Southampton put in another dismal and disappointing display against a very good attacking Liverpool side, ending up as losers to a three nil defeat.
Mauricio Pellegrino’s men, who are without a win in three, traveled to Anfield with Mario Lemina the only notable absentee. The Saints started off in a familiar 4-2-3-1 formation with Shane Long coming in for Manolo Gabbiadini and Wesley Hoedt replacing Maya Yoshida as the only changes from the defeat against Burnley.
Southampton were, pretty much, on the back foot from kick off, inviting Liverpool to pressurize the back four. A number of chances went astray for Liverpool in the first 30 minutes, with Mohamed Salah being the main culprit. However, on 31 minutes, the Egyptian curled an excellent strike past Fraser Forster.
Saints fans would have hoped this was a wake up call for the side, however the rest of the half carried on the same way it had started.
Towards the end of the first half, a good ball from Philippe Coutinho found the former-Chelsea man Salah, who poked home for his second of the game. Ryan Bertrand came closest for Saints at 2-0 with a free kick that almost troubled Mignolet.
Pellegrino reacted with a substitution, Charlie Austin replaced Dusan Tadic in a search for goals. However, a sucker punch for Saints came on the 68th minute after some clever work by ex-Saint Sadio Mane found Roberto Firmino, whose shot was parried by Forster and eventually found the back of the net through Coutinho.
Charlie Austin wasn’t far away with a header towards the end of the game, but a shocking performance from the away side produced not a single shot on target all 90 minutes.
But who were Saints’ key players from the disappointing display? Our contributor Jack Deery gives picks.