The unbeaten run is over. 28 games into the season, Liverpool have lost a game. Watford beat the Reds 3-0 with a vibrant display of counter-attacking football that left Jurgen Klopp’s side shellshocked. Ismaila Sarr scored twice and assisted another for Troy Deeney as an awful Liverpool performance got the result that it deserved.
Here’s how each Liverpool player fared.
Spoiler Alert: This is not going to be pretty
Alisson Becker – 4/10
Was twitchy in the first half, when he fumbled a simple gather to give Deeney a chance. But to be fair to him, there was little he could have done about any of the Watford goals.
Trent Alexander-Arnold – 1/10
Crossing was poor. Set-piece quality was poor. Defensively, he was tortured from the first minute. Night went from bad to worse when his attempted back-pass was latched on to by Sarr to set up Deeney.
Dejan Lovren – 0/10
Thoroughly bullied by Deeney. In his first Premier League start since December, he was a beacon of chaos in the Liverpool rearguard. Directly culpable for the first goal, when he got too tight to Deeney and missed the ball. That summed his game up.
Virgil van Dijk – 2/10
Poor. It’s rare for him to be anything other than imposing, but he looked a yard off the pace of the game, too. Reacted late to Lovren’s mistake and let Doucoure get on the ball to set up Sarr’s opener. Also wasn’t at his best to defend the move that led to their second.
Andy Robertson – 3/10
Didn’t track Sarr’s run for the first goal. Was slightly better than Trent on the night, and had the team’s only shot on target.
Fabinho – 3/10
Below-par, as was the default for Liverpool on the day. Couldn’t live with the intensity that Hughes and Capoue brought, and really needs to pick up the pace, which he has struggled to find since the comeback from injury.
Gini Wijnaldum – 0/10
Ghost. Invisible. Find other synonyms to that. Taken off to be replaced by Lallana.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – 2/10
Liverpool needed him to be the link between the front three and the rest of the side. Instead spent most of his time on the pitch almost alongside Firmino, and had no joy. Replaced by Origi.
Sadio Mane – 0/10
Never seen him misplace as many passes as he did today. Had nothing to trouble Foster.
Mo Salah – 3/10
Much like Mane, minus the excessive number of misplaced passes.
Roberto Firmino – 3/10
No joy for him either, as Watford left no space between the lines for him to exploit.
SUBSTITUTESÂ
Adam Lallana – 5/10
Stunning effort to rattle the post, but couldn’t really break the Watford wall down.
Divock Origi – 3/10
No impact, having replaced Chamberlain with almost 25 minutes to play.
Takumi Minamino – N/A
Came on for the last few minutes with the game already wrapped up for Watford.
