To be completely honest, when Claudio Ranieri was appointed manager, and Watford's first match under him was us, I was not at all confident. New Managers can always bring about new challenges and surprising moments. Moreover the farce that is the international break made Alisson and Fabinho unavailable. I was not worried with Kelleher, it's more of Fabinho.
I was predicting 1-1 initially...
Until we got an absolute beat down of the Hornets. Even these problems didn't stop our boys from losing momentum. In fact, although Man City result was a draw, which was a fair result and no complaints from me, and it was a bloody good game either way to see where our momentum was. And to be honest, Watford was just plain bad today. Poor start for Ranieri's first game in charge.
GK: Caoimhin Kelleher - 7 / 10
2nd start this season, 2nd clean sheet. Kelleher apart from the save at the closing stages of the game, literally had nothing to do at all. Easy evening for the young Irishman. Again with Alisson out, I was not worried with Kelleher being a reliable and excellent stand in and he'll do the job.
RB: Trent Alexander-Arnold - 8 / 10
Was a thorn in the right side and was industrious in Liverpool's attack to help bottle Watford to prevent them from coming forward.
CB: Joel Matip - 7 /10
It was a case of Watford getting bottled so much at their goal that Joel Matip was hardly troubled at all.
CB: Virgil Van Dijk - 7 / 10
Same as Joel Matip. Easy game is a happy day in the office.
LB: Andy Robertson - 7 / 10
Like Trent, his energy helped to stay Watford's attack for large portions of the game. Contributed to Firmino's 3rd goal, even though albeit indirectly.
DM: Jordan Henderson - 7 / 10
Deputised well in the absence of Fabinho. In truth, Watford was so bad that they weren't really threatening the midfield so it made Henderson seem to have a decent game at the very least.
RCM: Naby Keita - 7 / 10
It's the same case for Naby Keita who deputised for the injured Curtis Jones as for Hendo. One of the easiest games played that it was routine.
LM/LW/Secondary RB: James Milner - 8 / 10
This guy just can't go down, can he? And as far as the midfield goes, he set the best tempo of all 3 midfielders today and used his good vision to great effect. Kinda doubling and overlapping Sadio Mane as a half left-winger. Another assist means he has done at least 1 for 18 consecutive seasons. Easy Peasy for Jimmy. Moved to right back for a bit when Trent came off before Neco took over for the final assist.
LW: Sadio Mane - 9 / 10
Today's match is pretty much the tale of the deadly thrilling three. Mane started the story. Seemed to return back to his old self, and frankly he had a good night to kick off the scoring frenzy with a delightfully outrageous pass from Salah and was energetic from start to finish.
FW: Roberto Firmino - 10 / 10
Was in the right place at the right time for all of his 3 goals. Short ranged goals are the weakness for any goalkeeper, including the veteran Youtuber and the Cycling GK Ben Foster and I know how good Ben can be even for Watford even at this age.
RW: Mohamed Salah - 10 / 10
Holy crap.... are you fucking kidding me?! That goal, everyone will be just watching that replay on repeat over and over and over again. And that's a difficult goal, like what he did against Man City. It's Deja vu all over again. Really, enough said. And he even picked out a delicious assist for Mane to kick off the goal fest, that was pinpoint accurate. Cheeky, cheeky, cheeky! He's in a form of his life, 8 games he played, 8 goals. What a streak!
SUB 1: LB Kostas Tsimikas - 6 /10
Got some minutes in his belt while Robbo catches a break to rest up for Atletico Madrid. Still industrious.
SUB 2: RM Alex Oxlade Chamberlain - 6 / 10
Subbed on for Trent in preparation for Atletico, moving to the midfield while Milner hangs back to Right Back.
SUB 3: RB Neco Williams - 7 / 10
Subbed in for fellow assistant Milner to take over Right Back duties for 10 minutes. 1st appearance of the season, marked with a 1st assist, charging down past and beating Danny Rose and picking out Firmino for his Hat Trick to round off the game. And that was not easy to pull off.
Next match: ATLETICO MADRID
We have some scores to settle and Atletico Madrid has always been a thorn on our side. However, with this match, we should enter the game full of confidence. On top of that, Alisson and Fabinho will be rested, fresh and ready to go. So it is kinda playing in our favor.
We are ready, we are coming for you.
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