Klopp urges Liverpool to ‘finish the job’; Watford boss blasts ref

Jurgen Klopp saw Emre Can score a “fantastic goal” to seal a victory over Watford – but the Liverpool boss is refusing to get carried away as the Reds move closer to securing a return to the Champions League.

After Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal all dropped points over the weekend, the spotlight turned on Liverpool as they visited Vicarage Road on Monday night.

While the match will not live long in the memory, Can’s superb overhead kick in first-half stoppage time is a bona fide contender for goal of the season.

It proved enough to earn Liverpool the win and they now have a top-four finish in their own hands after moving four points clear of United in fifth.

Klopp was delighted with Can’s effort but said their position will count for nothing if they let it slip between now and the season’s conclusion.

“We scored a fantastic goal,” he said.

“I only saw it once but it looked already pretty nice. I turned a little early and didn’t see it hit the back of the net.

“It (their current position) is not important, if we give it away it means nothing.

“We have pressure and it means you fight for something that is good. It is positive pressure. We want to stay focused.

“We don’t expect for a second it will be easy. If people think we have the three points against Southampton (next weekend) they can not have seen Southampton this season.”

Watford were poor for large portions of the game but could have salvaged a point when Sebastian Prodl crashed a volley against the crossbar in injury time.

The Hornets still face Chelsea and Manchester City between now and the end of the season and can still have plenty to say on the outcome at the top of the table.

 

Watford boss Mazzarri unhappy

Walter Mazzarri: Hoping for cheer against Arsenal

Walter Mazzarri’s side remain on 40 points in the table, eight points clear of the bottom three, and the Italian pointed a finger at the officials as his side slipped to defeat.

“I think that if you look at all of the Liverpool games that they play, the usually create five or six clear chances,” he said.

“Today we didn’t concede them almost anything and had a couple of chances so overall it was a good performance. Usually I don’t like to speak about luck but today we were completely unlucky.

“Aside from the crossbar from Prodl, there were two mistakes from the referee, offsides against (Stefano) Okaka and (Troy) Deeney, so I think we played a good game.

“This is a team that if you leave them a lot of space they can be extremely dangerous. They were very concentrated at the back but my players had a good game.”