Late Britos equaliser exposes Reds’ shaky defence yet again
JURGEN KLOPP must have been thinking he’d got away with it – until the problem that has haunted his first 100 Premier League games came back to bite him, deep in stoppage time.
His team had somehow come back from 2-1 down to lead 3-2 when Simon Mignolet pushed a shot from Watford defender Miguel Britos round the post.
Just a corner to defend then and the first three points of the season were theirs.
But a poor defensive header by Georginio Wijnaldum let in substitute Richarlison and though Mignolet pushed his angled shot against the bar, the ball was headed in by Britos, who was standing on the line.
Klopp was adamant it was offside, but the goal stood and it meant that Liverpool have conceded 85 goals under Klopp and 27 have been from set pieces.
“I’m not fed up talking about set pieces,” said the German. “I have to talk about them. But most of them we defended really well.
“We had big chances at set pieces too, but nobody says that Watford can’t defend them, but that’s my life. I have to deal with this.
“But we can do better. We have to do better. But it’s no fun conceding offside goals and their third goal was clearly offside.”
Issues with zonal marking haunted Klopp’s team all last season and they certainly re-surfaced when Liverpool went behind from a corner in the eighth minute.
It was just a basic cross swung over by Jose Holebas and Stefano Okaka powered through flimsy defending to net with a thumping header.
It immediately made you see why the club are so keen to bring in a powerful leader at the back like Southampton’s Virgil van Dijk, though there’s a collective malaise in that back four that the addition of one player may not cure.
The corner had been the result of a cutting Hornets break in which the beefy Okaka had threaded a subtle pass through to Roberto Pereyra who was unfortunate to see his goalbound shot deflect of Dejan Lovren.
Sadio Mane levelled on the half hour, starting and finishing a sweet passing move that involved Alberto Moreno and Emre Can with a curling shot into the top corner.
A minute later, however, they were behind again when Tom Cleverley’s cross pinballed around the six-yard box, before the impressive Abdoulaye Doucoure applied the decisive touch.
Debutant Mo Salah wasted a great chance, blazing over after he was left free in the box by a mistake by Holebas and in first-half stoppage time, Mane headed just wide from Roberto Firmino’s corner.
Then came 90 seconds that should have changed the afternoon for Liverpool.
First Taylor took an eternity and then made a huge call when he gave Klopp’s team a penalty, judging that Heurelho Gomes had brought down Salah with his sprawling dive.
The linesman closest to the incident didn’t signal the spot kick, Watford argued the toss, but Taylor’s mind was made up and Firmino sent Gomes the wrong way. Then almost from the re-start the Brazilian sprung Watford’s offside trap from Lovren’s lofted pass out of defence, lobbed the keeper and Salah ran the ball into the net for a debut goal.
It was a different Liverpool after that and they began to shred the home defence on a regular basis as a tiring Watford side were forced to chase the game.
They could have extended their lead on at least three separate occasions.
Gomes tipped a blistering shot from Moreno’s shot over his bar and from the corner, Joel Matip saw his header strike the woodwork.
Gomes then produced a top-class save from Lovren drive and just before the end of normal time, Wijnaldum pulled a very decent chance wide.
They were costly misses when you consider what happened next.
Watford’s new boss Marco Silva was delighted with the point in his first game in charge.
He said: “It is a very good result for and it’s a fair result. I didn’t like first 25 minutes of second half, but we expected a reaction from them.
“We reacted well ourselves and we kept going until the end.
“It’s a good start and a good sign for us.”
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