We don’t win like this very often so this one was pleasing, particularly given the result at St James’ Park earlier in the day. Two great goals, a clean sheet and a professional, mature performance in which we didn’t have to expend too much energy ahead of a big Champions League fixture in midweek. Just what we needed.
Southampton couldn’t lay a glove on us in the second half. We should have added to the lead we’d established in the first half but missed some really good chances. Usually that comes back to haunt us as more often than not we’ll make a daft mistake at the back and then the pressure is on us, but defensively the second half was more or less flawless.
In the first ten minutes of the game we looked dynamite, ably assisted by some sloppy play by Southampton it needs to be said, and we could have had a couple of goals even before we took the lead on six minutes. Southampton were all over the place and our pace and pressing was giving them more than they could handle.
Firmino almost got in when he robbed Hoedt and then went down after a tug from the defender. I don’t think there was enough in it to be a foul and I thought Bobby went down because he knew he wasn’t reaching the ball. The ref got that one right, but he then spent the rest of the half allowing Southampton’s players to foul Firmino as much as they liked without any punishment. It was fucking ridiculous and it’s to Bobby’s credit that he didn’t completely lose the plot over it.
He was later denied a clear penalty and two blatant free-kicks. The penalty has pissed me off massively because of how nobody has made anything of it. Both Sky and BBC’s commentators dismissed it as him ‘going down too theatrically’. Fucking hell, after the absolute horseshit we had to listen to last week after those Spurs pricks were diving all over the place, that was hard to stomach.
The defender reached around Firmino’s neck and grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. There was ten times more contact in that than there was in both of last week’s penalties combined. The same knobs who dismissed this one would no doubt have been saying ‘there’s contact’ ‘he’s entitled to go down’ ‘the defender has given the referee no choice’ and all manner of other tired old clichés had Martin Atkinson pointed to the spot instead of waving away the appeals.
I’m not sure how Firmino kept his cool with all these decisions going against him. I couldn’t help but wonder what Suarez would have done under that kind of provocation from the ref. Scoring obviously helps to ease the frustration and having slotted one so early it was perhaps easier for Firmino to deal with the frustration.
That strike on six minutes was his 20th goal of the season. Expertly finished and also brilliantly created by Salah. Hoedt should have cut out the initial pass but got his feet in a mess. He did a lot of good things in the game (he stopped Salah a couple of times in one v one situations in the second half) but his performance was Lovren-esque. He looks very good until suddenly he doesn’t.
Hitting the 20 goal milestone is significant for Firmino as maybe now it will finally put to bed the tiresome narrative of us needing a 25 goal a season striker. If he avoids injury he’ll finish with at least that many and will most likely be pushing the 30 mark. When you consider everything else he does too (assists, tackles, interceptions, defending from the front and an insane amount of sprints) it really makes the calls for him to make way for a ‘natural centre forward’ all the more baffling.
Only this week Aldo was banging that particular drum. What exactly are we looking to achieve here? Move Firmino out of the number nine spot because he does too many things that a number nine can’t normally do? Even with everything else he does, he’s still scoring more than any striker other than Kane and Aguero, and he does a shitload more stuff than the rest of them combined.
Bring in another goalscorer to give us depth and options by all means (personally I'd like another option for those games against packed defences), but for the love of all that is good and pure stop with this “we need a 25 goal a season striker” now because we’ve actually got one, and on top of that we’ve got a wide forward who’s scoring even more than that. What we don’t have is the Sadio Mane of last season. If and when we get him back, that forward line makes us a match for anyone.
Having gone in front we seemed to drop off and allow Southampton a lot of the ball. It could have proved costly as they gave it a good go and created a few chances. I actually thought Southampton played pretty well but I seem to be in a minority there, and their own fans certainly weren’t impressed and booed them off at half time. The second goal just before the break killed them really, but they had us under pressure before that.
Most of the danger seemed to be coming down our right where Tadic was occupying Trent which allowed Bertrand to keep surging forward on the overlap. Robertson was caught out a couple of times by crosses to the back post that went over his head, and it seemed to be a ploy of theirs to overload the back post.
The clearest chance Southampton had came when a ball was dropped over Robbo’s head and fell to Hoijbjerg. He brought the ball down but by the time he got his shot away Karius had charged out and made himself big, blocking it with his chest. Good goalkeeping that. He also made a routine save to keep out a header from Carrillo who had peeled away onto Trent and beaten him easily.
Karius had to make another good stop when he tipped over a Ward-Prowse header after they’d overloaded behind Robertson again. Too many crosses were coming in and we could easily have conceded in that first half. We lost our way in attack too and it was all very sloppy until BOOM, just like that, it was 2-0.
Matip played a good ball into the feet of Mo, who had dropped into a little pocket of space. He received the ball on the half turn, laid it off to Firmino and then ran into the box. What happened next was just great. The first time lay off wasn’t on and the early back heel wasn’t either. Firmino delayed that split second and then flicked it through the gap putting Mo clean through. It looked class, but it was so much better than it even looked because it was all about the split second timing. You don’t see Kane, Lukaku or any of your ‘traditional 25 goal a season men’ doing shit like that. Just sayin’.
Mo finished it without fuss and that was that. Game over. It didn’t feel like that at the time of course, as no lead is ever safe with this team, but now that the dust has settled on it you can see that Southampton kind of gave up after that. They had a bit of a go in the second half but it never really looked like they had any belief in themselves and they soon became dispirited.
I still couldn't feel relaxed though and I was waiting for the third goal to come to finally kill them off. We’ve been in this situation plenty of times and all it takes is for them to get one goal and suddenly the crowd are into it and belief returns. We didn’t give them a sniff though and in the second half Karius was more or less a spectator.
Van Dijk wasn’t put under any great pressure but he just exuded calm and authority. He spent half the game smirking as the home fans booed and tried to unsettle him. Much was made beforehand about the ‘hostile’ reception he’d get, but St Mary’s is hardly an intimidating venue. I mean let’s face it, Southampton fans aren’t exactly Galatasaray are they?
So they boo a little bit and and throw in a few songs about players being wankers or cunts. It’s going to take more than that to unsettle Van Dijk. He looked like he was loving it. At one point he even charged forward and was trying stepovers on the edge of their box. It didn’t work but it showed how completely not arsed he was about it all. It was amusing seeing Klopp throw Lovren on at the very end too, as a massive ‘fuck you’ to the home fans. Pity there were hardly any of them left to see it.
We should have buried them in that second half and that’s the only slight negative on what was a great day for us. Mané isn’t anywhere his best level but he wasn’t that bad and still had some good moments. He had a spectacular volley that looked like it was headed goal wards if it hadn’t been blocked by Lemina. Mo blazed the rebound over. Mané then created a chance for Firmino that was saved by the keeper. This time Mo put the rebound into the side netting.
Sadio just still seems to be not at full throttle. Initially I felt like he just needed something to kick start him, but goals against Burnley and City didn’t do that and now I’m thinking this is going to be a gradual thing. One great moment won’t suddenly see him hit top form again, it’s going to be a step by step process. I thought this was a small step in the right direction, but that said, if we had a viable alternative I’d probably be dropping him until he finds his form. We don’t have one though, as Ox has been mostly shite when he’s played in the front three.
He wasn’t great in midfield in this game either. Can was too casual at times as well and the midfield is a bit of a concern. Wijnaldum was the pick of the three even if he was only a little above average himself. He made several really good runs past the frontmen and one of them should have led to a goal in the second half, but he opted to dummy the ball for Mané, who wasn’t expecting it and had to then attempt an off balance shot with his left foot that flew well wide.
No wonder Wijnaldum hasn’t scored in 50 away games. Firmino had been in a similar situation for the first goal, he could have left it for Mané too but he took responsibility himself and buried it. Wijnaldum should have done likewise, especially as we were 2-0 up and under no pressure.
He did a lot of good work in this game though. Neat and tidy in possession and he made some timely interceptions. Overall the midfield didn’t seem to be influencing the game too much and Southampton had an awful lot of the ball, just as Spurs did last week. Is that because the midfield aren’t performing well, or is because they are playing to orders?
Ideally we need more goals from midfield as we’re not getting enough. I blame Lallana for that though, the fragile bastard. He showed in the brief time he was on just what we’ve been missing this season. He was absolute class and should have scored. I’ve got big concerns about whether our midfield is going to be good enough between now and May, but those concerns would disappear if there was a guarantee that Lallana could stay fit. That’s how important I think he is.
I have definitely sensed a shift in Klopp’s tactical approach these last couple of weeks though. When we get a lead we aren’t chasing the game and trying to force a second or third as we have often done in the past. We’re being cagier, sitting off and filling spaces and then trying to hit on the break. We’ve done it before too. West Ham away springs to mind.
It’s a solid plan that plays to the strengths of our forwards, but it all goes to shit if the defence doesn’t get the job done. Most of the time this season we’ve defended well during games, but it’s often undone by one silly error or bit of misfortune. Last week for example, defensively we didn’t do much wrong at all against Spurs, yet conceded twice and dropped two points.
If we’re going to adopt this approach that’s fine, but we’ve got to be more clinical with counter attacking opportunities the we have been these last two weeks. For that to happen we probably need Mané to get back on track, because the ‘Fab Four’ is currently just a ‘Dynamic Duo’.
Star man is Mo, who just shades it from Firmino and Van Dijk. Special mention for Karius too. The saves he made were ones you’d expect him to make, but he made them and is generally giving off a more confident air recently. I just hope Klopp doesn’t fuck him about by bringing Mignolet back in for Europe. Just let the lad play now and let’s see if he can prove doubters like me wrong.
Team: Karius; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Can, Oxlade-Chamberlain (Milner), Wijnaldum; Salah (Lovren), Firmino (Lallana), Mané:
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