Watford’s goal, looked particularly dangerous. He hit the crossbar twice, slamming the ball against it from a tight angle before hitting it again with an outrageous curling effort from outside the box. This latter attempt was tipped on to the bar by a fingertip save from Pantilimon, who had come on in the first half to replace an injured Gomes. Had a goalkeeper who wasn’t 6”8 still been on the pitch, perhaps Sturridge would have got his goal! He did at least manage an assist late on – yet another good shot was parried by the Romanian keeper, but Wijnaldum was on hand to slot home the rebound and add a final flourish to an absolute rout.

It was a performance that showcased why Liverpool are now being treated as serious title contenders. The relentless energy, fluid movement and constant creation of chances make for an extremely potent side – in this game, Liverpool recorded the most shots on target (17) of any team in the Premier League since Opta records began in 2003/04. Coupled with this ability to score plenty of goals is a defence that is an improvement on recent years: whilst there are obviously still issues to iron out, as evidenced by the seeming near-impossibility of keeping a clean sheet, on the whole the back line is stronger than the one Liverpool had in 2013/14, when defensive frailty ultimately cost them the league. This is thanks in no small part to Joel Matip, who has brought an assurance to the defence that has been missing for some time. A sublime attack and functioning defence sounds like a recipe for success: Klopp doesn’t want to talk about it yet, but that won’t stop fans thinking about the title.
-James Martin
Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013