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A mate said after this that it feels like we’ve been playing the same game since January. It really does. For most of this game I was just thinking that this is more of the same we’ve seen in virtually every other game for months, especially at Anfield. The only thing that changes is the result based on the small details, such as shot conversion, whether our defensive errors get punished or egregious VAR interventions. The games themselves are pretty much the same other than the finer details. We play ok. Not anywhere near our best but rarely terrible either. We create plenty of good openings, some of which are turned into clear chances and some of which are converted. Mostly we’re just wasteful though. And the opposition rarely dominates the game but they usually have three or four decent chances, at least one of which comes from a serious error from one of our players (more often than not Alisson). Sometimes they take one of those chances, sometimes they don’t. Thankfully this was one of the occasions when they didn’t. Despite not having played for a couple of weeks we somehow seem to have picked up a load of injuries. We were so short of bodies for this one we had Ben Woodburn and Billy Koumetio on the bench. Don’t ask me where Ben Davies is. Injured, presumably, which is the second or third time even though he hasn’t played one second of first team football since he arrived. Anyway, Kabak became the latest centre back to be struck down so Rhys Williams came in. Klopp did have other options. He could have dropped Fabinho back there and drafted in Jones, Ox or Shaq into midfield, but he went with Williams and that probably says a lot about how Klopp views his midfield options currently. Ox has been fit most of the season but we’ve barely seen him. He’s surely done here now. If he can’t get games in an injury ravaged season like this then he’s got no chance when everyone is fit. Anyway, Southampton probably saw our centre back pairing and thought they could have some joy there. Unfortunately for them they were without Ings, as he’d surely have given us plenty of problems. As it was, they had a few opportunities but for the most part our lads at the back did well. Whenever Williams plays though it always looks like the opposition will get in behind him. I don’t know exactly why that is, presumably it’s positioning and angles and that kind of thing. His lack of pace doesn’t help but i he any slower than Phillips? There can’t be much in it, but Nat hasn’t been caught out as much despite playing a lot more games. The high line does neither of them any favours (Kabak got caught a few times in his early games too) but that’s how we play and changing that means changing everything. Nat has dealt with it brilliantly, Rhys has had some problems. It happened once in the first half and almost led to Southampton taking the lead against the run of play. We’d started well and had a few chances that we hadn’t taken, but then one ball in behind completely carved us open. There didn’t look like there was much Williams could have done to stop Tella getting in. There was no pressure on the man playing the ball and the lad had acres to run into. It would be unfair to call that a mistake, but the likes of Virgil and Matip never get caught like that (and Nat rarely so) so it must just be positioning and general know how. And because he isn’t the quickest he isn’t able to recover when someone does get in behind him. Tella did well to pick out Adams in the middle and we looked in real trouble until Alisson intervened. The save itself wasn’t anything too special but the split second decision making process that allowed him to make the stop was different class. So many keepers would have just thrown themselves at the ball and gone to ground there, but he used his feet to get into position and he then he made himself big to give Adams nowhere to go. Brilliant. He then saved the rebound too after Thiago had put Trent in a bad spot with a needless pass. And within a minute we were scoring at the other end. Lovely goal too. Quality spot by Mo to see Sadio in space at the back post and he had a simple header. 1-0 and a rare first half goal. Even prior to the goal I did think Sadio looked a bit sharper than he has done. He was direct and went past Walker-Peters a couple of times early on. Hopefully the goal relieves some of the pressure he’s been feeling and makes him feel a bit better about things, but I didn’t see any noticeable difference in him afterwards. He was alright, but it’s mad that apparently this was the first time all season that him and Mo and combined for a goal. I have to think that can’t be right but off the top of my head I can’t think of any. When you consider that Bobby has been garbage all season too it’s no wonder the goals have dried up. I mean fucking hell, how is it even possible that Salah and Mané hadn’t combined for a goal all season? There have been times when they should have passed to each other but didn’t and there was one in the first half here. Sadio rolled it to Mo and then dropped back into perfect position for a cutback only for Mo to take the shot himself and hit it straight at Frankenstein in goal. Easy to criticise Mo for that but it’s a split second thing and the cutback wasn’t on until the very last moment, by which time Mo’s head was down ready for the shot. Because it happens so often though it’s easy for people to see this as a thing, and maybe it is. I think it’s overstated but that statistic is alarming if it’s right. Anyway, we actually played some really nice stuff at times in that first half (Trent’s passing was great) but the finishing was wasteful once more. Sadio had a couple of other chances he didn’t take, Jota shot straight at the keeper (he’s doing that all the time lately) and Mo didn’t make the most of a couple of good opportunities. We even had a couple of efforts from corners. Nat headed just wide (first one I can ever remember him going close with) and Gini hit the bar. The second half wasn’t as good but we did still have openings we didn’t make the most of. And the longer it stayed at 1-0 the more confident Southampton became. They never had us under the cosh at any point but they always carried a threat and Alisson needed to be sharp to keep them at bay. It’s not like he had to make any great saves but he did need to be alert and quick off his line a few times to snuff out danger. The best chance they had was put on a plate for them by Alisson though. He played the ball to Thiago who rolled it back to him. Thiago pointed where Alisson should play it and he duly did. The problem was that Adams knew it was going there and stepped across to intercept. If the pass had been accurate Adams wouldn’t have got near it, but it was a horrendous ball that went straight to the striker. He fluffed his lines and Alisson made a save to redeem himself. He does this far too often for a keeper who we are always told is brilliant with his feet. It was starting to get nervy now and that wasn’t helped by Jota scuffing his shot after being picked out by a Salah cutback. That was a lovely move too. Great ball by Fabinho, good awareness and composure by Mo but an awful finish by Jota, who really looks like he needs a goal as he’s not been himself for a few weeks now. He was eventually replaced by Firmino whose first contribution was to back heel the ball straight to a Southampton player and allow them to counter attack on us. Kinell. He was decent after that to be fair, but it was getting quite stressful going into the closing stages given our recent wobbles. With about 15 minutes left there was a passage of play that made me distinctly uncomfortable. Mo picked the ball up in space on the left. There was room for him to carry the ball into but he delayed, stopped and eventually passed backward. Sadio gets the ball and he too passed backwards. A few seconds later Thiago did. It suggested to me that they weren’t sure how to play it. Go for the second or try and see the game out. To me the decision was obvious. Hell for leather to get the second goal because no matter how comfortable you might think you are, and no matter how easily you might be keeping possession, there’s just too much time left on the clock and you know all it takes is a set-piece or a mistake and three points becomes one in a hurry. I don’t mind keep ball when you get to the last couple of minutes and stoppage time but this was too early to be thinking about that. Presumably word was sent to them because I didn’t see too much more of that to be fair. It was a little bit edgy but not too bad and I think the lads actually did a good job of seeing the game out and keeping Southampton away from our goal. We kept pressing them and it was difficult for them to put us under any kind of sustained pressure and even the goal that eventually settled it came from us hunting for possession high up the pitch. I love that goal because we were on the front foot and not playing like we did against Newcastle for example when we just let them put us under pressure late on and shit ourselves. Sadio and Bobby went to press one of their players and they won possession. Bobby rolled it inside to Thiago and he took a nice touch to set himself before rolling a low shot into the corner. It took a little deflection that maybe kept it out of the reach of Herman Munster, but it was a well deserved goal that Thiago clearly enjoyed. Not sure who he was pointing at as he celebrated, maybe Klopp after the backing he’d given him in the pre-match press conference. I had to laugh when I saw the first player to celebrate with him was Phillips. Imagine if you’d told Thiago a year ago that he’d be signing for Liverpool and when he scored his first goal in front of the Kop it would be empty and the first team-mate to reach him to celebrate would be Nat Phillips, someone who he would never have even heard of this time last year. This season has just been fucking bizarre on so many levels. So what does this result mean? Fuck knows. We’re still alive though. Just. Any slip up over the last four games and it’s over and even if we win them all it doesn’t mean we’ll make the top four, but to have any chance of Champions League football we need to win every game we have left. Klopp said afterwards he thinks that would be enough. I’m not so sure, especially after City blew it against Chelsea earlier in the day. Those cunts never fucking win when we need them to, do they? So we can forget about catching Chelsea I think, but Leicester are giving encouragement to everybody with the way they’re going. We need to overtake West Ham before we can worry about Leicester though. That was made easier by our friendly neighbourhood bluenoses knocking them over on Sunday. Now we need the Mancs to take care of Leicester. It’s easy to say they’ll throw that game but the title hasn’t been officially sealed yet so they need to keep winning and see what happens. Of course City are going to win it, but if you’re in United’s situation you would want to keep the pressure on just in case. I saw nothing in this game to give me confidence that we can win all of our remaining games but it’s just a case of winning the next one and taking it from there. Problem is of course, the next one is at Old Trafford. Star man is Fabinho. Not sure why so many people think it’s Alisson. Most of what he did was what I would have expected any keeper to do. The first bit of goalkeeping to deny Adams was brilliant but no way was he man of the match for me. That pass he hit straight at Adams was so egregious there’s no way I could give him star man after that. Fabinho was great though. He just strolls around bossing everything and never wastes a pass. Fucking great player him and we’ve wasted him for most of the season by sticking him at the back. I understand why Klopp did it but if we could redo this season then the better option would be to keep him where he is and roll with the likes of Phillips and Williams at the back. Big Nat was solid again and all things considered Rhys deserves a lot of credit too. These lads weren’t supposed to be anywhere near the team but they’re performing well above any realistic expectations we could have had of them. Honourable mentions to Thiago and Trent as well, they were both very good. I thought Mo was good too. Deserved a goal really as he was lively and worked really hard. We need a big performance from him on Thursday as - like most of his team-mates - he’s usually fucking terrible at Old Trafford. Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Phillips, R Williams, Robertson; Fabinho, Wijnaldum (Jones), Thiago; Salah (Oxade-Chamberlain), Jota (Firmino), Mané: