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Southampton 1 Liverpool 2 (Aug 17 2019)


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Dave Usher

 

This was a great win. Potentially huge, as it's games like this where successful sides really separate themselves from the rest.

 

Like many of the games in the early part of last season, it wasn’t especially pretty but it didn’t need to be. It’s all about results, especially when the circumstances are as difficult as this. Klopp described it as the “biggest potential banana skin ever”. Bit over the top maybe, but this was a huge test.

 

The players travelled halfway across the world, came through extra time and a penalty shoot out and then had to go and play on the South Coast at 3pm on a Saturday. It’s never an easy place for us to go even under normal circumstances as they are always desperate to stick to us because we keep taking their best players.

 

It was a fixture where we could easily have come unstuck, but the lads put on their big boy pants and dug in to get the win. In fairness it was so nearly much more than the scrappy grind it ended up as. After going 2-0 up we were flying and could have buried them completely had the third goal come. It didn’t, and then Adrian gifted them a late one to set up a tense finale.

 

It was Leicester last year all over again. The similarities are uncanny. Mane and Firmino put us 2-0 up only for the the keeper to have a brain fart that left us hanging on. The main difference is that after we let in that daft goal at Leicester we kept them well under control and they never threatened to get another. The only reason Southampton didn’t complete a comeback was because Ings missed an absolute sitter. Cheers lad, appreciate it.

 

Ings had scored the goal that got them back into it, but he didn’t really know much about it. Adrian just inexplicably kicked it right at him and it ricocheted into the net. Great pressure from Ings but that’s unforgivable that. What Alisson did last year was probably worse because it was so irresponsible and arrogant, but Adrian’s mistake was equally infuriating because he was just so unbelievably casual. What the fuck was he thinking? He Trent in acres but he ignored him and attempted a pass to Matip that had zero room for error.

 

The only thing I will say in slight mitigation is that our defenders were pissing me off all day, continually passing the ball back to him even though everyone knew he had a bum ankle. He almost got caught in the first half as he took too long to get his clearance away. That should have been enough for the back four to think “yeah let’s keep it away from him”. But no, they kept passing it back to him and eventually he fucked up. Where was that pitch invading fan when we needed him?

 

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  • dave u pinned this topic

 

97 points and only 22 goals against might not happen for us again.

 

But when City scored that "winner" against Spurs, that's as ecstatic as I've seen them this entire year.

 

They know we're right there with them.  Again.  

 

And they know they have to do everything we do.

 

 

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I know Adrian made a colossal fuck up but I felt a bit sorry for him.  He's new to the squad, he's been thrown unexpectedly into the firing line immediately, he has the high of midweek followed by the immediate low of the injury.  Then in this match he has the best most lauded Mr Perfect defender and all round superman VVD shouting and pointing at him to pass to Matip, but Matip didn't look quite ready then was on the move to create an angle for Adrian, all the while Ings getting closer.  So instead of just putting his foot through it he second guesses himself with VVD in his vision and his own injury at the back of his mind - and just gets it all wrong. I can forgive him, as long as he doesn't do it again. 

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It’ll be a learning point for all of them, not just him.  It was coming all afternoon and no doubt Klopp and his backroom team will have focused on how often it was played back to him.

 

One positive already though is how the team automatically managed the situation among themselves for that last 10 minutes or so. Any pass back to him once that had happened would have lit the atmosphere up and placed him under huge pressure from the home crowd.

 

The rest of the team cottoned on and just kept possession amongst themselves without putting him under that microscope.

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As we are in the LFC bubble , I don't think we realise how good the team actually are.

While we are still panicking every time we have a potential tough game on the horizon I was speaking to a Man United fan who said he feels the same aura and confidence about us as he did of their recent great teams , and in our case has a sick feeling when he watches us expecting that whatever happens we will still find a way to win.

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  • dave u unpinned this topic

Excellent report. The only thing I will say in Adrián's defense is that, it did not look like Trent was in acres of space, it looked like that winger that just came on and had already picked Trent's pocket a few minutes before, was about 2-3 yards away, and moving closer.

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