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Southampton 0 Liverpool 2 (Feb 22 2015)


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Report by
Dave Usher
 
 
 

Everyone talks about the effect playing in the Europa League has on teams and this weekend illustrated just how difficult it is. This was the worst we’ve looked with the ball since Burnley on Boxing Day, while Spurs and Everton were both held to draws at home after disappointing, leggy performances. It’s really not easy, the demands are huge and it’s doubly difficult when your opponent are a good side that has had a fortnight off and are raring to go. All things considered this was our biggest win of the season so far by some distance.

 

Ok, we rode our luck at times and just how we got to half time having not conceded is something of a mystery, but the 2nd half performance was admirable; just an outstanding professional job. Southampton played well and dominated for long spells but did they even have a chance of note after the break? I can remember a couple of relatively straightforward saves from Mignolet but generally we kept them at arms length in the second half. That was due to a combination of the players getting to grips with some changes in the back three and the substitution Rodgers made at the break.

 

The first half was crazy though, especially the opening five minutes. What a start that was, it was a million miles an hour stuff. Southampton had two strong penalty appeals that - if given - may also have resulted in red cards for Can and Allen, while we went in front with an incredible strike by Coutinho. His shooting has definitely gotten better this season hasn’t it? He’s hit some belters, and the days of those scuffed, dragged, feeble little pea rollers that go harmlessly wide seem to be well and truly behind him. Hopefully that means I no longer have to listen to my arl fella commenting: "I could have hit it harder with me cap". Thanks for that Philippe, appreciate it. As I'm sure everyone else within earshot of us in the Main Stand does.

 

Brendan’s team selection was bold to say the least, but having Ibe and Markovic as wing backs is something I’ve wanted to see for a few weeks. After this, I’d say it may be some time before we see it again! At least not in a difficult away game when the players are knackered. Ibe was fine, he did his job diligently and had few problems. Poor old Lazar though, he got an absolute chasing from Clyne. His problems started within about 20 seconds when he failed to cut out a long ball to Djuricic and Can also hesitated to allow the on loan forward a run on goal. Can put a hand on his shoulder and Djuricic took a dive. With Kevin Friend in charge I feared the worst but he got that right. Who’d have thought he’d turn down the chance to screw us over? Took me by surprise, that’s for sure.

 

We were at sixes and sevens at the back in those early stages and Djuricic went bursting through the middle again a couple of minutes later after Can and Skrtel went for the same ball. Allen lunged in but missed the ball and Djuricic tumbled over him. In the resulting scramble Mignolet made a fantastic save with his foot, that's almost been forgotten because of all the talk about the penalty incident.

 

I thought on first viewing it was a pen and replays back that up. Allen was lucky not to be punished with a penalty and maybe a red card too, although Lovren was also back so maybe he wasn’t the last man. Allen claims he missed the ball and the player, while Djuricic didn’t even appeal for anything, which is somewhat unusual, especially given how vociferous he was about the first claim he had.

 

Either way, it was a huge let off for us. Friend was public enemy number one for the home crowd now, although they continued to boo Lovren (understandable) and Lallana (ungrateful twats) too. They spent an awful lot of time booing actually and appealing for handball and if you closed your eyes you could have been forgiven for thinking the game was being played at Goodison. The lack of chants about not caring what the redshite say and the absence of noise from feet stamping on wooden floor were the tell tale giveaways though.

 

Next it was our turn to unsuccessfully appeal for a pen as Fonte clumsily took Sterling’s legs away in the box. That wasn’t a pen either though, it looked dubious at first but Fonte actually played the ball and then cleaned out Sterling with his follow through. Friend was in great position to see that and got it right for me. How weird does that sound?

 

Incredibly, there was yet another shout for a pen when several players went up for a header but all missed it and the ball hit an unsuspecting Lovren on the hand. Technically it could have been given but I’d say he got that right too, you can’t be giving pens for that as there was nothing Lovren could have done to get out of the way of it. Not that Southampton saw it that way, especially having had the two earlier appeals waved away.

 

It was all feeling a bit surreal, Kevin Friend giving us the benefit of the doubt? I don’t think anyone saw that coming. He angered the home crowd further when he ignored what looked like a foul by Can on Clyne over on the touchline. If he’d given that it would have been an obvious yellow card too, but he waved play on. Replays showed he got that right too, Can got a slight touch on the ball and besides, that was the linesman’s call as he was right on the spot. Friend deferred to him and between them they got it right.

 

They can’t say the same about the incident just before the half when Mignolet appeared to handle outside his box. Southampton were right to feel aggrieved about that one but in fairness to the officials it wasn’t immediately clear that the ball hit his hand, as it came off his chest initially. Reminds me a little of the goal Sterling scored at Stoke last year.

 

Furthermore, the linesman was not level with the incident so how could he be sure it was outside the box? It was a split second thing, he couldn’t have been certain what happened so he didn’t give anything. It was the wrong decision, but it was an understandable one. Of course that’s easy for me to say when we’re getting the benefit of it, and if I were a Saints fan I’d be proper pissed off about that first half showing from the officials. Good old Kevin Friend eh, always liked that guy.

 

We most certainly did not deserve to have the lead going into the break, and the one thing that was obvious was that if we didn’t change something we wouldn’t have the lead for long. We were badly missing Sakho as his absence meant Can having to switch positions and Lovren having to play, neither of which were ideal. Can had a horrible opening to the game when he looked unsure of himself and unusually flustered, but he settled down and turned it around and in the second half he was back to being his majestic self.

 

As for Lovren, he was shaky at times in the first half and that Mignolet ‘handball’ came about because Lovren completely fell asleep and seemed to be unaware of Elia running in behind him. That was incredibly poor, but in fairness to him he was solid in the second half and while still far from convincing, he’s definitely been improved of late.

 

We’d been really poor going forward and it was a largely flat performance. I wasn’t too upset about that as I half expected it due to the fatigue factor. Southampton are a good side and they were much fresher than us so we were never going to go there and dominate them under the circumstances, but I did expect us to counter attack much better than we did. It was as though we completely forgot how to do it, the decision making and execution was just woeful all game. There were chances to hit them on the break but we messed it up every time. The second half was no better either, although at least we sorted things out defensively.

 

The introduction of Moreno for Markovic helped with that but it was also clear that we were no longer playing with a back three, it was now a five. That doesn’t bother me at all, it was a necessary switch as Southampton were running all over us and we needed to shore things up. If we’d tried to open up a bit more I don’t think it would have ended well as they were so much fresher than us. It’s encouraging that we are now able to soak up pressure like this and not buckle. I never felt we were in any real trouble in that second half, whereas the entire first half was on a knife edge.

 

Moreno nullified the threat of Clyne while Ibe did well on the other side in a defensive capacity. He didn’t get much chance to show what he can do at the other end but in some ways this display is even more encouraging than what he’s done before. We know he can beat people and cause mayhem in the opposing box, but now we know he can be disciplined and mature in his defensive duties too. In fairness to Markovic, he too has usually done well in that area and perhaps if he’d been playing on the right he’d have been fine. He drew the short straw having to deal with Clyne though.

 

We barely created anything of note and our passing was awful once we got into the Southampton half. It was good in our own half and we played our way out of trouble very well for the most part, but when it came to playing the killer ball to hit them on the break we were repeatedly found wanting. Sturridge replaced the ineffectual Lallana but even then we didn’t look especially threatening. We did score of course, but even the goal itself kind of summed up our attacking play. Moreno won the ball, Sterling did well to play him in but the Spaniard’s attempted cross for Sturridge was nowhere near him. Thankfully their young left back made a mess of his clearance and Sterling was able to score with the aid of a deflection. Scrappy as hell, just like our performance.

 

Yet despite the obvious lack of quality in our play there was so much to feel good about. More often than not you’re going to struggle to play well after a Thursday night game so you have to be resilient and grind it out. We did that. Ok, we had our fair share of luck along the way but that second half defensive display was great. Mignolet’s handling throughout on a wretched day for goalkeepers was exemplary. The routine looking save he made from a late free-kick was a good example. We scored from an identical situation to that last week when Speroni failed to gather cleanly and Lallana followed it up. Southampton were waiting to pounce on any spillage but Mignolet took it clean as a whistle. He was good on crosses too and looks a completely new man.

 

Skrtel was terrific too, he had an awkward moment or two in the first half mainly due to some miscommunication in our new look backline, but in the second half was utterly dominant. Henderson and Allen got through a lot of dirty work in front of the defence. They didn’t dominate the ball as we’d have liked but again, fatigue plays a part there. We couldn’t press the ball as we usually do either, but we sat in, filled spaces and then pressed when they got near the box. We might need to play the same way at home to City next week too. I can’t see us being capable of repeating what we did to them last year but we’ve got pace on the break and we can now defend, so maybe a different approach will be required this time.

 

The good thing is we’re showing some very promising signs now that even last season weren’t there. Five consecutive away clean sheets is something we hadn’t managed since 1985, and we’re finally doing what we hoped to do when the season started. Remember what we were all saying? About how we can’t replace Suarez or score over 100 goals again, but if we tighten up at the back we can compensate for the lack of goals scored? It took several months but now we’re actually putting that into practice.

 

We’re only three points off third place now and we’re the form team in the league. We’re still going strong in two cups too and the only thing that looks like it may slow us down really is the sheer volume of games we’re having to play. We’ve been here before though, and Houllier handled that masterfully back in 2001. Hopefully Rodgers can do the same.

 

 

Team: Mignolet; Lovren, Skrtel, Can; Ibe (Johnson), Henderson, Allen, Markovic (Moreno); Lallana (Sturridge), Coutinho; Sterling:


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Coutinho's shooting is interesting. He still scuffs them a bit when he shoots with his laces but his goals v Soton and Bolton were with the side of his foot and he seems much more capable of hitting the target when he uses that technique. 

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I thought this game bizarrely mirrored the game at Southampton last season to an extent. Last year we got an earlyish goal against the run of play. The first goal scored by suarez was similar to sterlings that the defender miss hit it straight to him and scored. Last season we had to soak up a lot of pressure until sterling came on and scoresd a second against the run of play.

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That stat about Rodgers having only lost 4 league games from January onward in his 3 seasons as manager is crazy!

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