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Southampton 0 Liverpool 2 (Feb 11 2018)


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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.
 

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I'm not sure why Woodburn hasn't been integrated more around the first team. A different player yes but he could play the mane position & give us another option, which we'll need between now and may. Maybe it's too soon & klopp is looking after him, I thought he'd at least be an option for us in some games.

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Looked to me like we never even tried to get out of second gear Dave. A mixture of the battle against 13 men last weekend and an eye on Porto Wednesday. I shared your concern about conceding, even when we were two up, but the combination of (the wonderfully commanding and smirking) STD in central defence and the fact that we were barely trying, meant I was less concerned than I have been.

 

Thought Karius was great.

 

And what a lovely change to be playing against only 12 men this weekend. Atkinson was a fucking disgrace. Appalling refereeing.

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The Firmino penalty appeal wasn't too dissimilar to Robertson's foul on Otamendi after his epic pressing of half the City team. If anything, the Firmino one was more of a foul due to him being impeded around the neck/shoulder by the defender, as opposed to a light pull of the arm by Robertson. 

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Looked to me like we never even tried to get out of second gear Dave. A mixture of the battle against 13 men last weekend and an eye on Porto Wednesday. I shared your concern about conceding, even when we were two up, but the combination of (the wonderfully commanding and smirking) STD in central defence and the fact that we were barely trying, meant I was less concerned than I have been.

 

Thought Karius was great.

 

And what a lovely change to be playing against only 12 men this weekend. Atkinson was a fucking disgrace. Appalling refereeing.

 

It's easy to overlook it because we won, but yeah Atkinson was terrible.

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I ended up watching the game on the telly, which I rarely do. God, I hated it. My rational self was telling me that Southampton were a beaten docket with their fans quitting from a long way out and the Liverpool fans in full voice. Yet a combination of not being able to 'see' the game properly - when you are at the game you can see players moving off the ball and better read the demeanour of the respective teams - and the Greek chorus that was Tyler and Smith constantly chundering on about past disasters and 'all it takes is one goal' we know this you pair of cunts SHUT THE FUCK UP meant it was impossible to relax. Television is a pitiful facsimile of the real thing. Unfortunately the real thing costs a bloody fortune. There doesn't seem to be any middle ground between those two situations.

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Martin Atkinson is just a fucking cheat, I remember a League Cup match just after Torres had signed in which the Reading players were given carte blanche to kick seven kinds of shite out of Torres which they did with nothing given to Torres all match.

It didn't reach those standards on Sunday but even the bookings he gave to Can and Matip were pretty shite too.

Luckily it didn't matter as we won but I just know if Southampton had got in our box second half and been challenged he'd have given a pen.

Oh and Torres scored a hat trick in that Reading match so fuck you Atkinson....twice

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