Liverpool travel to Watford on Sunday on the back of a draw last week at home to West Brom – a game that left Jurgen Klopp incensed.
Last week, some full-blooded tackles from the Baggies players angered the German who refused to shake Tony Pulis’ hand after the game. The tackles may have been firm and fair rather than reckless, but Klopp’s reaction was as full-blooded as the challenges. You could never argue that the Liverpool manager is anything other than emotional and competitive. His reaction to the Crystal Palace defeat showed us that, too.
Liverpool sit in midtable, but not far from the top four berth they crave. This season’s Premier League table is becoming congested in that area, with just a handful of points separating the bulk of the sides.
Yet, Leicester aside, the group of teams at the top are all the those you’d expect to be there. After 16 games, we’ve almost played half a season, and the cream is starting to rise to the top. So Liverpool need to make some waves and make it up their with them.
The three teams sitting between Liverpool and Spurs in fifth were West Ham, Crystal Palace and Sunday’s opponents Watford – before Saturday’s matches started. Liverpool have already lost to the other two this season, so this game is important for Klopp as he looks to plot his side’s way back into the Champions League.
Watford will not be easy opponents, though. Their success this season has been based on defending well. The reason they’re so high up the table is the fact they’ve kept seven clean sheets so far, and for a newly promoted team being difficult to beat is a very important quality.
Liverpool, on the other hand, have conceded more goals than Watford, and have scored only two more than their weekend opponents. Quique Flores’ side are the only team in the top half of the division to have scored fewer goals than Liverpool.
Therein lies Liverpool’s problems so far this season, and also what their problem will be this weekend.
Liverpool have only scored more than two goals in a Premier League game four times all season, although three of those times have been since Klopp took over from Rodgers in early October. That is, at least progress, but there is still a long way to go.
Not least because of Liverpool’s injury concerns. Since coming into the club, Klopp has had to manage without Danny Ings and Daniel Sturridge, Christian Benteke has had a spell on the sidelines, too.
Even with Benteke fit, Ings will be out for quite a while if not the rest of the season, and the dark clouds of injury that always seem to follow Sturridge don’t look to be clearing up.
That leaves Klopp with only Divock Origi as deputy to Christian Benteke for much of the season, and although Benteke is proven Premier League quality, and Origi is starting to improve under the new manager, Klopp must surely be worried about his strength up front.
The raw emotion that Klopp has brought to his team, the energy he demands from them and even the tactical thoughtfulness that he has added to the team will only get him so far without quality players to put all of that into practice. Scoring goals is still the problem, and without strikers, that task is even more difficult.
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