Klopp's Liverpool honeymoon is over

Last week Liverpool's extrovert manager Juergen Klopp was dancing down the touchline in front of jubilant fans after Divock Origi scored deep into added time to earn a 2-2 draw with West Bromwich Albion at Anfield.

However, any suggestion his new club was back on track after a feeble defeat by struggling Newcastle United the previous week disappeared on Sunday with the heaviest defeat Liverpool has suffered against Watford, which was a worthy 3-0 victor.

For Klopp the honeymoon enjoyed by any new manager is now over, with the five-time European champion only one place higher in the standings than when Brendan Rodgers was fired two months ago.

To his credit, the German acknowledged a "deserved win" for host Watford but was more concerned that his team's reaction to conceding a goal was inadequate.

He previously criticized his players for dropping their heads when Southampton equalized at Anfield with a quarter of an hour still to play.

This time it was in the first 15 minutes that Liverpool sputtered, allowing two bad goals against seventh-place Watford.

"You have to react much better," Klopp said.

"We didn't play how we wanted to play, we played how they wanted us to play."

One consolation is that Klopp, who left striker Christian Benteke on the bench for 75 minutes, will have the opportunity to sign players in the January transfer window.

The other is that with most of the other top teams misfiring, ninth-place Liverpool is still only five points off the Champions League places.

The lackluster loss to Watford was a bad blow for Klopp's side, which would have overtaken it with a win but remained ninth.

Not since April 1987 has Watford, promoted to the top flight this season, won four successive games at this level of English soccer.

"It was an amazing victory against an amazing team," Quique Sanchez Flores, Watford's manager, told the BBC.

Yet the Spaniard was keen not to get too carried away with his side's unlikely progress.

"We should be humble, we have a lot of matches to play," he said.

"Four wins back-to-back is massive and starts our so-called tough run that everyone's talking about," jubilant captain Troy Deeney said on Sky Sports.

"We're just doing our stuff and people have got to be worried to come here now."

Deeney and Ighalo have scored 17 of the team's 21 goals between them this season.

The captain, who plays just behind his teammate, offered an insight into their understanding when describing the first goal.

"I was fighting for the ball but I know he's going to make a run. He makes it easy for me because he's so quick and strong."

"I know when he gets the ball, he will play it behind the defense," said Ighalo, which was just what happened.

The predictability of the move did not please Klopp, who criticized his team's "bad reaction" to conceding twice in the opening quarter of an hour.