Blog: Watford challenge, confidence and Europa draw

Confidence is growing at Anfield. The spirit is too. You'll only need to look at the late equaliser against West Bromwich Albion last weekend to notice.

Despite infrequent setbacks since the arrival of Jürgen Klopp in October, the club are moving in the right direction. The former Borussia Dortmund boss was always going to need time to embed his methods in his new team, but he's exceeded expectations so far and that's even with a number of key players spending most of his reign on the treatment table.

As supporters, we sense there's something special happening here. It'll take time and adjustment, but we're definitely on the right path. We've shown on occasions that even the top teams in the country can't live with us when we get it right. Manchester City know that better than most.

Next up, however, are one of the Barclays Premier League's newcomers, Watford, who themselves are performing above expectations.

Quique Sanchez Flores arrived as manager in the summer after the Hornets achieved promotion from the Championship at the end of last season, and in his short spell he's managed to mould a squad filled with 15 new summer signings into one of the most in-form sides in the country.

He has even been doing that with two central strikers – which is something of a rarity in the modern game, especially in this country. They're quite the breath of fresh air, so Liverpool's task to take three points from Vicarage Road this afternoon will be difficult to say the very least.

Aside from keeping Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo on the backburner, our team's task is to penetrate one of the league's meanest defences. Throw in the fact that they've won five of their last seven league games – and the defeats came at the hands of table-topping Leicester City and Manchester United – and the task appears very, very real.

What works in our favour, though, is that we have one of the world's most astute tacticians on the touchline. Our injury problems are clearing too, and we now have club captain Jordan Henderson back in the ranks regularly to give us the extra boost in midfield. Henderson has been raring to go under Klopp and he's finally got his chance.

The Premier League will of course take precedence over the next two months – while we begin our campaign in the FA Cup in January – but earlier this week we learned our fate for the last 32 stage of the Europa League. We'll face the impressive Bundesliga outfit Augsburg over two legs in middle-to-late February.

The draw could have been worse for us, perhaps, but Klopp knows better than anybody just how seriously this tie and this team should be taken. Augsburg finished fifth in the German top flight last season, three points ahead of Borussia Dortmund, who were then managed by our new boss – and beat Dortmund on their own turf last season.

While they've found this season a little more difficult so far, it's not uncommon to expect the added pressures of European football to impact on domestic form. But much can change in the course of a few days in football, and Augsburg are in a position where they themselves can regroup and push on after the Bundesliga's winter break, and in time for our meeting.

Fortunately, we are too. Liverpool are set to embark on a busy festive period of fixtures starting at Watford today, and a positive result against a challenging outfit will do wonders for our growing confidence and form over a crucial period of the season.

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