The peculiar positioning of Abdoulaye Doucoure against Liverpool

Any Watford fan will tell you that Abdoulaye Doucoure is a solid defensive midfielder who has been a bright spark in an extremely unconvincing side this season. However, in Nigel Pearson's first game in charge against Liverpool, the Frenchman played just off Troy Deeney as a second striker.

The Hornets started the game strong, managing to hold on against the European champions until the 38th minute when Mo Salah finished off a scintillating counter-attack with a beautiful curling effort. The Egyptian sealed the points with a cheeky tap in after a miscued effort from Divock Origi in the 90th minute.

Doucoure took up a position beside Troy Deeney in a 4-4-2 formation. He frequently broke the defensive line and pressed the Liverpool centre backs following any loose touches. This was particularly important to the match plan given that the ball was expected to be in the Reds' possession for a majority of the game.

Pressurising loose touches allowed the visitors to keep the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold from launching long diagonals to the wingers.

Having said this, Doucoure's deployment was also vital from an attacking perspective. The route-one approach taken by Watford was largely benefited by the presence of not just one but two target me (Deeney and Doucoure). He remained in that position even after Deeney was substituted in favour of Andre Gray before he himself was subbed off in the 87th minute.

The former Rennes man provided his team with 3 key passes. This is more than double his usual tally of 1.2 per game. However, his defensive stats suffered having made no tackles or blocks throughout the entirety of the game. This is even more shocking considering the fact that he makes 2.2 tackles and 0.9 interceptions a game on average.

Route one seemed to be the general approach that Watford adopted towards the game. However, as the scoreline suggests, this did not work out very well. As a matter of fact, Doucoure himself had a clear cut opportunity to score moments before Salah fired home the opening goal of the game.

In conclusion, while the result might not have gone their way, the tactical changes made by Pearson were refreshing at the very least. Watford pushed Liverpool until the last minute, but if the Englishman wants to orchestrate an escape similar to the one he pulled off with Leicester in 2014/15, he and his side have it all to do.