Nigerian Odion Ighalo scores twice as Watford beat Klopp, Liverpool 3-0 #lfc anfield

Odion Ighalo celebrates scoring his second of the afternoon against Liverpool

Dreamland for Watford; the nightmare before Christmas for a shell-shocked Liverpool, emphatically so for Adam Bogdan on his Premier League debut, although Mamadou Sakho ran the goalkeeper close in the calamity stakes.
First, though – and rightly, gloriously, so – Watford. Fifteen new players this season, a brilliantly charismatic and competent new manager in Quique Sanchez Flores, but the same belief and – that buzzword – philosophy that has propelled Watford out of the Championship to within a point of the Champions League places.
That latter fact was trumpeted over the tannoy at the final whistle and understandably so.
Odion Ighalo celebrates scoring his second of the afternoon against Liverpool
With Lei­cester City the feel-good story of this topsy-turvy season Watford are certainly running them close, along with Crystal Palace. All three sides sit proudly in the top seven. It is different, deserved, refreshing.

There were outstanding perfor­mances from Watford all over this wind-swept pitch and none more so than up front with Troy Deeney, the captain, simply bullying the Liverpool defence with his power and determination; his desire and touch. He was irrepressible, as was his strike partner Odion Ighalo who scored twice and now has 12 league goals this season and 28 in 2015. No player in England has more.
A throw-back also in that this is an old-fashioned strike partnership, two up-front in a 4-4-2, an echo of the Eighties – the last time, in fact, that Watford beat Liverpool at home when a certain John Barnes was among the scorers in 1986, before his feted career at Anfield,

Watford won 2-0 then and went one better here. There could have been even more goals, with Jürgen Klopp’s team beaten by a team that played like a Jürgen Klopp team. Watford pressed and harried and were positive in possession which was summed up by their third goal when Étienne Capoue, another superb performer, won the ball back twice as the revitalised midfielder drove his team up the pitch.
Capoue then used possession so skilfully and creatively, leading to Deeney sending a pass wide to substitute Valon Behrami who crossed for Ighalo to run in and direct a stooping header past the stranded Bogdan from close-range.
All of this occurred as Liverpool struggled to cope. Emre Can was out-muscled and out-run for that goal and it happened all afternoon although he was not alone.
Bogdan was at fault for Watford's opener
It was a bad day for Jordan Henderson, and for Lucas Leiva also while there was mistake after mistake by Sakho.
Martin Skrtel limped off injured in the first half and it appeared a case of wounded pride as much as any physical damage to the centre-back.
The way in which Liverpool reacted to the goals was far more hurtful to Klopp than the concessions themselves as the manager struggles with trying to determine how a team can destroy Manchester City and Southamp­ton, scoring 10 goals in the process, and yet still be so fragile on occasions.
They badly miss Daniel Sturridge but there were precious few other absentees. The consignment of Christian Benteke to the substitutes bench – Klopp first turned to Divock Origi as he, interestingly, then pushed Lucas to centre-half – spoke volumes of the £32 million striker’s current standing.
Evasive action: Troy Deeney avoids a Mamadou Sakho challenge at Vicarage Road
Klopp, though, is not deluded. He knew, when he arrived, there would probably be a reaction and then a reaction to the reaction from a squad that has obvious weaknesses to it, although the way in which they folded was alarming.
Liverpool called foul over Watford’s opening goal and replay after replay may show there was a case that Bogdan, who started the match with Simon Mignolet ruled through a minor hamstring injury, got both hands on the ball after spilling Ben Watson’s corner but it did not look like he was impeded in real time.
The referee, Mark Clattenburg, gave the goal, which was turned in from close in by Nathan Ake, and after less than three minutes Liverpool were already up against it.

Possession stats
0-45 minutes46-90 minutesFull match
Premier LeagueWatford v. LiverpoolPossession22.3%50.6%27.1%34.5%65.5%
Their response was a mix of ­feeling sorry for themselves and feeling unable to deal with the spirit, physicality and purpose of Watford while Bogdan appear shell-shocked – as was Skrtel with the way he was overwhelmed by Ighalo for the second goal. That came as Deeney won possession and lofted a clever pass forward.
Ighalo was too strong, too full of desire to get there, for Sktrel who ran with him but did little more before the striker hit a low cross-shot that too easily beat Bogdan.
There were other errors. Bogdan punched the ball straight into Lucas’s face, he scooped another corner off the goal-line but he also saved superbly from Jose Manuel Jurado with a first-time shot and denied Ighalo when he was sent clear on goal