by Dave Usher for ESPN
Life without Luis Suarez began with a win, but Liverpool certainly made hard work of it against a spirited and surprisingly well-organised Southampton side. Daniel Sturridge's late winner gave Brendan Rodgers' men a 2-1 win Sunday and three points they probably didn't deserve; the Reds will need to shape up pretty quickly given their next fixture is a daunting trip to the Etihad Stadium to face defending champions Manchester City.
It was far from being the ideal way to kick the season off, but Kopites don't have too much cause for concern; the performance against Southampton was poor, but even the best teams have off days. There are plenty of worse things than playing badly and winning 2-1. Playing badly and losing 2-1, for example -- just ask Louis van Gaal.
Days like these have been extremely rare for Liverpool in 2014. The trademark vibrant attacking football was nowhere to be seen and this was a plodding, uninspired display. That was in no small part due to the strange setup employed by Rodgers. The manager got it wrong, just as he did in the corresponding fixture last season. Thankfully, he corrected his initial error and his substitutions ultimately helped to turn the game in Liverpool's favour.
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